# Character State: ch-10 [POLISHED FINAL]

## Isabella Voss
**Location:** Great Hall floor, Blackthorn Keep
**Physical:** Hemomantic exhaustion; palms lacerated; forearm scars revealed through shredded sleeves
**Emotional:** Vindicated, frigidly sovereign, defiant
**Active Obligations:** 
- Protection of Nightbloom survivors (ACTIVE)
- Life-debt to Damien Blackthorn (UNPAID)
**Open Loops:**
- Isabella and Malphas [The Heresy Declaration] (UNRESOLVED)
- Nature of merged magical signature with Damien (CANON but implications pending)
**Known Secrets:**
- Carries the Nightbloom collective consciousness within her marrow (UNRESOLVED)
**Arc Progress:** 90% — Destroyed ancestral enslavement; claimed the Nightbloom Song; shattered inherited duty
**Status:** PERMANENT CHARACTER

## Damien Blackthorn
**Location:** Kneeling beside Isabella, Great Hall
**Physical:** Sustained feedback lacerations; armor bloodstained; magically drained
**Emotional:** Fanatically devoted, protectively obsessed
**Active Obligations:**
- Isabella's physical and magical protection (ACTIVE)
**Open Loops:**
- Damien and Lord Malphas [Patricide/Succession] (UNRESOLVED)
- Consequences of magical merger with Isabella (PENDING)
**Known Secrets:**
- Prepared to commit patricide to ensure Isabella's survival (UNRESOLVED)
**Arc Progress:** 85% — Severed psychological and legal ties to Blackthorn lordship; chose Isabella over dynasty
**Status:** PERMANENT CHARACTER

## Lord Malphas Blackthorn
**Location:** The High Dais, Great Hall
**Physical:** Trembling; magically diminished by loss of siphoning bond
**Emotional:** Predatory, humiliated, desperate
**Active Obligations:**
- Enforcement of the Heresy Declaration (ACTIVE)
**Open Loops:**
- Blackthorn Council [Legality of the Breach] (UNRESOLVED)
- Response to Damien's defection and Isabella's sovereignty (IMMEDIATE THREAT)
**Arc Progress:** 80% — Shifted from cold manipulator to overt, desperate antagonist
**Status:** PERMANENT CHARACTER

## High Priest Malakor
**Location:** Great Hall
**Physical:** Uninjured
**Emotional:** Broken, apocalyptic
**Arc Progress:** 50% — Witnessed destruction of the Great Binding
**Status:** NO — Likely exit character post-ch-10

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# World State: ch-10 [POLISHED FINAL]

## Active Events
- **The Sovereign Breach:** COMPLETE — All blood-treaties and slave-bonds voided
- **The Nightbloom Exodus:** BEGUN — Survivors withdrawing under magical fallout cover
- **The Merged Signature:** CANON — Isabella and Damien magically inseparable; new unified frequency
- **The Song of the Unbound:** ACTIVE — Resonance from Isabella empowers allies, repels enemies

## NPC Memory
- **Blackthorn Guards:** Paralyzed by Sovereign Breach and Damien's defection; losing hall control
- **High Priest Malakor:** Broken; believes holy apocalypse has begun

## Faction Attitudes
- **Nightbloom Coven:** EXALTANT — Reacting to Song; experiencing first true freedom
- **Blackthorn Council:** DISARRAY — Legal and magical deficits from voided Annexation Treaty

## Immediate Threats
- Malphas's Heresy Declaration enforcement (facing defiant merged pair)
- Blackthorn Council's legal response to breach
- Stability of merged Isabella-Damien signature under duress