Gunther's face has the soft, shifting symmetry of a mask that has been remade too many times: broad cheeks, a blunt chin, and a smile that settles a fraction late. His skin has the cool, faintly pebbled texture of damp mushroom caps. He stands with his weight pitched forward, as if always leaning closer to inspect a new specimen. In a crowded room, his eyes go first to the seams of people's clothes, then to their faces. He grooms with almost fussy care, keeping his brows trimmed and his hair combed into a neat part, though little green flecks of moss invariably cling to his cuffs. Unexpectedly for a traveling clothes merchant, he keeps a tiny, immaculate folding fan of pressed fern fronds and uses it to cool customers while discussing fabric.

Gunther is hospitable and observant, but his attention can feel more like an examination than a welcome. He delights in strange questions and unusual people, yet becomes fiercely protective when someone is treated as a curiosity. In a relaxed mood he fusses over fabric and tells elaborate stories; under pressure he turns practical, blunt, and hard to distract.

Gunther spent much of his life in Arcadia, where beauty could be a law as binding as gravity and a courtesy might conceal a trap. He learned to cultivate and stitch moss into jackets, wraps, and soft-soled shoes, first as a practical craft and later as a way to preserve a piece of home that could travel. He left after a courtly patron demanded he grow a rare moss that fed on memories; Gunther refused, and the refusal cost him his stall, his lodgings, and a friend who chose the patron's favor. Since settling in the mortal world, he has built a modest trade and become a friend of Friedreich. Their failed possession experiment began as a mutual inquiry into Friedreich's nature. Gunther agreed to serve as a willing anchor, but the attempt went wrong: for a few minutes, he felt another presence press against the edges of his identity. They stopped before either was lost. Gunther still wonders what Friedreich is, but has learned to ask before investigating. He currently struggles to keep his moss stock alive through a dry season and to decide whether an Arcadian message asking him to return is a summons or bait.