Kettig is a broad-shouldered blue-gray dragonborn with chipped cobalt scales, a blunt swept-back crest, and amber eyes that rarely stay still. A pale scar cuts across the left side of the muzzle, and one horn is broken near the tip. He wears patched brown leathers beneath a weathered cloak, with a red cord tied around one wrist and a battered handaxe always within reach.

Suspicious at first, Kettig is fiercely loyal once trust is earned. He speaks plainly, notices hungry people immediately, and has a dry sense of humor that appears at the worst possible moments. He dislikes being fussed over but secretly treasures acts of ordinary kindness, especially shared meals and repaired clothing.

Kettig was hatched in a riverside district where dragonborn laborers, dock thieves, and abandoned children learned to survive beside one another. His clan had come to the city generations earlier, but poverty scattered the family before Kettig was old enough to understand what had happened. He learned the city by sleeping under stairways, stealing crusts from market stalls, and memorizing which watchmen could be bribed and which ones enjoyed cruelty. A one-eyed street child named Toma became his closest friend and taught him to read danger in the movement of crowds. When a gang boss tried to claim Toma as property, Kettig's temper finally broke loose. His first rage was not a battle cry but a terrible, choking roar that sent smoke curling from his nostrils. He drove the gang away with a stolen axe, then discovered that the fury inside him could be aimed, if never fully controlled. Toma disappeared soon afterward while fleeing the city with smugglers, leaving Kettig with only a red cord and a half-finished map. Now Kettig travels as a barbarian and occasional caravan guard, searching for his friend, protecting people who remind him of the children he left behind, and trying to prove that being dangerous does not mean becoming cruel.