Hark is broad through the shoulders and moves with a miner's compact, economical stride, as if every step must be paid for in effort. His green-gray skin is roughened by years of grit, with pale dust worked into the creases of his knuckles. He keeps his black hair cropped close, but combs his thick mustache into two squared points with almost fussy care, an unexpectedly vain habit for a tunnel mercenary. His lower tusks are capped with dull copper sleeves that click together when he chews. He leaves the impression of a man who has learned to make himself small in a narrow passage and dangerous the instant it opens.

Hark is decisive and dependable when a job has clear terms, yet suspicious of anyone offering kindness without a price. In a calm moment he is unexpectedly meticulous, especially about his mustache and equipment. Under pressure he becomes blunt and forceful, while a collapse or sudden cracking sound can make him freeze for half a heartbeat before anger takes over.

Hark was born among the quarry camps above Sendur's mines, where his human mother, Edda, sorted stone and his half-orc father vanished into a string of mercenary jobs. At seventeen, Hark worked a timber crew that ignored his warning about a wet ceiling. A collapse killed his friend Toma and trapped him for two days with the man's body. Hark came out convinced that hesitation kills and that surviving is a kind of permission. He took up mercenary work, first guarding ore carts, then selling his strength to anyone who paid promptly. Refon hired him to recover Aelior mineral from the last room of Sendur's mines, promising enough money to buy Edda out of her debt and leave the camps behind. Hark has lately been exchanging brief messages with Edda and still sends her most of his pay, though he claims to have no family. His current problem is that the party may reach the mineral before he does, and Refon's request gives him the excuse he needs to treat them as obstacles rather than people.