Pronunciation[]
- Val Con sounds like it looks: VAL'CON (equal stress on each syllable, always together, NEVER just Val, and not like falcon.
- However, Gwince greets him in ‘Bleaker tongue as “Mr. Falcon” [1]
- yos' FELL-ee-um (not Feel)
Physical Descriptions[]
A man in his prime. Born on Liad in 1362, according to Timeline — which fits with Shan saying Val Con is thirty years old on Vandar, interdicted world. [2]
At 5’5″[3] (= 1.65 m) he’s taller than the average Liaden, which is 5 feet (= 1.52 m)[4] and a little taller than Miri:
- “He grinned at her, enjoying the sensation of looking down on someone with all the tall company around.”[5]
He’s slender but strong, his carriage smooth and easy, with dark brown hair, thick and glossy, deep-set green eyes luminous and alight, quirking straight eyebrows, lean high cheeks, pointed chin, golden skin, and a wide, generous mouth[3]
He’s left-handed
Personal Ships[]
- Shadow Drake — his scout-class vessel
- Dragon’s Way — the delm’s own ship, flown before him by his father Daav yos'Phelium. “Valcon Melad’a: Dragon’s Way, the Delm’s Own ship” [6]
- see Ships and see Clan Korval#Korval Ships section
Agent of Change[]
The Department of the Interior tortured Val Con and messed with his mind, forming him into their own puppet, an Agent of Change, with a Probability Loop.
- "A most successful Agent, Val Con yos’Phelium."[7]
His “recruitment” was a five-year program”[8]
- “The culmination — the recruitment of Korval’s young nadelm into the Department and the subsequent redesign of that same Val Con yos'Phelium into an Agent of Change.”[7]
Scout Commander Clonak ter'Meulen "fed" Val Con to the enemy:
- “Well, of course we gave you to them, Shadow! Who else did we have more likely to trump them than a first-in, pure-blood yos’Phelium scout commander? Concentrated random action. Would we waste such a weapon? Would you? [9]
Val Con ultimately led to problems for the DoI:
- “The Plan had been proceeding with few setbacks . . . until Agent of Change yos’Phelium was placed into the field.” [10]
Names, Ranks, Titles[]
Korval[]
Title: nadelm Korval, young heir to the delm, until roughly age 31
Val Con yos'Phelium Clan Korval, Korval Himself, 86th Delm of Korval, together with Miri Robertson Tiazan “half-a-delm”
Scout[]
One of the Liaden Scouts and later, the Surebleak Scouts
“The Scout” (for all the world as if there were no other) — so called by Nelirikk
“Scout Commander First-In” - adept at survival, linguistics, culture, assimilation, etc.
- “I am a generalist, I fear. Scout Commander First-In. There are not many of us which must be counted fortunate, as we are all flutter-bees, sipping nectar from every flower indiscriminately. Intuition is wanted most in a scout commander, a keen eye, a retentive memory, and being rather too stupid to die..”[13]
“Shadow” — by Scouts Clonak and Shadia, “it’s so apt a naming!” [14]
Master Pilot, as all Scouts[15]
Clutch Brother[]
Val Con was adopted into Edger’s family of Clutch Turtles:
Other Names[]
Senior Field Agent of Change in The Department of the Interior
Corvill - on planet Vandar, Zhena Trelu’s mangled pronunciation of Korval[18] [19]
Road Boss, reporting to Boss Conrad on Surebleak
- "Val Con yos’Phelium, widely held to be Boss Conrad’s little brother" [20]
Abilities[]
Val Con, like his uncle/foster father Er Thom yos'Galan, is a master of melant’i and adept at navigating complex sociocultural systems. See Liad#Sociocultural
A musician, he has a nice voice [21] and plays the omnichora like a maestro, learned from Anne Davis, his aunt/ foster mother
A natural with languages, he speaks Terran, Trade, Liaden, Bentish of Vandar, [22] Clutch,[4] some Yxtrang[23] etc.
- “How many languages do you speak?”
- “At the level at which I speak Terran — five. I know enough of nine more to ask for meat and bed. And Liaden. And Trade."[24]
Skimmer racing — see A Day at the Races
A crack shot, he favors knife-throwing and carries a uniquely efficient crystal blade given to him by Edger, whose clan makes unbreakable knives[4] (To Cut an Edge)
Fierce and very fast, highly proficient in menfri'at martial arts. Defeats the drunk berserker in The Mercs Gyrfalks unit,[25] and successfully challenges a Yxtrang, Nelirikk.[26]
He can also make predictions using a Probability Loop, somehow embedded in his brain/mind when he was an Agent of Change [27]
He is a dramliza. See below.
Dramliza Abilities[]
Gifts inherited from the many dramliz in his ancestry, and possibly from The Tree:
Slight Telekinesis[]
- “When I became halfling it was seen that I had an ability to-pick up objects — without physically touching them. Within my Clan, such abilities are not unknown. However, testing found my talent too insignificant to train...” [28]
He hasn't felt any telekinetic stirrings since he joined the The Department of the Interior. He speculates that the Probability Loop is powered by paranormal energies, used also for dreaming, musical expression, etc., none of which he's been doing in almost four years [29]
Dramliz Dampener[]
Because he is the delm genetic, Val Con’s word trumps dramliza strength in the clan.
- “It is because he is the delm genetic.” She had sighed at Priscilla’s frown, and elaborated. “Clan members cannot circumvent the Delm’s Word. He wished me to stop moving his glass—and it was so.” [30]
He blocked the illusion Shan created, of a tattooed Yxtrang in the 14th Conquest Corps.[31] He also blocked Anthora and Priscilla:
- "Recall that you were the only one of us who could curb Anthora when she was in a mood to have her way."[32]
- "You're talking dramliza talent. He can tell you no and make it stick." ......"He can do it to Priscilla, too." Anthora added helpfully.[33]
Hunch-Maker[]
Val Con’s hunches are not frequent, but they are reliable. His ability is powered by dramliz energies, and by his natural mental flow, and by his scout training. All this makes him highly intuitive, responsive to sudden compelling “hunches” —- as when he was a youth, and followed his hunch to Jeeves [34]
His wizardly gift is augmented by his training in quick deductive reasoning. As a scout generalist, he explored many fields of study broadly, learning to connect seemingly disconnected facts and make deductions across disciplines. [35] His ancestor Jela was also a generalist, a scholar-soldier-pilot (much like a scout), and highly responsive to hunches:[36]
"It was a wonderful thing to be a Generalist, Jela thought...with his horde of beguiling and related facts, and his valuable skill at putting those facts together in intriguing and uncannily correct ways"[37]
Val Con can also predict mission success or failure, using a mental Probability Loop. However, the Loop might not aid his hunch-making… unclear
Kin[]
Born on Liad at Jelaza Kazone in the valley outside Solcintra, and also raised at Trealla Fantrol
- Miri Robertson — lifemate, delmae, former sergeant in The Mercs
- Talizea yos'Phelium — daughter, delm-in-diapers / nadelm, aspiring young pilot
- Daav yos'Phelium — his father, 85th Delm, aka scholar Jen Sar Kiladi
- Aelliana Caylon — his mother, 85th Delmae
- Shan yos'Galan - his cha'leket and foster brother
- Theo Waitley - half-sister, daughter of Kamele Waitley and Jen Sar Kiladi
- Rys Lin pen'Chala, freed Agent of the DoI
- see Korval Kin for complete list, including adopted and/or “Seen”
House Staff[]
His Events, All Spoilers[]
Born in 1362 according to Timeline. Shan says that Val Con is 30 yrs old when he’s on planet Vandar. [38]
Spoilers for all the books below
- Val Con's mother Aelliana Caylon died after eight happy years with Daav [39]. She was killed while protecting Daav from a Terran assassin — who was manipulated into the hit by The Department of the Interior[40]
- His father left Liad to balance Aelliana's death and Val Con was raised by his uncle Er Thom yos'Galan and aunt Anne Davis with his cousins Shan, Nova, and Anthora at Trealla Fantrol
- Val Con joined The Scouts and achieved the rank of Scout Commander, with a First-In certification allowing first contact. See To Cut an Edge for his Scout solo assessment.
- Recruited by The Department of the Interior as part of their long-term plan to minimize the threat of Clan Korval, he became one of their most valued agents of change (read: spy and assassin).
- He has always had 'hunches' and the Department of the Interior added an 'odds calculator' / Probability Loop
- Val Con meets (saves?) Miri Robertson from Juntavas thugs but is knocked out. She rescues him in exchange and he convinces her that they have a better chance of escaping the planet if they join forces.
- Val Con wins his mind free of The Department of the Interior, with help from Miri and the L’akalepa dance “Accepting the Lance” he learned from Clutch Turtles.
- Miri and he become lifemates on Vandar, an interdicted non-space-faring planet[41]
- Challenges Nelirikk Explorer, a Yxtrang, to hand-to-hand combat, and accepted his oath to himself, his lifemate, and Line yos'Phelium
- Because of the lifemating, Val Con and Miri together comprise Delm Korval.
- Together, the Delm leads Clan Korval into battle against The Department of the Interior on Liad
- Moved Clan Korval to Surebleak and became joint Road Boss with Miri[42]
- Val Con and Miri now have a daughter Talizea / Lizzie, who Theo foresaw would be a pilot.[43]
- And see his clan’s numerous battles with the DOI, at The Department of the Interior#Timeline of Attacks
References[]
- ↑ Dragon in Exile, ch 24
- ↑ Carpe Diem, Dutiful Passage, ch 3 in audible
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Agent of Change, chapter 8
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 To Cut an Edge
- ↑ Agent of Change chapter 5
- ↑ Glossary / appendix in Crystal Variation
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Plan B, ch 1, Liad
- ↑ Carpe Diem, Liad
- ↑ I Dare, SY 1393 Day 50 Lytaxin Erob’s Clanhouse & Gardens
- ↑ Trader’s Leap ch 6 Tarona Rusk Auxiliary Services
- ↑ Carpe Diem, Vandar, Springbreze Farm (ch 29 in audible)
- ↑ Dragon in Exile, ch 37
- ↑ Neogenesis, ch 52 in audiobook format
- ↑ I Dare; LYTAXIN: Erob’s Clanhouse
- ↑ Plan B, chapter 6, Lytaxin, Erob's Clanhouse
- ↑ Carpe Diem, ch 7
- ↑ I Dare; LYTAXIN: Erob’s Clanhouse
- ↑ Carpe Diem
- ↑ Prodigal Son
- ↑ Accepting the Lance Surebleak Port Portmaster’s Office
- ↑ Carpe Diem, Winterfair
- ↑ Carpe Diem
- ↑ Agent of Change chapters 25-26
- ↑ Agent of Change, chapter 20
- ↑ Agent of Change chapter 14
- ↑ Plan B
- ↑ Agent of Change
- ↑ Agent of Change, chapter 19
- ↑ Agent of Change, chapter 19
- ↑ Trader’s Leap, Dutiful Passage Millsap Orbit
- ↑ Plan B, Lytaxin
- ↑ Plan B, Erob's Boundary: Warzone / chapter 30
- ↑ I Dare, Solcintra, Liad
- ↑ Intelligent Design
- ↑ Neogenesis
- ↑ Crystal Dragon, ch 11
- ↑ Crystal Soldier, ch 15
- ↑ Carpe Diem, Dutiful Passage, ch 3 in audible
- ↑ Neogenesis
- ↑ I Dare
- ↑ Carpe Diem
- ↑ Ghost Ship
- ↑ Ghost Ship