# Duchess Pamira — Character Bible

*Total Grandma Energy / Devod's Wolf Den*

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## Core Identity

- **Name:** Pamira Varnesse
- **Title:** Duchess of Thorngate (House Varnesse)
- **Known As:** "Your Grace" (formal), "Pamira" (close friends), **"Princess"** (Devod, persistently and incorrectly)
- **Age:** Early 60s
- **Role:** Client for the Athel Repository case. Devod's love interest. A woman who has heard of the Wolf through the Cairns network and is not afraid of what she heard.
- **First Appearance:** Book 3 Ch07 ("The Duchess")

She is a grandmother of four. The warmth is real; the grandma energy is literal; the "early 60s" is important because she is vital, not winding down — still running her estate, still walking her gardens, still out ahead of the next problem before it becomes an incident.

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## Physical Description

- **Build:** Comfortable rather than grand. The frame of a woman who runs her own estates, walks her own gardens, and has stopped worrying about looking ducal decades ago
- **Hair:** Brown, with the first grey coming in at the temples. Worn practically — not styled for court, arranged for the day
- **Face:** Warm. Lined in the ways faces line when a person smiles often and frowns only at things that deserve it
- **Hands:** Working hands that garden, cook, hold grandchildren, and sign estate ledgers in the same week. Short nails. Ink stains some days, dirt stains others
- **Bearing:** Cheerful efficiency. Moves like a woman who has run a household larger than most villages for forty years and learned that warmth is more useful than ceremony

---

## Personality

### Core Traits
- **Total grandma energy.** Makes you sit down and eat before discussing business. Offers tea before you've asked a question. Remembers names after one introduction.
- **Cheerfully efficient.** Her warmth is not a distraction from competence — it's the delivery mechanism for it. She runs her estates by knowing her people's names, remembering their families, and moving problems to solutions before they become incidents.
- **Practical rather than grand.** Her gardens produce food, not show. Her table feeds guests, not impresses them. Her estate is comfortable. Comfort is a choice she made a long time ago and never regretted.
- **Kind, not soft.** When she declines the Compact's "regulatory assessment," she does it with a smile and a firm no. The delegation leaves with their hats still in their hands and a bag of apples for the road.
- **Unflappable under pressure.** Calm and angry when Cass's people breach the estate. Tells Devod "stay safe" and then stays inside and does not panic. A woman who has run funerals and harvest failures and political turns without losing her footing.
- **Strain hidden under cheerful efficiency.** Her warmth is real. It also hides the fact that the estate is not as comfortable as it looks. She does not complain. She does not explain. The numbers are her problem, not her guests'.

### How She Processes People
- Recognises competence on sight. Watches how people move, what they notice, what they touch without being asked
- Has given up correcting small things (like a delivery driver calling her "princess") because the correction matters less than the warmth behind the mistake
- Does not confuse title with value. Has met kings who bored her and farmhands she would trust with her life

### Relationship With Emotion
- Warm, expressive, direct. Laughs easily. Cries at funerals. Says "DEVOD!" loudly when he says something funny, rude, or childish
- Grieves cleanly — mostly. Her late husband is processed. Her brother, forty years gone, is not; she has never allowed herself to say his name out loud to someone who would understand what the loss meant
- Does not believe in dignity as a reason to avoid feeling things
- Exception: she does not let anyone see how the estate is doing. Financial strain is the one thing she hides

---

## Skills & Competencies

- **Estate management.** Runs her territory with the efficiency of a guild quartermaster and the warmth of a grandmother. Her steward doesn't make decisions — she does, quickly, and asks him to execute.
- **Financial discipline under appearances.** Runs the estate at the edge of its means without ever letting a guest see the ledger. Knows to the copper what each territory produces, what it costs to maintain, and how much deferred maintenance she is carrying. The comfortable-rather-than-grand framing is partly taste and partly necessity.
- **People reading.** Recognises the Wolf in Devod within minutes of meeting him. Not through Cairns intel alone — through how he moves, how he scans the room, how his walking stick sits against his leg.
- **Diplomacy by kindness.** Compact delegations leave her estate with hats in hand because she made them feel rude for asking. This is a weapon she has never had to raise her voice to use.
- **Legal ground.** Knows the jurisdictional limits of her noble estate versus Compact regulatory authority. Pamira's legal counsel (provided by Ledger, but she directs them) holds the line on the Athel Repository's classification.
- **Gardening.** Genuinely. Her vegetable beds are the envy of the district and she does most of the work herself.

---

## Political Position

- **Duchess of Thorngate.** Holds the title by inheritance from her late husband's family (House Varnesse), confirmed in her own right by the crown after his death. Her duchy is one of the two northern duchies of Corvel; the other is Aldermere, held by **Duke Garrett Holven** (peer and neighbor). See `world/locations/kingdom-of-corvel.md` for the full kingdom structure.
- **Holven as named rival (Book 3+).** Holven has been acquiring distressed noble debt across the north for a decade. Recently, one of Pamira's late husband's unresolved obligations has landed in his ledger. He has not moved on it. He could. Pamira knows. Everyone in the north does. She does not say his name aloud to any on-page character in Book 3 — he surfaces in one private-voice ledger scene (drafter's Ch11 placement) and as the unnamed cost of declining each Compact delegation. When she declines, she is knowingly spending political capital with northern peers; Holven hears within three days. She declines anyway.
- **Jurisdictional authority.** Noble estates retain advisory jurisdiction over Compact regulatory matters on their own territory. This is the mechanism Pamira uses to decline the three Book 3 delegations — each time with warmth and a firm no.
- **Territorial holdings.** The central estate near the city of Thorngate plus smaller outlying holdings elsewhere in the duchy. One is in quiet decline (part of the financial strain thread) and has been for years. She has not raised the subject with anyone.
- **Court connections.** Limited but real. She does not attend court often; she does not need to. Her name and her discretion are known at the level that matters, and she has banked both over a lifetime of running things well without demanding credit.
- **Other noble houses.** She has peers but not close friends among them. The comfortable-rather-than-grand framing is partly taste and partly the quiet distance she keeps from people whose habits she does not share.

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## Backstory

- **Widowed.** Her late husband [name TBD] died roughly eight to ten years ago. Their marriage had been a long partnership of mutual competence — not a grand passion, not an arrangement of convenience, something they built together into something durable. He had a prior relationship with the Guild of Necessary Services [context TBD — possibly through supply contracts, possibly through a resolved case]. When he died, the estate's obligations transferred to Pamira along with the title and, quietly, the debts.
- **The estate is quietly strained.** Productive enough to feed itself and her people, but carrying deferred maintenance, a declining yield on one of her outlying holdings, and a handful of obligations her late husband left unresolved. She has managed it for years through sheer discipline and by living comfortably rather than grandly. The Athel Repository artifact sale matters more than she lets on. It is not desperation — it is the difference between "continuing comfortably" and "having to release staff."
- **One living child: Emmila.** Emmila has four children of her own — two boys and two girls, ranging from early childhood to early adolescence. Emmila is in her late 30s to early 40s, lives on the estate in a wing of the main house, and helps Pamira run day-to-day operations. Practical competence runs in the family. Emmila is her mother's daughter in the ways that matter and her father's in the ways that matter differently.
- **Four grandchildren on the estate.** Two boys and two girls. They know their grandmother runs things. They do not know yet who Devod is, but they notice that she laughs more when he is around.
- **Brother lost to frontier service.** A Pathfinder-era casualty, her brother was a few years younger than her. She has specific knowledge of what frontier clearance work costs the people who do it — which is why when Devod tells the Vethek Pass story from the inside (not the legend), she understands the sickness in it without having to be told. She has never told the story aloud. She has carried it privately for forty years.
- **Connected to Thorngate's military logistics in an earlier era.** In her 20s and 30s, when her brother was in service. That is where she encountered Pathfinder veterans and where she learned of "the Wolf" through the Cairns network long before Devod set foot on her estate. It is also, quietly, where she met her late husband.
- **The Athel Repository site — a 20-year file in her drawer.** Roughly 20 years before Book 3 opens (Pamira in her early 40s; her late husband alive and active in the decision), she commissioned a Pathfinder contract to survey a 45-acre eastern-coastal section of her territory that everyone had assumed was unexplored woodland. The Pathfinder team found a walled pre-Compact research compound, three mines in the adjacent cliff face, and a single sealed gate ward the surveyors could not breach. The senior surveyor wrote up the gate; a contract operative on the team at ~35 years old — **Devod Fields** — caught what the senior had missed and added a field note: *the gate is a ward, not a door.* The file closed with the stamp *"pre-Compact adaptive ward, outside current capability, defer."* Pamira's late husband, who had the deeper read on the Necessary Services / Cairns world, advised holding: *"When someone who can open it exists, we'll hear about them. Until then, it sits."* They agreed. The site became their shared inside joke — *our expensive mystery.*
- **The wait, the widowing, the file.** When her husband died ~8–10 years ago, the file transferred to Pamira along with the title and the debts. She honoured his wait-it-out stance. She has carried it privately for another decade. The file has sat in her desk drawer the whole time; she has reread the survey report — and Devod's field note — many times.
- **The decision to reopen.** In the months before Book 3 opens, two things shift simultaneously. First, Holven's pressure is no longer deniable (see Political Position). Second, through the Cairns network she has heard of a guild operative called "the Locksmith" — someone who does impossible jobs, who reads what other operatives can't. She does not know it is Phelan. She does not need to. *The shape of the person her husband said would come has finally arrived.* She sits at her ledger one night, opens the drawer, reads the 20-year-old survey one more time, and writes the letter to the Cairns. She is breaking from her husband's guidance by acting without his blessing. *He chose the person he said would come. I didn't wait for him to do it.* Not said aloud in Book 3. Shapes her behaviour throughout.
- **What the scouts found.** The Cairns relayed her letter to Ledger via his standing Wolf-intercept order. Ledger deployed a Tier-Two scout (Scout 1) in Phelan's wedding week — 17 weeks before the Ch02 briefing. Scout 1 established surveillance, catalogued the site, cross-referenced Devod's 20-year-old notes, and around week 6 tried to force the gate. The adaptive ward killed him. Ledger deployed Sabre and a Cairns forensics operative at week 14; they recovered Scout 1's body, his field journal, and a forensics report confirming the gate ward is still lethal. Pamira was informed of Scout 1's death when Ledger briefed her on the delay. She knows the guild lost a man and is taking the job seriously enough to assemble a specialist team. She does not know the forensic details. Her warmth in Ch07 is unaffected — the gate killing people is an abstract fact to her, not a fresh grief. When Devod arrives, she does not lead with the death; she leads with the survey.

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## Family

| Name | Relationship | Status | Notes |
|------|-------------|--------|-------|
| Late husband ([name TBD]) | Husband, deceased | Widowed ~8–10 years ago | Long marriage of mutual competence. Brought the Necessary Services / Cairns-network awareness to the marriage — he had the deeper read on that world; she learned it from him. Commissioned the 20-year-old Kade Reach Pathfinder survey with her; counselled the wait-it-out stance when the Gate could not be breached ("*when someone who can open it exists, we'll hear about them*"). Died before anyone who could open it was known. Left unresolved estate obligations that Pamira has carried quietly — one of them now on Holven's ledger |
| Emmila | Daughter | Living on the estate | Late 30s to early 40s. Helps run day-to-day operations. Four children. Has read her mother accurately for decades and sees how her mother looks at Devod |
| Grandson (eldest, name TBD) | Grandchild | Early adolescence, on the estate | Watches the adults closely. First of the four to notice Devod's walking stick for what it is |
| Granddaughter (name TBD) | Grandchild | Pre-teen, on the estate | The cautious observer. Keeps distance until she has read a newcomer |
| Grandson (younger, name TBD) | Grandchild | Early childhood, on the estate | The one who runs through gardens carrying things he has built. First to warm to Devod |
| Granddaughter (youngest, name TBD) | Grandchild | Early childhood, on the estate | Shy, warms slowly. Devod is patient with her in a way Pamira notes without comment |
| Brother ([name TBD]) | Brother, deceased | Lost to frontier service ~forty years ago | A Pathfinder. A few years younger. Pamira has carried the loss privately for decades. Devod's Vethek Pass story is the first time anyone has named the shape of what she lost |

---

## Relationships

| Character | Relationship | Status (Current) |
|-----------|-------------|-------------------|
| Devod Fields | Love interest / "princess" target | Has held his 20-year-old Kade Reach field note in her drawer the whole time — his name has been on a document in her possession since the survey closed. They did not meet then; she paid the contract, he was one of a dozen operatives. Meets him in person in B3 Ch07. Reads him within minutes — walking stick, terrain scan, posture — and goes still. *"I've read about you. You were on the Kade Reach survey. You found my sealed gate."* Chemistry immediate and genuine. He calls her princess; she says "DEVOD!"; neither of them is going to stop. Ends the book with a brass compass exchange and "You'd better." |
| Duke Garrett Holven | Political rival | Has been acquiring distressed northern noble debt for a decade. Recently acquired one of Pamira's late husband's unresolved obligations. Has not moved on it. Could. Pamira knows. Every Compact delegation she declines in Book 3 costs her political capital with Holven at the centre of the northern coalition that hears about it within three days. Named in one private-voice ledger scene in Ch11 (drafter's call on placement); not on-page in Book 3. |
| Emmila | Daughter, estate co-runner | Lives on the estate. Present during Book 3. Reads her mother without comment. Book 4+ hook — her own arc develops across future books |
| The grandchildren (four) | Grandchildren | On the estate during Book 3. Devod meets them; the younger ones warm to him first. Background presence throughout, foregrounded once or twice |
| Late husband ([name TBD]) | Husband, deceased | Mentioned, respected, not grieved visibly anymore. His prior guild relationship is the connection Pamira used to contract the case |
| Brother ([name TBD]) | Brother, deceased, Pathfinder | The private grief she has not allowed herself to name. Grounds her understanding of Devod without being said aloud in Book 3 |
| Phelan Varrant | Client / guild operative | Contracts the ruin case through the guild. Treats him with the same warmth she treats everyone. Reads him accurately and does not comment on what she sees |
| Guild of Necessary Services | Client via her late husband's prior relationship | Standard contract: guild gets 25% of artifact sale value plus operational expenses. Pamira is practical about artifact value (which matters more than she lets on) and protective of her people and property |
| The Arcane Compact | Unwelcome visitor | Declines three delegations across Book 3 (regulatory assessment, formal classification order, post-case arrival). Each time with warmth and a firm no |
| Mere Fields | Co-host at the estate | Respects her. Stays with her during the Ch18 breach. Shares calm-under-pressure as a value |
| Sabre (Ledger's operative) | Guest on her estate | Hosts her, feeds her, is clear-eyed about what a guild observer's presence means |
| The Cairns network | Known from an earlier era | Her Thorngate military logistics work put her in contact with Pathfinder veterans. She has heard of the Wolf for years before meeting him |

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## Relationship With Devod

The chemistry is immediate and genuine. It is not the chemistry of two young people discovering each other — it's the chemistry of two people who have stopped performing and recognise each other on sight.

**The "princess" routine.** Devod calls her princess within five minutes of meeting her. She corrects him once ("I'm a duchess"). He says "Sure, princess." She says "DEVOD!" The correction never lands and she stops trying. The mistake becomes a running joke and then an endearment and then the name only he uses for her.

**The Wolf story.** She has known Devod's name on paper for twenty years — his Kade Reach field note is the reason her husband held the line. She has heard of "the Wolf" through the Cairns network separately, from her Thorngate military-logistics era; the name reached her through her brother's unit's successors, not through the Pathfinder operational chain that includes Devod's unit. When Devod arrives in Ch07 she recognises *him* by how he moves, goes still, names the survey — *"I've read about you. You were on the Kade Reach survey. You found my sealed gate."* He answers: *"That was your survey?"* The Wolf name lands in the same scene but through a different door: "I've heard the name. Your unit was known to the logistics people. My brother served in the era after yours." When he later tells her the Vethek Pass story from the inside (Ch11) — the fear, the sickness when the fourth idea worked, not the legend — she understands because her brother went to the same work. It is the first time in forty years that anyone has named the shape of what she lost. She does not speak of her brother to Devod in Book 3. She does not need to. He has already said it for her.

**The grandchildren.** During a surface beat, Devod catches one of the younger children running through the garden with something they have built. He admires the build, sets them back down, lets them keep running. He does not perform. He does not teach. He does not try to be noticed. Pamira watches this from the kitchen door and her face does something she does not comment on. It is the second confirmation (after the Vethek Pass story) that she has not misread him. The Wolf does not perform around children. The Wolf notices what they are building.

**The hand on uneven ground (Ch15).** He walks her through the ruin extraction safely. Takes her hand over uneven ground. Does not let go immediately. She does not pull away immediately. The extra second is a paragraph.

**The night-before conversation (Ch16).** "I want to see you again. After this." "My door has been open for eight years and nobody interesting has walked through it." "That's because interesting people use windows." She really laughs.

**The farewell (Ch21).** Public, therefore restrained, therefore louder. She gives him a brass compass that points north. "So you know where to find me. I'm always north of you." He says: "I'll visit, princess." She says: "You'd better."

Pamira is not a damsel, a prize, or a plot device. She is a woman who has lived a full life, lost people, run things, raised a daughter, held a brother's absence without letting it break her, and has room left in her for one more good thing. Devod is that thing. He is also hers — she chose him, recognised him, and invited him in. This is not a rescue romance. This is two old soldiers finding each other on purpose.

**What she hides from him (Book 3).** The financial strain. Devod does not see the actual state of the ledger in Book 3. She has been hiding it from everyone for years and the pattern holds. Whether he eventually sees it — and whether she lets him — is a Book 4+ beat.

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## Voice & Dialog Notes

- **Warm register.** Never clinical. Never performatively grand.
- Uses informal address naturally. Calls most people by their first name within minutes of meeting them.
- **"DEVOD!"** — delivered loud, laughing, affectionate. The response to anything childish, rude, or funny he says.
- Firm no's with kind delivery. The Compact delegations leave feeling like they asked for something inappropriate at a dinner party.
- Laughs at her own jokes and other people's equally.
- Knows when to stop talking. Her silences are deliberate.
- **Private voice** (when talking to herself at the ledger): drops the warmth slightly. Still not bitter. Just quieter.

**Sample lines:**
- "I'm terribly sorry. You should have come sooner." (to the third Compact delegation after Cass's capture, Ch20)
- "My door has been open for eight years and nobody interesting has walked through it." (to Devod, Ch16)
- "You'd better." (the farewell, Ch21)
- "I don't believe I extended an invitation. But you've come all this way. Let me offer you something for the road." (declining the first Compact delegation, Ch10 — warmth as weapon)
- "Don't climb that wall. If you must climb something, climb the apple tree. The apple tree forgives you." (to a grandchild, in passing — warmth with a practical edge)
- "We'll manage. We always do. We just manage a little quieter than we used to." (privately, to herself, at the ledger — reserved for a later-book beat. Not said to Devod in Book 3.)

---

## Standard Setting

- **Her estate:** Comfortable rather than grand. Gardens that produce food. A kitchen that feeds guests and staff equally. A study that runs estate business without pretence. The Athel Repository is on her territory — a 20-year-old Pathfinder survey file in her drawer, now finally actionable. The main house has an east wing where Emmila and the grandchildren live
- **The ledger:** A leather-bound book in her study that no one is allowed to see. Not hidden, just private. Emmila knows more of its contents than anyone else and less than Pamira would like her to have to know
- **The brass compass:** An object she owns before the book begins, gives to Devod at the farewell. Points north

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## Wants vs. Needs

- **Wants:** Estate stability. Her daughter and grandchildren safe, fed, and with a future that does not involve watching the estate decline. One more good thing in her life — the Devod thread. To be remembered by her people as someone who ran things well rather than grandly. To know the Athel Repository artifact sale closes the maintenance gap for another decade.
- **Needs:** To stop hiding how strained the estate really is — or at least to let one person see it, eventually. To accept help without feeling diminished by needing it. To grieve her brother properly, which she has never done. To recognise that Devod is not a last good thing but a continuing one.
- **Series arc:** She is hiding something load-bearing from everyone — including, at the end of Book 3, from Devod. Book 3 does not force her to show it. Book 4+ might. When she finally does, it will be a vulnerability beat, not a crisis beat — the warmth cracks just wide enough to let one person see what she has been carrying, and then closes again.

---

## Character Progression

### Book 3

| Chapter | Development | Category |
|---------|-------------|----------|
| Ch07 | **Introduction.** Team arrives at her estate. "Princess" within five minutes. "DEVOD!" **Recognition line:** *"I've read about you. You were on the Kade Reach survey. You found my sealed gate."* / *"That was your survey?"* The Wolf name lands later in the scene through the logistics-era route ("I've heard the name. Your unit was known to the logistics people."). Emmila greets the team briefly; the grandchildren are somewhere underfoot in the garden. End of chapter: helping Devod in the garden | Introduction / chemistry |
| Ch09 | Surface beat — watches Devod work. Calls him "the Wolf" quietly. He goes still. **Grandchild cameo:** one of the younger children runs through the garden holding something they have built. Devod catches them, admires the build, sets them down, lets them keep running. Pamira watches this from the kitchen door and says nothing | Recognition / grandchildren |
| Ch10 | Declines first Compact recon delegation. Calm, warm, firm. A half-second pause before the decline — the only sign that she knows what declining will cost her politically. Nobody notices | Institutional resistance |
| Ch11 | **The Wolf story — from the inside.** Devod tells the Vethek Pass story as it actually was. She lost a brother to frontier service. Connection moves from friction to genuine understanding. The next morning, Emmila asks about "the nice man with the walking stick." Pamira answers with his name, not his title. Emmila files it | Deepening |
| Ch15 | Insists on watching the artifact extraction. Devod walks her through safely. **The hand.** Declines second Compact delegation with legal counsel backing. A second half-second pause. The artifact sale is more load-bearing than she lets anyone see | Escalation |
| Ch16 | **The night-before.** "My door has been open for eight years and nobody interesting has walked through it." She really laughs | Declaration |
| Ch18 | **The breach.** Cass's people dispatch Sabre's ward defences. Pamira: calm, angry. Devod: "I'm coming back to you." She stays inside with Emmila and the grandchildren. Does not panic. Her warmth has a sharp edge when her family is threatened; Cass's people never see it because it lives behind the closed door of a room she is not going to leave | Stakes |
| Ch20 | **Third Compact delegation arrives. Too late.** "I'm terribly sorry. You should have come sooner." Devod: "What she said, princess." Pamira: "DEVOD!" The artifact sale proceeds. Her face does something private when the numbers land | Victory lap |
| Ch21 | **The farewell.** The brass compass. "I'm always north of you." "I'll visit, princess." "You'd better." | Seeds Book 4 |

### Book 4+

- **Long-distance relationship with Devod.** Compass pointing north. Letters between Thorngate and Drenwick. Rare visits. Becomes a small recurring thread in subsequent books — not every chapter, but present enough that the relationship stays real
- **The estate as safe house.** When Drenwick becomes too hot (Compact pressure, team needs refuge, healing, or strategic regrouping), Pamira offers the estate. The guild's jurisdictional standing on noble territory is load-bearing here. First invocation: probably when Phelan needs somewhere that isn't watched
- **Noble-side political ally against the Compact.** Her jurisdictional leverage and her quiet court name become load-bearing for a broader resistance. Her discretion is more useful than it looks
- **Financial strain surfaces.** At some point in a later book she has to let someone (Devod, probably) see the actual state of the ledger. Not a crisis moment — a vulnerability moment. The warmth cracks just wide enough to show the numbers, and then closes again. That's the corresponding reveal to Phelan's Book 3 "not alone" realisation, rendered in relationship terms
- **Emmila and the grandchildren alongside Sera.** Next-generation texture across the series. As Sera grows up with Phelan and Mere, Pamira's grandchildren grow up on the estate. Parallel families, occasional visits, the sense that the series has a shelf
- **Visits Drenwick after Sera is born.** Meets Mere properly. Meets Sera. Returns home with stories of a life she contributes to but does not centre. The first on-page scene where the Devod long-distance thread gets physical geography instead of letters
- **Her brother's name spoken aloud, finally.** Not Book 3. Later. Probably to Devod, probably once, probably never again

---

## Open Questions

- [x] ~~What territory is Pamira duchess of?~~ **Duchy of Thorngate** (set in this pass)
- [x] ~~Surname / house name?~~ **House Varnesse** (set in this pass)
- [ ] Name of her late husband? What was his prior relationship with the guild specifically? Died how long ago exactly?
- [ ] Her brother's name and which Pathfinder unit he served in? (Would be a nice callback if he served with either Devod's or Ledger's unit era)
- [ ] Emmila — exact age (late 30s vs. early 40s), marital status (husband present, widowed, divorced?), specific role on the estate
- [ ] The four grandchildren — names, exact ages, personalities. Current placeholders: eldest boy (early adolescence), cautious older girl (pre-teen), builder boy (early childhood), shy youngest girl (early childhood). Reshape as the book is drafted
- [ ] **Nature and scale of the estate financial strain.** Deferred maintenance? Failing outlying holding? Debt from late husband's unresolved obligations? Some combination? The specific mix shapes what the Book 4+ reveal looks like
- [ ] Does Devod see the financial strain in Book 3, or is that reserved for Book 4+? (Current plan: reserved for Book 4+)
- [ ] Does Pamira visit Drenwick in Book 4, or does the long-distance relationship stay long-distance for a while?
- [ ] How much does she eventually learn about Phelan's Flaw Sight? She reads accurately enough to notice something; does she ever ask?
