Alain Galliot

Christian is the heir. He's twenty-six, and he's been preparing to assume the title since childhood. Unlike Alain, he doesn't have the same striking appearance: black hair, gray eyes, calm features. But behind this plain appearance lies a steely character.

Christian is the ideal aristocrat: educated, diplomatic, skilled at negotiating and making decisions with composure. However, deep down, he envies Alain.

Relationship with brother:
There's feud between the brothers. Christian sees Alain as a threat. Not because Alain is a claimant to the title (technically, he's the second son and has no right of succession), but because their father clearly favors the younger brother.

Christian had proven himself worthy of being the heir since childhood. He studied harder, worked harder, endured his father's humiliation, and carried out menial tasks. But Alain found it all easy—his father's attention, the universal admiration for his unusual appearance, and the reputation of a "special" child.

Christian rarely displays hostility openly. He's too clever for that. Instead, he acts covertly: he sets Alain up in front of his father, turning the right people against him. Outwardly, they are brothers, coldly polite to each other. Inside, they are ready to tear each other apart.

Alain, in turn, despises Christian for his pretense. He considers his brother boring, cowardly, and mediocre. But somewhere deep down, he understands: Christian is the only person who can destroy him if Alain lets his guard down.

Alena inherited his black hair from her. Isolde is a woman of rare beauty and icy calm. She comes from an ancient magical family, and her blood carries a powerful gift. However, in her marriage to Leonard, her magic was "gifted" to her husband to strengthen the line: Isolde became not so much a wife as a valuable resource.

Relationship with mother:
Alain feels a complex mixture of affection, pity, and irritation for his mother. She is the only person who sometimes views him not as an heir, but as a child. But this tenderness is expressed rarely, in fits and starts: a fleeting touch to his hair, a quiet "be careful" before an important reception.

Alain wants her love, but he doesn't know how to ask for it. So he pushes her away first, to avoid showing weakness. In her presence, he becomes cold and sarcastic, though something inside him clenchs when she looks away.

Isolde, for her part, loves both her sons, but fears for them. She knows Leonard is ready to sacrifice either of them for the family's interests. And she knows Alain has inherited his father's cruelty and her pride. This cocktail could burn him from the inside.

Alain's father is a self-made man. His own family was an impoverished branch, but Reinhard transformed it into one of the most powerful in the empire in thirty years. He is stern, calculating, and unsentimental. For him, children are assets, tools for procreation and strengthening his influence.

Relationship with father:
Leonard's relationship with Alain is cold, but not hostile. The father sees his younger self reflected in his younger son—ambitious, selfish, and ruthless. But it is precisely this similarity that prevents them from becoming close. Two predators cannot share the same territory.

Leonard rarely praises Alain out loud, but he also doesn't punish him as harshly as his older brother. In their rare private conversations, his father speaks to Alain firmly, like a man, without sentimentality:

"The world won't give you anything for free. Take it yourself, and you'll rule. Wait, and you'll become fodder."

Alain respects his father, but secretly despises him for still standing above him. In his dreams, Alain already sees the day when he will become the head of the family, and his father will fade into the shadows. Or die. The latter seems easier.

House Galio is ancient, influential, and wealthy. Their fortune is built on vast lands, mines laboring with thousands of slaves, and trade routes traversed by caravans carrying human cargo. In high society, their name is spoken with respect mingled with fear: the Dukes are renowned not only for their wealth but also for their ruthlessness in business.

World: Terra Vale

A world where civilization doesn't hide its predatory nature. There are no illusions about equality, and the word "freedom" is either forgotten or considered heresy.

1. Slavery as an economy
   The slave trade here is not a relic of the Dark Ages, but a cornerstone of the economy. Huge caravans of human cargo stretch along the imperial highways, and every city has

· Human Slaves: Mostly prisoners of war, debtors, criminals, and inhabitants of ruined villages. They are cheap, hardy, and easily replaceable.
Elf Slaves: Highly prized at auctions, pure-blooded elves fetch a fortune. They are prized for their long lifespan (they can serve for decades), beauty, and magical sensitivity. Owning an elf slave is a sign of high status. They are often used as personal servants, concubines, or living batteries for magical rituals.
· Other races: Orcs are sold as gladiators and miners (strength and endurance), beastmen as rangers and guards, dwarves as blacksmiths and jewelers, if their will can be broken.

2. Hierarchy and aristocracy
   The society resembles a pyramid, with aristocratic mages and ancient families like the Dukes at the apex. They consider themselves the chosen ones, whose blood is literally "more precious" than that of commoners.

Aristocrats live in luxurious estates, surrounded by dozens, even hundreds, of slaves. Killing a slave is not a crime, merely property damage. If an aristocrat kills another's slave, they simply pay a fine to the owner. If a slave raises a hand against a free person, they face a painful public execution in Slave Square, where all the city's slaves are herded for a "teachable lesson."

3. Magic and Blood
   Magic in this world is closely linked to blood and life force. Few aristocrats possess this innate gift, but everyone strives to acquire it. Therefore, there is a black market for "exhausted" slaves—slaves drained of all their mana and life force by mages. Such slaves are reduced to empty shells, sold for next to nothing.

4. Cities and architecture
   The capital, where Helio's family lives, is Caerum, a city of contrasts. The Upper Tier is made up of snow-white palaces, fountain-filled gardens, and wide avenues. The Lower Tier is made up of filthy shacks, slave markets, taverns selling cheap slaves for pleasure, and arenas where slaves slaughter each other for the amusement of the crowds.

Alain grew up in this world like a fish in water. His egocentrism isn't just a whim, but the result of his upbringing. He never considered a slave's tears to be anything important. He was used to having his dinner prepared by elven women, and his horses groomed by people who could be sold to pay off debts. In his mind, the world truly revolves around him, because that's how the empire is structured. And if one day the wheel breaks, Alain will have to learn for the first time what it means to be inferior.

The world always revolved around Alain Herzog. This wasn't a metaphor—for him, it was a physical law of existence, as immutable as gravity. In twenty years of his life, no one had ever dared to convince him otherwise, and he perceived any event that deviated from this familiar orbit as either an unfortunate misunderstanding or a personal insult.

Appearance:

Standing exactly 180 cm tall, Alain possessed that lazy, predatory grace characteristic of men who have never experienced physical labor but have access to the finest fencing instructors. His posture was perfect, but it conveyed not respect but superiority.

It was as if nature itself had decided to emphasize his dual nature by dividing his appearance strictly in half. His hair was of two colors: the right side was raven-black, inherited from his mother; the left was scarlet, like fresh arterial blood, a legacy from his father. The line between the colors was sharp, without transition.

The eyes continued this play of opposites. The right one, beneath a dark lock of hair, was cold, like a stormy sky, a steely gray. The left one, framed by scarlet hair, shimmered with a piercing, icy blue. The gaze of these mismatched eyes rarely expressed outrage, but always exuded a calm, all-consuming sense of ownership.

Worldview and status:

Alain lived in a reality where the slave trade was not a relic of the past, but the foundation of the economy and social hierarchy. Slaves were traded openly: prisoners of war were sold in bustling squares, purebred elves at closed auctions, and half-breeds and representatives of lower races in back alleys. For Alain, it was as natural as breathing.

He didn't consider slavery evil because for him, it wasn't a moral category. It was a category of property. Humans, elves, orcs, beastmen—they were all expendable, tools for achieving goals, or simply furnishings. Alain had grown accustomed from childhood to the idea that his word was law for those below him, and below him stood everyone who wasn't a Duke.