Valac Darlight

* Lvl 9
* Lvl 7

Level 9 portrait of Valac

Level 7 portrait of Valac

> It's the world that's wrong, and it will burn for it if it has to.
>
>

**Valac Darlight** is a tiefling aberrant mind sorcerer and a member of The Red Thread. He was introduced to the party when they all met up in Rexxentrum, retrieving a book for the wizard Sarven Cauchemar. Valac, Agatha Weber, and Maynard Callus met in prison, where Valac didn't seem perturbed by their predicament.

Valac hails from Asarius, though he keeps that fact well under wraps. Initially, he introduced himself to the party as an orphan from Shadycreek Run. Since then, he's revealed his birthplace to The Red Thread, and mentioned having spent time and lived in Zadash and Hupperdook as well.

He avoids talking of his family, although during a trip to the Feywild, it was revealed that his mother is drow, making him a drowfling.

## Description

### Appearance

Valac is a young, 6' tall lithe tiefling with grayish blue skin. He has jet black, perfectly straight hair, bright white eyes, and curved horns that darken near the tips. When he first met the party, he wore incredibly revealing clothing that left his chest bare, as well as a bright, colorful scarf made of a fine silk, that he often showed no regard for. He sports a number of piercings, including a septum, eyebrow piercing, several earlobe piercings, as well as an industrial. Generally, Valac is careful to look flawless all the time.

After spending some time with The Red Thread, Valac changed into more comfortable attire, one that prioritized utility versus show. In Port Damali, he and Kismet Dullistra went to a tattoo parlor, where Valac received two simple, red line tattoos - one crossing under his collarbone, the other down his spine.

### Personality

Naturally flirty, then often brash and abrasive, Valac is known to be brutally honest in his opinions of others, the closer they are to him. He keeps a great deal about himself private, choosing to push people away before letting them see a deeper glimpse of him. He is masterful at deflection, lies, and answering questions with more questions, and seems to favor telepathic conversation. He's also not above reading other people's thoughts when he can't otherwise gauge their intentions.

Valac is very comfortable using his appearance as a means of achieving his goals, as well as hiding things about himself by flustering and diverting attention. He is alluring in a way that borders unnerving, casually intimidating, and his unapologetic demeanor has gotten him into conflict with many members of the party.

Although reactive and never provocative, his strong emotions have surfaced uncontrolled a number of times. He seems to struggle a great deal with that, often reminding himself that he needs to have a tighter grip on himself.

While extremely distant at first, after spending months with the Red Thread, Valac has grown closer to them, and opened up a bit more. He is very creative and has a softer side to him, showing pure affection for small animals in particular. His humor is very tough love, sibling-like, and he particularly enjoys daring others to do wild things just for the spectacle of it.

## Biography

### Background

Valac was born in Asarius under the name Darlight, but he often refuses to reveal more about his family. He's lived away from the Dynasty for many years, after at some point in his life his parents tried to kill him, failing and forcing him into hiding. Although he doesn't know the reason for this, his family's status has skyrocketed since, and they eventually formed Den Darlight.

His brother Svarog is an Aurora Watch soldier working under Verin Thelyss in Bazzoxan. Valac dropped his family name while requesting that his payment for helping retrieve Keldrym Beltune from the hands of the Cerberus Assembly be a favor from Verin, as opposed to gold or any other material reward. When Verin confirmed that Svarog is still alive and well, information which Valac seemed to be unaware of prior, Valac denied any relation between them despite the identical surname.

When the Red Thread were briefly sent to the Feywild an enchanted mirror room revealed important people to every member of the party. Valac's mirror showed his family - two tiefling sisters, a tiefling father, as well as a drow mother and his brother Svarog.

His birthday is on the 20th of Duscar, at the height of winter. Kismet revealed to him that this date doubles as one of the holy days of The Raven Queen as the goddess of winter.

### Family and Asarius

While Valac avoids talking of family, a chance encounter with Svarog during the Dynasty Ball they were invited to revealed that he's considered dead. According to Svarog, their mother and father tried to "get rid" of Valac because he was cursed. Later, Valac confirmed to Florian that his parents did try to kill him, and he's been in hiding since, leading them to believe they've been successful.

### Outside Xhorhas

Having lived in Rexxentrum for six months before meeting the Red Thread, Valac has spent time in Zadash, Hupperdook, and Shadycreek Run prior to that. Not much else is known about his life.

### The Red Thread

Valac stayed with the Red Thread out of convenience at first, deciding that moving in a group offers him protection he can't get alone. With time, he built different connections to each member of the party, eventually coming to care for them in his own way. The nature of his relationship with Kismet seemed to be a huge catalyst of that.

In Nicodranas, the party spent some time at the beach, where Valac collected two identical, pristine seashells, one broken one, as well as five round pebbles of different sizes. He has since given out four of the stones and the two perfect seashells to members of the Red Thread.

## Relationships

### Kismet Dullistra

→ Main article: Relationship between Kismet and Valac

Out of everyone in The Red Thread, Valac is closest to Kismet. Initially, he was intrigued by how easily Kismet accepted his stance on different matters, and reveled in making him blush at every opportunity. Valac was protective of Kismet almost from the start, standing over him with Agatha when the elf fell in the fight the party had together, and later reacting very poorly when Maynard lashed out on Kismet. Eventually, Valac started picking on contradictory things about the elf, finally discovering his drow appearance and a carefully obscured personality. Valac helped Kismet regain his sense of self, all the while developing feelings for the person so well hidden before.

The pair has grown nearly inseparable since, although they avoid commenting on the manner of their relationship despite the interest others express in it. They're usually keeping up a telepathic connection via Valac's innate abilities, and seem to share a similar opinion on most matters. Over time, Kismet has taught Valac more and more about the Raven Queen, culminating in Valac receiving a response from her in one of her temples.

> Do you think our souls would have met for a swim?
>
>

Valac gave Kismet a fully black sea glass stone in Port Damali, which Kismet had made into a necklace. In battle, Valac usually keeps a watchful eye on Kismet, often going out of his way to try and protect him. After a particularly hard fight with Ashin, the leader of the The Black Diamonds, Valac told Kismet he loves him through their telepathic connection.

After Valac was taken by Xuton Mirimm and later rescued by the party, all pretenses dropped, and Kismet and him kissed in front of everyone when the battle was over. Nothing else mattered to them more. They then proceeded to hold Xuton down in cold blood while Keldrym killed him.

### Agatha Weber

Valac's relationship with Agatha has been a rocky one. They started out polite and jovial, quickly setting each other up on different dates, but then deteriorated when their directly opposing views on killing conflicted. Following that, they had several arguments and fallouts, eventually settling to a neutrality of simply ignoring each other for the sake of the party.

During that period, Valac started gaining appreciation of Agatha as someone who is very open about her intentions and feelings on others, leaving him no room to hesitate on what her stance on him might be. This then grew into a trust that if he were to ever truly fall out of line, she would be there to call him out. The two united under the common goal of unraveling the mysteries that surrounded the Red Thread, both picking up cues that others were at the time unaware of, thus slowly mending their relationship. After becoming one of each other's closest confidantes, Valac built himself an image of Agatha that was shattered when she chose to stay behind in Nogvurot, in his eyes leaving him and the Red Thread behind.

After that they barely spoke, distance and refusal to communicate on Valac's part in the way. When the party returned to Nogvurot on Kismet's birthday, Agatha and Valac shared a dance and an honest conversation for the first time in a long while. Valac admitted that he had been hurt, and Agatha was understanding and apologetic for that but not for her decision. They parted on a hopeful note, Valac saying that he liked Agatha's black eyes, newly changed by her druidic abilities.

Agatha was the first person Valac gave a stone to, a red agate with a slash down the middle. She sent out a message to Valac while he was imprisoned by Xuton, and in that moment Valac realized how dearly he truly misses her. When they saw each other again, Valac couldn't believe his eyes, making her the single important person in his life to have left and returned for him. He hugged her, then joked that it felt weird and he wouldn't do it again.

### Maynard Callus

At first, Valac was incredibly mistrustful of Maynard, very quickly becoming afraid and enraged with him when he lashed out at Kismet in an alleyway incident. When Valac confronted him about it, he learned that given a command or when asked directly to do something, Maynard listens, despite his ailing at times mind. Afterwards, he kept his distance with a watchful eye, growing more and more suspicious of the man's motivations and connections.

When the suspicions of Maynard's volstrucker ties were too obvious to ignore, Maynard revealed more about his past to Valac and Agatha, confiding in them. This single-handedly helped Valac put everything about him into perspective, completely flipping his view of the man. Since then, Valac has become very much friendly and even protective of Maynard, building trust as the two have spoken a great deal more.

Valac gave Maynard a metallic hematite stone after growing closer.

### Florian Rosenbaum

Valac and Florian have been relatively close since the start of their travels, mostly due to both of their usual nonchalance and casual demeanor for fun and meaningless connections. The two shared a room whenever the party stayed in taverns, and Florian was the first person Valac told about his night terrors. This lead to the half-elf inviting himself in Valac's bed to help him stop the nightmares, and although their never took this side of their relationship further, the two entertained a flirt before Valac grew closer to Kismet.

Despite all this, Valac has always been careful to keep some sort of emotional distance with Florian, as they'd often find themselves of drastically different opinions. Several times, arguments have ensued, often ending with tears or distress on Florian's side. Valac later shared with Kismet that he's keeping his distance from the half-elf, since they deserve better friends than him.

### Arabella Altalune

Valac and Arabella have always had a certain level of camaraderie between them. For Valac, this was solidified when he first saw her memories clear up during the party's first trip outside Rexxentrum. When Bella explained that the Cobalt Soul has been keeping her locked up, Valac deeply resonated with that, and later warned the elf to keep her eyes peeled and never assume someone is her friend just because they claim care. Valac always treated Arabella with the utmost care, gifting her a moonstone when she chose to stay behind with Agatha.

> I wish I could cast my own mind inwards and look at all the empty spaces they left, but alas, I can't. So the least I can do is try to help you find those parts of you again.
>
>

When the two were reunited after narrowly avoiding death, they caught up with each other and found a common comfort when it comes to water and swimming, both of them finding tranquility in it. Arabella shared some of her frustrations with her missing memories, and accepted Valac's offer to help by reading her mind, hoping to find something that might have eluded her.

### Amicus

Amicus is a connection from Valac's past that he has spoken very little about, besides that they met near Asarius. Their relationship seems one of unbalanced power dynamic, with Amicus able to control aspects of Valac's life even without their presence there. Valac is paranoid, mistrustful and doubtful as a result of his time spent with Amicus, and seemed to easily fall into his grasp when Amicus so much as showed him some gentleness, albeit manufactured and with an ulterior motive.

Although Valac now struggles with accepting Amicus back into his life, he was unable to overpower her, and fell under the effects of a Geas spell.

## Character information

### Quests

Valac spent his early days with The Red Thread researching information on The Cerberus Assembly in secrecy. He hasn't revealed much about his aspirations with the party sans Kismet,

### Notable items

* Agony of the Far Realm
* Bloodwell vial, +1
* Cloak of Protection

### Abilities

Despite being a sorcerer, Valac's signature is Eldritch Blast. His spells almost always manifest as darker versions of their original, usually with some sort of tentacles, dark waters or ichor present. His powers are intrinsically strange and unnatural.

#### Feats

* Spell Sniper
* Skill Expert
* Keen Mind

#### Sorcerer abilities

* Telepathic Speech
* Psionic Sorcery
* Psychic Defenses
* Magical Guidance
* Metamagic - Heightened Spell
* Metamagic - Twinned Spell

## Trivia

* While he's been known to eat and enjoy every food that's been offered to him, Valac is especially fond of apples.
* He's a particularly good swimmer, and finds great comfort in it.
* At the same time he has kenophobia, which can be triggered by vast, quiet waters, especially if he's alone.
* He's fond of all small animals and creatures, particularly bugs, birds, frogs, and cats.
* He almost stole Acis's cat in Nicodranas.
* Valac is ambidextrous.