Valar

The Valar were not born, but created—given cursed existence from the blood-filled chalice of the Night Mother Nyx. Their origin lies in the opulent halls of Vanir nobility during the Third Age (Age of the Elves), when a clandestine cabal of aristocrats—disillusioned with the limitations of mortality—sought communion with the goddess of curses, Nyx, the Night Mother.

At the heart of this heresy stood King Athelstan Valarion, a renowned Vanir noble of Itelion, whose charisma and vision drew a following of sorcerers, dreamers, and decadent exiles. In secret they performed an occult ritual, drinking from the cup of Nyx’s own ichor—her divine blood offered with serpentine promise. Thus the Valar were born: immortal hybrids of Vanir grace and vampiric potency, forever changed.

But rumor spreads like wildfire in the halls of the highborn. When word of their transformation reached the ruling Synod of Itelion, the Valar were declared abominations—an affront to purity and divine order. They were exiled, cast out upon the seas with only the night to guide them.

Across the eastern oceans, Athelstan led a grand voyage of cursed souls to a forgotten archipelago—there, shrouded in fog and legend, they founded their new dominion: The Immortal Isle.

Physiology & Traits

Valar are statuesque and luminous, their forms unnaturally graceful and hauntingly beautiful. They average between 6.5 and 7 feet in height, with skin ranging from porcelain pale to a ghostly alabaster. Their eyes burn in hues of amber, crimson, and liquid gold, reflecting the starlight of the blood that dwells within. Their hair varies in shades of moonlit silver, shadow-black, crimson, or snow-white.

Though they do not burn beneath the sun as their Vampire progenitors do, the Valar suffer a deeper curse—apathetic numbness. Their souls, though undying, grow weary. Joy fades like a distant memory; love becomes longing; and even pain is dulled into absence. As such, many Valar become poets, sculptors, musicians, or explorers—desperate to feel again through the echoes of beauty and suffering.

They do not feast upon mortal blood, but the blood of beasts—a twisted echo of Nyx’s original curse.

Culture & Society

The Valar live lives measured in centuries. This immortality has forged a culture rooted in artistry, honor, and scholarly refinement. Many dedicate entire lifetimes to mastering a single instrument, carefully crafting beautiful sonatas, chiseling perfected sculptures of their ancestors, creating exquisite oil mural paintings of their peers, or perfecting elixirs said to emulate various potent emotions. They are haunted, elegant, and sorrowful—a people who hide their despair beneath gilded masks and opulent robes.

Valar are also peerless sailors, having been forced to survive at sea during their exile. Their black-sailed ships now haunt every corner of the known world—from trade to exploration to naval warfare. Their charts are unmatched, and their captains—many centuries old—are spoken of in hushed reverence across distant ports.

The Kingdom of Valarion is centered on the capital city, Valheim, which is a brooding gothic city of gaslamps, spires, and ash-stained shorelines that look ever eastward to the lands that cast them out.

The Curse of Nyx

The Valar were not only cast out—they were cursed. Nyx, the Night Mother, took their pact as both covenant and insult. When Athelstan dared to found a kingdom in her name but sought to control her gift, she struck with divine vengeance.

Upon the Immortal Isle, the curse took root: a perpetual fog shrouded their homeland, cloaking them in twilight. Any Valar who died in the sea rose again as Draugr, cursed revenants who clawed their way to shore and attacked the living.

Athelstan himself, stricken with grief and guilt, hurled his cursed crown into the sea and cast himself after it. His death did not lift the curse—but it passed to his heir, King Cyrus Valarion, who to this day bears the burden of breaking the chains wrought by his father’s ambition.

Relations with the World

Since the Third Age, the Valar have waged wars across the sea:

Against the Saurus raiders of Somerset Island and the northern islands of The Sea Realm, whose primal deities abhor the Valar’s undead taint.
Against the Vanir of Aerenal, their former kin, who now guard their western shores with fleets of elven longships and seers who curse the Valar’s name.

Only in the Fifth Age, through the diplomacy of Guy the Grateful and Septimus Lucien, has peace begun to take root. The Aerenal Accord marks the first fragile treaty between the two elven-descended peoples, opening a new chapter in Valar history.

Notable Figures

King Athelstan Valarion – First of the Valar. Drank the blood of Nyx. Founder of the Immortal Isle. Cast himself into the sea.
Queen Seralyth Vaenyra – His wife, a Vanir noblewoman who died of fever during the voyage, denied the immortality promised to her husband.
King Cyrus Valarion – His son. Current monarch of the Valar. A melancholic scholar-king, obsessed with ending the curse through necromantic research.
Queen Euloria Valarion – Cyrus' wife. A beautiful Valar queen whom grew mad over nightly visions of the Night Mother, and eventually threw herself off from the Spire of Valarion.
Septimus Lucien – Reaper of Deimos. Ally of House Valarion. Instrumental in delivering the final death of Nyx and aiding the Valar’s chance at redemption.

Legacy of the Valar

The Valar are a race of contradictions: immortal yet cursed, graceful yet damned, proud yet hollow. They are shadows that seek the sun, and nobles who dance on the edge of despair. Their tragedy is whispered upon the oceanic winds and obscured through the mists of the Immortal Isle.

And yet—they endure.