Valivia "Lightless Liv"

[tectonomancer]

Name(s): Valivia hel Bressephen, Valivia the illuminate, Lightless Liv

Valivia is sometimes called 'the illuminate' both as a reference to luminousness, her illustrious history with the spikeholds, and her interest in the godsblood first found in the sun when the world was still lit, but also as a play on ill-luminate, light or knowledge cast from some fell or foreboding source (i.e. a bearer of bad news). This moniker was eventually corrupted into the similar-sounding antonym of 'Lightless Liv', inconsistently used both as a genuine epithet for an expert sneak and as an ironic nickname for a horn exceptionally light on her feet.

 

Character ABCs

Ancestry: Horn

Background: Fallen from Grace (uncommon)

Culture: Ourian

Class: Gunslinger (uncommon)

Heritage: Tower-Born

Ancestry Feat: Ichor-touched

Ancestry Feat: Skillful Tail

 

Biography: Liv was born into Hold Bressephen with expectations of what she would do to serve the hold and the republic. She received a desirable university education attending Mitrolz College and excelled with the nuances of etiquette and trade law, in addition to taking a great interest in ichor and other preboreal matters. She was never able to live up to Bressephen's reputation for honesty or gentility, however. When a major trade scandal was discovered, Valivia hel Bressephen was found to be the sole conspirator, responsible for defrauding the rest of the hold, and was excommunicated from Hold Bressephen. Liv's willingness to do crimes turned out to be something of a plus for the Broken Guild, who quickly siezed this sudden and rare opportunity to recruit an abruptly-homeless and friendless university-educated disgraced ex-trade clerk with nowhere else to go. It is by the grace of the guild that Liv landed rather well on her feet.

 

Wanted For: Big time tax fraud and embezzlement, misappropriating Hold Bressephen's funds, etc.

 

Specialty: Mastery in Acrobatics, Deception, Stealth, Mercantile Lore, and Ichor Lore. In the office, she's a negotiator, paperwork-handler, and loophole-locater for the guild's import/export dealings. On a heist, she's sneaky, she's nimble, and she's got a gun.

 

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Personality: Prim, precise, severe. Two steps ahead mapping out networks of possible betrayals (both to betray everyone around her, and how everyone around her might be in the middle of betraying her); navigating all these hypothetical betrayals takes up rather a lot of her attention at any given time. Valivia is, consequently, slightly absentminded and often unwilling to engage with reality as it truly exists. Cordial, courteous, and amicable in conversation, but rarely sincere. Liv keeps others at something of a distance, preferring to engage with the world from the safety of a facade as opposed to being seen and known.

 

Your Darkest Secret: Liv has no desire to admit to the hallucinations she now experiences. They would all think she's infirm, see her as something other than the competent, skilled, knowledgeable professional she prides herself on being. No one would understand the truth: that she has the situation under control, that the visions of prophecy she has now been blessed with are good, actually. That she sees the world more clearly now than ever. The tax crimes aren't a secret, everybody knows about that, big deal.

 

Your Greatest Crime: Defrauding Hold Bressephen WAS a big deal, actually. Did she do it? Sure, yeah. Was she the sole conspirator? Absolutely not. Valivia hel Bressephen was deemed highly expendable, largely unliked, and entirely unthreatening: her co-conspirators had caught onto her ichor-drinking and were ready to bring that fact forward as testimony on her faculties if she spoke a word against them.

 

Your Saving Grace: Uncomplicatedly loves learning :) Despite a proclivity for secret-keeping, Liv is enthusiastic about learning from others and sharing what she knows in kind. Secrets pertain to individuals and are never knowledge about the world itself.

 

Pathbuilder Link: https://pathbuilder2e.com/launch.html?build=714637

Edited April 4 by tectonomancer
Added pathbuilder link (see edit history)

[NeoTiamat]

Alright, Val is looking good to go!

[tectonomancer]

On 4/17/2024 at 5:12 AM, NeoTiamat said:

Man, y'all do not like Hold Ilphalssem. Song and Guli did major jobs against them, Tegla is a disgraced member... yeesh.

Oh, I feel like I should note that Liv loves Ilphalssem, actually. She probably had a whole pile of Ilphalssem and Mitrolz school chums. One of the things I particularly like about Liv being from Bressephen is that, like how Tégla was a misfit in Ilphalssem and didn't embody the hold's ideals, Valivia was a Bressephen misfit. Had she been Ilphalssem or Mitrolz, her proclivities and talents probably would have had them making excuses to cover up her crimes, instead of making her their fall gal of choice.


UPDATE: Valivia hel Bressephen was engaged to Tégla's older sister, a scholar she attended college with, before she was disowned. The marriage was called off on account of all the crimes and whatnot.

Edited April 20 by tectonomancer (see edit history)