Vera Raekin
Vera Raekin is an undead military officer in the Twilight Throne who rises from training officer to senior general and a seat on the Shadow Council. Blunt and no-nonsense, she earns respect from undead and player soldiers alike through demonstrated competence, taking charge of reinforcement operations, conquest campaigns, and troop readiness while mentoring subordinates like Frank through the moral weight of command. Gruff but reliable, she becomes one of the Twilight Throne’s most trusted and capable military authorities.
Book 3: Evolution
Vera Raekin is a training officer in the Twilight Throne’s undead military who takes charge of drilling incoming recruits, running the training grounds with blunt professionalism; though openly unimpressed by their competence, she earns respect from both undead and player soldiers, including Jason, whom she reminds of Rex. She later coordinates reinforcement operations for the Twilight Throne, leading forces that secure access to a city and overseeing captured prisoners, while critiquing Frank’s combat form in the aftermath of a fight and maintaining discipline even in casual moments. Afterward she takes charge of investigating a wave of attacks on the border settlements of Sibald and Vaerwald, one of which is burned to ash, and reports her findings directly to Jason and the Shadow Council, having by this point become a senior military authority operating with considerable independent command.
Status: Undead — newly assigned training officer → Undead — senior military commander reporting to Jason and the Shadow Council
Jason: Vera moves from a newly arrived training officer earning Jason’s cautious respect to a trusted field commander who leads forces on his behalf and reports her findings directly to him.
Key quote: “Now that was fun to watch. You have some speed, boy, but your form was sloppy.”
Book 4: Dominion
Vera joins the Shadow Council as Rex’s replacement and is assigned as the Twilight Throne’s military commander, tasked with leading conquest expeditions against nearby towns and villages. Assessing a town’s defenses before an attack, she flags the dilapidated southern quarter as a tactical problem because it offers too many hiding places for defenders.
Leading a mission to track Wraithlings back to their lair, she mentors Frank on how to cope with the mission’s moral weight, including the Kin ritual of taking a finger from fallen comrades for possible soul preservation; she tells him the ritual’s truth matters less than the troops’ belief in it, since that belief keeps them sane given the risks they face. Investigating a larger-than-normal Wraithling nest, she demonstrates for the first time an overwhelming level of personal combat skill, and identifies that nests can spontaneously spawn creatures of varying types; she grows concerned that this nest has been artificially enhanced, threatening the region’s undead ecosystem balance. Advising Frank ahead of an assault on the village of Fastu, she recommends attacking while its defenders sleep to keep Kin casualties low, continuing to guide his tactical decisions without overriding his authority. When Jason manifests over Fastu atop a massive obsidian spire, Vera reacts with alert composure rather than panic, immediately trying to assess whether the phenomenon is a threat.
After a subsequent village is taken, Vera surveys the wreckage without visible distress and takes on the survivor interactions that Frank finds too difficult to handle himself, using dark humor to describe villagers who resisted with rusty swords and a skillet. As the conquest campaign continues, she checks in on whether Frank feels ready to face an opponent alone, having grown numb to the destruction around her while still watching out for his development; by this point she is openly hostile toward the native undead and, by extension, toward Alexion. Following the Twilight Throne’s heavy losses in the later siege, Vera is left managing a severely depleted military, stretching insufficient troops to cover trade-route protection and border security while reporting bluntly to Jason and the council that their forces are already spread thin.
Status: Undead — newly assigned Shadow Council military commander, assessing and commanding conquest operations → Undead — senior military commander managing a depleted, overstretched force after heavy losses
Frank: Starts as a newly assigned commander building a working relationship with Frank and grows into his tactical mentor and emotional backstop, handling the survivor interactions and moral weight he cannot.
Jason: Moves from a new council member under Jason’s strategic direction to a trusted senior military advisor managing his depleted forces after the siege.
Key quote: “It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that they believe it. These little rituals keep us sane given the risks we face.”
Book 5: Hellion
Vera appears briefly among the Shadow Council, questioning the practicality and timeline of a risky mission while maintaining her focus on military readiness; despite her skepticism, she accepts the orders given.
Key quote: “Well, shit.”