Bori is a compact hill dwarf with the sturdy, low-centered posture of someone accustomed to hauling crates through narrow doorways. Their sun-browned skin is roughened by years of river wind and rubbed smooth in pale patches where apron straps cross their shoulders. Their hands are broad and ridged with thick calluses; the pads of their thumbs are stained green from polishing old copper goods. They walk with a brisk heel-first shuffle, stopping abruptly whenever a floorboard speaks beneath them. Unexpectedly, they keep a tiny pocket garden of mint and sweet peas in a cracked teapot beside the till.

Bori is generous with useful advice but guarded about personal history. They enjoy haggling as a friendly contest, yet resent customers who treat every exchange as a chance to win. In a calm shop they are dryly funny and attentive; under pressure they become brisk, suspicious, and stubbornly self-reliant. They care deeply about fairness, but their shame makes them evasive when fairness would require confession.

Bori inherited The Bent Oar from their aunt after a flood swept the old shop's stock into the river. As a young adult, Bori tried to save the family business by borrowing from a river factor and buying a shipment of supposedly reliable tools. The tools were counterfeit, and a neighbor was badly injured when a forged climbing hook snapped. Bori sold nearly everything to repay the debt and spent years rebuilding trust one honest repair at a time. Their aunt, Tavi, taught them to judge a tool by its wear rather than its shine; that lesson became both Bori's business creed and a source of suspicion. Now the shop is doing well, but the old factor's successor has begun demanding payment on a debt Bori believes was settled. Bori also quietly sends supplies to the family of the injured neighbor, who has never learned the full story.