Résonateurs: Those Who Wield Emotion

Commandant Serein

There are few titles spoken with more awe—or more fear—than Résonateur.

They are not soldiers. Not mages. Not saints. They are the rare few who can harness their very emotions as weapons.

A trained Résonateur can stifle breath with sorrow, bend the air with rage, or chill the marrow with longing. Their power is one unseen—only the unmistakable weight of emotion in the air and the devastation it wrought left behind. Entire rooms have been emptied by a whisper of despair. Crowds dropped to their knees by a pulse of fury.

Their power is invisible. But the aftermath never is.

The Path to Power: Éthéré Coeur’s Edifice

Résonateur Goel

At thirteen, those with the gift are sent to the Résonateur Édifice in the Paramount Éthéré Coeur. There, they will spend eight grueling years learning to master the most dangerous force in existence: themselves.

Training is as brutal as it is refined. Every emotion must be understood, then broken down, then rebuilt into something precise and lethal. Failure is common. Collapse is expected. Control is everything.

Those who survive the process emerge changed. Hardened. Honed. They earn not only the title of Résonateur—but the reverence it commands.

Among them, the most skilled rise further to become Commandants: elite masters of complex, personalized techniques. To be a Commandant is to carry pride in every step and danger in every silence.

And above them all sits the rarest title: Commandant Suprême.

Legacy and Lineage

Commandant Erzulie

Some families claim the gift runs in their blood. Old Résonateur lines are marked by generations of prestige, sacrifice, and terrifying grace. Serein, heir of such a legacy, was raised beneath the shadow of greatness—his uncle, Corentin, once held the mantle of Commandant Suprême himself.

All Résonateurs share one mark: a ring of white veins embedded in the skin at the center of their chest, stretching outward to the neck and limbs like living threads of light.

It is both badge and burden.

The Fluctuateurs: When Power Breaks

But not every story ends in triumph.

When a Résonateur loses control of their emotions—when fear overwhelms discipline or rage unravels restraint—their gift turns against them.

Their white veins turn amber. They become Fluctuateurs: unstable, dangerous, and hunted.

The Paramount enforces a zero-tolerance policy. Fluctuateurs are terminated without mercy. Their very existence is a risk too great.

Yet somewhere beyond the reach of Éthéré Coeur, one Fluctuateur still lives—on the run, a fugitive with a past tied intimately to Serein himself.

And the world waits to see whether redemption . . . or ruin . . . will come of it.