The Jasad Heir

The Jasad Heir is a 2023 romantasy novel by Egyptian American author Sara Hashem. The novel follows Sylvia, the lost Heir to the throne of the destroyed kingdom of Jasad, as she attempts to survive in the aftermath of the annihilation of her family, people, and nation. Arin, the Heir to the kingdom of Nizahl that helped obliterate Jasad, discovers Sylvia’s magical abilities in the village where she’s living as an unassuming chemist’s apprentice and forces her to compete as his champion in the Alcalah, a series of lethal trials. Sylvia must hide her identity from Arin and survive the Alcalah in order to protect herself and the life she’s built. Hashem began writing the novel while studying law at the University of California, Davis. The Jasad Heir is Hashem’s debut novel and is the first in the Scorched Throne duology, followed by The Jasad Crown (2025). The duology explores themes related to Maintaining Identity Under Oppression, Intimacy as Both Bridge and Battleground Between Oppressor and Oppressed, and The Tension Between Personal Desire and Communal Obligation.

This guide refers to the Little, Brown Book Group Kindle Edition of the source text. 

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide discuss graphic violence, sexual violence and harassment, rape, physical abuse, emotional abuse, child abuse, death, racism, child death, animal cruelty and death, cursing, mental illness, sexual content, suicidal ideation, bullying, substance use, and enslavement.

Plot Summary

Sylvia works as an apprentice for Rory, a chemist in the village of Mahair, in the nation of Omal. She has lived in Mahair for five years under a false name. She was born Essiya, the heir to the kingdom of Jasad. Her father, Emre, was heir to Omal before her grandparents, rulers Malik Niyar and Malika Palia (Malik and Malika are royal titles), assassinated him. When Sylvia was a child, Jasad fell to Nizahl, the most powerful of the five kingdoms. According to mythology, four gods called the Awaleen (plural of Awal or Awala) created four of the five kingdoms (Omal, Jasad, Orban, and Lukub) and imbued them with magic. When the Awal of Jasad, Rovial, experienced “magic-madness” and became destructive, the other Awaleen used their magic to entomb him and themselves in endless sleep beneath Sirauk Bridge. The four kingdoms then created the fifth kingdom, Nizahl, as an arbiter of peace between them. After the entombment, Omal, Orban, and Lukub began to lose their magic, but Jasad’s magic remained strong. This magic, alongside the strength of the Usr Jasad fortress, created resentment among the other kingdoms, until Nizahl overthrew Jasad and destroyed the fortress in an event known as the Blood Summit.

Nizahl hunts any surviving Jasadis, convinced that their ability to use magic is dangerous. The use of magic is criminalized, and any Jasadi caught using it is arrested; most die before even seeing a trial. Sylvia hides her identity from those around her in Mahair, including Rory and her two closest friends, Sefa and Marek. When Sylvia sneaks out into the Essam Woods at night, a Nizahli soldier follows her and accuses her of being a Jasadi. Sylvia does have magic, but it’s contained by cuffs on her wrists that only she can see. The soldier attacks her, and Sylvia kills him. Sylvia is adept at fighting because she spent five years living in Essam Woods with Qayida Hanim, a former Jasadi government official, who abused Sylvia in hopes of unlocking her magic and using her to reclaim Jasad. Sylvia recruits Sefa and Marek to help her dispose of the soldier’s body in the river. Sefa and Marek worry that the upcoming Alcalah, a tournament of three trials to celebrate the Awaleen and their sacrifice, will lead to the discovery of the soldier’s corpse.

Four days pass, and no one discovers the soldier. Arin, the Nizahl heir, arrives in Mahair as soldiers arrest an elderly man named Adel for using magic. Adel tries to escape, and the soldiers kill him. Sylvia performs Jasadi funerary rites in secret, but Arin sees her. She claims she learned the Jasadi language and customs in an intercultural educational camp, but Arin doesn’t believe her. She remembers Marek’s claims that Arin can sense magic by touch, but when Arin touches her wrist, he doesn’t react. Arin escorts Sylvia back to Rory, and after Arin leaves, Rory reveals that he knows the truth about Sylvia’s past, though he doesn’t plan to turn her in. Sylvia returns to the orphan’s keep where she lives with Fairel, a younger orphaned girl to whom Sylvia feels emotionally bonded.

A carriage belonging to the Omal Heir, Felix, nearly knocks over some chairs belonging to Fairel’s employer. When Fairel tries to stop the carriage, Felix orders the horses to trample her, severely injuring her. Sylvia becomes enraged, and her emotions unlock her magic. Sylvia uses magic to launch a dagger into Felix’s leg. Arin is the only one who sees, and when Felix wants retribution against Sylvia, Arin announces her as Nizahl’s Champion for the Alcalah, as each year Nizahl must select a champion from another kingdom to represent them in the competition. As Champion, Sylvia is safe from harm by any of the other kingdoms.

Arin and Sylvia fight, and his touch ignites her magic while flooding his mind and driving him to kill her. After he breaks her wrists, Sylvia uses magic to drop a cabinet onto them, knocking them both out. Sylvia wakes, healed by her magic. She doesn’t want to compete in the Alcalah, but Arin threatens to take Marek and Sefa back to Nizahl to face trial. He reveals to Sylvia that Sefa and Marek are not who they claim to be. Sefa’s real name is Sayali, and she is the stepdaughter of the Citadel’s High Counselor. Marek’s real name is Caleb, and he is the scion of a prominent military family in Nizahl. He fled and changed his identity to avoid compulsory military service. According to Arin, the two robbed and nearly killed the High Counselor before fleeing to Omal. Sylvia agrees to participate after she realizes that Arin needs her because he’s chasing down a rogue group of Jasadis. Arin tells her the truth: Two Jasadi groups are forcibly conscripting other Jasadis for their militant activities. The Mufsids are the more radical group, killing any Jasadis who refuse to join them, while the Urabi use softer recruitment methods. Arin hopes that Sylvia will help him draw out both groups.

Arin’s soldiers, Vaun, Jeru, and Wes, escort Sylvia to a training compound. Sylvia tries to escape and makes it above ground, where she has a vision of Qayida Hanim’s corpse; Sylvia killed Hanim before escaping to Mahair. Arin finds Sylvia and brings her back underground. One day, as Sylvia washes clothes in the river, a Mufsid woman tries to recruit her, but Sylvia convinces her to wait until the Alcalah begins. Sefa and Marek rescue her, and Sylvia threatens to kill Arin if he doesn’t protect them. Arin realizes Sylvia’s magic activates when she’s emotional, so he places Marek and Sefa in danger to make Sylvia emotional.

As the Alcalah approaches, Arin lets Sylvia return to Mahair. She visits Rory and tells him the truth of her past, and Rory reveals that Hanim betrayed Jasad and went into exile. When Sylvia returns to Marek and Sefa, Marek confesses that all his siblings died in the Nizahl army, so when it was his turn to enlist, he ran away. Sefa, in contrast, fled Nizahl to escape her abusive stepfather. They left together to start a new life.

Sylvia and Arin travel in the same carriage to Lukub for the banquet and first trial of the Alcalah. Arin warns Sylvia about Vaida, the Sultana of Lukub. Vaida is vain, selfish, and cruel. Sylvia meets Vaida and tries to avoid piquing her interest. Arin and Sylvia walk around the gardens afterwards, and Sylvia realizes she finds him attractive. Later that night, Sylvia sneaks out and runs into Vaida. Vaida takes Sylvia to a series of rooms only the Sultana can access. Vaida threatens Sylvia, demanding that Sylvia intentionally lose the first challenge of the Alcalah, or Vaida will send soldiers to harm Rory, Fairel, and the others in Mahair.

Sylvia reports Vaida’s treason to Arin, and they plot to stop Vaida. Arin knows that Vaida plans to have the Lukub Champion win the Alcalah and then to bribe a Nizahl soldier to kill the champion, starting a war. Arin insists that Sylvia kill the Lukub Champion in the first challenge, and Sylvia agrees. They attend the banquet together, and Sylvia meets the other champions: Timur, the Lukub Champion; Diya, the Orban Champion; and Mehti, the Omal Champion. Though Timur is kind and charming, Sylvia knows she must kill him. After the banquet, Sylvia allows an attendant to undress her, but she soon realizes the attendant is her former maid, Soraya, from Jasad. Soraya stabs Sylvia and reveals herself as a rogue Mufsid. The Mufsids worked to destroy the Jasadi monarchy and to create an egalitarian Jasad. The Mufsids want to recruit Sylvia, but Soraya thinks she must die, as she has royal blood. Sylvia fights off Soraya and jumps out the window. Arin saves her, letting Soraya escape.

Sylvia wakes in a tent on the way to the first trial in Orban after having a strange vision of Arin’s parents, Supreme Rawain and his wife, Isra, discussing Arin’s future and a vision of the Awaleen before their entombment. Sylvia and Arin bond over Arin’s decision to save her and let Soraya go. He tells her the truth about his past with Soraya; they had a brief romantic relationship while studying at the Citadel, where Soraya was posing as the daughter of a merchant, and Soraya tried to assassinate him by cutting his throat. Sylvia, Arin, Sefa, Marek, and the other Nizahl soldiers travel through the Meridian Pass. The Urabi ambush the group, using magic to subdue Arin. Sylvia realizes Arin set a trap to prompt the Urabi to attack, hoping to capture them. Sylvia protects Sefa and Marek and uses magic to widen the pass, allowing the Urabi to escape. Arin is angry at Sylvia for letting them go, and she calls him cruel.

In the first trial, all Champions must cross the cursed Ayume Forest and survive. Sylvia plans to kill Timur during the trial. Sylvia makes it across the forest fastest, but Timur catches up with her. He reveals that Vaida promised his sister necessary medical treatment in exchange for his killing Sylvia. Using magic, she kills Timur and survives the trial. Supreme Rawain demands she and Arin join him for dinner. Sylvia blames Rawain for the death of her family and destruction of her country, so she feels nauseous at the idea. She attends, and Rawain fishes for the truth about Sylvia’s magic, which she and Arin have kept secret from him.

Sylvia, Arin, and the others arrive in Omal for the second trial. Sylvia finds a ghaiba, a formless magical creature that inhabits dolls, in her bedroom. The ghaiba escapes and possesses Sefa and Marek before Arin and Sylvia manage to draw the magic out of them. At the banquet dinner before the second trial, another ghaiba escapes and possesses everyone except Sylvia. Arin manages to wake up and contain the ghaiba. He puts it in the pocket of a Lukubi servant, putting the blame on Vaida. Vaida immediately turns on Felix and blames him, demonstrating their collusion to take down Nizahl together. The night before the second trial, Sefa and Sylvia try to break into Vaida’s room to steal her magical seal ring to use as blackmail material, but they cannot find it. Arin and Vaida return from the festival, and Arin knocks her out before taking a mold of the ring. He leaves, and Sylvia tries to steal the ring, but it burns her. She has a vision of an ancient magical entity telling her to leave the ring alone.

In the second trial, the champions must kill three magical creatures and take trophies from their bodies in a village near Essam Woods. Sylvia manages to kill a nisnas and a dulhath before she stumbles into Dawoud, one of her family’s trusted advisors from Jasad. Dawoud reveals that Nizahl captured him months ago and tortured him for information before releasing him into the village. Sylvia realizes that Rawain is testing her, seeing if she’s willing to kill a Jasadi. Dawoud tells Sylvia to kill him, but she can’t, so he stabs himself. Before dying, he tells her that Hanim sent Soraya to work in the Usr Jasad, and Hanim was working with the Mufsids until she betrayed them in hopes of taking the power of Jasad for herself. Sylvia takes the finger of the nisnas, the leg of the dulhath, and Dawoud’s corpse as her trophies. She and Diya, the Orban Champion, move on to the final trial. Sylvia feels distraught over Dawoud’s death, and when Arin comforts her, a memory surfaces: She believes her grandparents, Malik Niyar and Malika Palia, were magic miners. Arin tells her to never say that again, as magic mining is illegal and taboo.

The group travels to Nizahl for the final trial. Sylvia feels uncomfortable in the Citadel, and she and Arin go for a walk around the grounds. She finds herself drawn to Arin despite their differences. Arin escorts Sylvia to the third trial, in which she and Diya must ingest a hallucinogenic substance and discern what is real before the sand of the arena swallows them. If they cross the border between them, they must fight to the death. When Sylvia swallows the hallucinogen, she realizes someone tampered with it using magic. She sees her mother Niphran’s last moments and realizes that Hanim poisoned Niphran, causing symptoms of mental illness, to steal her role as Qayida, and Soraya killed Niphran before the Blood Summit. Hanim betrays the Mufsids, and the Usr Jasad falls. Soraya changes the vision to show Sylvia the past; Soraya joined the Mufsids after the Malik and Malika used magic mining to drain her father of his magic and kill him. The Jasadi royals used magic mining on people from the lower villages, keeping the magic for themselves or distributing it to the wealthy. Soraya projects one of Sylvia’s nightmares, but Sylvia uses magic to escape the vision and overpower Soraya.

Sylvia wins the Alcalah. Arin captures most of the Mufsids, and Soraya dies. Sylvia and Arin attend the Victor’s Ball together. Before the ball ends, guards drag in Sefa and Marek, claiming they robbed the Victor’s carriage. Sylvia tries to defend them, but Rawain demands they face trial. Sylvia offers to take their place, but Rawain refuses. Sylvia decides to save them regardless of the personal cost. She reveals herself as Essiya, the Heir of Jasad. She uses her magic to melt the cuffs off her wrist and destroy the ballroom, letting Sefa and Marek escape. The Urabi attack and kidnap Sylvia. In the aftermath, Arin feels betrayed by Sylvia’s lies and plots to recapture her from the Urabi.