Dornan Saltledger – Harbor Broker
“Everything has a price. In Heathdun, the storm sets it first.”
Name: Dornan Saltledger
Race: Dwarf
Role/Class: Harbor Broker
Appearance: Dornan Saltledger is a well-kept dwarf in a place that tries to sand everyone down. He is stout and broad through the chest, with a neatly squared beard braided into three tight cords, each bound with a small brass ledger tag. His hair is kept short and combed back with oil that smells faintly of citrus and salt—practical in sea wind, but still a choice.
His eyes are dark and measuring, always a half second behind your words as if he’s reading the margin notes nobody else sees. He dresses in a heavy wool coat dyed deep navy, lined with leather at the shoulders to shrug off rain and rough hands alike. Beneath it, a vest stitched with hidden pockets and a belt pouch that never jingles. He carries no obvious weapon—only a slate board, a bit of chalk, and a wax-sealed book of thin pages protected in oilskin.
Backstory
Heathdun is not a city that runs on nobility. It runs on weight, timing, and who owns the rope when the wind shifts. Dornan was born into dock work—hauling, unloading, and doing the blunt labor that breaks a body by forty. He learned numbers as a survival tool, not an education. If you can count, you can keep someone from cheating you. If you can write, you can prove it.
When a storm season took half the harbor’s outer shelves, Dornan watched certain brokers get rich from “unavoidable losses” while crews starved. He began keeping his own records—ship names, cargo weights, rope purchases, repair contracts—small facts that became leverage when assembled correctly. His first real power came when he exposed a dock boss skimming hazard pay. The boss vanished. Dornan kept working.
Now Dornan Saltledger is a factor: the quiet broker who prices storms into everything. He settles disputes between salvage crews, negotiates cargo priority with liftwrights, and arbitrates the ugly line between legitimate trade and wreck-theft. He is not beloved, but he is relied on—because Heathdun trusts the person who can tell you exactly what you’re owed, and exactly what it will cost to collect it.
Dornan has a reputation for fairness, but not softness. He will write you a deal that saves your life… and then hold you to it like a chain.
