| Name | Jurian |
|---|---|
| Age | 500+ |
| Species | Human |
| Status | Alive |
| Court | Mortal Lands |
| Rank/Title | General |
| Eye Color | Brown |
| Hair Color | Brown |
| Love Interests | Clythia † (former lover, under false pretenses), Miryam (former lover) |
| Appears in | A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Silver Flames |
Contents
Biography / History
Jurian’s Early Life and Role in the War
Jurian is born human during a time when mortals live as slaves to the faeries, serving in their realms. When the War for Human Freedom begins, he rises to become one of the leading generals of the human armies.
A woman named Miryam, half-High Fae and half-mortal, eventually arrives at the human war camp seeking refuge. She escaped the Black Land after her Fae queen gifted her as a slave to a prince the queen intended to marry. Horrified by the queen’s cruelty, the prince—Drakon—released Miryam and broke the engagement. Three years later, Drakon joins the human forces and reunites with Miryam, who has become Jurian’s lover and a healer in his camp. She chooses to be with Drakon, a decision Jurian interprets as a personal betrayal.
During the war, Clythia, Amarantha’s equally sadistic sister, falls obsessively in love with Jurian. He pretends to return her feelings to extract military information from her. Once she reveals what he needs, he kills her—crucifying her with ash wood, cutting her into pieces, and leaving them for Amarantha to discover.
Amarantha’s rage is relentless. She hunts Jurian down and, refusing to give him the mercy of death, subjects him to brutal torture. She cuts off his finger to wear as a necklace and gouges out his eye to fashion into a ring. Amarantha traps Jurian’s soul inside the eye-ring, condemning him to an eternal, conscious imprisonment. He spends decades Under the Mountain, forced to witness every atrocity she commits.
A Court of Mist and Fury
The King of Hybern resurrects Jurian using Amarantha’s bone and the consciousness bound to her ring, intending to use him as a weapon to shatter the Wall and conquer the Mortal Lands. Sent to the Continent, Jurian gains the trust of the Mortal Queens, who prefer dealing with a human. They reveal that one queen has given the Book of Breathings to Rhysand—information Jurian passes to Hybern, leading to the attack on Velaris. When Feyre and the Night Court attempt to nullify the Cauldron, Jurian stalls them while the King traps the island. He asks Mor about Miryam, sees through her lie, and shoots Azriel with an ash arrow to force their submission.
A Court of Wings and Ruin
Jurian is assigned to the Spring Court with Dagdan and Brannagh to inspect Wall fissures. He witnesses—and later condemns—the twins’ brutality when they murder the Children of the Blessed.
During Feyre and Lucien’s flight from the Spring Court, Jurian remains behind, still pretending loyalty to Hybern. Later, at Nolan’s estate, he reveals the truth: he has been a spy all along. Revived on the Fae side of the Wall, he infiltrated Hybern to learn their weaknesses. He believed Feyre or Rhys would have read his mind and known his intentions, but they never tried. When they do, they confirm his truthfulness.
Jurian reveals Tamlin is also a spy and informs them Hybern knows everything discussed at the High Lords’ meeting. He praises Feyre for killing the Hybern twins. He aids Feyre, Azriel, and Tamlin in rescuing Elain and Briar from Hybern’s camp and later departs for the Continent to sow discord among the Queens.
Jurian returns leading a mortal army alongside Graysen. He battles beside Tamlin and Beron on the northern flank. After the war, he reveals that Queen Vassa has offered him a place in her court.
Appearance
Jurian is described as tall and, for a mortal, notably handsome, with:
- Dark brown hair
- Cruel, calculating brown eyes
- Tan skin
Personality
Jurian is a deeply conflicted figure shaped by war, fanatic loyalty to his people, and centuries of torture. Much of his behavior—both past and present—reflects the extremes he was willing to embrace to secure freedom for humans.
Key traits
- Fiercely driven and self-sacrificing:
Jurian is willing to break himself—morally, emotionally, and physically—if it gives humans an advantage in the war. As he admits, “I didn’t care what it did to me, what it broke in me… if it meant we could be free.” His choices, even the darkest ones, are rooted in this uncompromising purpose. - Deceptive and calculating for the sake of the war:
His manipulation of Clythia, though ruthless, was not done for pleasure or ambition. He used her trust strategically, believing the intelligence he gained could turn the tide of the conflict. - A formidable but volatile warrior:
Jurian is a skilled general and fighter, yet he cannot match the overwhelming power of Amarantha and is ultimately captured by her. - Charismatic, arrogant, and confrontational:
He can be persuasive when he chooses, but he is also known for arrogance and a confrontational nature. Mor describes him as odious and self-focused. - Mentally scarred and unstable:
Centuries of imprisonment, torture, and conscious entrapment under Amarantha leave him profoundly damaged. His instability after resurrection is partly genuine trauma and partly a survival tactic.
Relationships
| Clythia | Jurian entered into a romantic relationship with Clythia, Amarantha’s younger sister, only to ultimately betray her and deliver her to her death. Despite fighting on opposite sides of the war, Clythia trusted him completely, though she was known for her own cruelty. Her death sparked Amarantha’s obsessive hatred for Jurian and fueled her relentless pursuit of him. |
|---|---|
| Miryam | Miryam was Jurian’s former lover, and she eventually left him for the Fae prince Drakon. Although the world believed Jurian was hunting them, his true motive was very different. He aligned himself with Hybern to gain the leverage needed to track Miryam and Drakon—not to kill them, but to warn them. Jurian reveals that he wants their forgiveness, not vengeance. By letting Hybern think he was pursuing them, he could send a message: that Drakon’s powerful legion was needed in the coming conflict, and that Hybern was preparing to strike. Making himself “the hunter” was the only way he could alert them and ensure they had time to join the fight. |
| Vassa | The first time Jurian and Vassa meet is after Jurian’s resurrection. In A Court of Wings and Ruin, he tells Mor that Vassa immediately saw through his deception and warned the other mortal queens to prepare their armies if he had truly been reborn. Jurian describes Vassa as young and bold—unafraid to defy the expected political games. She also failed to notice the queens’ hidden lust when he spoke of the Cauldron, something the others used against her. By the end of the book, Jurian reveals to Feyre that Vassa has offered him a place in her court, and he has accepted. In A Court of Frost and Starlight, when Feyre asks whether the two are getting along, Lucien explains that Jurian and Vassa are “two sides of the same coin” and that their vision for the future of the human territories aligns. He also shares that Jurian, Vassa, and Lucien call themselves the Band of Exiles. Their dynamic is often sharp and teasing. During Winter Solstice, when Nesta asks Lucien how Jurian and Vassa are faring, he replies that they are “at each other’s throats, as they like to be.” |
| Lucien Vanserra | Lucien and Jurian first interact in the Spring Court, where Jurian—acting under the King of Hybern’s orders—arrives to gather information about the wall separating the Mortal Lands from Prythian. During this time, Jurian often teases Lucien about Elain living in the Night Court. Their relationship shifts when Jurian secretly reveals to Lucien and Feyre that he is not loyal to Hybern and has been pretending to support the king to advance his own goals. From that moment, they begin to view each other as allies. After the war, Lucien frequently visits Jurian and Vassa in the Mortal Lands and eventually moves into the manor where they live. During the Winter Solstice of that same year, Lucien tells Feyre that he is grateful Jurian exists because he “keeps everything going.” He also explains that he, Jurian, and Vassa get along well and refer to themselves as the Band of Exiles. |
