diff --git a/projects/crimson-vows/staging/polished/character-state-ch-10-final.md b/projects/crimson-vows/staging/polished/character-state-ch-10-final.md
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--- a/projects/crimson-vows/staging/polished/character-state-ch-10-final.md
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@@ -1,40 +1,60 @@
 # Character State: ch-10
 
-## Queen Seraphine
-- **Location:** The Hearth of the World, Crimson Cathedral.
-- **Physical:** Fully restored. The "Silvering" and stone-graft necrosis have been purged by the solar alignment; her skin is warm, and her eyes have lost the predatory hemomantic glow, replaced by a clear, natural hue.
-- **Emotional:** Transcendent Peace. The architectural burden of the crown has dissolved into a shared vitality. She experiences a profound sense of liberation and a newfound capacity for genuine intimacy.
-- **Active Obligations:** Owes Aldric a lifetime of partnership and shared rule — **UNPAID**.
-- **Open Loops:** Seraphine/Vespera psychic struggle — **RESOLVED** (Vespera’s shadow was incinerated by the dawn).
-- **Known Secrets:** None; the soul-merge with Aldric has rendered her internal state completely transparent to him.
-- **Arc:** 100% — She has transitioned from the "Architect of Order" to a co-creator of a living era.
+## Isabella Voss
+Location: The Great Hall floor, Blackthorn Keep.
+Physical: Extreme hemomantic exhaustion; collapsed. Fresh palm lacerations and severe hemomantic scarring on arms are visible as her finery is torn.
+Emotional: Vindicated, regal, and hyper-focused on Damien.
+Active obligations:
+- Protection of Nightbloom survivors — UNPAID
+- Life-debt to Damien Blackthorn — UNPAID
+Open loops:
+- Legal legitimacy of her "Blood-Sovereignty" claim under Coven Law.
+- Status of the "unmarked vessel" trial.
+- Immediate physical recovery from the "Song of Thorns" backlash.
+Secrets:
+- Carried: Can channel the Nightbloom collective consciousness without a Matriarch.
+- Carried: Blood-sharing with Damien has permanently bypassed treaty protections.
+Arc: 90% — Legitimized her rebellion. She has shifted from an asset to be traded into a sovereign ruler who destroyed the very mechanism of her enslavement.
 
-## King Aldric
-- **Location:** The Hearth of the World, Crimson Cathedral.
-- **Physical:** Fully healed. The crystallization of his leg has vanished; the death-like pallor of the blood-bind is replaced by healthy color and rhythmic breathing.
-- **Emotional:** Sovereign Contentment. His "martyrdom complex" has been broken by the realization that the burden is shared; he no longer feels the pressure of the "Gilded Cage."
-- **Active Obligations:** Owes the Archivists and the people a new era — **PAID** (The Rites of Dissolution were subverted to end the Eclipse).
-- **Open Loops:** Aldric/Malcorra theological confrontation — **RESOLVED**.
-- **Known Secrets:** Location of the true Valerius Seal — **REVEALED** to Seraphine via the soul-merge.
-- **Arc:** 100% — He has traded isolated sacrifice for the strength of a shared throne.
+## Damien Blackthorn
+Location: Kneeling on the Great Hall floor, shielding Isabella.
+Physical: Stained with Isabella’s blood; suffering minor feedback lacerations from the ritual’s explosion.
+Emotional: Fanatically devoted; defiant. He has accepted his role as the "Martial Enforcer" of a new order.
+Active obligations:
+- Isabella’s protection — UNPAID
+- Defiance of House Blackthorn succession — IN PROGRESS
+Open loops:
+- Impending duel/confrontation with Lord Malphas for Coven leadership.
+- Managing the retreat of the Nightbloom refugees.
+Secrets:
+- Carried: Prepared to commit patricide to protect the new union.
+- Carried: Isabella’s intentional bloodletting is the battery for their combined power.
+Arc: 85% — Fully severed ties with his father’s law. He no longer seeks approval, only Isabella’s survival.
 
-## High Priestess Malcorra
-- **Status:** **DECEASED**.
-- **Cause:** Consumed by the solar flare within the Cathedral when the Rites of Dissolution were inverted. Her "vessel" was reduced to ash.
-- **Legacy:** Her death signals the absolute end of the Sanguine Vow’s theological tyranny.
+## Lord Malphas Blackthorn
+Location: The High Dais, Blackthorn Keep.
+Physical: Trembling with suppressed rage; otherwise uninjured.
+Emotional: Predatory calculation; humiliated by the public shattering of the Binding.
+Open loops:
+- Initiation of a Heresy Trial against Isabella and Damien.
+- Order to seal the Keep to prevent the Nightbloom Exodus.
+Arc: 80% — Lost legal control; has transitioned from a tethered tyrant to a desperate, unhinged predator.
 
 # World State: ch-10
 
 ## NPC Memory
-- **The Inquisitorial Hounds:** **EXTERMINATED**. Dissolved into ash by the first true sunrise.
-- **The Lowen-Court Nobility:** **STUNNED/SUBMISSIVE**. Their leverage—the hoarding of blood-tithes—is gone now that the sun has returned. They look toward the Cathedral in terror and awe.
+- High Priest Malakor: Paralyzed by religious terror. He witnessed the "divine" Binding Stones shatter, voiding his spiritual authority.
+- Blackthorn Guards: Hesitant. The sight of Damien defending Isabella has caused a schism in martial loyalty.
 
 ## Faction Attitudes
-- **The Crimson Cathedral:** **COLLAPSED**. Physically intact but spiritually vacant; leadership is dead, and the dogmatic blood-logic has been rewritten by light.
-- **The Lowen-Court:** **VULNERABLE**. Forced to adapt to a world where "Blood Sovereignty" no longer dictates survival.
+- Nightbloom Coven: EXALTANT. The "Song of Thorns" has returned to them; they are a unified insurgent force ready to move.
+- Blackthorn Council: FRACTURED. The loss of the Annexation Treaty assets has created a power vacuum and panic.
 
 ## Active World Events
-- **The Eternal Eclipse:** **ENDED**. The sun has returned to a natural, healthy cycle for the first time in centuries.
-- **The Necrotic Drift:** **PURGED**. The obsidian spores and blight-mists have been incinerated by the solar alignment.
-- **The First Dawn:** **ACTIVE**. A permanent biological shift has occurred in the Thorne and Valerius bloodlines; the "parasitic" nature of their magic has been neutralized.
-- **The New Covenant:** **INITIATED**. A governance based on shared vitality rather than extracted blood-tithes.
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+- The Sovereign Breach: COMPLETE. The Great Binding ritual is destroyed. All previous blood-annexation treaties are functionally void.
+- The Nightbloom Exodus: IN PROGRESS. The retreat from the Keep into the frozen outskirts has begun.
+- The Heresy Declaration: PENDING. Malphas is preparing to declare the union a violation of ancient Coven Law.
+
+## Key Canon Notes
+- The "Song of Thorns" is now a living archive within Isabella.
+- The Great Hall is physically scarred by ethereal brambles, marking it as contested territory.
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