Aravis Tarkheena

Aravis is a Tarkheena, a female member of the ruling class of Calormen.

Of Aravis's family we are told "... I am the the only daughter of Kidrash Tarkaan, the son of Rishti Tarkaan, the son of Kidrash Tarkaan, the son of Illsombreh Tisroc, the son of Ardeeb Tisroc who was decended in a right line from the god Tash." (from the Horse and his boy)

The only daughter of Kidrash Tarkaan, Aravis has spent her youth in the heart of Calormen. When we first meet her in the Chronicles her mother and older brother have both died and her father has recently married an unkind woman, who makes no attempt to disguise her dislike for Aravis. Aravis's already difficult home life is rendered impossible when her father announces her engagement to Ahoshta Tarkaan, an ugly, loathsome man whom she despises. Feeling she has no other option, she decides to commit suicide. However, her attempt is interrupted by a brief speech from her mare, Hwin, who is actually a Talking Horse from Narnia. Surprised by her horse's ability to talk, she forgoes her attempt at suicide and listens to Hwin's wise council. They decide, at Hwin's suggestion, to head to Narnia and the North. This journey, and her relationship with Shasta, another fugitive heading north, is the main topic of The Horse and his Boy.

To her credit, she is brave and intensely loyal. However, she is also very arrogant (a possible side effect of her upbringing) and at times, very manipulative. Throughout the story we see her grow and change to become less like a ruthless Calormene, and more like Narnian (or Archenlandish) nobility, which, in the end, is what she becomes. It is likely that C. S. Lewis meant to metaphorically represent the Christian notion that though one is born to royalty, we are all as commoners before God in the contrast between this character and Shasta; and though one be a commoner (as the character Shasta is before discovering his true identity) we are also royalty in God's eyes. One of the main arguments against racis accusations regarding the Chronicles of Narnia is that in her we find a character that is both Calormene and a main character.

Marrying Shasta (or rather, Prince Cor), she becomes a princess of Archenland (later queen) and the mother of King Ram the Great. She is later reunited with her friends in Aslan's Country.