Alden is a tall and lanky man with a posture slightly hunched from years of leaning over desks. His fingers are permanently stained with deep violet ink that seems to have seeped into his skin. He wears silver-rimmed spectacles that catch the light, and his short brown hair is perpetually mussed. His soft gray eyes are generally unremarkable until he begins to read arcane runes, at which point they emanate a faint, sapphire-blue glow. He moves with a calculated, rhythmic precision, as if every step were a line of text on a page. Despite his intellectual aura, his knuckles are thick and calloused like a laborer's, a jarring contrast to his delicate work.