A compact forest gnome with weathered brown skin, broad hands, and a practical build shaped by years of walking woodland paths and carrying field journals. His dark hair is clipped short at the sides and tied into a small, untidy knot at the back. He stands with his weight slightly forward, as if ready to step around roots or loose stones, and keeps one hand resting on the strap of his satchel when waiting. His voice is low and unexpectedly steady for a gnome, but his breathing becomes quick and audible when he is frightened or angry. He wears patched leather armor beneath a moss-green cloak, with a wooden shield marked by careful botanical sketches.

Baku is patient with frightened animals, children, and anyone willing to admit ignorance. He is brisk with bullies and pompous scholars, especially those who confuse having read something with understanding it. He prefers practical kindness over grand gestures, and he will quietly repair a broken hinge, label an unfamiliar herb, or leave food where a hungry creature can find it.

Baku Mosi was raised among the root-cellars and orchard terraces of a forest gnome settlement where every family kept records of something important. His mother catalogued medicinal mosses, his uncle copied old boundary maps, and Baku spent his childhood sorting seed packets by moon phase while listening to elders argue over whether a particular stream had always bent east. He was clever enough to become an apprentice scholar, but too restless to remain indoors. The living world kept interrupting his studies, especially when birds carried messages, foxes watched him from hedges, and the trees seemed to remember names that no book contained. He eventually left the settlement with a bundle of copied manuscripts, a battered field journal, and the teachings of a wandering druid who recognized his gift for listening before speaking. Baku learned Druidic, the seasonal signs of the wild, and the practical use of plants that could heal, conceal, nourish, or kill. He now travels as both natural philosopher and caretaker, seeking lost knowledge while helping ordinary people protect their farms, wells, and forests from those who treat the land as an object to be owned. He is especially determined to recover a missing collection of journals documenting a blight that once nearly destroyed his home.