Nero Valtier was born in Kingdom of Norland during the late Second Age. Raised in a strict militaristic household, he was expected to follow a warrior’s path and pledge himself to one day become a knight of the kingdom, especially as the men in his family had a previous history of serving the Kingdom of Haense. However, his father was not as rigid as his mother; while still firm in his expectations, he was kinder toward Nero’s interests and occasionally allowed him to indulge in reading and history, quietly supporting the side of him that leaned toward scholarship. Mysteriously, his father one day disappeared in the middle of the night without notice, leaving Nero with unanswered questions that shaped his future and his mother in grieving. His mother maintained the household despite everything, refusing to slip up and show weakness, upholding the family’s strict traditions of duty, reputation, and loyalty, while ensuring Nero continued to be trained in combat. Nero views it as burdensome and has no real desire or passion for it. Instead, he finds his true interest in words rather than war, aspiring to become both a poet and historian, preserving the stories, tragedies, and truths of the Second Age through writing. He became deeply interested in historical records, studying the wars, migrations, and political shifts of the Descendants throughout the Second Age. Now preparing to travel beyond Norland, Nero seeks the truth behind his father’s disappearance while documenting the quieter history of the realms he passes through, striving to build an identity of his own separate from war and expectation.
