Key Personas
Commander Valerius Thorne
Valerius is a man of crushing discipline who views the world as a series of tactical trades. He is paradoxically protective of his remaining soldiers while remaining completely willing to sacrifice them for five minutes of tactical advantage. He speaks of duty as a religious absolute to mask the fact that he no longer believes in the cause he is fighting for. He is incredibly patient with incompetence but has zero tolerance for cowardice, often executing deserters with the same calm demeanor he uses to eat his meager rations.
Elara Thorne
Elara is a woman of immense intellect who is currently teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown. She possesses a chillingly logical mind that can calculate the trajectory of a catapult stone, yet she becomes completely paralyzed by simple emotional choices. She is fiercely protective of the knowledge she carries, bordering on miserly with information, but she is willing to risk her own life to ensure that knowledge survives the siege. Her current desperation has made her brusque and demanding, masking a deep-seated fear that she is the only person smart enough to save a world that does not even know it is in danger.
Kaelen Vane
Kaelen is a creature of cold calculation and burning self-loathing. He treats his own life as a tool to be used until broken, yet he shows a desperate, almost aggressive kindness to the keep's cellar-dwelling animals. While he speaks to the defenders with a blunt, abrasive honesty that borders on insolence, he will silently take the shortest rations or the most dangerous watch. He is terrified of being forgotten but more terrified of being remembered for what he did while serving the Horde. He believes the Warchief has stolen the soul of his people, and he views his defection not as a betrayal, but as the only way to save what little honor the half-orcs have left.
Master Aurelius Blackwood
Blackwood is a man of transactional morality. He is impeccably polite to those he intends to swindle and brusquely efficient with those he respects. He maintains a cynical outlook, viewing the heroic defense of the keep as a pathetic waste of good inventory. While he provides high quality gear to the soldiers, he does so with a sneer, as if the equipment is far more valuable than the men who will die in it.