Cao Cao is a broad-shouldered giff with glossy blue-gray skin marked by old white scars that look like cracked porcelain across his back and jaw. He wears a salt-stained admiral's waistcoat tailored to his barrel chest, though the cuffs are lined with children's ribbon and fine lace he has taken as trophies from wealthy buyers. His enormous head is always kept immaculate, his tusks polished to a dull ivory shine, while the rest of him smells faintly of tar, pepper, and iron. He moves with surprising patience for such a massive creature, each step measured like a dock crane swinging a load. The contradiction that makes people remember him is his almost genteel posture and his cruel, mud-caked mace, which he carries as if it were a walking stick.