Ek is a large man, tall enough to look a moose in the eye (6'6'' / 2m), he has piercing blue eyes and coal black hair. He is the son of a chieftain of a nomadic tribe. He always preferred the company of animals to that of people and spent much of his teen years as a shepherd in their herd of caribou.

He is well meaning, shy, uneducated and unaccustomed to living in a city. His father advancing in age, and understanding that every year, civilization closes in on their ancestral lands, he wants his heir to learn the ways of the unavoidable future, and has sent him to make a name for himself.