Corren Proud

Corren is Stalker corps: loose-quiet movement, eyes on the spaces between trees, knives that don’t whisper unless he wants them to. He escorts the Mask-year column beyond the wards because he knows which trails still belong to the living. He doesn’t offer comfort. He offers rules: don’t touch what glows, don’t listen when the dark says your name, and don’t mistake a familiar voice beyond the wardline for mercy.

Appearance

Corren dresses as a Stalker in light leathers, with a bow at his back, knives at his hips and a close-fitting mask mottled to match bark and stone. His dark hair is tied back, and his voice is low and rough, as if he has swallowed too much smoke.

In The Channeler

Corren is a Stalker of Luminglade who watches how the hollowborn move. He led the Mask-year group to the edge of the inner ring for the Hush-cap harvest and shadowed them with Antler. After Elias and Maerin crossed the outer ring he confronted them bluntly, named what Elias had done, and liked Neris for threatening to drown him. He sensed that the hollows had been following something other than spilled fear.

Back in Luminglade he helped Nyssa trace the poisoned Hush, identifying the hidden Sylph pressure-knot as Leth's work, and brought a route-cloth from the Council archive tied the same way. He then went with Antler and Vael along that route, marking the way into Luna's Underways in signs only Luminglade folk would read. When Kael's templars sprang their ambush he was cut down with a wound to the shoulder and let go when Vael surrendered himself. His marks later helped Vael lead the survivors out.