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Valtome (pronounced /vɑlˈtoʊmeɪ/; Japanese: バルテロメ Valtelome) is a Begnion duke from the territory of Culbert, and a member of the Begnion Imperial Senate. He played an important role in the Senate's schemes in their war with the Laguz Alliance, plotting to both drive the laguz to extinction and to usurp control of Begnion from its rightful ruler, Empress Sanaki, once and for all. He was assigned command of the Begnion military to achieve this, where he became a bitter enemy of the acclaimed Begnion war hero Zelgius.
Along with the rest of the Senate, Valtome desired to seize control of Begnion away from Empress Sanaki and allow the Senate to govern it themselves without interference, as the result of years of Sanaki and Sephiran working to put an end to the corruption and misdeeds which were common among senators. To achieve this, Valtome and the rest of the senate, under the leadership of Lekain, provoked the laguz nations into war and caused them to form the Laguz Alliance and attack Begnion. When the war was underway, the senate had Sanaki and Sephiran detained to prevent them from interfering.
Partway through the war, after Zelgius had defeated Skrimir in single combat and the Alliance had begun its retreat to Gallia, the rest of the senate appointed Valtome as the commander-in-chief of Begnion's forces. He took over direct command of the war effort and Begnion's military plans from Zelgius, in order to prolong the war and destroy the laguz once and for all. Under his direction the northern force was left behind to "search for bodies of dead sub-humans or something" in the dangerous Kauku Caves, into which the Alliance had fled, while Valtome led the Central Army to retreat and regroup.
Valtome's new plan for the Begnion army was to stage an invasion of Gallia through Crimea, and he immediately began to pressure Crimea's Queen Elincia for support for the war effort, demanding both free passage through Crimean lands and supplies and reinforcements. As a pacifist and ally of Gallia, Elincia denied all of these requests, and in revenge Valtome ordered the army to enter Crimea anyway and begin actively raiding and stealing from its people for the needed supplies. After the Crimean Royal Knights stopped one of these raids, Valtome met with Elincia and demanded her loyalty and support for the war, threatening to have Elincia executed for treason and to then claim Crimea as his own.
Days later, Valtome and the Central Army passed into Crimea territory anyway and prepared to engage the Laguz Alliance, but they were stopped by the arrival of Elincia, who laid down her sword as a symbolic gesture to stop the fight. When Valtome insisted on attacking anyway, Zelgius, Levail, and the Central Army retreated from the battle, as did the Laguz Alliance army. Enraged by this turn of events, Valtome ordered his personal Culbert army and its commander, Sergei, to kill Elincia for defying him. Valtome's army was opposed by Ike and the Greil Mercenaries, as well as the Crimean Royal Knights, who drove his men back. In the end, as Elincia's allies succeeded in overwhelming the Culbert army, Valtome escaped the battlefield and swore to punish Zelgius for failing to aid him.
Once he returned to the Central Army's base camp, Valtome immediately arranged to have Zelgius executed as a traitor for his inaction in the last battle, despite the objections of Levail. Knowing of the great esteem Zelgius had among the people of Begnion, Valtome planned to release a cover story for Zelgius's death which claimed that he had died in battle against the Laguz Alliance. The execution was foiled by the arrival of Empress Sanaki and her Holy Guard, who accused the senate of treachery to seize control of Begnion. Valtome, of course, denied these claims, and this divided the Central Army between those loyal to the senate and those loyal to Sanaki.
After the awakening of Ashera and Yune, Valtome became a leader in Ashera's Disciples of Order along with the other Begnion senators. He led an army of Disciples to attack the Hawk Army, led by Elincia and Tibarn, as they traveled near Lake Semper in the east, and he fought to avenge himself on both Elincia and Zelgius (who was not present, although Valtome insisted otherwise) for how they had undermined him before. Valtome died in this battle, still cursing Zelgius with his last words.