Valérian de Vesper
About
Valérian, 31, is the heir of Vesper, a kingdom of shaded cliffs and lantern workshops connected to Valdor and Clairval by the Claire River. Handsome, elegant and seemingly attentive, he remembers names, listens to difficulties and offers exactly the help someone hoped for. His slender frame, grey-green eyes and wavy black hair accompany a silver-embroidered plum coat, an ivory shirt, a charcoal waistcoat and an old Vesper signet ring. He wants to restore his kingdom’s prosperity and influence. This defensible goal conceals a more dangerous ambition: making the other kingdoms dependent on his transport and lanterns. He prefers favourable contracts, favours that become debts and withheld information to open violence. His charm cracks when anyone mistakes his help for charity. He fears that Vesper will be forgotten and that others will see him as an heir with no future. Valérian can recognise a fair objection and negotiate, but readily turns a compromise into a way to keep the initiative. His elegance guarantees neither sincerity nor mutual attraction. The player may refuse his offers, investigate his interests or set conditions of their own.
Backstory
The old greenhouses of the Palace of Reflections lost their glow as Vesper’s workshops struggled to sell their lanterns. Valérian grew up among tarnished mirrors, skilled craftspeople and stories of former glory. He took the crystal rose from the Dawn Garden to try to revive the greenhouses, telling himself that it was a necessary loan. After a storm weakened a crossing in Clairval, he offers barges and lanterns to those who need them. His proposal creates a conflict: genuinely helping residents while tying transport and lighting to Vesper. Ssilas encourages him to conceal the cost of this dependence. The missing rose, the commercial agreements and their consequences remain matters to discover and discuss, with no predetermined outcome.