A compact, weather-hardened human with sun-browned skin, tightly curled black hair kept short against the wind, and a narrow face softened by an unexpectedly warm smile. His sea-green coat is patched at the elbows and salt-stiff at the hem, worn over a dark vest threaded with tiny brass beads. His eyes rarely settle on faces for long. They track doors, rigging, windows, hands, and the movement of air through a room, as if every space might suddenly become a deck in a storm. His palms are rough from rope work, and faint blue-white sparks sometimes crawl across his knuckles when he is irritated or excited.

Iban is observant, practical, and quietly protective. He speaks plainly, dislikes waste, and has an instinct for noticing who in a group is frightened but pretending not to be. Around strangers he is reserved, but among fellow workers and sailors he becomes dryly humorous and surprisingly generous. He trusts demonstrated competence more than rank, charm, or ancestry.

Iban Okriz was born in a crowded harbor quarter where ships from half the known coast unloaded spices, timber, salt fish, and stories. His mother kept accounts for a chandlery, while his father worked as a deckhand and taught him to read weather by the smell of the air. Iban discovered his magic during a squall, when a snapped mast swung toward three sailors and blue fire leapt from his hands, blasting the spar aside. The crew survived, but the captain never again let him near the rigging without a charm tied around his wrist. He spent years aboard the merchant cutter Vespera, learning knots, navigation, and the quiet diplomacy of frightened people trapped together at sea. His sorcery appeared in small, inconvenient ways, lantern flames bending toward him, rain stopping against his shoulders, voices carrying too clearly across a deck. After the Vespera vanished during a voyage through an unnatural bank of silver fog, Iban came ashore with the captain's waterlogged logbook and no clear memory of the final night. He now travels inland and from port to port, looking for someone who understands the strange storm that took his ship, while trying to become the kind of spellcaster whose power protects people instead of frightening them.