Sóley Jascha Rochelac

Sóley Jascha Rochelac is the only son of Lady Charlaine Rochelac, the last known Lady of Noirmont. He is in his mid-twenties at the beginning of the story, and based on the events told, he is approximately 25 or 26 years old in Fatherland. He was born from the incestuous union between Larcel Silenteye, his maternal grandfather, and his mother, Charlaine. He leaves Noirmont and roams the Silver Lands using his middle name, Jascha, to not be found nor recognized while he searches for answers regarding his health.

= Appearance and Personality = Jascha is described as "rather attractive" on more than one occasion. He is pale, tall, lean but muscled, with shoulder-length black hair and equally black eyes, though it's later revealed that originally, his eyes are azure grey. He dresses in black, warm clothes, and the only item of clothing that stands out is the thick, long, brown bear fur cloak he wears.

Jascha's personality is complex and layered. At the beginning of the story, he appears aloof and distant, then quickly becomes cruel as he rapes and murders a tavern girl named Loveleen, like his maternal grandmother. Although he acts violently, there is no indication that he particularly enjoys it, and appears even pained and haunted upon killing the girl.

Jascha takes great care of his Avoryon, blue-eyed mare, which he named Arora, but doesn't seem to be keen on interacting with others, aside from a few exceptions. He displays a softer side in the presence of children and lonely mothers, but acts otherwise as a problematic and at times even racist man.

= History =

Early life
At the beginning of Fatherland, Jascha doesn't remember much from his childhood, other than the fact that his father was a rather old but kind man, and that his mother (whom his father called "Karleen") was always sick due to being "touched by the fog" and therefore delusional and mad.

The visions
Jascha leaves Noirmont to reach the capital, his main destination being Danyell's Athenaeum, where he hopes to understand why he's haunted by visions that leave him bleeding and scarred. Jascha never remembers much once a vision is over but he feels like he is slowly dying.

He first stops at Beggar's Pool, a village at the foot of Noirmont, where he meets Chief Thierry Eleres and Officer Opherus Goldsnout, who appear to come from the Sand Towers due to an investigation. Eleres notes that his name, Jascha, is unusual, and that the way he behaves is a mixture of noble and common people manners. Jascha kills the tavern girl Loveleen that night after she boldly suggested to offer her body in exchange for coin and leaves without a trace, so the two surveillants don't think of him as a suspect.

Rantha and the Illusion Shelter
Jascha stops in Rainier's End, where he once again experiences violent visions related to his past. He vaguely remembers his mother's crisis and her dragging him up the stairs as he wakes up. When he finds the two surveillants at the same inn he is staying, he slips out of the window, and plans on murdering Officer Goldsnout since he overheard him talking about investigating the death of the tavern girl.

While at the market, another vision, one tied to Tecla while she's with Holy Captain Rainbeard, impedes him. He bleeds and passes out, and a woman from Rainier's End comes to help. Healer Rantha brings him to the Illusion Shelter, a place that was once a portion of Sir Loys Rosenbane's Illusion Lodge, and wishes to heal him until she spots his fanged dagger and realizes he is from the Fog Lands. Rantha concludes that Jascha is a man "touched by the fog" and that he is most likely coming down with the Violet Delusion, an illness that causes people to have hallucinations and harm themselves.

When at the Illusion Shelter, Jascha develops a deep hatred for Rantha and is wary of her since she befriends Opherus Goldsnout, who tries to interrogate him about the dead tavern girl. Jascha hates the fact that Rantha is convinced he's been touched by the fog, and disagrees with every attempt she makes at healing him. Rantha is unsuccessful, and when her apprentice Yenny suggests that maybe he's not ill but cursed by a form of witchcraft it's too late. Jascha almost strangles Rantha, calls her a slave, and leaves the shelter.

Jascha stops at the central inn in Rainier's End before riding to the capital to wash and feed himself and that's where he meets Yenny again, who is out for dinner and tells him about her theory. She offers to map out the scars on his body, which he accepts, thinking it to be an odd way to seduce him. When he realizes she truly wanted to only study him and never draws his body but only the scars, Jascha snaps, assaults her, and doesn't try to help her when she falls out of the window and breaks her skull. He keeps the mapping of his scars and heads to the capital.

The Rosencircle
When he arrives in the capital, Jascha is welcomed by a pair of guards who almost don't let him in as they think he comes from the Fog Lands bringing all kinds of diseases with him. He meets Sir Sybbyl Nobleleaf then, the Suppressor of War of the Regency, who lets him in at the condition that she doesn't see him make use of his dagger, which caught her interest.

Jascha spends most of his days in Danyell's Athenaeum, researching witchcraft because of what Yenny mentioned to him, but by doing so, he alerts Rosaleah, the Regency librarian who works at the athenaeum.

One day, in Jehanel's Forum, Jascha meets a starving boy, Josclyn, and his mother Mawde, who is forced to sell her body to earn some silvers. Endeared by the little boy and since the woman reminds him strangely of his own mother, Jascha decides to offer them food, and Mawde invites him inside her house. Mawde and Josclyn live in the poorest area of Silverholde, Jamys' Yard, and that's when Jascha learns that Rosaleah is Mawde's daughter. On the same occasion, he meets Rosewillow, an alleged friend of the small family, but her presence unsettles him.

Everywhere he goes, Jascha finds either Rosewillow or Rosaleah following him, but it's not until the athenaeum closes for the dusk week of the month that Jascha decides to visit the Temple of Phorbas, where he meets Holy Captain Chadras, a man who remembers him but Jascha can't recognize. Chadras makes it clear that he knows both Rosewillow and Rosaleah, and that he was the one to convert his mother back to the Oracle's Faith. He mentions a little sister Jascha doesn't remember, and that alone causes him to roam the streets of the capital in a frenzy. Succumbing to a panic attack, Jascha beats a beggar almost to death, and finds some solace at Mawde's place, where he, once again, offers her money in hopes that she stops selling her body.

Jascha's research brings him closer to the truth as more volumes related to witchcraft and a society called the Rosencircle keep appearing at the athenaeum. Putting two and two together, Jascha realizes that Rosaleah and Rosewillow must be part of the Rosencircle.

The Forge
Jascha meets Sir Sybbyl Nobleleaf once more after the Suppressor of War decided to find out about him and his whereabouts, convinced that he serves the Rochelacs on some level. Sybbyl requests his dagger, to which Jascha opposes that he's not used it yet and therefore she has no right to take it from him. Jascha proposes her a deal; she can have his dagger and question him if she wins against him in a duel, which would count as him wielding his weapon against him. If she loses Sybbyl must relinquish her own weapon. Sybbyl loses her family heirloom then, a broadsword named Decimation, and Jascha whispers, "Welcome back," suggesting that the weapon originally came from his lands.

At the inn where is staying, the Wild Rock Skunk, Jascha learns that a smith known as Aalart is able to craft weapons made of sand steel such as Decimation. Aalart tells him it will cost him more money than he has left since he helped Mawde, but Jascha agrees, and Decimation is destroyed to create two smaller blades, the Haunting Sisters. Claiming he wants to test the weapon, Jascha uses the swords on Aalart and kills him.

Jascha lures Rosaleah inside the forge by telling her he knows her mother and that she has a message for her, which Rosaleah doesn't quite believe. Feigning lust for her, he traps her inside Aalart's shop, nailing her to wall and torturing her to extract some information about the Rosencircle as he figured she was the one putting the right volumes on the shelves he scanned day after day.

When torturing Rosaleah doesn't earn him a lot of answers, Jascha takes Rosewillow to the forge, pretending to be interested in the offer she made him the night at the Shattered Ambry, where she followed him after he met Tecla Lionhelm at the athenaeum--to let him see what happens to the Nakfèht the Rosencircle is after. Having learned from Rosaleah that Rosewillow channels magic through her eyes, he doesn't let her face him while they have sex, and shoves her face in the corpses of Aalart and Rosaleah.

Using Yenny's drawing, Jascha has carved in their flesh all the markings present on his body, and while he interrogates Rosewillow to know how and why the Rosencircle's rituals find their way to him, he learns that the Rosencircle never intended to do so, and that Rosewillow's there only because they believe him to be the son of a former Rosencircle member, Rosaleen. Denying all that implies, Jascha leaves the forge and Rosewillow behind him.

Limemeadow
Unsure of what to do since he feels back at square one, Jascha leads two surveillants, Officers Longspire and Gulmont, to find Rosaleah's body in Aalart's shop to ensure Mawde receives a pension for her daughter's death. Deciding that he may as well die soon and that he'd rather end up somewhere warm, Jascha heads to Limemeadow and finds Rosewillow on his path. She tells him that he should meet her Mastria, the Head of the Rosencircle, so he could find answers, but he views it as a trap and dismisses her--not without criticizing the horrors the Rosencircle caused only to find "cute jewelry" as he puts it, namely the Quiet Tear.

In Limemeadow, Jascha contemplates the possibility of not making it the next time the visions happen, and he meets a man named Taf, who invites him to his tavern to have fried fish and engage in friendly brawls in front of a curious female audience. Jascha accepts the fish but during the evening he dines with Taf, Limemeadow undergoes an attack and Jascha leaves the city, afraid of being stuck in a siege or a battle while he shouldn't be giving up on the idea of confronting the Rosencircle.

Tecla Lionhelm
"'Jascha watched as the girl rested her hand on the man’s forearm. Every time she spoke, he noticed the way her eyebrows would move and her head tilt to the side. He felt an odd sense of peace in her presence at the athenaeum, and he found himself unable to leave straight away, almost as if she had been absorbing his thoughts and stealing the air he breathed.' (Fatherland, Chapter XXII, 'Good Fortune')"While riding away from Limemeadow while the Sons of Ferngrunn attack the Angeforts' ships and harbor, Jascha finds Tecla Lionhelm being hunted down by a horse-archer whose arrow nearly blinds him. He kills the archer, confused to find a Ferngrunn soldier there, and recognizes Tecla from the athenaeum, where he felt "a sense of peace" in her presence. He takes her with him, thinking of riding south where she is supposed to live and where he needs to find the Rosencircle, but Courtbridge's gates are closed and Chadras, who left the capital to feed and help the simple people escape from the riots in the capital, suggests he goes home.

While taking care of Tecla's wounds, Jascha learns of the ceremonies in Hvallatr, and chastises her for choosing a culture she doesn't know anything about. She then explains that she never got to choose and that Lady Voladea isn't even her biological mother. The two grow closer and eventually sleep together, although Jascha seems hesitant about it. Tecla's pendant, the Darling Mind, awakens the Quiet Tear inside his chest and Tecla retrieves it but not without granting her scenes of Jascha's past, bringing back painful memories he suppressed.

Jascha relives the days when his mother beat him and violated him, remembering the day his sister/daughter Rohais was born. He remembers the day Lady Charlaine set fire to his old father using a spell, and when his mother eventually came down with the Violet Delusion. Stuck in a loop of memories where his younger self cries and bangs at his mother's door, Jascha grabs his dagger to shove it into the boy's back but it's Tecla he wounded. Helpless, he brings her to Rantha and Zurzon, who tend to the superficial injury.

When folding Jascha's cloak, which Tecla was wearing, Rantha finds Yenny's drawing and confronts Jascha about it. She attacks him when he doesn't deny being responsible for the young apprentice's death. Rantha orders him out of the shelter, telling him to stay away from Tecla before he harms her too, but he pushes her away brutally, and Rantha snaps her neck after a violent fall down the stairs."'Jascha caught her staring at his side, and Rantha looked away. Her feet neared the stairs when she heard his low voice. 'Don’t fall, Miss Rantha.''(Fatherland, Chapter X, 'Child of The Sea')"Jascha leaves the shelter with Tecla and later reveals his true identity to her, promising her his armies if she agrees on remaining by his side.

Chaos vision
Jascha experiences chaos vision through the Quiet Tear inside his chest when others use it. For instance, he feels on his body the effects of the Nakfèht ceremony the Rosencircle performs or when Tecla activates her Darling Mind. Based on Grandmaster Matillis' theories, these are the effects of a binding performed on him so he'd be able to wield the Quiet Tear without sharing Queen Aelneth's blood, but the ritual looks incomplete; this type of magic repeatedly threatens Jascha's life.

Dual wielding
Jascha's only weapon at the beginning of the story is his fanged dagger. The origins of the weapons are shrouded in mystery, though it catches the eye of several people. Upon tricking Sybbyl Nobleleaf to face him in a duel, he wins her weapon and the broadsword is later forged into two separate blades he uses against Aalart, and the horse archer after Tecla.

Despite being the Lord of Noirmont, Jascha doesn't mention strige-riding, and it's safe to assume he doesn't fly in combat.