Nova is a young half-elf woman with pale skin, bright blue eyes, and medium-length shaggy brown hair that constantly falls into her face. She wears an old blue feathered cap inherited from her father, a white shirt beneath a fancy blue vest, a blue shoulder cape draped over her right shoulder, brown pants, and black boots. A worn lute with blue-painted accents hangs at her side, while a rapier, dagger, longsword, crossbow, and quiver are arranged across her belt and back. Within minutes of meeting her, most people notice that she repeatedly adjusts the feather in her cap and flashes a wide, mischievous grin that shows a slightly prominent canine tooth.

Nova is quick-witted, theatrical, and impossible to discourage for long. She treats nearly every conversation as an audience interaction, whether she is performing for a tavern, distracting a guard, or flirting with a woman twice her age. Beneath her confident showmanship, she is fiercely protective of Ruby and Fire, and she is far more observant and emotionally perceptive than she pretends to be.

Nova was seven when raiders descended upon her village. By the time the fires burned low, her family was dead and the place she had called home was gone. She escaped with only two treasures, her father's battered blue feathered cap and her mother's old lute. Nova wandered until she reached the nearest city, where she learned to turn grief into music and coins into supper. Her performances were rough, but her voice was bright, and her quick fingers made the lute sing. The city watch eventually caught her sleeping beneath a market stall and sent her to the local orphanage. A year later, Nova met Ruby Emerldheart, a younger girl with strange magic flickering beneath her skin. Nova became Ruby's protector, older sister, and partner in every forbidden adventure. After several years, the pair escaped the orphanage and survived by performing, pickpocketing, bluffing, and swindling their way from town to town. During their travels, they found a female dragon wyrmling. Ruby named her Fire, and Nova reluctantly accepted that their little family now included a creature capable of burning down an inn. Nova dreams of entertaining the world from one end to the other, but beneath every joke and flirtatious smile lies a persistent need to discover who destroyed her village. When she finds them, she intends to make them remember her name.