Vernon Lochan

The uncle who sold his own blood for a share of Erawan's power.

He murdered his brother for Perranth, kept the niece chained in a tower for years, then handed her to Morath to be bred with a Valg demon.

The title he stole

Vernon Lochan became Lord of Perranth the way small men become lords — over a brother's body and a child's inheritance. With Elide's father dead the title should have fallen to her; instead it fell to him, and he kept the rightful heir shut in a tower with a chained, ruined ankle so she'd never walk out to take it back. He didn't have to kill the girl. He only had to make sure the world forgot she existed.

Loyal to whoever's winning

Loyalty, for Vernon, was only ever a currency — spent on whoever happened to be winning. He bound himself to Adarlan while Adarlan looked unbeatable, then to Morath once the real power settled there, trailing Erawan the way a man trails the heat of a bigger fire. There was never a cause underneath it, only the side that would let him keep the seat he'd stolen.

The niece he traded

When Vernon finally spent Elide, he spent her the way he spent everything. He carried his own niece into Morath and offered her up to the Valg and the breeding towers — to be broken open and remade into something far worse than herself. To him she had never been kin, and never been a person. She was an asset he'd been holding in reserve.

A seat never his

For all his scheming, Vernon was never powerful — only near power, close enough to mistake its warmth for his own. He sold his blood and his kingdom not for a throne or a god, but for a place at a table that was never going to have room for him. That is the whole of him: a grasping little lord who traded everything he had for proximity, and learned in the end exactly what proximity to Erawan is worth. The smallest kind of monster — the one who does it for the seat.

His reckoning.

His reckoning

The niece he caged now holds Perranth — the title he killed for.

Swipe to meet them all

Elide Lochan His brother's daughterElide LochanShe escaped the tower, survived Morath, and became Lady of Perranth in her own right.Enter Elide Lochan →

We're Caffeine and Curses. The Library started as my design research — I can't put Manon on a shirt without knowing which way the iron teeth snap — so we keep the notes here where everyone can use them. The pages are fan-made, not official; the licensed designs are in the shop.

Officially licensed