Valerian Mengsk

"My face may be unfamiliar to you but my name will not be. I am Valerian Mengsk, son of our glorious Emperor Arcturus."

- Valerian's introduction to Jake Ramsey. Valerian Mengsk is a character debuted in StarCraft II. He is the offspring of Arcturus Mengsk and the current emperor who succeeded as a new generation for Terran Dominion since the death of his father.

Early life
Valerian Mengsk was born to his glorious father Arcturus, the first emperor of the Dominion, then the soldier of Terran Confederacy, and Juliana Pasteur of Umoja (currently Juliana Mengsk), a paralegal, following their relationship on Tyrador IX until she was gradually sinking into a terminal illness.

When Juliana realized she was pregnant, she told Ailin, her father, that she would not tell her husband, as she didn't want distract him from his combat operations. So she gave up her career and raised Valerian on planet Umoja instead.

History
For seven years later, Juliana taught Valerian about what a great man his father was, and used to be an archaeologist by digging up fossils in the family garden and studying literature around the mystic. Juliana finally wanted Allin to contact Valerian just as the Guild Wars were ending and making a great prospective search.

Emperor Mengsk was surprised and mainly displeased to his effort make a connection with his son, but they had little in common. He disputed with the way Juliana raised her son, and quickly threw out his books and replaced them with things he preferred. Valerian was considered weak by Arcturus, more of his mother's, and having nothing in common. Arcturus fruitlessly tried to teach Valerian how to perform marksmanship, though they did have a common ground in form of fencing.

While the prospective spoils of Arcturus made the Mengsk family incredibly rich, the surname would come to haunt Valerian as he, and anyone around him, were subjects to assassination attempts more than can be done once. It was not till after Arcturus had formed the Terran Dominion for being the first emperor that he would get to see his father, a meeting ending in yet another deadly attempt. When his mother passed away, Valerian was moved on to planet Korhal to secretly be raised as the heir of the Terron Dominion, receiving his lessons in military leadership. Though unlike his father, Arcturus, Valerian believed in ruling the Dominion without iron fist and secretly looked up to Raynor's honor and courage, being fully aware of his father's means of uprising.

Wings of Liberty
With his secrets behind the hidden research group known as Moebius Foundation and using the escaped outlaw, Tychus Findlay, Valerian convinces Jim to acquire separated pieces of Xel'Naga relics found somewhere in the galaxy within Koprulu sector. When combined into an actual relic, they would become mean to redeem and rescue Sarah Kerrigan from the entire swarm, although this was revealed to Jim after most series were collected. Up to that point, credits was the only agreement and his ties to the Moebius Foundation was not known. Working as a team, he declares to Arcturus Mengsk that he intends to do what it takes to earn his place respectively as the heir of the Terran Dominion throne, and what Arcturus couldn't have accomplished. Together with Jim and his rebel friends, Valerian orders a full onslaught against the ruthless Zerg Swarm on planet Char, using a massive fleet of Dominion arsenal at his disposal.