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Fidelias is from the Codex Alera series, and is the property of Jim Butcher. He appears here solely for the purpose of role-playing in milliways_bar, from which no profit is being made.

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The identity he's currently wearing, Valiar Marcus, is a soldier, noticeably unattractive, weathered, and scarred. His canon, Codex Alera, is a fantasy with distinctly Roman society. Fidelias himself is a spy; Marcus is First Spear, the most senior centurion, of a Legion.

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Fidelias is named for loyalty. Fidelias betrayed his liege lord before the series even started.

These aren’t irreconcilable. Fidelias’ loyalty above all is to Alera, to the Realm itself, not the First Lord who leads her. He’d go to great lengths to secure a solid future for Alera, and if that happens to include committing treason and betraying the Crown, then Fidelias will do what he thinks must be done.

For a time Fidelias took on the role of Valiar Marcus, an old soldier, good at soldiering and very good at hiding that he was ever anything else. He liked being Marcus, he really did. It was simpler that way, and carried with it the satisfaction of doing good things in a worthy fight. Things Fidelias had thought he was too jaded to really put much stock in any more.

Marcus is blunt, honest, practical. Reliable. Fidelias thinks around corners and always has an escape and a lie ready, just in case. The identities begin to overlap where Princeps Gaius Octavian is concerned.

Though Fidelias broke faith with the First Lord, Tavi represents something entirely new in the context of Alera’s future: hope. He has courage, integrity, determination, ingenuity, has everything his father had and more. Tavi is very tangible potential for a good outcome for Alera, and Fidelias sees this as Marcus, and cannot help but support that.

It comes with a price, of course. Treason does that. Fidelias knows, past a certain point, that he’s a dead man walking, that the second anyone connects Valiar Marcus with Fidelias ex Cursori he’ll be killed. And he doesn’t care, really, except inasmuch as it impacts his ability to protect Tavi and, by extension, Alera. That much alone causes him to have a care with his secret, but he’s known for some time it’s not so much a matter of if as when.

And that’s fine, as long as it leads to the security of the future. Fidelias will do what’s necessary for that hope, no matter the cost to himself or to others. A liar and a traitor, yes, but also a driven man of uncommon conviction, willing to cross several lines if it serves the overall good.