Name: Brannic Thornbow
Race: Human
Role: Smokehouse keeper, salt-warder, folk herbalist
Appearance: Stocky and sea-hardened, Hesta wears a hooded oilskin cloak the color of storm slate, smoke-darkened at the hems. Stray ash freckles her forearms; her hair—black shot with iron gray—is braided with kelp cord and tiny bone charms. She keeps a brass meat hook at her belt, a slate tally-board, and a leather pouch of coarse black salt tied with red thread. Her voice is rasped by years of smoke; her eyes are clear, tidepool green.
Backstory
Hesta learned the craft at her grandmother’s side: fire cool and steady, wind slatted just so, brine ratios as sacred as scripture. When salt was scarce one lean winter, she bartered with the sea for a “keepsake draft”—a single night where the fish wouldn’t spoil even if the wind died. The smoke tasted wrong, and the gulls kept away. Since then, Hesta minds two economies: food and fear. Her smokehouses preserve an entire village’s catch, and her thresholds—lined with black salt and stitched wards—keep worse hungers outside.
