A broad-shouldered orc with ash-gray skin, a scar split across one tusk, and a mane of black hair shaved on the sides and braided with wolf teeth. He wears battered soldier's gear layered with hide and bone charms, carries a heavy greataxe, and bears the weathered calm of someone who has survived too many battles to waste anger on the living. His eyes are pale amber, steady and observant, and his posture is usually relaxed until the instant violence begins.

Korga is quiet, disciplined, and unexpectedly patient. He listens more than he speaks, sizes people up by their habits rather than their boasts, and prefers practical kindness over grand speeches. He is protective to a fault, especially toward the frightened, the young, and anyone who reminds him of the raw recruits he once led through snow and arrows.

Korga Stonehowl was born in a warband camp where strength was measured by who could carry the wounded, not who could break the most skulls. As a young orc, he expected to die in a raid like the rest of his kin, but a human captain saw something else in him, a steady hand, a disciplined fury, and the rare ability to stand between panic and slaughter. He was taken into a frontier regiment as an auxiliary, taught to march, to hold formation, and to treat his temper like a weapon instead of a master. Years of border wars changed him more than the scars did. Korga learned that battle could be a shield for the helpless, not just a proving ground for the strong. When his unit was betrayed during a winter retreat, he survived by trusting the old spirits his grandmother had whispered about, the patient bear, the watchful wolf, the hawk that sees the path home. Now he walks the roads as a hard-eyed protector, half soldier and half shaman, seeking the enemies that prey on the weak and carrying the dead he failed to save in the form of vows he will not break.