Pieter is the father of Coen and the husband of Esme. The family lives in the hills of Laslea, and Pieter is the source of two of the things Coen carries into the story: a working knowledge of the sword, and a quiet ambition to leave the life he was born into.
Background
Pieter is a former mercenary with a troubled past he rarely speaks of. Nothing further about that past has been published: who he fought for, where, or what ended it are all unstated. What the developers do describe is the man he became afterwards, a strict and emotionally distant father who is nonetheless protective of his family.
Influence on Coen
Pieter taught Coen the basics of swordsmanship, which is the grounding Coen's daytime fighting rests on before any vampiric ability enters the picture. See Combat and the Swordmastery tree for how that foundation develops.
His influence also runs in a less obvious direction. Under it, Coen quietly nurtures a different ambition and studies Latin in secret, hoping that one day he might leave his current life behind. That study is separate from the reading Coen learned from Anca, who taught him to read and to see beyond what is plainly written.
The Opening Scene
Pieter is the first person the game puts a decision in front of. Esme is too ill to eat, the household needs her upright for the evening mass, and Pieter asks Coen to try feeding her whether she wants it or not. Launch coverage reports that both answers land in the same place: whoever holds the spoon, Esme knocks it away, and the only thing that changes is how badly she takes it and how sorry Pieter looks afterwards. It has no lasting consequence, which is the point. It is the game showing the player what its choices look like before any of them cost anything.
What follows from it does matter. Pieter sends Coen to Anca’s shack for herbs to get Esme through the night, and that errand is the thread the whole prologue hangs off.
It is also the clearest picture of the man the rest of the page describes at second hand. He is trying to keep a sick wife alive and four children fed under an occupation, he reaches for the practical answer first, and he is visibly unhappy with himself for it.
The Silver Mines
As a child, Coen worked alongside Pieter in the Silver Mines, a harsh experience that left lasting marks on both his body and his spirit. Vale Sangora is rich in silver, and that silver is why people settled the valley and why Svartrau grew wealthy, so mine work was ordinary labour for a family in Pieter's position rather than anything unusual.
Coverage of the game has linked that childhood exposure to silver with Coen's failed transformation into a vrakhiri, the accident that left him a Dawnwalker instead. The developers have not confirmed the mechanism themselves, so the connection between Pieter's trade and his son's condition is best treated as a reported explanation rather than a stated one.
The Family
Pieter and Esme have four children. Coen is the eldest, followed by Yanna, then Mirto, with Lunka the youngest. Yanna takes over the care of the two younger children whenever Coen and Pieter are away, which suggests the two men were regularly absent for work.
Family Member | Relation | Note |
|---|---|---|
Pieter | Father | A former mercenary; strict and emotionally distant, but protective. |
Mother | Puts the family first at the cost of her own health, which has declined badly. | |
Eldest child | The player character, and a Dawnwalker after his failed transformation. | |
Second oldest | Cares for the younger children whenever Coen and Pieter are away. | |
Third child | Once quiet, now increasingly restless. | |
Youngest child | Bright and perceptive, and the most sheltered of the four. |
Role in the Story
The vrakhiri capture Coen's family, and freeing them is what drives the whole game. The player has 30 days and 30 nights to do it, tracked by the 30-Day Cycle. The family is held at Brencis's castle to be sacrificed at the ceremony marking his investiture as Prince, which is where the month-long deadline comes from.
In the Story
Pieter's mercenary past does come back into play. A walkthrough of the prologue reports that after the evening's blood mass he takes up his sword and drags Coen along to help a crew led by a man named Vladimir break into the silver mines in an attempt to throw off vrakhiri rule, and that the attempt goes badly.
He also appears late in one route. Coverage of the endings reports that when Coen has killed Ambrus, Bakir and Xanthe, Brencis proposes a meeting at Shrike's Crag and brings Pieter with him, offering to return the family and the villagers if Coen marks the Manumit hideout. Pieter stumbles and hurts himself before the deal is struck, which summons the restless dead of the site, and if Coen chooses to fight Brencis there instead, Pieter is left among the spirits and dies. See Endings for the route as a whole.
His voice actor is not named in first-party material published through September 23, 2026.