Jorund is a compact, pale-skinned dwarf with a rounded, doll-like face and delicate features that strangers often mistake for a woman's. His great green eyes, framed by lush, unusually thick lashes, look almost painted on until they snap toward a sound. Messy black hair brushes his shoulders, its tips dyed a deep navy blue; a pointed lock hangs between his eyebrows. He moves with a springy, rolling gait, favoring the balls of his feet as if every floor were a dueling ground. His lean, roped muscle and very narrow waist contrast with the broad, stubborn weight of his dwarven bones. Unexpectedly, he keeps a tiny collection of pressed wildflowers tucked inside his boar mask, each one labeled in painstaking, neat script.

Jorund is exuberant and quick to praise, yet privately alert to the danger of his own impulsiveness. In company he performs confidence like a festival act; alone, he rehearses conversations he is afraid to have. When someone is threatened, he becomes startlingly decisive, but when asked to solve a puzzle or follow a complicated plan, he bluffs, jokes, and hopes someone will explain it plainly.

Jorund was born to a family of dwarven quarry workers who had settled in a highland valley far from the holds. As a boy he was loud, eager, and terrible at estimating danger. During a winter avalanche, he charged into a collapsed quarry to pull his younger brother Hadrik free, only to find that the trapped workers needed someone to brace a failing support while the rescuers dug. He held it long enough for everyone to escape, then spent weeks recovering from crushed ribs. The experience taught him that courage without attention can make more work for everyone else, though it did not make him quiet or cautious by nature. A traveling sword instructor named Shirin taught him paired-blade forms and the discipline to watch an opponent's feet. Jorund later became a caravan guard, earning his battered katanas in a border-town duel and wearing a boar-head helm from a defeated raider captain. He now protects settlements along the old mountain road while trying to reconcile with Hadrik, who believes Jorund's impulsive heroics left their family with debts and grief. He sends money home, but has not yet found the nerve to visit.