The Blood of Dawnwalker Romance in Vale Sangora

The Blood of Dawnwalker has three romance options. Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has a studio rule about not listing them in interviews: you will see them after release, and you have to build the relationship in play. That is why this page does not publish a spoiler grid of names. It tells you the cost, the one candidate previews keep circling, and how a date can delete a quest giver if you show up hungry. Character bios sit on allies. The clock sits on the time system. Endings that remember who you funded sit on the endings page.

Romance is woven into the narrative sandbox. It is not a separate dating sim with its own map icons. If a scene asks you to stay, the UI shows an hourglass. Believe it. A night with someone is the same currency as a shrine rank and a rebellion raid.

Anca is the path the previews actually showed

Anca is Laslea’s healer and the witch who carves hex runes into Coen’s arm. Those scars are the Witchcraft tree: day-only tools that fade when the marks heal after dusk. IGN First and Game Informer’s romance preview both put you in her house. Coen comes for an elixir that will calm his mother Esme’s mind so Brencis does not notice she is starving herself. A storm traps them inside. Anca offers Latin practice. Staying spends a segment. The poem she picks is an ode to a lover. The faces do the rest.

That sequence is the tutorial for every later romance beat:

1. You can walk away. The herbs can still happen. The relationship does not.
2. Staying is a listed time spend, not flavour text.
3. The scene can escalate (the preview continues into treating a wound) only if you keep saying yes.
4. None of it pauses feeding. A starved Coen can kill the person he came to see.

Hands-on coverage, including IGN, has used the phrase “romance the local witch.” Anca is that witch. She taught Coen to read. She is also carrying a past the village is not meant to see. Pushing that past is how the romance deepens, and it is how you spend a day Marat wanted for a raid.

GameSpot hands-on preview of the opening hours

The other two are earned, not listed

There are three romance options. Previews have not been given permission to name the other two as a public checklist. Lacra and Marat are the other named allies on this wiki; that is not the same sentence as “they are the other two romances.” Konrad’s rule exists because Rebel Wolves want those relationships to feel like people, not like a party-screen heart meter. If a third-party list names them before you have played, treat it as a spoiler, not as a build order.

What is confirmed for planning:

• Romance consumes hourglass segments the same way shrine levels do.
• You will not max Swordmastery, finish a rebellion, and complete a full romance on one 30-day file unless you ignore large parts of the map.
• Infamy with the court and hunger with the beast are separate meters. A public massacre in Svartrau can close a door a romance needed. A bite can close it permanently.
• Day and night change the scene. Anca’s Latin is a sun hours conversation. A night visit is a different kit and a different risk. Read day and night before you knock after dusk.

Budget love like a dungeon

Put a romance on the time planner as a named job, not as a reward you will “fit in.” A sane first-week rule: do not start a romance on a whim during Laslea’s leftover segments after the Blood Mass. You still need a shrine, a safe feed, and a traversal node. Week two is when a relationship has room if the coronation still has buffer nights.

If the UI offers a stay-the-night prompt:

• Check remaining day and night segments.
• Feed first if the hunger pip is high. Animals work. Important NPCs do not respawn from a snap.
• Do not stack a romance night on top of a two-segment story beat the same evening.
• Remember that hex scars heal at night. If the scene is a talk, daylight is usually the cheaper kit. If the scene is a hunt, night is the kit that can actually reach the balcony.

Game Informer’s preview is the cleanest warning about infamy: the same systems that let you be tender in a cottage let you become a problem the village talks about. Romance does not freeze the world’s opinion of Coen. The court still counts bodies.

How romance hits the ending

The family is held for Brencis’s investiture. You see them at the bookends. Allies occupy the middle. A completed romance is one of the accents the endings page is talking about when it says the finale remembers who you funded. Skipping romance is also an accent — Coen arrives at Greifberg with a sword and no one who taught him Latin. Neither is a “true” ending. Both spend the same 480 segments.

There is no official New Game Plus. If you want the other two hearts, that is a second save, a second difficulty choice, and a second decision about whether the family lives. Start with Getting Started so Anca is still the woman who taught him to read, not a checklist item you rush on day one.