Captain Valka Vorn is a heavily built green dragonborn whose dark forest-green scales have the matte texture of old river stone. Jagged acid-burn scars climb from her left shoulder toward her jaw, puckering the scales into hard, uneven ridges. Her long black hair is shorn close on one side so it cannot catch beneath her visor, while the remaining length is tied with copper wire and tucked behind her neck. She moves with a careful, economical heaviness, placing each foot as if testing a bridge plank before trusting it. Her most immediately noticeable feature is the iron tally ring worn on her right thumb, its inner surface polished bright by years of anxious counting. When she eats, she chews with her mouth closed and taps each tooth against the rim of her tin cup before drinking. When she laughs, which is rare, rows of blunt, unusually small teeth show beneath a broad, almost gentle grin that contradicts her intimidating frame. She leaves the impression of a fortress that learned how to worry.