al693

Heroine

Veralidaine Sarrasri (aka Daine) is the heroine of the story. She's approximately 14 years old when the story begins, and by the end of the 4th book, she's just over 18. So the readers really get to see her develop over time.

Plot Summary

Brief... oh boy. Our main character Daine, has a type of magic known as Wild Magic, and it allows her to speak to animals and heal them. She runs away from the town she was born in to the capital of Tortall, where she starts work with the Queen's Riders. She meets an amazing mage, the King's Champion, and even the King himself! The mage, Numair, teaches her how to use her magic properly and control it. She learns to shapeshift into animals with his help. And together Daine and Numair get into grand adventures, which involves the baby dragon Kitten!

Departure

~Call to Adventure

Daine is running away from her past and finds a job working for Horse mistress Onua from Tortall. Her job is just to help Onua get the horses to Tortall, but as their trip comes to an end, Onua asks her to stay on when they reach their destination, because she thinks Daine has magic and would be able to help their kingdom. 

~Refusal of the Call

Daine is taken to meet King Jonathan, so that he too can ask her to stay and help them. He tells her that they believe she has "wild magic." Daine instantly disagrees, saying her mother had her tested for magic and she'd never been able to do anything, so they must be mistaken. 

~Supernatural Aid

Supernatural aid is offered by the magical helper, and black-robe mage, Numair Salmalin. He offers to teach Daine how to properly use and control her magic. He gives her a book all about animals, their skeletal and musculature structures, their habitats, etc., so that she can learn and her magic can grow.  

~Crossing of the First Threshold

I think of Daine's crossing of the first threshold as the day she leaves the capital of Tortall for Pirate's Swoop with the rest of the new Riders recruits. It marks the point of her leaving her old life behind. 

~Belly of the Whale

Once Daine begins this trek to Pirate's Swoop, this is sort of the point that she starts to accept she's part of this group of people, and that there's no going back to her old life. From here on out it's a new adventure, with new people, and who knows what it will bring!

Initiation

~Atonement with Father

All of her life Daine has wondered who her father was. Her mother would never tell her, saying that there was time to explain later. But then Daine's mother dies and leaves Daine with no clue as to who her father is. In the final installment of the quartet, In the Realms of the Gods, Daine and Numair are pulled into the realms of the gods (aptly named!), and Daine sees her mother there, along with ... *dun dun dun* ... her father. Her father Weiryn, is the Northern God of the Hunt. He is described as a tall man with "a pair of stag-like antlers. His skin is olive coloured with traces and streaks of green in it. He wears only a loincloth and carries a longbow and quiver of arrows."

Return

~Refusal of the Return

In the final book, In the Realms of the Gods, Daine has traveled through the lands to try and make it back to the mortal realms so that she can help her friends in the war. But she is hesitant to return because she won't be able to travel back to visit her parents in the realms of the gods. She does leave, but her journey isn't quite over.

~Magic Flight

This might be stretching it a little, but there is one person, Ozorne, who is responsible for the war between the mortal and immortal realms. And Daine is the only one to stop him. So while it isn't exactly an object/boon that Daine is protecting, she feels to end everything once and for all she must fight Ozorne to the death. She transforms herself into a bird and flies off after him to hunt him down.

~Rescue from Without

Daine does defeat Ozorne with the help of a few Darklings, the Badger's claw, and eventually some of the Gods themselves. They come in right at her time of desperate need to end everything, just while Daine is ready to pass out and die.

~Crossing of the Return Threshold

The Gods tell Daine again that this is her last opportunity to return permanently to live with the gods. If she chooses to live out her mortal life, then that's where she'll end up for good. Daine decides to return to her mortal friends because she never knew her father (so leaving him isn't too difficult), and she'd already mourned the loss of her mother so she thinks she can get pass that again, especially now that she knows where she is, and that she's okay.

~Master of Two Worlds

Though Daine only lives in the mortal realms, she knows more about the Divine realms too now, and could be comfortable in both. I think that she is also at peace with herself knowing that the war is ending, and that her mother is okay and happy with her father. Daine's life becomes very satisfied.

~Freedom to Live

Daine and Numair acknowledge their love for each other, plan their life and future, and live happily ever after! Or at least until the next quartet :D

Final Thoughts

I think that it would be easier to determine how well a story follows Campbell's Hero Quest, if you were just looking at one story. I found it difficult at times to sort of pinpoint and narrow down a specific stage because there were almost too many options. But overall I do think the quartet follows the Hero's Quest relatively well. There were a few instances where I thought that the stages were in an opposite order. And there were a few stages that didn't really seem to exist (or I just completely overlooked it!). It was interesting though to be able to compare Daine's adventure of becoming a hero to the stages and your example of Harry Potter in the lessons. There were a lot of similarities.

Off the top of my head I do see a lot of the monomyth in other stories, mostly fairytales and Disney movies come to mind. But some books where the main protagonist really becomes more self-aware and grows as a person - even if it isn't a heroic quest so to speak, they go through a lot of the same stages.