Jor looks like a young sailor pulled from a cold grave and not quite returned to life. He stands a little over average height, still growing into his long limbs, and moves with an unnerving, careful steadiness. His soaked clothes drag at his shoulders and cling in salt-stiff folds; frayed hems rasp when he walks. His hair, once light blond, is paling toward almost white, and his blue eyes narrow painfully in sunlight. At a closer look, thin gill slits are forming along his neck, their edges faintly pink and startlingly sensitive. His fingers and toes are webbed. The unexpected detail: despite his drowned, ragged appearance, he keeps one small brass button polished with obsessive care, rubbing it with his thumb whenever he must make a choice.

Jor's old enthusiasm has not vanished so much as sunk beneath a layer of eerie composure. He can be generous and protective, especially when someone is hurt, but he becomes absorbed by food when his hunger takes hold. Around trusted people, sparks of his former impulsive humor return. Under pressure, he grows unnaturally still and lets troll words spill out before he can stop them.

Jor is Heimskr's fifth son. Before the wreck, he was excitable, quick to laugh, and quicker to accept a challenge. He wanted to serve in the guard until news of the succession crisis made him reconsider what a soldier might be ordered to do. He chose a different escape: passage north toward Iceland, where he hoped to earn a name, land, and wealth beyond the succession dispute. The ship broke apart in a storm. Jor was presumed dead, but trolls found him among the wreckage and kept him. The change has been gradual: webbing, a pallor in his hair, and gills that sting when touched. He remembers the people who took him only in fragments, and their language now slips from his mouth more readily than his own. He remains connected to Jekt, whose whereabouts and intentions matter deeply to him. His current problems are practical and immediate: he is starving, frightened of the sun, unsure how much of himself remains, and afraid that returning home will pull him back into the crisis he fled.