Born the second son of a minor lord, Valen had no real interest in staying at home to manage the paltry coin that came in through the few farmsteads around the pitiful keep.

On the eve of his 14th birthday Valen abandoned his family home and took up with a library closer to the city in the hopes of becoming a scholar, spending a few years studying languages and political interaction. Unfortunately his desire for knowledge simply wasn’t satisfied by the old and dusty tomes of a library. What he truly sought wasn’t the ancient history of the world, recorded for everyone. He wanted new knowledge; the secrets people keep from each other.

Unfortunately that requires money and other resources that Valen did not possess yet, so he turned to the one thing he had always been good with. Words. Even as a child he had been able to convince people of what he wanted and he turned that talent into good coin by joining a trade guild.

His uncanny ability to always get the better end of a bargain led to rapid advancement in the guild, and he even felt a sort of satisfaction from it, but never what he truly desired. Until one evening where he was approached by his guild elders, with what was at the same time the opportunity of a lifetime, and a point of no return. Declining their offer would have almost certainly spelled his end, but he never even considered it.

Since then he has traveled Archos, most often just using his own name and talents to go where he needs to be, though on occasion using other identities to avoid undue notice. Everywhere he goes he picks up new rumors, and new plots to pass up the chain of command. But like all initiates in his position he waits for the one tidbit so valuable it will boost him through the guild ranks.