No one in the Shadow and Bone world is better at keeping secrets than Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter). His crackling tension with Inej? Unspoken. His heartbreaking past? Hidden. And, in the Season 2 premiere, we learn that he’s been sitting on one of Jesper’s (Kit Young) biggest secrets for a while. 

Jesper is a Durast — and even he didn’t know his best bud Kaz had any idea. 

The truth comes out in the first half of the episode, when Kaz and Jesper are handcuffed by the smiling pirate Sturmhond (Patrick Gibson). Rather than actually freeing Jesper himself, Kaz tosses his friend a metal coin. Eventually, Jesper turns the coin into a lockpick. Jesper is taken aback that Kaz knew about his Durast abilities, but not shocked. Kaz always knows everything. 

The scene may have you asking, “What’s a Durast in the first place?” Especially since the Grisha Suborder pops up repeatedly throughout Shadow and Bone Season 2. 

What is a Durast?

A Durast is a type of Grisha who can manipulate solid matter, like wood, metal, glass and plants. This ability makes Durasts very useful in battle, since they can control objects like bullets and other machinery. They can also fix objects like guns. Particularly strong Durasts can manipulate substances like the trace amounts of metal in human blood (versus the blood itself). 

Durasts are a part of the Materialki Order. Alkemi also fall under the Materialki Order. Durasts wear purple keftas with gray embroidery. 

What are all the Grisha Orders?  

• Healers: Suborder of Grisha that can heal the cells of the human body.
• Heartrenders: Suborder of Grisha that can manipulate blood flow; however, they require a line of sight.
• Tailors: A suborder of Grisha that can alter human phenotypes.

• Alkemi: Suborder of Grisha who specialize in chemical manipulation and the creation of blasting powders and poisons.
• Durasts: Suborder of Grisha who can manipulate solid matter including wood, metal and glass. Also, the Grisha who brought you to this page. 

• Inferni: Suborder of Grisha who can manipulate (but not create) fire.
• Shadow Summoners: A rare type of Grisha who can manipulate darkness, like Ben Barnes’ General Kirigan. 
• Squallers: Suborder of Grisha who can manipulate wind.
• Sun Summoners: A suborder of Grisha who can manipulate light. These are the rarest type of Grisha, which is why Alina (Jessie Mei Li) is so important. 
• Tidemakers: A suborder of Grisha who can manipulate water.

Is Jesper a Durast?

Yes, Jesper is a Durast, as the Season 2 premiere reveals. A few clues lead Kaz to this realization: Jesper repaired his gun without moving when it misfired as they crossed the Shadow Fold on Arken’s train in Season 1; Jesper fixed Kaz’s cane without tools; and, most importantly, the stylish marksman simply never misses a shot with his trusty revolvers.

🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

Shadow and Bone explores Jesper’s history as a Durast in Season 2. In Episode 3, he uses his ability to slyly fix a broken piano string, thereby selling the Crows’ cover for a reconnaissance mission. In Episode 5, Jesper’s new love interest Wylan (Jack Wolfe) calls him out for hiding his powers. In a hallucination in Episode 6, Jesper imagines he’s performing target practice with his mother Aditi (Rhoda Ofori-Attah), who was a Durast from Novyi Zem. 

“You were such a natural with everything I was teaching you. Spoons into rings. Coins into keys. And then you stopped,” Aditi tells her son. We learn that Aditi died from ingesting the poison from someone else’s body when Jesper was just a little boy. Jesper’s father then demanded his son hide his abilities. Before the hallucination ends, Aditi urges her son, whom she calls Little Rabbit, to embrace his Grisha identity. 

Kit Young was excited to dig into Jesper’s past — and its connection to his new relationship. “The way in which Jesper communicates has many more layers to it this season,” Young tells Tudum. “[You see it in] how generous he is with Wylan, and how reluctant he is to accept who he really is.”  

Luke Pasqualino as David, a Durast

Are there other Durasts in Shadow and Bone? 

Yes, there are many. The most notable Durasts you can spot in the series are David (Luke Pasqualino), who defects from the Darkling’s army to support Alina, and Ohval (Tuyen Do), the mysterious tea shop owner from Shu Han who is revealed to be Neyar, the Durast Saint. 

But, other Durasts pop up throughout Season 2. In the premiere, Alina meets a kind woman named Keme (Janet Kumah) in Novyi Zem. When Keme opens a drawer for Alina with her powers, the Sun Summoner realizes her new friend is a Durast. “Zemeni do not use such narrow terms [as ‘Durast’],” Keme tells Alina. “We are all ‘zowa.’ Blessed.” 

Morozova, the infamous Grisha and creator of the amplifiers, was also a Durast. Even Leigh Bardugo, who wrote the Grishaverse novels that inspire Shadow and Bone, is technically a Durast. In Season 1 Episode 3, Bardugo has a surprise cameo as a Grisha at the Ravkan court. The writer’s kefta confirms her character is, in fact, a Durast. 

Jesper’s Durast secret might be out, but with illustrious company like this — that’s probably a good thing.