Characters, Cast & Factions
Who is who, who plays them, and what each one wants. Spoiler-light by design: this covers motivations and allegiances, not outcomes. Anything the publisher has not named is left unnamed rather than guessed at.
William Dowsett
ConfirmedPlayer character · voiced by James Alexander
A young, bold Englishman who had grown disillusioned with the monarchy and volunteered to fight for Napoleon's ideal of a unified Europe. He wakes on a grim battlefield as apparently the only soldier still in possession of his own mind, with almost nothing left of his memory.
Wants: To understand what happened to him, and to decide whether the cause he died for is still worth serving.
Story role: He is the lens for the game's central branch: remain loyal to the Emperor, or follow The Shrike.
Because the game is first-person, you barely see his face, but his narration carries an unusual amount of the story. Hands-on coverage singled out the performance as one of the strongest elements.
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
ConfirmedThe voice in your head · voiced by Vincent Cassel
The Emperor commands the largest army Europe has ever fielded. He shares a mysterious connection with William that leaves a version of his voice inside William's head, guiding him across the continent. His victory at Waterloo opened the road east, and his armies have been stalled in eastern Europe ever since.
Wants: To control a war that has become something unnatural.
Story role: One pole of the loyalty branch. He is written as a guiding voice rather than a present character, which is a deliberate and slightly unsettling choice: the game's most powerful figure exists mainly as a suggestion.
Hands-on coverage found the whispering-Napoleon device strange at first, then effective. Expect other historical figures to appear.
The Shrike
ConfirmedRebel fighter · voiced by Jennifer English
A resistance fighter who moves through occupied eastern Europe with strength well beyond the ordinary. She answers to no authority and fights for the people living under imperial occupation.
Wants: Something from William, specifically. She has her own designs on him.
Story role: The other pole of the loyalty branch. Midway through the story her voice joins Napoleon's inside William's head, which means the player's conscience becomes a two-way argument.
There is a dedicated trophy, Birdwatcher, for a rendezvous with her, which confirms at least one meeting is missable.
Captain Raphael
ConfirmedGilded officer · voiced by Adam 'Nergal' Darski
A masked captain in Napoleon's army. The rank and the mask both signal seniority, and he is one of the few named figures on the imperial side.
Wants: Unstated in published material.
Story role: Cast reveal only, with no published plot detail. His role is genuinely unknown rather than being withheld here.
Voiced by the frontman of the Polish extreme metal band Behemoth, which is either a coincidence or the most on-the-nose piece of casting in the game, depending on how the character turns out.
James Stewart
ConfirmedFellow soldier · voiced by Will de Renzy-Martin
A soldier of the Grande Armée who features prominently in the story trailer as a close friend of William's.
Wants: Unstated in published material.
Story role: The publisher's own description of William's opening dilemma involves deciding whether to trust a survivor who claims to be an old comrade. Stewart is the obvious candidate for that survivor.
The parallel naming, two Englishmen in a French army, is not accidental.
Lucjan Skawninski
ReportedUnconfirmed · voiced by Mars Lipowski
Named in the cast reveal and seen briefly in trailer footage. Nothing about the role has been published.
Wants: Unknown.
Story role: Unknown.
Listed here because he is a confirmed cast member with a confirmed voice actor. He is not listed with a theory attached.
Louis Moreau
ReportedUnconfirmed · voiced by Yvan Chamoiseau
Named in the cast reveal and glimpsed briefly in trailer footage. This is the voice actor's first credited game role.
Wants: Unknown.
Story role: Unknown.
Included for completeness. No speculation attached.
Sergeant Gaspard 'Cannonhand' Dubois
ConfirmedNamed elite enemy
A named soldier rather than a story character, confirmed by the trophy that asks you to lock him in Stasis. The nickname implies an arm replaced or reinforced with artillery hardware.
Wants: Not applicable.
Story role: A skill-check elite. His trophy is the only reason the wider community knows he exists.
The practical takeaway: check the trophy list before engaging anything with a name, because some named enemies have a specific window you can miss permanently.
The named voice cast
| Voice actor | Plays | Notable credits |
|---|---|---|
| James Alexander | William Dowsett | Horizon Call of the Mountain, Dying Light: The Beast, The Blood of Dawnwalker |
| Vincent Cassel | Napoleon Bonaparte | Mesrine, Irréversible, Tekken 8 (Victor Chevalier) |
| Jennifer English | The Shrike | Baldur’s Gate 3 (Shadowheart), Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Maelle) |
| Adam ‘Nergal’ Darski | Captain Raphael | Frontman of the Polish extreme metal band Behemoth |
| Will de Renzy-Martin | James Stewart | Warframe, The Sinking City 2, The Blood of Dawnwalker |
| Mars Lipowski | Lucjan Skawninski | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Gromsko) |
| Yvan Chamoiseau | Louis Moreau | This is his first credited game role |
Source: Lyrical Games cast reveal, 28 September 2026. The publisher has not published the full cast, so this list is complete only with respect to what has been announced.
Factions
The Grande Armée
ConfirmedNapoleon's army, and the institution William died serving. Its dead do not stay dead, which is where the plague's horror and the game's enemy roster come from.
Napoleon's Eternal Guard
ConfirmedNamed directly in the Steam store description. The plague-ridden elite of the imperial army, and the parent faction for the Eternal Guardsman enemy and much of the late-game roster.
The word 'Eternal' is doing a lot of work in a game about resurrection.
The Mice
ReportedA faction name that appears in community documentation of the demo's cast list alongside The Shrike. No publisher statement confirms it.
Included as a lead, not as a fact. Treat it as a name to watch for in-game rather than something to plan around.
The Resistance
ConfirmedThe people The Shrike fights for: eastern Europeans living under imperial occupation. The game's narrative tension is that William, an English volunteer, chose the empire over people like them.
Cast questions
Who voices Napoleon in Valor Mortis?
Vincent Cassel, the César-winning French actor. He plays Napoleon as a voice inside William’s head rather than a present character.
Who is The Shrike?
A resistance fighter voiced by Jennifer English, who played Shadowheart in Baldur’s Gate 3 and Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. She fights for eastern Europeans under imperial occupation and has her own designs on William.
Who is William in Valor Mortis?
William Dowsett, voiced by James Alexander. A young Englishman disillusioned with the monarchy who volunteered for Napoleon’s ideal of a unified Europe, died on a battlefield, and woke up as apparently the only soldier still sane.