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The Shrike
September 14, 2026 at 01:16 AM
Created The Shrike page from the August 2026 Story Trailer reveal
The Shrike is the leader of the human resistance in Valor Mortis, revealed in the Story Trailer that premiered on August 25, 2026. The Shrike is the newest named figure in the game and, so far, the only one presented as an opponent of the Empire rather than a product of the plague.
The Story Trailer was the first appearance. Announcing it, the studio described The Shrike as "the rebel leader fighting Napoleon's Empire in occupied Eastern Europe" and framed the movement as "a resistance of the commonfolk" rather than a rival army. That phrasing matters: it is ordinary people in the occupied east, not a second state or a foreign expedition.
Until August 2026 the published story ran one way. Napoleon's conquest had stalled, a plague had followed, and William had come back from the dead with the power to fight the things it made. The Shrike adds a second axis. The studio said the voice of Napoleon in William's head is "guiding him to usurp The Shrike's resistance of the commonfolk", which puts the player character on the Empire's side of a conflict between people.
Before the reveal | After the reveal |
|---|---|
The enemy is the plague and the corrupted Eternal Guard | The plague is still there, and so is a human movement William is being told to break |
Napoleon's voice is guidance | Napoleon's voice has a stated objective |
William fights abominations | William is pointed at the commonfolk's own leadership |
Point | Status |
|---|---|
Name | The Shrike, used with the definite article in every first-party mention |
Role | Rebel leader against Napoleon's Empire |
Where | Occupied Eastern Europe |
Movement | A resistance of the commonfolk |
Relationship to William | William is being guided to usurp the resistance The Shrike leads |
As of September 13, 2026, across the official store listing, the official site, the studio's Steam development posts and the published trailers, the studio has not given The Shrike a personal name, a gender, a face description, or a voice credit. It has not said whether The Shrike is a boss fight, an ally, or both at different points, and it has not said whether William can refuse the instruction. The Shrike appeared in no earlier trailer and in neither the October 2025 playtest nor the 2026 demo, so there is no gameplay footage to read against the description.
The same trailer introduced two named non-hostile characters, a fellow soldier called James Stewart and a lamplighter called Lucjan Skawinski. The studio presents all four, William, The Shrike, Stewart and Skawinski, as the cast of what it calls a supernatural retelling of the Napoleonic Wars. In September 2026 it added that there are not many other survivors remaining and that each of them will play a pivotal role in determining William's fate. The Setting and Story page collects what has been said about them.
