Varko “True-Tide” Sammalsuu is a 32-year-old orc warlock and former coastal con artist who made a living selling fake charms, reading false omens, and claiming to protect sailors from spirits he did not believe existed. After nearly drowning in the White Sea, something ancient spoke to him and returned him to shore alive. Since then, his magic has become real, and he has traveled to Kallionvartio searching for answers.

He is tall and lean-built for an orc, with muted gray-green skin, shoulder-length black hair, pale blue-gray eyes flecked with moss green, and a chipped tusk capped in tarnished brass. He wears a weathered dark-teal sailor’s coat covered in charms, cords, coins, and questionable talismans.

Varko is charming, theatrical, sly, and outwardly confident, but privately fears that his years of lying about spirits attracted the force that now claims him. He is chaotic good, cooperative, and trying to prove that honest deeds can repay a dishonest past.

His sprite familiar, Muru, is a small moss-and-driftwood spirit who may be a companion, messenger, or watcher. Varko carries The Drowned Eye, a constantly wet black stone used as his arcane focus; Tidemaw, a shark-tooth sickle; and paired sailor daggers named Fair Deal and Fine Print.