Roen is the husband of Kelna and the father of Brielle, living in the Valley of Peaceful Escape. His lineage traces back to the Mushkinek refugees who fled the collapse of their uprising and chose the valley precisely because it lay beyond the reach of organized power. Over generations, that choice hardened into belief.
Roen does not see the valley as merely a home. He sees it as a proof. To him, withdrawal from society is not cowardice but correction. Civilization failed once. It will fail again. The valley survives because it refuses to participate.
This makes him a zealot, though not a reckless one. His isolationism is disciplined and almost reverent. He works relentlessly, tending land, tools, shelter, and community, believing that self sufficiency is both moral duty and historical lesson. Within the valley, he is dependable and respected, a man who shows up without being asked and speaks plainly without softness. Friendship, to Roen, is earned through shared labor and shared restraint.
Visitors and strangers unsettle him not out of fear, but out of conviction. Every outsider represents the slow erosion that destroyed the world his ancestors fled. He does not hate them. He simply does not trust the idea that they can pass through without consequence.
This worldview places him in quiet tension with the future. As a husband and father, his love is real and steady, but it is bounded by the same walls he has built around the valley. What he protects may also confine, and what he rejects may someday come for Brielle whether he wills it or not.