Koresh is a broad-shouldered half-orc with a face shaped by wind, salt, and too many close calls. His tightly pulled black braids are bound with copper wire and small knots of blue sailcloth, each one marking a voyage he survived. A pale scar cuts through his left eyebrow and disappears beneath the lid, leaving that eye slightly narrowed even when he is amused. His green-gray skin is roughened at the knuckles and freckled with old sunburn. He moves with a sailor's rolling balance on land, but aboard ship he becomes unnervingly still, as if the deck is carrying him rather than the other way around. His tusks are filed blunt for practicality, yet his hands are gentle enough to mend a gull's broken wing. The contradiction is most striking when he smiles: his stern expression makes him look ready to order a hanging, while the smile itself is warm, frequent, and entirely sincere.