Broder Buff is a 6'6" human man with an athletic, heavily muscled build. He has long brown wavy hair, a short carefully trimmed beard, and a broad, steady face that rarely shows panic. He wears plain brown sleeveless hooded robes over chain mail, with a silver World Tree pendant resting against his chest. A weathered devotional tome hangs from his belt beside his warhammer. He stands with most of his weight settled onto his back foot, as though perpetually measuring the ground before committing to a step. His grooming is deliberate but practical, and he keeps his hair tied with a strip of brown leather during combat.

Broder is warm, practical, and intensely attentive to physical danger. He notices loose stones, blocked exits, weak bridges, and who in a crowd is trying not to cough. He prefers useful kindness to grand speeches, and he will carry a stranger without comment while lecturing everyone else about proper evacuation order. His humor is dry and unexpectedly gentle, especially when directed at his own size or his rivalry with Borgus.

Broder was raised among road-builders and timber crews on the northern edge of the Jotundal forests, where every bridge was treated as a promise that someone would get home. His strength made him useful from childhood, but it was his patience that drew the attention of Kirlis's keepers. The priests taught that the World Tree was not merely a symbol of endurance. Its roots carried warnings through the earth, its trunk held communities upright, and its branches gave shelter without asking who deserved it. Broder learned to read those lessons in landslides, sick animals, tremors, and the subtle wrongness of water running against a slope. He later served as a heavy infantryman and evacuation guard, earning a reputation for lifting barricades, carrying the injured, and refusing orders that treated civilians as expendable obstacles. After leaving formal service, he took vows to Kirlis and became a wandering War Domain cleric. His investigations into corrupted ley lines brought him to Kärr-Halla, Leidon, and the spreading crisis around Jotundal. He now travels with companions because he has learned that warnings are useless unless someone is strong enough to stand between frightened people and the thing they fear. Broder regards every evacuation as a victory, every survivor as evidence that the roots still hold.