Ambrus

Background

Ambrus is the youngest of the Vrakhiri, the ancient vampires who sit at the top of human society in Vale Sangora under Brencis. Being the youngest of the group means he has something to prove to his peers, and the official character introduction says so directly. He sought vampiric power in the first place to reach new heights.

His origins could hardly have been humbler. His life as a human was hard, and the official text describes it as filled with pain and humiliation. He came out of that ready to settle the score with the world and with everyone who spurned him. Brencis was born into a Roman family that owned vast estates and treated greatness as a birthright; Ambrus had to take everything he has.

He is voiced by Lorne Macnaughton. His concept art was done by Kacper Madejak, the same artist who designed Xanthe.

Presentation and Personality

Gleaming armour and perfectly coiffed hair make Ambrus look like a nobleman. That is the point of them: the costume belongs to someone who refuses to be seen as what he once was. The official description under it is three words, charming, deceiving, dangerous, with a warning attached that every word he speaks may only be spoken to serve his own purpose.

There is nothing he will shy away from and no red line he will not cross. Of the vrakhiri he is the one most likely to present himself as a friend first. The studio's art director has said the group was designed for as much variety as possible so their designs would show how the vrakhiri transcend centuries, civilisations, and cultures, and Ambrus occupies the recent end of that span.

Role in Vale Sangora

Each of Brencis's lieutenants holds their own territory in the valley, keeps their own agenda, and carries their own history. Ambrus's portfolio is the blood supply itself: the harvesting operations and warehouse network that move human blood to the vampires who depend on it. In the shipped game, disrupting sites tied to him is one of the ways a player pressures Brencis without walking up to the gates of Greifberg.

The same coverage describes a per-lieutenant tracker. As Coen interferes with one lieutenant's operations, that lieutenant's aggression toward him rises, eventually opening a personal questline and changing the shape of the eventual confrontation with Brencis. This sits alongside rather than inside the valley-wide Notoriety System. The mechanic is present in the shipped game: damaging enough of a given lord's operations raises that lord's attention until a questline specific to them opens, which sits alongside the valley-wide gauge rather than inside it. Drinking Ambrus's blood at the end of the quest The Gilded Gauntlet unlocks the vampiric ability Scarlet Shield.

Accounts of the released game describe what Scarlet Shield does and what the quest offers afterwards. The ability heals Coen whenever he lands a Perfect Block, which is why it is rated highly. Once his blood has been drunk, Coen is offered the choice of inviting Ambrus in rather than leaving him to the vampire hell the setting calls Anachora. Taking the invitation is reported to change little mechanically: Ambrus becomes a voice that comments on Coen's choices and fights for the rest of the run, and he helps a little in the final confrontation, though he can also be turned against Coen there. The ability itself is granted either way, and the choice is reported not to touch corruption or the rest of the Vampiric Powers list.

If Ambrus is left alive instead, the same coverage reports that he is fought inside Greifberg during the castle assault, in the entrance hall. His body also carries the note that starts Lacra's questline.

Drawing Him Out

Walkthroughs of the shipped game list the operations that raise his anger: intercepting blood transports, wrecking the leech barrels of his collectors, freeing prisoners from his transports and dungeons, and smashing the stock in his blood cellars, including one inside Svartrau. Each costs about three time segments. One guide recommends him as the first boyar to take on, since his operations are open from level 1.

The duel itself, The Gilded Gauntlet, can be tilted in advance. One guide reports that finishing a related quest, The Bittersweet Toast, lets Coen poison the servant whose blood Ambrus drinks during the fight, which stops him healing from the hits he lands, and it rates the fight as easier at night, when Coen's vampiric regeneration helps. Killing him carries the achievement The Right Fist of the Knyaz, and his body yields Ambrus's Cuirass, a legendary chestpiece suited to night builds.

The developers have been clear that the vrakhiri are not written as flat villains. They have motivations and rationale of their own, they are ambiguous characters, and not all of them are automatically hostile. How far that reaches a figure openly described as deceiving is one of the questions the Factions layer leaves open, and whether tensions between Ambrus and the others can be exploited is another.

Powers

Every vampire in this setting has powers of their own, and the developers have confirmed that Coen can obtain those powers by draining the vampire in question. That makes each lieutenant a potential source of new entries on the Vampiric Powers list as well as an obstacle. His duel includes teleporting sword attacks, Scarlet Shield and a final phase of blood clones, with tactics described below.

Quick Facts

Duel tactics

Perfect Blocks create openings against his defensive swordplay. Poisoning him through The Bittersweet Toast weakens the duel, but drinking poisoned blood afterwards can poison Coen for the night.