Valerian Scarlet

Valerie Hartwig was a typical second year college student in Panama City in 1986 — bored out of her mind. She was smart, but school was torture for her; people around her age were such children! Whenever possible she snuck out of the house and hitched rides to Vibora Bay, where she partied all night in one of the local goth or dance clubs. It wasn’t long before some of the folks she met at one of those clubs began showing her other interesting ways to pass the time... like studying the occult. Valerie turned out to be a natural at magic, and one evening she and a male friend succeeded in summoning a demon in his apartment. The demon’s name was Kerathios, and he was surprised and unhappy to have been brought to Earth by such rank amateurs, who couldn’t even draw a protective circle correctly! Kerathios mused on how far standards had fallen among human mages as he munched on the boy’s leg. When he turned to the girl, however, he was surprised to sense a certain... spark within her. Why, the young woman wasn’t even afraid of him! Kerathios was amused, and when the girl said she wanted to make a deal with him, he folded his tail under himself politely and sat down to listen. As it turned out, what Valerie wanted was pretty prosaic — eternal youth and beauty, and mystical power. What made her interesting was what she was willing to do to get these things. Kerathios made her a bargain: he’d provide her with immortality and superhuman powers, but only if she’d use her spells to provide him with life forces, the living vitality of human souls. A few people a night was all he wanted. Valerie considered the prospect. She had no particular qualms about killing — other people were stupid and boring, after all. But killing two or three people every night... even in Vibora Bay that was bound to be difficult to cover up. She had no desire to spend her immortality on the run from police and superheroes. She made a counteroffer (the simple boldness of the act making Kerathios laugh yet again). Instead of the entire life force of two or three people every night, what if she gave him a small fraction of the life forces of crowds of people instead? Kerathios agreed to the deal. Within a few weeks, a new nightclub had opened in Vibora Bay. Though the putative owner was a scenester named Dante Bancroft (an ex-lover of Valerie’s, now desperately trying to get back into her good graces), the word among those in the know was that it was really owned by a mysterious sorceress named Valerian Scarlet. Few cared, though — they were happy to keep partying until dawn and exhaustion forced them to go home. And if a few partiers felt a little ill after dancing all night at the Minefield, well, they should probably just take better care of themselves, right? Personality/Motivation: Valerian Scarlet is stone cold. She has no emotional connection to any of the people around her — they’re only tools or obstacles. As far as she’s concerned, demons and other extraplanar beings are the only “real” forms of life, and she intends to stick around long enough and learn enough magic to join them someday. She doesn’t really have a firm idea of how she’s going to do this, but she figures now that she’s immortal, she’s got time to learn. Therefore, she’s thrown herself into her studies of black magic and spends some of each night performing the rituals necessary to drain just a little of the life out of each reveler at her club. Valerian Scarlet’s likely to get involved in any situation she hears of that involves powerful artifacts or the opportunity to grab mystical power. She’s not really a big player in the Mystic World yet (though she’s clashed with Robert Caliburn a time or two)... but considering her youth and inexperience, she’s already somebody to watch out for.Completely unbeknownst to her, Valerian is a crucial part of Therakiel’s plan,in fact, he arranged things so her “summoning” would succeed and Kerathios would grant her magic. As a woman with demonic powers, she’s the polar opposite of Robert Caliburn (a man who often uses angelic powers), making her an important element in his scheme. His machinations often set the two at odds, though what he ultimately intends for her remains a mystery.