#alcassin

Personally, I see their relationship as being on pause while he goes off to found his mercenary group (RIP Astartia Werserian). The Kasballica being the ascendant faction of the Expanse by the endgame proper and the Corsair!Yrliet "Alaitoc war" ending half a century later certainly gives Marazhai plenty of opportunity to find work. His mercenary group is one of the best in the Expanse by the end half of the war and only then does he come back to Casimira. Of course when they are back together they're never apart for more than a few years at most, in part because one of the convenient things about him being a famous mercenary captain and her being a Rogue Trader is that they always have a plausible excuse to be around each other whenever they want. Their relationship is never public knowledge, but it's not necessarily a heavily guarded secret either. Those outside their immediate circle who do know are (usually) smart enough to keep their mouths shut about it.

“The Young Master von Valancius” (YM) is born roughly a century or so post-game, after the war with Alaitoc. He was an unexpected solution to a long-standing problem, ie, “Casimira not having an heir” and “it being difficult to find suitors willing to compete with a Drukhari.” YM is officially Cas' son only, although anyone close enough to her and/or Marazhai could put 2 and 2 together relatively easily, he's an even mix of both of them. However, as far as polite society is concerned, YM is a Genetor baby with an unstable genetic code that led to some mutations, but is otherwise, fully human. It also helps that Cas' features were more dominant when he was an infant, thus any official Public Space Christenings and the like could go off without much trouble (so long as a cap stayed on his head). For the most part, the mutant facade holds into adulthood, although when among the Aeldari he can be taken for a short Asuryani, but only at a distance, his eyes give him away (too human, too hungry looking).

As he grows up, YM does develop a love-hate relationship with being Casimira's heir, given that he is half-xenos and being set to rule over a giant population of humans. Firstly, he deals with this by holding a very idealized view of his parents, i.e., they are exceptional, therefore he is too, and as follows, anyone who doesn't see that he's special must be stupid and not worth his consideration. This inflated sense of himself and his place in the Expanse is helped along by the fact that he identifies himself as Drukhari first, and internalizes quite a bit of Marazhai’s “True Aeldari” bullshit (can YM call himself Trueborn though? debate of the century: 17k dead, 563k injured). Of course, as the child of a former Dracon and a Rogue Trader, he also sits at that unfortunate intersection between “incredibly spoiled” and “weighed down by immense expectations'' that tends to make him a very difficult person to be around to put it kindly. Marazhai is usually the easier parent to please, given that he and YM enjoy much of the same violent pastimes. Cas is the parent he tends to come into conflict with more, and much of his acting out specifically manifests as avoidance, especially towards complicated or tedious tasks he feels should be beneath him. Unfortunately for YM, his mother is very strict about him actually being a competent Rogue Trader, and thus the Most Special Heir does, in fact, have to come down off his pedestal and learn how to file his own administratum paperwork and the like.

Other YM Tidbits that I'll List for Speed

(Mostly canon for him so far/Stuff I haven't previously mentioned)

Soul quality-wise YM isn't two feet from Slaanesh's jaws the way most Aeldari are. But his soul is stained in a similar but stronger way as his mother's. He doesn't need it to live, but a general appetite for suffering is just a part of his being and something he has to deal with. Also, realspace doesn't affect him, but Warp incursions definitely do. Although the effect isn't as strong as Marazhai or Yrliet would feel, it's still enough to be a problem that keeps him from being fully "present" during frequent/consecutive Warp travel without some kind of coping mechanism (usually murder).

There are four Werserians that he's raised alongside as a child. They are all close as siblings and he is loyal to them secondary only to his loyalty to his parents. He will occasionally even take their advice before anyone else’s, which is good because they're a lot more sensible and levelheaded than he is. But also, that Werserian strong moral fiber tends to come into conflict with the fact that YM is very much a product of his parents and thus can be very reckless with other people and hard to accept fault when his pride is hurt. This may or may not get one of them killed at some point.

Despite the fact that YM considers himself to be Drukhari, Commorite culture doesn't interest him that much, mostly because he understands he would not be welcome there. However, he does hold an intense fascination for Casimira’s home planet and Ashleen culture. Iocanthos sits in his head as Human!Commorragh, and therefore is probably one of the best human worlds by his limited estimate. The fact that Iocanthos is a place he will never see, with relatives he'll never meet, and only exists in his mom’s (rose colored) stories about it also adds to the romanticism of the place with very little opportunity for it to disappoint him. Unlike the human planets and populations of the Koronus Expanse, who he encounters every day, and who largely suck (Foulstone and Kiava Gamma especially).