Mavulani is a broad-shouldered human man whose movements are unexpectedly quiet for his size. His skin has the deep brown sheen of oiled walnut, marked by pale rope burns around his left wrist and a small crescent scar beneath his lower lip. His hair is tightly coiled and shaved close at the temples, with the longer crown gathered into a short, uneven knot. One of his front teeth is capped in dull brass, not for ornament but to replace a tooth lost in a ferry accident. He walks with a measured, rolling balance learned from years on unstable decks, yet his hands are remarkably delicate when tying knots, mending nets, or tending injured birds. He gives the impression of a patient laborer until someone threatens a child, at which point his stillness becomes more frightening than anger.