History Characters / HeraldsOfValdemarLastHeraldMageTrilogy

* HeroesWantRedheads: His hair is described as bright auburn.

* BloodBrothers: Is a Wingsister to clan K'Treva, and is especially close to Starwind.

* ParentalSubstitute: She tends to become motherly and a bit overbearing towards troubled boys. This is fine for Medren, who becomes what Vanyel considers the "bower pet" in his place and gets his interest in musical instruments encouraged, but she [[TraumaButton accidentally freaks out]] Tashir - though she takes that in good grace once things have stopped flying around.
* PetTheDog: She didn't dismiss Melenna for getting pregnant out of wedlock, and supported Medren. By the third book she also has been hosting salons outside when Vanyel is visiting and weather permits, so that "Lady Yfandes" can join them and listen to music.

* AmouredClosetGay: In ''Magic's Pawn'' he pretends not to have undergone CharacterDevelopment and also contrives a violent hatred for Tylendel to hide their SecretRelationship, wanting no rumors to get back to Withen. Tylendel thinks a dramatic argument and play fighting in the mud is great fun. Tylendel's friends, not in on the ruse, ''very'' much disagree and hate Vanyel.
* {{Ambadassador}} By ''Magic's Price'', Vanyel has become much in demand as a diplomat, probably because of the massive respect engendered by his magical powers and battlefield heroics.

* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: During King Randale's reign, Vanyel operates as the de facto King's Own, mostly because his power and legend have grown so much that even his fellow Heralds respect and fear him (partly because Randi's official King's Own is preoccupied just keeping him alive).

* TrueCompanions: Usually there's a fellowship among the Heralds. Not all of them like each other or get along, but they still share a bond and a tight sense of community. Vanyel only ever gets to benefit from this around Heralds who don't know who he is. Before he was Chosen he put up a pretense of being viciously homophobic towards Tylendel, ensuring that all Tylendel's peers hated him; when Tylendel died and Van was empowered and Chosen they were bitter. Then he had to be taken away from Haven to be healed and trained and returned already a Herald, so he never properly had peers among them. After that his degree of fame and renown expanded dramatically, to the point that many other Heralds regarded him with awe and a touch of fear.

* BadassInDistress: While held captive by a group of thugs.
* BattleCouple: Averted with both of his partners, where one of the pair would not have powers.
* BlessedWithSuck: He's not happy with his Gifts when they first activate; it's not a gentle awakening, and he hurts or nearly hurts several people. After getting trained and learning control he still sometimes feels this way, but his sense of duty keeps him from too much despair. Rather, he thinks that the strength of his powers obligates him to use them to the fullest.

** He tends to opt for harsh truth in general - he might be more capable of tact than his aunt, but not by much. Van enforces MindOverManners stridently - he won't punish a first offense if the offender didn't know better, but he's not gentle about the concept and doesn't give third chances. When Tashir sways Jervis with DelusionsOfParentalLove, Vanyel believes these are malicious BlatantLies and casts Truth Spell on him, making him tell Jervis about the abuse he suffered. He tells Jisa her marriage to Trevan is selfish and a bad idea, and when Trevan gets his Herald's Whites early and asks Van if he's ready for them Vanyel tells him he isn't.

* ChainLightning: In ''Magic's Promise'' he eradicates an entire group who are in a PsychicLink by channeling raw Node power through the one he can reach. (In his defense, they deserved it).

* EasilyForgiven: In an attempt to coax a healing young Vanyel out of his shell, Moondance confesses his own tragic backstory to him, telling his story for the first time and weeping as he does. Van rebuffs him coldly, sneering that Moondance hadn't had it anywhere near as bad as ''he'' did, only to soon realize what a heel he was. He knows before he has a chance to apologize that the Tayledras will already have forgiven him, and he has.

* {{Gayngst}} He feels it a ''lot'' in ''Pawn''. By ''Promise'', he's mostly concerned with the pragmatic effects of having a reputation for homosexuality in a somewhat homophobic culture, but he also manages to find time to fret that his strange feelings for Shavri mean he's not ''[[NoBisexuals really]]'' shaych.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: He has this reaction in ''Pawn'' after seeing the results of giving Tylendel Savil's spellbook, and again in ''Price'' after killing two semi-innocent people along with their brutal associates.

* MasterSwordsman: Vanyel is prodigious swordsman who can outfight any individual. It's implied that he might have been a prodigy with a natural gift if it wasn't stifled by a close minded teacher.

** When Vanyel hears that his sheer effectiveness in the Karsite Border War has inadvertently sparked a Karsite civil war and progrom against magic, he shrugs off the innocent casualties that might result and only cares that Karse might finally leave Valdemar alone.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: As a teen he played the vain, sneering dandy rather than show any emotional vulnerability or form genuine connections with other people. Tylendel managed to get him to open up at least in private, but to avoid Withen's wrath Van intensified the act and added in a strong feigned homophobic dislike for Tylendel. This made him very unpopular with Heraldic, Healer, and Bardic Trainees ''and'' with his instructors and ended up backfiring for him. After Tylendel died and Van was both [[TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening empowered]] and Chosen, people who normally would have been his peers mourned their friend and hated that the small-minded popinjay he'd successfully convinced them that he was was here in his place.

* DidThinkThisThrough: Tylendel's biggest flaw. Tylendel has a tendency to rush headlong into poor decisions without fully thinking through all the consequences and against the advice of everyone around him. Most of his actions end up coming back to bite Vanyel who suffers for Tylendel's poor decision making.

* TheGift: Has one of the most powerful and unique Bardic Gifts in the verse. Even outside of his pain-blocking ability, Stefen can spellbind and enchant an entire room of people.

* MysticalWhiteHair: Like all Adepts, Vanyel's use of node magic bleaches his hair white eventually, though he reflects in ''Promise'' that it seems he's more resistant to getting LockedIntoStrangeness than the Tayledras he studied under, so at that point he's still mostly dark-haired with some white in it. His good looks, striking white hair and silver eyes gives him a fey and otherworldly look, contributing to his air of power and unapproachability.

* NoSympathy: Van takes a moment to consider how awful it would be for a mage entering Valdemar to encounter the ''vrondi'' tasked with watching mages - they feel like they're BeingWatched and either can't work out what's watching them or can tell that ''vrondi'' are air elementals, which mages often use as scouts, and get an increasing sense of hostility and malice meant to drive them mad if they don't leave the country - and decides that he could almost feel sympathy. ''Almost''. That not every strange mage is an enemy, and that this would also happen to people born in Valdemar with the Mage-Gift (as is shown with Paxia in one of the short stories) does not concern him.

* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Savil thinks Van would be better off he were a little less pretty. He doesn't agree.

* HurtingHero: ''Hoi''... By the end of ''Magic's Pawn'', Van has found purpose and identity as a Herald, but his own peace and happiness comes at a distant second to Duty, and he's only too aware of it. It only gets worse in the next two books. An aside in ''Promise'' suggests that he'd had a few years as a new Herald where he felt some level of optimism and that appears to be the time period in which ''Vixen'' and ''A Midnight Clear'' are set, the two short stories where he's fairly content with his life, but that doesn't last.

* TheAce: the only student at Bardic besides Stefen with all three requisite Gifts (Stefen, at least, thinks Medren's nearly as good as he is, if not definitely.)
* HeroicBastard

* MagicMusic

* {{Gayngst}}: He was already struggling with his family given his PowerIncontinence situation but they doubled down on saying he was cursed and wanting to outcast him after seeing that he was gay.

* MindOverManners: Fatally, in Gala's case. She either doesn't see that her Chosen is undergoing SanitySlippage or she keeps it to herself for reasons unknown. By the time she does intervene, it's too late.
* MyGreatestFailure: The Heralds themselves seem to consider him this, especially Savil, his trainer.

* RecruitedFromTheGutter: After his powers were awakened and ''especially'' as his family [[{{Gayngst}} started to realize he liked men]] he was miserable, only surviving because his twin took care of him, refused to believe Tylendel would hurt him, and said if they cast him out then he, their heir, would also leave. Tylendel feels a strong, enduring gratitude towards Gala for saving him from that life, proving to him that he wasn't insane or possessed, and then getting him real help.