Valence

Valence
Basic Information
Pronouns	they/them
Aliases	DJ (callsign) BigWolfAwoo87
People	Nobel
Connections
Af­fil­i­a­tion(s)	Nobel The Society of Banners and Bright Returns
Re­la­tion­ships	Midnite Matinee (exhausting) Rosé Rita (intrigued)
Meta Info
Season	PARTIZAN
Playbook	The Empath
Player	Andrew Lee Swan

Valence is a character in PARTIZAN. Their playbook is the Empath. They serve as the face for SBBR and pilot the Hippocampus.

Appearance

Valence wears an intricate, black wolf mask that covers their entire face. It is able to move and make expressions. They also wear a simple black robe with a cornflower blue hood that hides their head and high lapels that fits loose around their body; their outfit is inspired by Destiny concept art. A piece of teal-purple Clarified Memoria they received from the Sable Court decorates one of their ears.

At the beach, they wear a pink, blue, and purple light robe with a flowy train. It has a pattern of stained glass or stone shapes with hard lines between them. They also wear a sun hat.

This section contains spoilers for PARTIZAN 19: On the Edge of Fracture.
Click here to reveal.

As one of the Nobel, Valence's natural form is of a mist ranging in color though teal, blue, purple and magenta. This mist is housed inside of a robotic body, and can form into illusory skin which hides the metal. A touchstone for their robotic arm was suggested by Austin to be Robotic Arm by Alexey Vasilyev.

This section contains spoilers for PARTIZAN 26: Millennium Break: Breaking Vigil.
Click here to reveal.

After the conflict with Courage, Broun makes them a new body. Their new chassis is made of scrap metal and has an interior layer of mesh that clearly shows the mist inside. Instead of a mask, their face is fully in the shape of a wolf's head. They start wearing something like Anakin's black tunic in Revenge of the Sith, but with an ankle-length train in the back, and a long, billowing coat.

Personality

Valence is generally patient and careful with a strong core of faith. They are haunted by the ghosts of Past they encountered during "Obelle, On Fire". They are not accustomed to violence, but the decisions they've made on Partizan, such as the false flag they perform in Obelle, have forced them to adjust their moral code.

Drive

• Convince a Stel to become tireless defenders of the Nobel.

Scars

• Haunted
• Righteous

History and Involvement

Valence is an alien who comes from outside of the system, from a culture called The Nobel. They came to the Divine Principality because, five years before the start of PARTIZAN, something hostile came out of their side of the Partizan gate. They are meant to learn as much as they can and meet as many people as possible to figure out what happened; that's allowed them to make useful contacts as a mercenary. They were a religious scholar back home, and perceive their talents as a gift from God. Because they are from an alien culture, they are considered Adrift and have very few rights in the Principality.

Relationships

Broun

Valence and Broun are fairly close, despite Broun's prickliness.

This section contains spoilers for PARTIZAN 19: On the Edge of Fracture.
Click here to reveal.

After the mission in Orzen, Valence is repaired by Broun and reveals their gaseous form and telepathic abilities. Soon after, Broun takes them to the baths and works out how to initiate telepathic contact, despite not being a Nobel.

This section contains spoilers for PARTIZAN 38: The Red Light.
Click here to reveal.

Valence promises to help Broun leave Partizan and eventually pools all their resources to get Broun a spaceship, to Broun's shock. Unfortunately, Broun only learns that they've also been entrusted with the coordinates to the Nobel homeworld after Valence's death.

Gur Sevraq

Fellow religious scholars, Gur and Valence meet during Valence's research of the Church of the Resin Heart. Valence checks on Gur after their kidnapping using their farsight, and they see each other again during a vision sent by the True Divine. They think through the nature of faith together, and are both burdened by God's command to seek out the parts of the Exemplar.

This section contains spoilers for PARTIZAN 30: A Cemetery for Heroes.
Click here to reveal.

After Gur's fall from Icebreaker Prime, Valence grieves deeply and resolves to recover the Exemplar no matter the cost. However, they die before their task can be finished.

Beliefs

• Broun is quite dependable and competent. I hope to see them as trustworthy.
• I'm not sure why Thisbe resists her potential, but I want to open her eyes.
• Thisbe is simple and straightforward.

Bond (Kingdom)

• I feel the uncomfortable draw of the unknown from Apparatus, but must keep focus on the revolution and the way of God. An overindulgence of curiosity would sidetrack me.

Abilities

Valence is able to communicate with AI and sense the echoes of past technology. As time goes on, their powers have increased, giving them access to new abilities.

• Telepathy: Valence can freely communicate directly to a person’s mind as though speaking normally if they have previously had a revealing interaction with them. If acting as a group, this allows everyone to work together more effectively.
• Far Sight: Valence can gather information from a place and time they were not present.
• Emoji: They know the secret method to interact with an app or AI as if it was a physical being, regardless of how corrupted or rampant it appears, and are more easily able to communicate with digital entities.
• Tesla: When Valence pushes themself they can unleash a stroke of lightning as a weapon from the power grid or summon an AR storm in their immediate vicinity (swirling ads, flashing neon, heavy smog, shouting crowds, etc.) that will cause AR confusion.

Possessions

• Prognostication tools (in the form of a Nobel religious text)
• Fine stun gun

Trivia

• In the postmortem, Dre said that in a live action adaptation Valence would be voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo.
• They can eat food and sleep. They are not affected by alcohol.
• While working on "The Storm Over Cruciat" Austin made an edit of a scene between Broun and Valence with the song "MakeDamnSure" by Taking Back Sunday underneath. It can be found here.