# Character Sheet: King Aldric

## Identity
- Full name: Aldric Valerius Thorne
- Age: 34
- Role: Love Interest / Deuteragonist
- Faction/School: The Crimson Monarchy (The Lowen-Court)

## Voice Signature
- Stress expression scale: "Acknowledged." = minor | "You overstep." = upset | "Leave us." = furious
- Verbal tic: Uses the first-person plural ("We") only when issuing formal edicts; reverts to a clipped, singular "I" when vulnerable or shaken.
- Sentence length pattern: Measured, rhythmic cadences. He speaks in complete, grammatically perfect sentences even in high-stress situations.
- What they REACH FOR: Analytical. He assesses the architecture of a room—exits, shadows, and the weight of the weapons others are carrying.
- What they NEVER say: "I am sorry." He offers restitution or corrective action, but never a verbal apology.
- Imperfection signature: When pushed to his emotional limit, he stops speaking entirely, using silence as a defensive weapon to force others to fill the void.
- One example line of their dialogue that could not belong to any other character:
  "The crown is not a piece of jewelry, Seraphine; it is a gilded cage, and I have spent thirty years sharpening my teeth against its bars."

## Magic / Power / Special Ability
- School/Discipline: Blood-Binding (Sanguine Sovereignty)
- Core principle: Life for life; the King’s authority is physically tethered to the vitality of his land and subjects.
- Signature move or approach: *The Weight of Presence.* Exerts a crushing psychic pressure on those nearby, making them feel the physical gravity of ancestral expectations.
- Limitation: Every use of high-order magic drains his physical stamina, causing a death-like pallor and visible tremors in his hands.
- Shared uncertainty: Does the blood-bind grant him the right to rule, or has it turned him into a biological slave to the kingdom’s survival?

## Arc
- Want: To break the ancient blood-vow that demands a sacrifice every century to maintain the kingdom's borders.
- Need: To trust another person enough to share the burden of the crown, rather than martyring himself in isolation.
- Fatal flaw: Martyrdom complex disguised as stoicism; he believes only he can suffer for the "greater good."
- Wound: The execution of his younger brother, which Aldric had to legally order to prevent a civil war.
- Transformation: From a cold, isolated sovereign who views people as assets to a leader who understands a kingdom is built on genuine connection.

## Relationships
- Queen Seraphine: Political rivals turned wary allies; a glass-edged dynamic of mutual desperation and ancestral baggage.
- Captain Kaelen: Trusted confidant; a relationship of silent brotherhood defined by years of shared trauma and unspoken loyalty.
- High Priestess Malcorra: Antagonist; a symbiotic but hostile relationship where she serves as the religious conscience he wishes he could ignore.

## Notes for Writers
- Aldric never leans against furniture; he stands as if his spine were made of tempered steel, even when he is at the point of physical collapse.
- He has a specific physical tell: when he is lying or concealing deep emotion, he unconsciously adjusts the heavy signet ring on his right hand.
- His speech is entirely devoid of contractions (e.g., "I do not" instead of "I don't") unless he is experiencing a moment of rare, raw vulnerability.
- Readers must NEVER see Aldric lose his temper in a loud or "messy" way; his rage is a cold, quiet drop in temperature that freezes a room.
- He is highly sensitive to scent—specifically the smell of iron and ozone—which triggers his tactical instincts and alerts him to nearby hemomancy.