A broad-shouldered human man with weathered olive skin, a blunt nose, tired hazel eyes, and black hair threaded with gray. His beard is kept short with a knife rather than a razor. He dresses like a traveling clerk who has slept in too many barns, wearing a patched brown coat over practical robes, a stained scarf, and a belt crowded with chalk, string, folded papers, and small glass vials. His spellbook is bound in cracked red leather and carries several false covers, each hiding a different set of notes.

Mikheil is observant, dryly funny, and constantly alert for the angle behind every conversation. He is generous toward people who are poor, frightened, or being exploited, but he has little patience for comfortable fools. He enjoys appearing less intelligent than he is, then revealing one precise observation that changes the balance of a negotiation.

Mikheil Darsan was found as a child beside a burned wagon road, clutching a slate covered in meaningless symbols. An aging orc named Brakka had once been a caravan guard, but in retirement she made her living by reading omens, selling fake charms, and persuading frightened travelers that ordinary problems required expensive magical solutions. She took Mikheil in, taught him to read faces before books, and trained him in the careful craft of conning people. He learned when to look solemn, when to sound offended, and when to let a silence make the lie for him. Years later, Mikheil discovered that some of the symbols on his slate were not meaningless at all. They were fragments of a real magical notation, copied from a wizard's discarded papers. Brakka's tricks had taught him misdirection, but the academy taught him that words, gestures, and symbols could actually alter reality. He became a self-taught scholar and occasional fraud, selling minor magical services honestly when possible and inventing grander claims when necessary. He now travels with a false academic credential, a suspiciously impressive spellbook, and a genuine desire to find Brakka again, partly to repay her, and partly to prove that the student has become more dangerous than the teacher.