⚠️ This article contains spoilers for Wingless in the Sky (Book 1), up to and including Act 2.
"Enlightened rule. My rule."
— Maren De Valoren
Full name: Maren De Valoren
Age: 47
Title: Empress of the Midland Realms, Patron of the Faithful, Arm of The Sovereign, Defender of the Bridge
Reign: Fifteen years
Previous status: Queen Consort to King Marius
Nicknames: "Maren the Great" (official, by her vassals); "The Widow" (by her enemies); "Mama Maren" (by common people — she is privately fond of this and has publicly jailed a few who used it for lack of reverence, not for long)
Tall and commanding, with the bearing of a woman who has spent decades ensuring that every room she enters rearranges itself around her. Maren is fully aware that presence is a skill and practises it accordingly.
She was legendarily beautiful at twenty. The kind of beauty that started duels, inspired songs, and made a king fall obsessively in love with her on sight. Pure black hair, perfect olive skin, features that people wrote poetry about. That is not quite what she is now, and she knows it precisely.
At forty-seven, Maren is still striking — high cheekbones, strong aristocratic features, dark eyes that miss nothing and give very little back. But the hair carries prominent silver streaks threading through the brunette, and the face carries lines that no amount of artistry quite erases: around the eyes, deeper around the mouth, the record of fifteen years of command and controlled worry. Her skin is Mediterranean olive, showing the softening of age. Her hands — elegant, but veined, showing fine spots — she covers with heavy jewellery whenever possible.
She dresses magnificently. Imperial purple and gold, everything tailored, heavy rings, cosmetics applied with the skill of someone who considers presentation a political instrument. It works. It also requires effort that it did not require twenty years ago, and the fact that it requires effort is, privately, one of the sharpest wounds in her daily life. She occasionally uses subtle cosmetic magic to darken her hair. She would not admit this to anyone.
The kind of woman you respect, is how people describe her now. Not the kind you write poetry about. She knows. She has decided it does not matter. Some nights she almost believes it.
"Is it true she killed King Marius on their wedding night? They say he was so bad at… you know, at that thing. So she got angry and choked him with a pillow while he slept."
Lia laughed at this when Romi proposed it, which is the correct response. The truth is less colourful and more instructive.
Maren was born to minor nobility — respectable, educated, not powerful. She was gifted from the start: a brilliant student, a talented sorceress in training, and possessed of a beauty that opened doors before her intelligence could. She caught King Marius's attention at court at twenty. He fell obsessively in love. She saw an opportunity and accepted his proposal.
She tried, initially, to be a useful queen consort. She had ideas about governance, about the economy, about the border situation. Marius was weak, given to drink, and surrounded by cronies. "Stick to looking beautiful, my dear. Leave ruling to men." She watched the kingdom deteriorate for years, dispensing advice that was dismissed and watching competent people passed over for flatterers. Then she stopped watching and started planning.
It took two years to build the coalition — generals, ministers, key merchants, people who could see what she could see and were willing to act on it. The coup, when it came, was decisive. Marius died. The throne passed to her by the Empire's own inheritance law: a woman may rule as widow of a dead king. She has ruled for fifteen years.
The male purge followed the coup. Male rivals, challengers, anyone with a plausible claim and the ambition to press it — eliminated, exiled, or neutralised. The Founding Laws are her structural problem: any able man of the royal line can challenge a widowed empress's claim. She has managed this by ensuring that no such man remains in a position to do so. Her enemies call her The Widow. They are not wrong about what she is capable of.
She is, by most measurable standards, a better ruler than her predecessor. The Empire is stable, prosperous compared to what it was, and held together with extraordinary skill across an almost impossible breadth of competing interests. Standing before the imperial map with Lia, she sweeps a finger across the western territories:
"Look at this. Twelve provincial barons here. A few allied kings scattered across the borderlands. A nomadic tribe — led by a warrior death cult, no less — in the eastern steppes. I even have a damned trading republic in the south. Can you imagine? Merchants voting on their own laws!"
She turns from the map.
"And all of them call me their Queen. I keep them from pillaging and murdering each other. Why do I succeed? Because they believe that I am the power, the order, and the justice. And they are RIGHT."
"Of course, Majesty," Lia says. "Your rule is a blessing —"
"People love doubting. Forgetting the good, complaining at every opportunity." Maren's voice hardens. "So they need constant reminders: there is only one order, and it is absolute. Enlightened rule. My rule."
She means all of it. That is the thing about Maren that takes people by surprise: she is not performing conviction. She genuinely believes that she is the best available option for the Empire and that the Empire deserves her. She may even be right. The two beliefs are not in conflict for her, which is either admirable or alarming depending on where one is standing.
Maren is brilliant, ruthless, and lonely in roughly equal measure, though she would dispute the last and would not consider it relevant to the first two.
The strategic mind is genuine and formidable — she sees twenty moves ahead, outmanoeuvred entire noble factions to take power, and has kept an improbable empire intact for fifteen years through intelligence rather than brute force. She is educated and philosophical, a patron of scholars and arts, capable of genuine intellectual engagement. Her humour runs to grim irony and dry understatement, delivered with a straight face; she laughs rarely but when genuinely surprised into it, it is real.
The ruthlessness is also genuine and she does not apologise for it. She will sacrifice individuals when the realm requires it — or when her security requires it, which she has largely stopped distinguishing. "Mercy is weakness they'll use against you" is not a pose. The exile of Domian, Lia's father, is the clearest example in Lia's world: "I took a threat to my throne. That he was your father, my kinsman — that made it harder. Not impossible." She means this too, and she tells it to Lia's face.
What she does not advertise is the constant, grinding weight of it. Every day she is managing the real possibility of a catastrophic war between the Highfolk and Deepfolk that would destroy the surface civilisation caught between them. Every day she is watching for the next challenge to her throne. She has not rested in fifteen years. The grey in her hair and the lines on her face are its record.
She takes young lovers — sailors, minor nobility, men chosen for warmth and simplicity rather than complicated thoughts or political ambitions. She is generous with them and keeps all of them at a careful distance. None last long. She wants physical comfort and the temporary illusion of being desired for herself, not her crown. She is aware of exactly what she is doing. It does not help as much as she would like.
The one exception to her emotional containment is Lia. With her niece she is warmer than with anyone else — sharper, more honest, occasionally almost vulnerable. The affection is real. So is the fact that she sent Lia to Aeloria because it served the Empire, and she did not lose sleep over it.
Romi, who has never met Maren but has thought about her, asks Lia once whether the Empress is happy. Lia considers the question seriously.
"She's the greatest ruler the Empire has had in centuries. She holds everything together through sheer force of will. Saved the country from collapse. But happy?" Lia shakes her head. "No. She's not happy."
"Why not?"
"Because she gave up everything for the Empire. Her magic. Her freedom. Any chance at real love or family. Young favourites change constantly. Everyone wants something from her. Everyone fears her." A pause. "She's grand and absolutely miserable."
This is, as far as anyone can tell, accurate.
Maren has known Lia all her life and has always watched her with a particular attention. She discovered Lia's heart magic early and suppressed all knowledge of it: "They'd probably kidnap you and experiment on you for science. Also, political disaster — their monopoly on magic is challenged. Can't have that." Pragmatic protection, stated as such, with the warmth underneath left largely implicit.
She is the closest thing to a parental figure Lia has had since Domian disappeared — more present than Amalia, more honest than the court, more genuinely interested in who Lia is. She is also the woman who exiled Lia's father and sent Lia into a dangerous situation in a foreign sky city without, ultimately, giving her a choice. Lia knows all of this and loves her anyway. Maren knows Lia knows and does not pretend otherwise. It is, in its way, the most honest relationship either of them has.
King Marius (late husband) — Fell obsessively in love with her; she saw an opportunity and married it. He is dead. She does not grieve him.
Domian (kinsman, Lia's father) — Exiled as a political threat. Word came later from the Deepfolk that he died in an underground accident. Maren does not say whether she believes this account fully.
Lia — See above. The most genuine relationship in her life, complicated by genuine affection and genuine use of the person she is fond of. This is, for Maren, simply what relationships are.
Lord Ferran (Spymaster) — Mutual assured destruction: he knows her secrets, she knows his, neither can safely betray the other. She considers this a functional arrangement.
Master Gaspar (Mage Conclave) — The most accomplished transmutation mage in the Empire, initially engaged as Lia's replacement tutor. Their relationship develops beyond the purely professional in ways that complicate matters considerably.
This article is about a Character — Major Character · Royalty
| All Characters | Character Index |
| Empress's Court | Amalia · Gaspar |
| Race | Human · The Three Races |
| Home | Maritana · The Midland Empire |
| Faction | The Midland Empire · Imperial Creed |
Browse by tag: major-character · royalty · empire · maritana