A broad, barrel-chested dwarf in dark iron armor crowded with hooked spikes, saw-edged ridges, and blade-like plates. In battle the metal shifts with a grinding snap, its points swelling until he resembles a charging heap of knives. His beard is divided into thick, meticulously waxed braids, each bound with a tiny brass ring; the rest of his grooming is equally exact, an unexpected touch of vanity for a fighter who delights in smashing through a melee. He moves in short, spring-loaded bursts, heels barely settling before he lunges. In a room, his eyes do not seek faces first: they track exits, high ledges, and the largest person present. People remember the scrape of his armor and the unnerving sense that it is watching them too.

Thibbledorf is boisterous and funny when danger is distant, but becomes sharply practical when someone is hurt. He craves the rough joy of a close fight yet is unusually attentive to bystanders and the frightened. Around friends he is affectionate through teasing and practical favors; around authority he is suspicious, especially when orders put others at risk. He is proud of his strength, though more ashamed than he admits of the miners he could not save.

Thibbledorf was born among the stonecutters of a dwarven hold, where he learned to judge a tunnel by its echoes and a person by where they stood when danger arrived. He first fought as a shield-bearer in the hold's gate company. During the collapse of a lower passage, he heard trapped miners tapping from behind a buckled iron door. His captain ordered him to hold the outer breach instead. Thibbledorf obeyed, and the miners died before rescuers could reach them. That failure changed his idea of courage: he would never again let a command, formation, or fear of looking foolish keep him from reaching someone in danger. Years later, he found Gutbuster in a sealed forge vault. The armor had been made as a guardian and had a voice before it had a wearer. It chose Thibbledorf after he spent a night arguing with it rather than trying to force it open. They have fought together ever since, though neither will admit which of them is the more reckless. Thibbledorf's sister, Dagna, now commands the gate company he left. She still sends him reports about threats to the hold, but their letters end in arguments about whether his methods help or endanger their people. He is currently hunting a band of tunnel-wreckers who have been collapsing old routes, including the passage where the miners died. He wants to save the living, but he also hopes to find proof that the collapse was sabotage, not a mistake he could have prevented.