Valen Drethar

Race: Zhaedrim (Shadow-Blooded)
Region: The Umbracite Depths, beneath the Ruined Spires of Mal'Draen
House: Drethar, House of the Drowned Flame
Titles: The Umbral Warden, Whisper of the Deep, The Drowned Heir

Height: 5'11" (180 cm)
Hair Color: Obsidian black with faint streaks of indigo
Eye Color: Silver with a dark violet ring
Body Build: Lean, lithe, with sinewy musculature adapted to subterranean movement
Age: 118 years (appears late twenties)

Far beneath the surface world lies a realm untouched by sunlight, the Umbracite Depths, where bioluminescent fungi paint the caverns in hues of blue fire and black crystal veins pulse with latent energy. From this endless night comes Valen Drethar, heir to the House of the Drowned Flame, one of the ancient noble lines of the Zhaedrim, the shadow-blooded kin who dwell in the caverns of Varethas.

The Zhaedrim are born with the Blood of Shadows, an inherited bond with the dark essence that seeps from the rift scars beneath the world. This blood grants them the power to meld into shadow, traverse unseen places, and command creatures of gloom. Yet it is both gift and burden, for prolonged exposure to the Deep corrupts the soul, blurring the line between mortal and echo.

Valen was raised in the cold echo of war. His people once served as the hidden assassins of the Evervale Dominion, bound by the Veil Accords to protect elven secrets in exchange for freedom. When the accords were broken, his House was left to die, and Valen was cast into exile after refusing to execute his own kin for treason. His rebellion cost him everything, status, family, and faith.

Wielding twin daggers forged from Oblivion Glass, Valen walks the realms between worlds as a Shadowbinder, an assassin and scholar of the unseen. His mastery over the Umbral Veil allows him to phase between layers of reality, appearing as an echo in the eyes of others. The deeper he delves into the shadow, the more the echo within hungers to consume him.

Haunted by the whispers of his ancestors and driven by guilt, Valen seeks to uncover the truth behind the First Fracture that birthed the Echo Realms. His journey intertwines with the destinies of Sylwen Aelthoris and Kaelen Thornveil, as he alone knows that the first rift opened not in the sky, but beneath the world, in the place where his House fell.

Coldly intelligent yet quietly compassionate, Valen hides his pain beneath sardonic wit. He is drawn to tragedy as if it were his calling, seeing beauty in the broken. Though his heart is cloaked in shadow, fragments of light still flicker within, a reminder that even in the deepest dark, something human endures.

Valen Drethar walks not in defiance of the dark, but as its keeper.