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William William is the protagonist and sole playable character of Valor Mortis. He begins the story as a soldier of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grande Armee, one of countless men caught up in an endless war that has spread across an alternate-history 19th-century Europe. William falls in that conflict, but death is not the end of his journey. He is resurrected and returns changed, carrying a power tied to the supernatural plague that has corrupted the land.

Origin

Before his death William served in the ranks of the Grande Armee during Napoleon's campaigns. He is presented as an ordinary soldier swept into a war with no apparent end, rather than a figure of high command. His specific background outside of his military service has not been confirmed in launch material, and the game has been careful about pinning down his nationality. What is clear is that his fall in battle is the turning point that sets the entire story in motion.

Resurrection and Power

When William is brought back from death, he gains the ability to wield and corrupt the plague that is consuming the world. This power separates him from the corrupted forces around him and gives him a fighting chance against enemies that ordinary soldiers cannot withstand. Rather than simply resisting the corruption William turns it into a weapon, channeling it through his own actions in battle. His resurrection frames him as a figure caught between the living and the plague-touched, neither fully one nor the other.

Abilities in Combat

In gameplay terms William's command of the plague expresses itself across two systems. The first is Transmutations, the off-hand corruption powers used alongside a melee weapon. The second is the supernatural mobility on display in his Traversal toolkit, where the same plague-channelled power lets him grapple through the air and run along walls. The traversal kit is described in trailers as nephtoglobin-powered, which ties the way he moves through the world directly to the same corruption that fuels his combat abilities.

Guided by Napoleon's Voice

Once resurrected William is guided through this strange afterlife by Napoleon Bonaparte's own disembodied voice. The relationship between William and Napoleon, and what the emperor wants from his returned soldier, is one of the central threads being teased in marketing material and is set up to be a major dramatic question over the course of the game.

Place in the Story

William stands between the surviving humans and the corrupted Eternal Guard. He is not a chosen hero in the traditional sense but a soldier who happens to be the only figure able to push back against the enemy on its own supernatural terms. The broader world he moves through, including the war, the plague, and the factions arrayed against him, is covered on the Setting and Story page.

Player Identity

Because Valor Mortis is a single-player first-person experience, the player effectively is William for the duration of the game. The first-person camera, the weight of every weapon swing, and the resource-and-risk pressure of the loop are all tuned to make his recovery from death feel like the player's own choices rather than a story playing out at a distance. Everything from Weapons to Catalysts and Progression is built around that identification.