Good read. Personally though, I think Variks a coward and was only worried about saving his own skin. He seems very persistent in the survival of House of Judgment. When I read through the Eliksni grimoire, I couldn't help but feel for Skolas over Variks. Their perspectives are very different. For example, Skolas makes it sound like they came looking for the Traveler as their final shot at the survival of their race, and they were denied by the City, therefore becoming aggressive towards them. There is certainly enough Traveler to go around, but Humanity aren't going to give that up. Skolas appears to have regret for the way things went during the Reef wars with the in-fighting and appears to want to repair the Fallen society back to what it was without the divided houses. Of course, he still has plenty of hatred for the City and the Queen, the Fallen have suffered massive losses to them. When you think about it, the Fallen are just trying to survive, and their survival is being hoarded by the City and it's undead army, whom don't die. Variks the traitor on the other hand, well, he likely threw Skolas under the bus because Skolas amputated him.