Tamlan is short but sturdy -- a human with the build of a dwarf, but without the beard. He almost never appears in public without his deep green hood; almost all of his face that can be seen beneath it is the gleam of his beady black eyes. Beneath his cloak he wears worn brown peasant garb -- tunic and trews and leather boots.
There is a plain leather belt around his waist, in which are tucked a club, a hatchet, a folded net, a painfully light pouch, a waterskin and a larger bag from which the ends of a three-part fishing rod protrude.
If asked, in a friendly way, why he has come to the city, he may explain that he grew up in a village on the edge of the nearest forest, where his father and his grandsires time out of mind were animal trainers, capturing beasts in the forest, training them and selling them in the city. Of old, they brought beasts to fight in the arena of the ancient kings; in later days they have provided dancing bears, clever dogs who speak by moving wooden blocks, and the like.
He was being taught his father's profession, but then his father Tamric, his mother Lana, his sister Tama and his brother Lanric all died in the Crimson Plague. The people of his village burned down his family's house (with all their goods in it save what he could carry) to cleanse the infection. While he survived, his betrothed rejected him, leaving him with no family save his faithful cat Wat, so he decided to try his fortune in the city and the lands beyond. He hopes some day to become a Beast Master.
 Wat is a very large tomcat, with orange fur and dark golden stripes, rather like a smallish tiger. He has a torn right ear from a catfight. He is very friendly with his master, reasonably friendly with his master's companions, and aggressive towards other cats, dogs, birds etc.
Having grown up near the woods, Tamlan is devoutly faithful to Dryas as God of the Wild and Lunara the Huntress. Following a myth of his own people, he adores the latter as the Lady of Ulthar, patroness of cats. He always wears a carved wooden cat (a gift of his parents) in her honor. When he has the means, he makes pious offerings of food to feral cats in addition to his customary Tribute.