Lusat "Lews" Valthorne

Lusat “Lews” Valthorne is a Vedalken—one of the many humans altered by prolonged exposure to Shardisite. His mutation manifests as pale blue skin, elongated limbs, and a perpetually analytical demeanor that often comes across as unsettlingly detached.

Despite his awkward social instincts, Lews genuinely wants to help people. Unfortunately, his methods often make situations worse before they improve.

Motivation: Expose Viroc Industries’ secrets in order to prove he is St. Petersgrad's greatest detective and protect the innocent from their schemes.

Flaw: Lews is wildly overconfident in his interrogation abilities. He frequently asks awkward, invasive, or offensive questions while attempting to apply investigative advice he barely understands.

Lews was born in the flooded alleys of St. Petersgrad, where gilded palaces rot beside Shardisite-warped slums. His human lineage was twisted by the city’s tainted water, steeped in the arcane residue left behind by The Meteor. The exposure left him with Vedalken traits: pale blue skin, unnaturally long fingers, and an eerily detached gaze.

His parents worked as archivists in the city’s decaying libraries, cataloguing the remains of a world that no longer existed. Lews grew up surrounded by fading records and stories from the old world—particularly tales of pre-Impact detectives who solved impossible mysteries with wit and grit. Inspired by those legends, he vowed to become St. Petersgrad’s greatest investigator, despite possessing almost no natural social finesse.

As a young man, Lews discovered he possessed Divination magic, a mutation born from the same Shardisite exposure that altered his body. Fleeting visions of hidden truths and glimpses of possible futures reinforced his belief that he was destined for investigative greatness.

Convinced that magic and deduction made him uniquely qualified, Lews opened a small office called “Valthorne Investigations.”

The office occupied a crumbling tenement above a tattoo parlor in St. Petersgrad's Foundry Ward. Illuminated by a flickering shard-lamp and cluttered with stacks of scribbled case notes. Armed with a worn notebook, a handy revolver, and complete confidence in his own brilliance, Lews began taking cases.

Most were small matters—stolen heirlooms, dockside disputes, missing cargo. His clients rarely returned. One infamous interrogation ended when Lews asked a horrified noblewoman: “Your missing necklace… was it stolen to fund your secret cult?” Lews remained convinced it had been a masterstroke.

In October of 939 A.M., Lews stumbled across redacted transit logs while browsing St. Petersgrad’s customs archives. The numbers did not match.

Viroc Industries shipments listed far less Shardisite than their recorded weights suggested. Lews became convinced the company was transporting hidden cargo. His attempts to question port workers went poorly. When confronting a weighmaster, Lews demanded: “Are you smuggling illegal Shardisite in your boots?” The weighmaster nearly threw him into the harbor.

Undeterred, Lews continued digging and uncovered a disturbing pattern: a string of missing persons cases connected to Viroc mining crews. Each case had been quietly closed by the same lawyer. Lews’s attempts to question the victims’ families only worsened their grief and suspicion. One interview ended abruptly when Lews asked: “Did your husband vanish because he was a Viroc spy?”

Around the same time, St. Petersgrad began experiencing strange citywide blackouts. Residents reported memory gaps during the outages. Phonograph recordings played backward. Some claimed voices could be heard in the silence between the needle’s scratches.

During one surge, Lews attempted a divination ritual and witnessed a brief flash of Shardisite energy somewhere near the Viroc docks. His attempt to question a witness ended badly when he asked: “Are you hiding a Shardisite bomb in your home?” The door was slammed in his face.

In November of 940 A.M., a Viroc cargo barge exploded in the harbor during what locals now call the Green Flash Incident. Witnesses described the sky turning green for several seconds before the blast. Some swore crimson-robed figures were seen fleeing the docks. Lews questioned a sailor who survived the explosion. “Were you paid to summon that green demon?” The sailor fled before answering.

The most troubling clue came from a drunken rail worker Lews overheard in a tavern. The man muttered repeatedly about Murmansk, Shardisite shipments, and a man who “blinked funny.” Lews carefully recorded the rambling conversation in his notebook.

The next morning the rail worker was found dead from sudden-onset Shard Blight—despite showing no prior symptoms. When Lews asked the coroner: “Was his corpse mutated by Viroc’s experiments?” He was permanently banned from the morgue.

Lews continues to pursue the truth behind Viroc Industries and the strange Shardisite anomalies spreading across the world. Armed with his divination magic, questionable interrogation tactics, and unwavering belief in his own brilliance, he remains determined to prove himself the greatest detective St. Petersgrad has ever known. Even if no one else agrees.