Ruzha is a broad-shouldered half-orc woman with the physical presence of a retired brawler and the careful movements of someone carrying a bowl filled to the brim. Before she speaks, she draws a slow breath through her nose, as if smelling rain that no one else can detect. She waits with her weight on the balls of her feet, never quite settling, and plants her staff only after deciding where the ground is weakest. Her lower tusks are filed flat, not for beauty but because they once caught on a wooden bit during a forced labor march. Her hands are large, square-palmed, and permanently stained green beneath the nails. The unexpected contradiction is her gentleness with fragile things: she handles beetles, eggshells, and frightened children with exquisite delicacy, while treating armed adults as furniture that has wandered into the wrong room.