Story
Story
A wizard's disciple from Earth is traded away by his dying master to save a world he'll never see again — and wakes into the Valkory bloodline instead. What he does with that is still being written.
The Awakening
"Welcome to thy true life, young fledgling. The blood of the Valkory doth now course through thy veins. Thou shalt learn to step between the spaces of the world, to command shadows as others command light. Yet first, thou must understand what thou hast become, and choose thy path wisely." — Elyonwen
Tyberius Drake didn't choose this. Twenty years old, born on the rare leap day of February 29th, 1288 — a scholar's disciple on Earth, apprenticed to the court wizard of his age — he was traded away in 1309 by his dying master, Posthumus, in exchange for Elyonwen's promise to save Earth from an infection already spreading across it. Posthumus never knew what she truly was. The Embrace itself was excruciating: bone reforming, skin burning red, a tail tearing free of his spine — and Elyonwen suppressed the memory of it entirely. What Tyberius remembers is waking already changed, in a world he'd never heard of: Asanha.
Posthumus
The master who traded him away — and never knew what he was trading him to.
Posthumus was the court wizard of his age, and taught Tyberius everything he knew: herbalism, alchemy, magical theory, the fundamentals of wizardry. Dying, and terrified for Earth as an infection spread across it, he made one last trade — Tyberius, for Elyonwen's promise to save the world he was too weak to save himself. He believed her good and trustworthy. He never knew what she truly was.
Kind but distant, more scholar than father, Posthumus carried real guilt over what he'd done — "a coward who chose the many over the one I was sworn to protect," by his own reckoning. Whether that makes him a coward, a hero, or both, is left for Tyberius, and the player, to decide.
Tyberius Drake
Before the Embrace, Tyberius was a scholar and wizard — trained by Posthumus in herbalism, alchemy, magical theory, and the fundamentals of elemental wizardry: fire, ice, lightning. That training didn't vanish with his transformation; it fused with what he became. As a Valkory he draws on three distinct sources of power: Stride, the clan's gift of teleportation; blood magic and alchemy, his herbalism sharpened and altered by vampire blood; and his old wizardry, now bent and changed by undeath. He has an edge in raw power more than in knowing how to wield it. He's analytical to a fault, questioning everything — a scholar first, even now — and carries real trauma from the Embrace: phantom pains, nightmares of a memory he can no longer fully reach. What drives him is a refusal to become what was done to him. He chooses duty over vengeance, even when vengeance would be easier.
Those Around Him
Tyberius is Elyonwen's first childe — her prototype, in a sense — but he isn't her only one.
Elyonwen
Tyberius's sire, and an elder master on the Kurian Council old enough to have witnessed the Sundering itself. Publicly, she upholds the Council's "living gods" image; privately, she's been a revolutionary for centuries, and wants Tyberius to eventually lead that revolution. Patient, calculating, utterly convicted in her cause — ruthless in method, genuine in aim, and she never begs forgiveness for either. She guides by questions rather than commands: "What do you think came to pass?"
Kara, "The Warrior"
One of Elyonwen's other childer, each a mortal chosen for a particular skill — Kara's is combat. She was embraced specifically to serve in the Kurian Order, the Council's enforcer corps, which is exactly why she was the one sent to monitor Tyberius. Initially hostile toward him and openly skeptical he's worthy of the Valkory blood at all, she's already leagues ahead of him on the combat side of Stride.
Elena, "The Diplomat"
Another of Elyonwen's childer, embraced around the same time as Tyberius. She adapts to her new abilities more naturally than he does, though she lacks his knowledge — and shares his sense of not quite belonging anywhere anymore. Of the five siblings, she's the one who'll eventually have to hold the others' alliances together without letting it tip into civil war.
Agneth
A former monastery scribe turned royal historian, and another of Elyonwen's childer — fifty years spent researching the Sundering before her Embrace, and still at it after. Academic, cautious, and constantly hunting for patterns others miss. Weak on the combat side of Stride, but the one who actually knows where to start looking for Vesh'kal's prison.
Ossian
A former priest with a natural pull toward the mystical, and another of Elyonwen's childer — his eyes seem to focus on something just past whatever's actually in front of him. Intuitive and cryptic where Tyberius is cold and logical. Can sense Vesh'kal directly, and receives visions no one else does.
Fenwick
A former thief with a disgraced noble's manners, and another of Elyonwen's childer — a keen smile and keener eyes. Cynical, pragmatic, and morally flexible enough to embed himself as a spy inside the Kurians' own ranks. "I lie so you can stay honest," by his own account.
Sevanya Rosewyn
Not a vampire, and not one of Elyonwen's childer — something Vesh'kal never was: born of Asanha itself. Vesh'kal came from outside and made the world; the world, once made, makes its own gods, and Sevanya is one of them, bound not to Luminara alone but to the whole of Asanha, Veshara's red sands and Luminara's green both. She carries a majesty that has nothing to do with rank: the weight of an entire world given a single shape, roses and thorns woven into everything about her. Whether Asanha survives the widening divide between its two halves may come down to whether she does. Tyberius's mate, and living proof that Vesh'kal was never the only god this world has made.
Story Arc
Player choices shape how Tyberius's journey plays out, but his arc bends in one general direction.
- Obedient weapon — doing what's asked of him, still reeling from the Embrace and grateful, however uneasily, for Elyonwen's guidance.
- Doubting servant — starting to question what he's actually being used for, and by whom.
- Betrayed tool — confronting exactly how much was taken from him, and how little he was actually told.
- Self-possessed leader — choosing his own path forward, on his own terms.