The Silent and Brave revision page #103

Another new character I have introduced is Dreck, a valetin for the champion. Valetins are the under–generals in Tarlan. Where leaders of major cities and wards of the pallbearers are called vallains, valetins are more numerous but still wield power.

Dreck was a permit collector in Fered, the mountain outpost closest to Arlat. While Fered was under Teilarata rule, Dreck, a vain and prideful man, enjoyed the trappings of power and wealth. He likes good food. He collects art and weapons. He likes to entertain. He wants to be the most powerful man in Fered.

For many years, his greed and vanity led him to steal from the Teilarata as he was collecting permit for them from the people of Fered. When Arlat fell to the champion, he decided to join the champion against the Teilarata, seeing an oppotunity to gain power, also hoping that he would be able to escape punishment for his past transgressions.

When Romal al-Hashimi, the vallain of Celestia, arrives in the champion’s camp, he immediately calls Dreck out as a fake, a minor official who has seized on  circumstances to benefit himself. Dreck’s insecurity is signified by the fact that he wears a helmet and goggles that completely cover his face, so no one in the champion’s arm really know what he looks like. Dreck’s pride makes him dislike Romal al–Hashimi and the champion both, and he falls under the sway of Antoni Phillipi, a valetin from Azucar who is experienced in fighting and who has likewise used the champion’s revolution against the Teilarata for his own personal gain. These two valetins quickly begin to discuss the possibilty of turning their arms against the champion and Romal al–Hashimi and rejoining the Teilarata, especially once Alsha Marat, vallain of the Teilarata arm, finds a way to come between the champion and his goal, Birrigat, the second ward of the pallbearers.