Varis is a massive Half-Orc with skin the color of a bruised thundercloud. His chest and arms are covered in jagged, geometric tattoos that glow with a faint blue light when he channels magic. He wears a simple leather vest over sea-stained linen and keeps his dark, thick hair tied back with a piece of fishing line. Small sparks occasionally jump between his tusks.

He is a man of loud laughter and intense silences. Varis views the ocean as a living god that he has somehow cheated. He treats his crewmates like family, but he is fiercely competitive and will never let a slight go unpunished. He speaks to the wind as if it can hear him, often apologizing to the gale before he commands it to turn the ship.

Varis was born on a merchant vessel during a hurricane that should have claimed every soul on board. As the mast snapped, a bolt of lightning struck the infant Varis, but instead of killing him, it seemed to ground itself within his very soul. He was the only survivor found by the Crimson Current, a notorious pirate fleet. The pirates saw a child born of the storm as a good omen, and their captain raised him to be the ship's most valuable asset. Varis did not learn magic from books. He learned it by feeling the static in the air before a downpour and the weight of the water against the hull. He has served as the Current's wind-caller for a decade, ensuring their sails are always full and their enemies are always trapped in dead air. Despite his rough exterior, he carries the guilt of the merchant ship's destruction, wondering if his birth was the cause of the storm or merely its consequence.