Valerius Mordine

A young dragonlord who was sold by his family to Palladia, where he was trained in the legacy of his rare gift. He is one of three dragonlords of Palladia. His loyalty to Palladia is reluctant, but he has a strong affection for Captain Balthasar.

## Personality

Bitter about his being sold to Palladia, Valerius nevertheless gives his training his best. This is primarily because of his personal loyalty to Arianna Balthasar rather than any loyalty to the crown; he does his best to make his Captain proud, and his greatest desire is to serve on her squadron so he can remain close to her.

## History

Valerius was sold to Palladia at a young age to be trained in his gift as Dragonmaster. For his life, his Uncle received admittance to the Palladian Alliance and the protection of Palladia. Valerius' loyalty to Palladia is reluctant and haphazard at best, but he is in love with Arianna Balthasar, whose loyalty to Palladia is steadfast. Because of this, he has never tried to leave. Sairan even noted that Valerius would never leave because he would miss Arianna, when Valerius questioned what Sairan would do if Valerius ran away.

At one point his guard was Harad Branwire, but the man was cashiered from the position. Sairan Aradee at some point took the place of Valerius' bodyguard, and the two became best friends during this time. It was Sairan who accompanied Valerius as he tried to master his Trueform: the ability to take on the form of a dragon.

While he was trying to master Truefrom, Valerius' former bodyguard Harad Branwire's treachery came back in the form of having sold Valerius' name and location to mercenaries. Before the three could even begin to overpower and kidnap Valerius as planned, Sairan killed all three of them where they stood. After six days of effort to master the Trueform, Valerius succeeded. He and Sairan proceeded to fly to Arianna's outpost in order to show her Valerius' success - Valerius in Trueform and Sairan on Thar.

The pair were welcomed by Arianna and Lynn de Luctes upon their return, and Arianna asked if Valerius wished to be reassigned or if he wanted to stay under her command. Valerius was quick to request he stay on with Arianna, if she didn't mind, and she agreed to see to it. At that point Lynn noticed the Rimad Gregorius returning to Palladia on dragonback. Sairan proceeded to give a lecture on the power structure of Palladia.

Days later, Valerius joined the group that accompanied Lynn to her Sealing. On the way to her Sealing, Lynn repeated the oath in the company of her friends. She made four mistakes, and was asked a follow-up question in order to be permitted to pass through the gates. On their way to the Faetree sanctum proper, Lynn questioned Arianna on how to become a leader.

Inside the sanctum of the Faetree they met the Keeper of Weapons. He explained the tree to the initiates, and upon Lynn's asking confirmed that the two weapons at the top of the tree - a sword and a spear - were the strongest weapons, the grimlas. They were destined for great deeds...and were therefore of no concern to any of the initiates of the day. He gave a speech about the worth of the wanderers, and claimed he saw no one worthy of such a destiny standing before him.

Arianna immediately guessed that Lynn wanted to try for a grimlas weapon, and reminded her that she could try once a year. Lynn ignored her for her own reasons, and Valerius waited below with the captain and Sairan. Valerius asked if Lynn was still up there in disbelief, as everyone else was long done with their sealing - and then Lynn tripped and fell from the tree.

When Lynn began to seal the grimlas spear, the light overtook everything. Valerius asked Arianna what it was, but she didn't know; she thought it was Lynn sealing a grimlas, but very few had ever managed to witness the sealing of a grimlas, because there were so few wanderers. As the light faded, Valerius offered Arianna a hand up, which she refused. The situation was bad: the Faetree was destroyed. And Sairan immediately warned the other two that the lords would treat it as an act of treason.

The three determined that they had to see to Lynn's safety, as she was in need of care, and they had to get her out of there before the royal guard arrived if they wished to have her leave at all. Arianna ordered Valerius to use his trueform to fly Lynn to Hurricos, and to send Lynn north to Wade with her dragon. She figured that with Lynn's skill as a soldier, she could make a living there until things blew over. Valerius agreed and left immediately, though he expressed concern for Arianna and Sairan being at the scene of the crime as well. Valerius proceeded to strap Lynn and some supplies to Hurricos, and commanded the dragon to watch after Lynn before sending them both north as Arianna had asked.

## Appearance

Thin and a little unkempt. His right eye is brown and his left eye is blue. Valerius does not follow the Southern tradition of splitting the ear tips.

## Abilities

The power of Dragonlords is innate. The power to communicate with dragons is a mental ability that has never been truly explored in Ravine. Many have tried - enemy Dragonlords have often been killed and examined in order for the secret of their art to be revealed, but still no answer has been found. All that is known is that there seems to be some deep link on a soul level between Dragonlords and dragons.

In addition to controlling dragons, Draogonlords can learn to master the ability known as Trueform. Trueform allows Dragonlords to use Dragontears - crystalline shards that contain the core of a high ranking dragon - to take the form and memories of a dragon.