Zami is a lean, athletic water genasi woman with sea-blue skin, dark teal hair that drifts as though underwater, and pale turquoise eyes with no visible pupils. Thin streams of water bead along her arms and gather at her fingertips when she is excited or angry. She wears a weathered leather jerkin beneath a salt-stained sailor's coat, soft deck boots, and a red scarf tied around her wrist. Her movements are quick, balanced, and fluid, like a wave slipping around an obstacle.

Zami is restless, observant, and irreverently cheerful in dangerous situations. She trusts sailors, strays, and people who know how to keep a secret. She has little patience for ceremony, but she enjoys clever wordplay, risky bets, and turning an enemy's confidence against them.

Zami was born during a storm that shattered three fishing boats against the black reefs outside a coastal genasi settlement. Her water genasi blood was blamed for the disaster by frightened villagers, but an old navigator named Captain Veyra saw something different in the child. Veyra took Zami aboard her ship, the Drowned Star, and taught her to read currents, knots, stars, and the moods of crews. Zami learned quickly, especially the parts of sailing that involved moving unseen across a deck, slipping into locked cabins, and taking back what dishonest officers had stolen from desperate sailors. When the Drowned Star was seized by a corrupt harbor magistrate, Veyra disappeared and the crew was scattered. Zami survived by working as a deckhand, courier, and occasional thief in ports along the coast. She now travels as a rogue, using her speed, charm, and talent for finding overlooked opportunities to uncover what happened to her captain. She claims she wants only freedom and enough coin to never serve under another master, but beneath that claim is a stubborn determination to find Veyra and repay the debt she owes to the woman who gave her a life at sea.