__________________QUICK STATS
Name: Valerain Torverath
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Orientation: No idea, had no relationships so I don't know
Species: Mostly human, with traces of fae and elven blood further in his ancestry. Probably one of his predecessors married a Serenian noble.
Ethnicity: The prince of Astanill, a very minor kingdom somewhere on an island on the Hivan Ocean, close to Thanatos.
Height: 5'8
Occupation: Prince
Residence: Currently Wyrdwood Academy

__________________IN-DEPTH STUFF

Physical Description: Like almost every child of the Torverath house, Valerain's hair is deep red. His Serenian ancestry is clearly betrayed by his delicate features and thin eyebrows. But any attractiveness he might have once possessed was undermined by the curse upon him, an insidious spell that turned his skin pale as a ghost, with dark shadows playing under it and running through his veins.

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Personality: He was raised to think of his people first, the family's honour second, and himself a distant third. Despite what one might expect from such a small and distant kingdom, he is familiar with etiquette and politics. As his curse prevented him from taking swordplay lessons, he spent most of this time reading in the library and listening to the stories of diplomats and travelers passing by, and developed a curiosity and love for the wide world.

Magic/Abilities:
- Training in diplomacy, etiquette and politics
- Probably at least middling magical ability, since he managed to be enrolled in Wyrdwood. No further information available so far.

Relationships:
- The royal Torverath family of Astanill
- Kassandra Eimhar, a childhood friend and a knight protecting him

History:
A third child of Astanill's royal couple, Valerain's childhood was rather unremarkable. As his older brother was to inherit the crown, and his sister the leadership of the kingdom's small army, he was left as a backup plan, or a spare to marry to someone significant in order to cement an alliance. His childhood was mostly uneventful, and the rest of his life would soon follow, were it not for the curse placed upon him.

The court mage to the Torverath family, one Rinne Linus, discovered the truth of the matter when he was six years old. She was growing suspicious of the strange string of misfortunes surrounding the youngest prince - the detailed nightmares plaguing his sleep, the poor health and condition of his body, how everything he tried turned to calamity. After some research, she found a ritual that would confirm her hunch.

She was right - a nefarious curse was responsible for all the prince's troubles. As skilled as she was, this enchantment was something too powerful for her to remove. The royal family was rightfully concerned about the situation - if that persisted, not only Valerain, but the entire kingdom may soon be in danger.

Fortunately, Rinne was in correspondence with a colleague from Serendipity. She believed that the kingdom of magic can find a solution and a way to contain, if not completely remove, the curse. She convinced the royal couple to send Valerain to Wyrdwood Academy, a place of research where there were sure to be answers to their problem.

The Silence Without:
An excerpt from Rinne Linus' notes on his curse, detailing some of its effects:
- The Misfortune: I can no longer attribute the strange string of bad luck surrounding him to mere coincidence. If there is a random chance something can go wrong in his life, it will. Every shot he takes with a bow either misses or hits someone he didn't intend to, his clothing tear at such a rate his servants suspect sabotage, he almost choked to death on a small bone twice during today's supper. I have personally examined many of the elements his curse subverted to its purposes, and couldn't find any cause that could be called natural, making any attempt at prevention impossible. All I can recommend is careful surveillance.
- The Physical: The curse has been affecting the prince directly, weakening his body considerably.
- The Corruption: While my investigative spells cast upon the prince were not affected, I cannot say the same about the other forms of magic. Magical healing in particular seems susceptible to being twisted: a spell quickening the production of blood to counter its loss, suddenly grew so prolific that it overflew and burst a vein, causing a subdermal hemorrhage, a simple charm to mend a cut generates tumour cells I spent months getting rid of. For the love of Kia, do not use healing spells on him, it will cause trouble for everyone. Granted, his natural healing ability of his body is stunted by the curse, but I assure you, just waiting longer for any injuries to heal is the better way.
- Shadow of Hate: It may be the most insidious and hard to grasp part of this curse. It slowly, but certainly corrupts his relationships and the way people view him. I avoided him for months before finally being cornered into researching his case, on the basis no more serious than a bad feeling. It wasn't just me - the servants hated interacting with him, even though he's been unfailingly polite, his siblings took every excuse to avoided talking to him... I only realized the truth of what was happening when I began to meticulously catalogue everything I knew about the prince and I couldn't find a true reason for my dislike. There was only one conclusion I could come to: the curse was corrupting the way others viewed him. There is only one person that seems to be immune to its effect: a knight I've convinced the royal family to send along.

Character Limitations: Feel free to move and hurt him to your liking. If you have some idea of what you think his curse might do, it's probably okay too, as it's a rather big thing, but if something's not okay, I'll say so.

__________________THREAD TRACKER
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