Valerian

The Valerians are the elves of Valeria, a desert people whose lives are bound up with the memory of their ancestors. Their Tairnadal faith holds that each elf is sponsored by one of the community’s revered ancestors: as a Valerian comes of age, the “keepers of the past” consult the ancestor spirits to determine which patron ancestor should guide them, and pair the two for life.

Valerian society turns on this bond between the living and their patrons. The keepers guide the youth in their training and tend the community’s link to the dead, while the warriors of the zaeltairn caste each take up a patron whose way they follow. Some become mirages, who resisted aggression through stealth and guile — peerless assassins and speakers with beasts; others become reivers, horsemen without peer who range the Blade desert as horse-archers, lancers, and raiders. A mirage bonds with a totem animal and a reiver with a Valerian horse, each an extension of its master’s own spirit and their patron’s honor.

Classes

• Valerian Keeper — keeper of the past who pairs each elf with a patron ancestor
• Valerian Mirage — zaeltairn warrior of stealth, guile, and totem beast
• Valerian Reiver — zaeltairn horseman of the Blade desert
• Valerian Sorcerer — planned but not yet written (heading only in the source doc), so no page.

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Stub — to expand: general description and eventually racial enclaves and strongholds.