Now I'm curious. What exactly is Valens' origin. Like I know it has something to do with the Wandsmen. Are you gonna go over it in a future story?
Since I'm probably never going to get to Valens' origin story, at least in this iteration, I feel like it's okay for me to share some of it. Spoilers below!
You are correct it has something to do with the Wandsmen, though Valens doesn't meet them until later. They find him in pretty bad shape after his exile from Alagadda.
That's where he was created. By the Hanged King, specifically. Not with corpses and body parts, but with different materials and structures. Like a clockwork doll made of whatever was lying around (which in Alagadda can be a lot of really weird stuff). Much like Victor Frankenstein, he was soon rejected his creation and forgot all about him.
But Valens wanted to make himself useful, and he was drawn to how living bodies worked, considering his own was a mixture of the stories of Pinocchio and Frankenstein (how very Guillermo del Toro of me).
He soon became the self-appointed physician of Alagadda, considering they didn't really have a doctor. He enjoyed his work and would have been satisfied with his quiet life, content to help others and continue to expand his medical knowledge.
But a certain lord grew envious of him. Even though the Hanged King had grown bored with Valens and tossed him aside, the Black Lord was still jealous of what little attention he had received. Worse, he was getting attention from the grateful denizens of Alagadda.
So the Black Lord made Valens' life hell, tormenting him and spreading lies and causing chaos. Until finally the Hanged King got fed up with the Black Lord's theatrics, but instead of kicking him out, he exiled Valens instead. He couldn't exactly punish one of his four High Lords, and he just wanted the drama to go away. So, he ejected Valens from the kingdom.
But you can't exactly walk out of Alagadda. It's in a dimensional pocket surrounded by a black sea. So Valens hid in the catacombs and ancient, forgotten tunnels under the city.
But the tunnels weren't empty. They were filled with a dark, corrupting influence, and you can probably guess what that was. He didn't call it the Pestilence then, it didn't have a name, but it was the byproduct of the Hanged King's magic, which kept Alagadda trapped in an eternal, immortal dream.
Alone in the dark, afraid and surrounded by corruption, a Wandsman came to him and offered him a chance to live. Valens would have to become like them in order to leave Alagadda. And to become like them, his body would change permanently.
Valens asked if that meant he would be a real person, and the Wandsman said he was a person no matter what he choose. Valens asked if that meant he would be free, and the Wandsmen said yes.
And that's how he joined the Wandsmen :) And you can probably guess who the Black Lord is -- a certain obsessive mask. 035 used to be an actual person back then, but he was trapped within his own mask when the Hanged King finally got fed up with his shit and exiled him too.
049 doesn't remember anything about Alagadda or the Wandsmen, but 035 does, at least somewhat. Enough to fuck with Valens and hold it over his head, anyway. And it explains some of 035's obsession with Valens and why he just won't get over him. ;)
