Backstory

Othelia Valerius, publically known as 'Madame V,' is the proprietor of The Crown and Scepter in the elite Dagger Hill district of Ironhold . Born to a minor noble family that collapsed under the economic weight of the post-Civil War reconstruction, Athelia's life has been defined by a series of quiet devastations—failed marriages, lost fortunes, and the erosion of her youthful idealism, which she refers to as her 'Graveyard of Personal Failures.'

Despite her cynical internal monologue, she maintains the persona of the boisterous and welcoming Madame V, creating an atmosphere of 'Cozy Chaos' for the bohemian elite. She purchased the establishment decades ago, drawn to it by a strange, subconscious pull. She discovered the secret of the basement—the 'Scepter,' a dormant Bukhara Spire Gateway—shortly after moving in. Rather than fleeing, she stayed, sensing that the leaking planar magic needed a warden. She enforces the 'Silver Only' policy not just for snobbery, but because silver acts as a weak conductor to ground the errant magical sparks the gateway emits.

She lives in constant fear that the new wave of adversaries rising in Coia will sense the gateway beneath her floorboards. She plays the role of the frivolous hostess, the 'Open Door' to Ironhold 's night life, to distract from the fact that she is sitting on a loaded gun pointed at the city's head.