I gotta say, I did not expect this kind of romance between Valmont and Drayven.

I really hope things go well for Valmont. They look so stressed out during that last panel.

Wait, who is Morana?

She's yet to have full reveal in the comic, but essentially the leader of Valmont's old coven of necromancers who died. She used her name in the chapter 2 reforged pages using a glamour to trick him into going into a tavern room, then later at the end of the blood-cleaning ritual is seemingly the voice speaking via her relic to Valmont.
Valmont is considering doing a full body and soul resurrection using necromancy but it's very difficult and dangerous. Thus one of the motivations to get the relics/ubers.

You got this diva!

So the true villain of all that plagues Alder is the chancellor guy. the child rapist/abuser who also has the king's ear and seems to be the source of a lot of fucked up shit in the kingdom, including it's king's bloodthirsty expansionism.

Having said that... I'd imagine that the king himself isn't very keen on letting go of that adviser anyway, so the king might have to go himself if only to begin to solve the problems that Alder has and is imposing on the kingdom.

...incidentally, how much time has passed since the last time Val and Drayven were in a room together...?

Like roughly around 7 hours.

Huh! I don't know why but I got the implication that it'd been a while since they'd last met.

I wonder why Val chose to present herself like this...

Like as an androgynous male?
Because Alder isn't kind to lgbt+ people, she is weary about being accepted or being taken seriously - but is still trying to have somethings true to herself (thus the androgynous nature of her appearance) she is also covertly testing Drayven's reactions.
She puts on a persona to try to play up the role as being very confident, but is a deeply lonely and insecure person underneathe it all, in spite of her raw power and skill.
Magic is how she was accepted by her parents, by society and is meaningful to her as a person, but it's also been the downfall of a lot of her issues - like a double-edged sword.

So kinda like Kylar's issue, from a slightly different angle and different perspective. I suppose it might make sense that a nation ruled in such a way would have such issues with those who differ from the norm, especially when they aim to impose their norm on others through war

Well yeah, it'd be weird if they were only bigoted towards gay men but not transgendered people though. Unlike Kylar, Val would have a much harder time hiding. Though it's not just the LGBT+ its those with disabilities, those fera lower on the 'food chain' (Farron faces a lot of discrimination for being a rat, but someone like Soya would be praised for being a tiger)
basically sort of the inverse of maybe what you'd see in Zootopia/Beastars where predators are feared - instead they are valued for their "strength" and "power". (Although unlike Zootopia and Beastars, all Fera are essentially the same species and different 'races' is purely aesthetic - so predatory Fera races actually aren't stronger or more powerful) mixed race couples.. ect..

Alder's society was a pure Fera-standard of mostly same-species heterosexual predator couples that are strong and have lots of babies and are healthy- Like this idealized but ultimately false sense of superiority. It is no concidence we made Andras a pangolin - a prey animal with scales.. and he has hatred for-- actual dragons (dahaki).

It's also why he specifically targeted Drayven, because Drayven embodies this sick idealization. As well as sort of the rot and insecurity Andras has for himself.

I hope that better explains the politics and dynamics of Alder.

See, this makes me think Farron betrayed the group for additional reasons that didn't have anything to do with who Sesame was and how she acted toward him so much as possibly built up trauma from what Sesame represented: another vector of harassment from those stupid Fera that Alderian (I am not sure if that is the correct term or if you've even thought about what would be but if you like it there ya go) society so elevates.