Diddy is a broad-shouldered aasimar man with warm brown skin, close-cropped black hair, and a faint golden radiance that gathers around his hands when he becomes emotional. He wears well-maintained chain mail beneath a dark blue tabard marked with a simple sunburst, and carries a heavy shield polished so brightly that people often catch their own reflections in it. Within a minute of meeting him, most people notice that his eyes keep moving around the room, checking exits, weapons, and who seems uncomfortable. He also repeatedly adjusts the holy symbol at his throat without realizing it.

Diddy is charismatic in bursts despite his naturally severe social awkwardness. He treats every gathering like a command tent, remembers everyone's position, and tries to make himself the most reassuring person in the room. He is generous with food, surprisingly gentle with animals, and quick to challenge anyone who humiliates a weaker person. His confidence is partly genuine and partly a performance designed to keep panic from spreading.

Diddy was born during a summer storm in a crowded barracks town, and the old soldiers who found him swaddled beneath a shrine claimed that a warm golden light had filled the room. His celestial heritage made him a curiosity, but it was discipline that shaped him. He enlisted young, learned to hold a shield before he learned to read a battlefield, and developed a talent for making frightened people believe that everything was under control. He was not the loudest soldier in his unit, but he was the one who noticed who had not eaten, who was hiding an injury, and which officer was about to make a disastrous decision.