Valerius is a gaunt man who moves with the frantic, jerky energy of a clockwork toy wound too tight. He is surprisingly tall and skeletal, causing him to loom over his staff. His skin is pale and translucent, mapped with a web of fine blue veins and numerous burn scars on his forearms. He is immaculately groomed except for his eyebrows, which are perpetually thick with flour dust, and his fingernails, which are scrubbed raw. He smells intensely of saffron, vinegar, and nervous sweat. Despite his high status, he wears an apron that is a chaotic tapestry of grease and wine stains, which contrasts sharply with the expensive purple silk cravat tucked neatly into his collar.

Valerius is a man composed entirely of sharp edges and high expectations. He is a obsessive perfectionist who views a slightly over-salted broth as a personal betrayal. He is a classic bully who is subservient and oily toward the nobility, yet monstrously cruel to those he considers beneath him, especially his kitchen hand Jax. He is currently on the verge of a total nervous breakdown due to the missing Ghost Truffles, making him swing between catatonic despair and explosive, screaming rage within seconds.

The son of a failed street-side baker, Valerius spent his childhood in the shadow of debt. He vowed never to be hungry or forgotten again. He manipulated his way into an apprenticeship at the Royal Academy of Gastronomy by sabotaging his peers, a trait he continues today in his bitter rivalry with the tavern owner Barty, whose simple food Valerius publicly mocks but secretly envies for its popularity. His restaurant, The Gilded Tier, is a three-storey monument to his ego, yet his obsession with the 'Ghost Truffles' from the Underdark stems from a desperate need to impress the Royal Catering Board during next week's audit.