The Riven Lands

A gaunt woman in her mid-twenties whose once-healthy complexion has turned sallow and gray from constant exposure to cursed sea-flesh and toxic ichor. Her brown hair is kept in a practical braid but has developed premature white streaks from trauma and supernatural contamination. Permanent dark circles under her green eyes speak to sleepless nights haunted by the things she's been forced to witness and touch. Her hands and forearms are covered in a network of small scars from handling razored tentacles, poisonous spines, and cursed bone fragments. Wears a blood-stained leather apron over simple work clothes that have been repeatedly patched and re-patched. Despite her harsh circumstances, she maintains obsessive cleanliness of her tools and workspace as a small act of defiance against the chaos surrounding her, treating her knives with the same care she once reserved for her father's fishing equipment.

Cassandra maintains a facade of hollow compliance while nurturing a core of bitter resilience that refuses to break completely. Her intimate knowledge of marine biology, gained through years of legitimate work, has been perverted into expertise at dismembering nightmare creatures whose anatomy defies natural law. She's developed a protective emotional numbness that allows her to function during the most horrific tasks, but occasionally cracks under the strain with episodes of desperate weeping or manic laughter. Despite her circumstances, she secretly helps other laborers when possible and maintains detailed mental records of the overseers' routines, hoping to use this knowledge for eventual revenge or escape.

Once a respected fishmonger's daughter from a coastal village, Cassandra's life shattered when pirates raided her hometown during her wedding day. She watched her new husband fed to a kraken as tribute while the raiders burned everything she'd ever known. Captured and sold into servitude, she was brought to Salt-Skull Haven specifically for her expertise in fish gutting and preservation - skills the Tiefling overseers found invaluable for preparing the grotesque offerings demanded by their abyssal patrons. Three years of handling cursed sea-flesh and witnessing unspeakable rituals have left her physically and spiritually scarred, but she clings to survival through grim determination and the faint hope of eventual escape.