Hello! Bishop here again this week with a look at some of the recurring NPCs you’ll be interacting with in VSA. Namely, we’ll be looking at some of the members of the Maladorr family.

Where it had been largely absent as a factor in Contention, family plays a big role in the story of Awakening. House Maladorr, as one of the five noble families of the Orkan Federation, is a key fixture in Orkan politics and in shaping the course of history.

Some names might be familiar to players of Contention!

Kortas Maladorr is the head of House Maladorr and holds the title of Count of Avelis. Although he had a reputation for recklessness in his youth, he later mellowed out and is now known for his ponderous and inward-facing policies, in sharp contrast to his own father’s hawkish expansionism when he ruled.

Kortas is the father of Dakura and Vanora and was a life-long friend of Sarian’s father, Vaius Monarim, until his untimely passing. Since then, he has been fiercely protective of Sarian and welcomes her to Maladorr Manor frequently, where they research heretical magic against the church’s teachings.

It’s this disregard for the church’s authority that will ignite the story of Awakening.

Lorria Maladorr, Countess of Avelis, is the wife of Kortas and mother of Dakura and Vanora. Raised in a time of bitter infighting among her birth family, she was forced to learn to navigate the teeming (and occasionally brutal) underworld of Orkan politics at a young age, a skill that would serve her well upon moving to the powderkeg city of Viadahn, the nerve center of House Altaya’s influence, upon marrying Kortas.

Though she has a gentle and polite demeanor, she’s one of the most valuable assets at the Noble Council’s negotiation table for her no-nonsense attitude and staunch resilience to opposition.

As the one who manages the finances of House Maladorr, which governs the federation’s largest standing army, she has earned the nickname “the Bursar of Battle” for her at times miraculous ability to balance the budget of the military and pull together the funds to manage its often grueling war efforts.

Vanora Maladorr is Dakura’s elder sister. She was originally intended to succeed Kortas as the head of House Maladorr until Dakura’s birth, when it was decided that he would become the heir instead. She takes after their mother more than Dakura and has proven herself prodigious at the art of diplomacy, although Lorria sometimes fears that she lacks the ruthless edge needed to stay ahead in the cutthroat political climate of the federation.

Vanora is well-spoken and professional and proves an invaluable asset to Sarian’s company on the voyage south. Though Dakura is tactful and charismatic, he has also inherited their father’s headstrong nature, occasionally requiring Vanora’s quick thinking and diplomacy to defuse dangerous situations.

She and Dakura have a close filial relationship and she has been friends with Korelli for as long as she can remember.

Vanora will join the party as a noncombatant.