Zaku is a broad-shouldered copper dragonborn with dark bronze scales, a chipped left horn, and bright green eyes that never seem to stop measuring exits. His old criminal life shows in the thin black tattoos around his wrists, once used by his gang as a mark of rank. He now wears polished chain mail over a deep crimson coat, a battered black half-cloak, and a steel shield painted with a golden open hand. His longsword is finely balanced and engraved with the names of people he failed to protect. A strip of blue cloth is tied around one horn, a keepsake from the first person who believed he could change.

Zaku is intensely observant, dryly funny, and unexpectedly gentle with frightened people. He has a criminal's instinct for danger and a former enforcer's talent for making himself look larger than he is. He tries to act honorable in public, but his idea of heroism is practical rather than theatrical. He will lie to a tyrant, cheat a corrupt official, or break into a prison if that is what saving someone requires.

Zaku grew up in a dragonborn quarter built around an overcrowded river market, where honest work was scarce and protection money was common. He became the muscle and escape artist for a crew called the Red Knuckles, using his strength, stealth, and intimidating presence to collect debts and move stolen goods. He told himself that the gang only took from people who could afford it, until a botched robbery left a street vendor badly injured and a young apprentice blamed for the crime. Zaku took the blame instead, but the sight of the apprentice's family begging for mercy broke something in him that pride could not repair. After serving his sentence, Zaku returned to the same streets and found that his former crew had become crueler and more powerful. He refused their offer to come back, rescued one of their intended victims, and began using his knowledge of criminal routes to guide people away from danger. He still knows how to pick a lock, disappear in a crowd, and make a threat sound convincing, but now he uses those talents to protect the helpless. Becoming a hero is not easy for someone whose name still makes shopkeepers reach for their purses, so Zaku treats every act of kindness as a debt he must repay. His first real step toward adventuring came when he stood between a frightened village and a gang he once worked for, then won the fight without killing anyone.