Jin Dalen

## Background

Jin was born in East Edria (once Kelridge) to former retainers of the Unbroken Queen. As servants of the Dalen royal family, Jin's family also took the name Dalen.

Edrian children take their Judgments younger than their Valian counterparts, so Jin's attunement is Sunstone level by the time he attends Lorian Heights Academy.

## Physical Description

Jin has the amber skin and almond eyes common to people from Dalenos and East Edria. He first appears dressed in all black. When disguising himself to infiltrate the Divinitory, he wore a heavy winter coat, a top hat, and a walking cane borrowed from Corin Cadence.

## Personality

In Sufficiently Advanced Magic, Jin plays up his mysteriousness in order to hide the fact that he's from East Edria. He deflects questions about himself, pretends to have multiple attunements with the help of enchanted items he commissions from Corin, and uses his surname to mislead Corin into thinking he's from Dalenos.

While he rarely gives away information about himself, Jin has proven observant, the first of Corin's friends to explicitly notice his touch aversion. His Mesmer attunement allows him to gather intelligence unnoticed, such as Roland Royce's attunement and its location.

At some point, Jin's interest in Corin's enchanting skills develops into romantic interest, and he asks Corin to the Winter Ball. Their budding relationship goes south when Jin tries to kill Vera Corrington, but Jin has made efforts to mend bridges since then.

## History

### Early Life

As of On the Shoulders of Titans, not much is known of Jin's early life. He was born in East Edria. His family once served as retainers to the Dalenos royal family. He likely acquired his Mesmer attunement when he was twelve or thirteen.

### The Torch that Ignites the Stars

At some point he joined the Blackstone Bandits, helping them free a captive from the train Corin & Co. were on.

### The Silence of Unworthy Gods

Corin goes to speak with Jin, for which they go to Corin's old dorm room, which still has its previous enchantments to allow for some security. He asks him whether Jin wants to stay a member of their exams team. Jin is surprised at this, saying he thought he should just quietly duck out, but confirms that he would like to. Having many of his own secrets to hide, finding a new team would be a challenge.

Corin also asks him about the Blackstone Bandits, to which Jin says he cannot give out information without permission. For the time being, their goals align with his, so he is content working for them.

## Skills and Abilities

### Attunements

In book one, Jin goes to great lengths to avoid revealing his attunement. It is not until the very end of the book that he revealed that he is in fact a Mesmer. He hid this from everyone because it would reveal his Edrian origin.

Jin's Mesmer attunement causes people around him to not notice his presence most of the time, making him mentally perceived as nothing more than a harmless part of the background. This allows him to sneak in to places and gather information on others, sometimes by just standing around. It also has the side effect of making him nearly socially invisible, to the point that he often startles people when he speaks. Corin speculated that Jin may be unable to turn this ability off, and that it might be source of loneliness for him.

### Weapons

Jin is the only character so far that uses firearms, specifically a pair of revolvers. He is an extremely good marksman and so far only has missed when he did so deliberately. He carries live ammunition as well as less-lethal rubber bullets.

He also carries a dagger on his person that is always well hidden.

## Appearances

* Sufficiently Advanced Magic
* On the Shoulders of Titans
* The Torch that Ignites the Stars
* The Silence of Unworthy Gods

## Trivia

* In the audio-books, narrator Nick Podehl performs Jin's voice with an eerily calm tone and an accent unique to his character, which sounds vaguely like a blend of Asian and Indian speech patterns.