Valin

Valin turns every humiliation of the merchant caste into leverage. Its dwarves are indispensable, despised, often hanged for convenient accusations, and rarely live long. Faced with one such accusation, he chose the dangerous Brazzant route over the noose. He survived forty years of crossings and one hundred sixty voyages.

Curious where his people were not, Valin learned the human language from a novel by Christophe Leblanc, translated it into Askenar, and compiled a dictionary no one wanted to buy. That useless book made him the natural choice for Kaz'Nakaram's first serious mission to Cerberus.

Vlad Varanov bit Valin in his own audience chamber, massacred the mission's crew, and threw the survivors into his dungeon. Valin escaped with Portin and Prince Merenin, joined the young mages plotting Vlad's fall, and killed the vampire with a Valerium shot to the head. He later argued that Gérard Alois's Valerium pendant had poisoned Vlad and driven his thirst for dwarven blood.

The victory made Valin head of the merchant caste and minister of human affairs. He then seized Askenon's gold trade by having his rival Krakelin convicted on fabricated evidence. The judge who arranged it was eventually executed by Merenin, but Valin kept the monopoly. His command of trade, human relations, and Valerium later made him admiral of the greatest fleet Askenon had ever armed.

Valin and Portin built the invasion of Sylla around the destruction of the great aqueducts. After the bombardment cut the Partage from the Ark, Valin killed the Eye of Sylla, wore the dead inquisitor's face, and infiltrated the censor's hidden island. His cannon wounded Sylla faster than the censor could regenerate. When Sylla's Divine Judgment destroyed the island, Askenar's hammer reforged the shattered weapon in midair, and Valin fired into the divine light long enough for Daviau Morin to rescue the survivors.

Peace did not make him gentler. After Marcin Sobiesansky's defeat, Valin arranged the theft of the alchemist's laboratory before Frolix could recover it. He threatened and manipulated Portin into using the stolen Psychic research, leading to the implants carried by the first Monks of Kaz'Nakaram. He remains Merenin's servant, but his ambitions do not end with service.

I give my word only once. It can be bought, but I give my word only once.