Imriel Swan-Rider

Imriel Swan-Rider is easy to underestimate if one mistakes grace for softness. His armour is polished, his banners are clean, and his courtesy has survived enough blood to seem almost insulting until collapse begins and he is already there. Caerdun sees in him the accusation laid on noble birth: arrive before the screaming stops, and answer afterward for what your arrival cost. Vaelorn sees the harder beauty of him, pearl-white grace turned into guarded rescue rather than courtly theatre. Imriel's passage smells of horse sweat beneath perfume, rain on bright steel, crushed reeds, salt air, and clean linen prepared for wounds. He treats nobility as a debt with hooves, not a song with witnesses conveniently absent.