62 pages • 2-hour read
Heir
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Oath Coins
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death.
The coins magically given to Quil and Sirsha when they take their Adah oath are a physical manifestation of the relationship that builds between them throughout the novel. When they first receive the coins—Quil’s in silver and Sirsha’s in gold—they have no design. While examining hers, Sirsha notes: “If she’d genuinely chosen Quil as her Adah, it would be a source of comfort, its gold surface intricately patterned to symbolize their vow […] Instead, the coin was dull, flat, and unpleasantly heavy” (222). This type of oath is the closest thing the Jaduna have to marriage. If the two did have a connection, their coins would reflect that. However, they are total strangers at this point and only swore the oath to save Sirsha from execution. Sirsha is wary of Quil’s intentions due to her past, while Quil resents the idea of being tethered to someone who outright lies and deflects to get what she wants. Their relationship is functional and necessary but devoid of genuine emotional investment. The coin, though binding them together, does not yet reflect the complexity or intimacy that will come to define their partnership. Instead, it is a shared burden they must carry.
However, as they begin to travel together, each moment of vulnerability they share peels away another layer of their defenses and builds the designs on their coins. The coins also grow warm or outright burn when they share moments of emotional connection, such as when Quil tells Sirsha she isn’t alone while they are at Loli Temba’s or when she decides to go back for him while in the Kegari war camp. By the time Sirsha sacrifices herself to save him and stop Mother Div, Quil’s coin has “a pattern so complex he could hardly follow it” (476). In the end, though they are separated, their coins and love for one another bind them and continue to give them hope of reuniting.
Stories
As with Sabaa Tahir’s previous novels set in this world, in Heir, storytelling is a significant source of power with the potential for both creation and destruction. While stories can inspire, unite, and preserve culture, they can also deceive, manipulate, and destroy. Their first use is as a representation of resistance against oppression. While in the Tohr, Aiz is coaxed by Sister Noa into telling the Sacred Tales about Mother Div to give hope to the other prisoners there. It becomes an outlet to channel her despair and rage, and a way to fight back, an act that has her thrown into the Hollows.
However, while stories give Aiz hope and purpose, they are also her downfall. The Nine Sacred Tales serve as her moral compass, and she accepts them without question. When she reads the alternate version written in the book she stole from Tiral, she doesn’t hesitate to believe it is true. Yet, as Sister Noa tells her, they present an idealized version of their past that omits crucial pieces, including the corruption that destroyed their original homeland. Aiz’s tragedy lies in her failure to recognize the dangers of accepting stories at face value.
The Bani al-Mauth also warns Aiz, “Not all stories should be told, girl” (299). At the end of the novel, Laia confesses that she is the one who released the forbidden story that unleashed the creature that calls itself Mother Div. This one act, which triggers most of the plot years after its occurrence, shows just how destructive words and information can be when wielded irresponsibly.
Loha
Loha is the name used by the Kegari for the magical, living metal used both to power their Sails and for the literal masks worn by the Martial Empire’s Masks. It is an important resource, particularly for the Kegari, and comes to represent the lengths to which individuals and nations will go to secure their survival, even when the cost is too high to bear.
Aiz’s obsession with acquiring Loha reveals the extent of her desperation to fulfill her holy mission of returning her people to their ancestral land. As she notes at the beginning of the novel, their supply was running low, and “Without Loha there would be no Sails. Without Sails, the raids would fail. Then they’d all starve” (9). However, the amount of metal in a single mask was enough for dozens, if not hundreds, of Sails. Once she realizes the Empire has so much of it, Loha becomes the backbone of her reasoning for the invasion and her resentment of the Empire. She comes to believe they have stores of it that they will not share with her and her people. When she tells Quil, he replies that they only have the amount in their finite number of masks: “When one dies, the mask releases and is given to the next. There is no way to give it to you without murdering our own troops” (402). When Aiz does find a large supply of masks, they are attached to the faces of children. As with the rest of Mother Div’s victims, she is willing to sacrifice them to do what she believes is necessary.
Unlock the meaning behind every key symbol & motif
See how recurring imagery, objects, and ideas shape the narrative.
- Explore how the author builds meaning through symbolism
- Understand what symbols & motifs represent in the text
- Connect recurring ideas to themes, characters, and events