What do you mean 'dragon hearts aren't a balanced breakfast?'

The son of Hoarah Loux and a woman formerly of the Grand Caravan known as Saira, Vaeltan was born in the Badlands outside the Lands Between. His mother had floated between different territories for years as a loner, and, though her tryst with Hoarah Loux was short, it was neither a secret that it was going on in the first place nor that she became pregnant as a result.

Initially, his mother was welcomed among the tribe with open arms, both her and the remnants of the Great March being outcasts sticking together. But, after she suddenly announced that her and Hoarah Loux’s son had been stillborn, she all but disappeared and a strange string of other disappearances began to plague the tribe.

Worst fears were confirmed one day when the missing people were found, their eyeless and near-lifeless husks contorted into a crucible to hold a budding Frenzied Flame, Saira meticulously tending to it.

The flame was snuffed and the surviving tribe cursed her name, not understanding that, in truth, it was she who had died in childbirth. Upon her death, something or someone else had begun to puppet her corpse, constructing the crucible and tending to her and Hoarah Loux’s son.

Those who had found the crucible also found a toddler, tightly blindfolded and extremely malnourished, sleeping in a corner of Saira’s former dwelling. At Hoarah Loux’s demand, this child, his son, was spared and brought reluctantly into the tribe’s fold.

The tribe’s last impressions of his mother soured their first impressions of her son, despite the other half of his parentage. Vaeltan was nameless for the first years of his life. Rumors abound that he was given a name by his mother similar to her own, but the few who agreed to care for him refused to address him by any sort of name. It would be years before he chose the name ‘Vaeltan’ for himself.

Once he was better able to fend for himself he was kept at axe’s length, and allowed to live only on the fringes of the tribe’s territory. There, he carved out a meagre existence, raising himself while also attempting to survive the harsh environment. But, survive he did.

And, not without help. As the years went on, Hoarah Loux had another child, Nepheli, who didn’t listen to the things whispered about the ‘feral, cursed son living on the fringes.’ Knowing he was her half-brother (something that was no secret), she sought him out, finding him wan and sickly. He was, of course, intensely distrusting of and even hostile towards her at first, but after several offerings of food, he warmed up to her.

From the angry and bitter loner who flinched every time anyone got within arm’s reach of him, a surprisingly kind young man emerged, one who desperately yearned for a connection with his family and tribe. Nepheli, in reaching out, befriending him, and treating him not just as a person but as a brother, effectively saved him.

With Nepheli’s encouragement, he would make a tenuous connection with the rest of the tribe, and was employed as a gatherer and scout for several years. His death would come the same day as Hoarah Loux’s death, when the tribe was attacked by a rag-tag army of frenzyflame-wielding raiders. He made his last stand defending the few survivors of the attack (Nepheli among them), earning himself a Hero’s sky-burial.

The call of long-lost grace, however, would kick him back to life.

Fun(?) facts:

Vaeltan went mysteriously and quickly bald (actually a case of autoimmune alopecia totalis) in his early teens, and became unable to grow anything beyond very sparse stubble, to his dismay. Since then, he’s obsessively hidden his head under hoods, scarves, and helmets. Ironically, his alopecia comes from his father’s side of the family (who would’ve thought, given that ol’ Dadfrey Loux has as much hair as he does). Headcanon time: Mohg is also hairless/bald for the same reason and became so in his own teenage years. Before going bald, Vaeltan had very thin and wispy platinum blond hair.

He’s the shortest and smallest adult in his immediate blood family, by far. Younger half-sister Nepheli? She’s nearly a foot taller. Older half-brothers Morg, Mohg, and Godwyn? Twice as tall. Dadfrey Loux? Vae fits easily in one of his hands. Even his mother was taller than him. All jokes and memes aside, he was incredibly malnourished as a child (the, uh, particular entity puppeting his mother’s corpse after his birth fed him mostly grapes) and his growth was stunted as a result.

He has awful Madness and Sleep resistances. Like, barely any.

Getting stabbed in the chest by Morgott’s blood sword during their duel at the Elden Throne prior to reconciling cursed (blessed? Blursed?) him with Omenhood and all the horns, nightmares, and pyrophoric blood that comes with it. When his horns eventually do sprout, they’re are extremely brittle due to his alopecia. His nightmares, which began immediately, often feature people with their heads replaced with roiling spheres of yellow flame. What makes his situation particularly uncertain is that he’s simultaneously fighting impending communion-based devolution into a wyrm at that point. Who know what will happen and when?