> [!infobox|wikipedia] > # General Korvas > [![[Codex/Assets/Characters/General_Korvas_small.webp|cover hsmall]]](Codex/Assets/Characters/General_Korvas.webp) > ###### Basic Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Type | Character | > ###### Character Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Creature Type | Humanoid | > Species | Human | > Gender | Male | > Pronouns | He/Him | > Place | [[Val Noren]] | > Connections | [[Valtorran Empire\|The Empire]]<br>[[Empress Morganna Eventide]]<br>[[Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh]]<br>[[Marcelle the Broken]] | > Profession | General, Imperial Commander | > ###### Status > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Status | Unknown | **General Korvas** was the commander of the [[Valtorran Empire|Imperial]] garrison in [[Val Noren]] and a decorated officer who served directly beneath [[Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh]] in the [[Valtorran Empire|Empire]]'s campaign of conquest. What makes him one of the most unsettling figures in the war's history is not his battlefield record, but the revelation that he and the rebel known as Vaeleran are the same man — that beneath the insurgent who fought against the Empire was a loyal Imperial general, his memories and allegiances buried by some form of magical suppression that held until Blackmarsh crushed a purple jewel and brought him flooding back. ## Description #### Appearance Korvas is a tall, broad-shouldered human man with a face that carries the accumulated damage of a military career: old scars, a jaw set permanently against complaint, and a singular good eye that assesses rather than observes. As a general he wore the heavy plate and deep crimson cloak of Imperial senior command, though his kit always bore signs of active use — this was not a man who issued orders from a safe distance. When his alternate identity as Vaeleran was in place, his bearing shifted subtly, something in the posture softening, the officer's instinct to dominate a room suppressed into something more wary and lateral. #### Personality The Korvas who was known and respected in [[Val Noren]] was a different man from the one who returned when [[Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh|Blackmarsh]] crushed the jewel. Before his selection as a [[Hand of The Empire]], those who served under him described an officer who led without fear and governed without contempt — someone who understood that a garrison commander in an occupied city either earns grudging trust or breeds the conditions for revolt. That version of Korvas appears to be gone, or at least deeply buried. What emerged from his conditioning is the distilled product of Hand training: obedient to the chain of command, absolute in the execution of orders, and possessed of a tactical intelligence that operates without sentiment. He is not cruel by preference — cruelty wastes energy — but he is entirely capable of it when efficiency demands. His loyalty to the [[Empress Morganna Eventide|Empress]] and the [[Valtorran Empire|Empire]] runs deeper than calculation; it is structural, not chosen. There is no indication that the Vaeleran persona was fabricated cynically. Whatever the Empire did to him, the division appears to have been genuine and total — two selves with no access to each other, until the moment of restoration. ## Biography #### Background Korvas built his reputation through genuine ability rather than Imperial politics. As commander of the [[Val Noren]] garrison, he was the kind of officer soldiers trusted and civilians didn't fear — rare enough in an occupying force to be noticed. He maintained order without cruelty, earned loyalty from subordinates who had reason to distinguish a real leader from a political appointment, and was regarded well by the city's people at large. His name carried weight in Val Noren long after he left it. That promise was what drew the Empire's attention upward. He was selected for training as a [[Hand of The Empire]] — the [[Empress Morganna Eventide|Empress]]'s elite, bound to her will through conditioning that transforms capable officers into instruments of absolute loyalty. The man who emerged retained Korvas's tactical intelligence and military bearing, but whatever warmth and civic judgment had defined him before was subordinated to something colder and more certain. At some point before the campaign's events, he was separated from Imperial forces under circumstances that remain unclear, and his conditioning broke or was disrupted — leaving behind only Vaeleran, a man with instincts but no past, who fell in with the rebellion and fought against the very Empire he had been remade to serve. [[Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh]] retained an interest in recovering him, describing his restoration as a priority. When the opportunity arose in [[Val Noren]], Blackmarsh deployed a purple jewel whose magical discharge apparently restored the suppressed identity completely. The Korvas who emerged from that wave of energy turned on his companions without hesitation, suggesting that the suppression had not been self-imposed — and that whatever Vaeleran had come to value in the intervening months had no purchase on the general underneath. ### [[The Bloody Nails|Campaign: The Bloody Nails]] #### [[Session 16 - The Fall of Skyreach]] At the extraction point following the Skyreach operation, a [[Hand of The Empire]] officer recognised the face of the man fighting beside the party and called him "Korvas" — referring to him as his "old mentor." It was the first crack in Vaeleran's apparent identity, though its implications remained unresolved for many sessions. #### [[Session 17 - A New Journey Begins]] In [[Camaar]], [[Kai]] attempted to learn more about the name "Korvas" from a local bard, who claimed ignorance. The name was circulating at the edges of the party's awareness without meaning yet. #### [[Session 21 - The Governor's Daughter]] [[Gemma Finegold]] told the party that "Korvas" had been the head of the Imperial garrison in [[Val Noren]] — and that he had been missing for months. The revelation began to align the name with a real rank and a real absence. #### [[Session 23 - Ruby Falls Goldmine]] En route to the goldmine, Vaeleran used his commanding presence and the implied authority of the Korvas identity to bluff a group of Imperial soldiers into standing down from a roadside harassment. The persona, still held at arm's length, was proving tactically useful. #### [[Session 32 - The Road to Point Blackrock]] At a heavily fortified Imperial barricade on the road north, a [[Hand of The Empire]] commander recognised Vaeleran's face and identified him as the missing General Korvas. Rather than flee, Vaeleran leaned into the role — fielding questions about his absence with enough confidence to make the suspicious officer defer to his assumed authority. The party passed through. #### [[Session 33 - A Camp Alight]] At the Imperial war camp surrounding [[Point Blackrock]], Vaeleran again invoked the Korvas identity to secure the party's autonomy when confronted by Captain Catherine. He was then escorted to a meeting with the local Imperial Commander, who recognised him as a missing asset and revealed that [[Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh|General Gerard]] was leading the assault on [[Val Noren]] — and that he would be eager to see Korvas again. #### [[Session 36 - General Korvas]] In the streets of [[Val Noren]], [[Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh]] sensed the party's presence, destroyed the wall of their hiding place, and looked at Vaeleran not as an enemy but as something to be recovered. He crushed a purple jewel. The wave of energy hit, and Korvas returned — fully and without apparent conflict. He turned on the rest of the party at Blackmarsh's order, fighting alongside [[Marcelle the Broken]] with the full capability of a trained Imperial general. He dropped [[Ryo]] and [[Kai]], and was standing over the broken party when [[Barak Stormrider]] shoulder-charged him through the wall. Marcelle teleported them both to safety. #### [[Session 38 - A Trail of Blood]] Witnesses to the kidnapping of [[King Marius Noren]] identified the leader of the assault as General Korvas — the man the party knew as Vaeleran. He had moved against the King while the rebels were still reeling. #### [[Session 39 - The Stoneheart]] From a concealed balcony, the party observed a meeting between Blackmarsh, Korvas, and five [[The Red Priests|Red Priests]] in the great chamber of [[The Stoneheart]]. Blackmarsh ordered Korvas to travel immediately to [[The Darkwood]] to retrieve "the jewel," and Korvas departed without question. The King later warned the party that Korvas had anticipated their infiltration and that Blackmarsh would be waiting. #### [[Session 44 - The Elven Archmage]] Following the liberation of [[Val Noren]], the party departed with [[The Mawbreakers]] with the explicit intention of hunting Korvas down — his fate unresolved, his whereabouts unknown. #### [[Session 49 - The Silver Sage]] In a private conversation, Ryo noted settling things with Korvas as one of the party's outstanding objectives. As of this session, the General remains at large. ## Trivia - Session 36 bears Korvas's name as its title — the session in which his restoration is the central, shattering event of the campaign arc. He shares this distinction with very few characters in the campaign. - The name "Korvas" and the name "Vaeleran" were used simultaneously by the party for several sessions before the distinction became irrelevant — Vaeleran using the Korvas persona as a tool, then becoming it again. The blurring of those two names reflects the genuine ambiguity of which was real. - The purple jewel that restored him was not Blackmarsh's own invention — its use implies a pre-planned contingency, suggesting the Empire expected to recover him and prepared accordingly.