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Born an Ulbran on the streets of the Lowers, Ferris soon proved that he was never going to be a pickpocket or a sneak thief, and temperamentally he just wasn't suited to the criminal life - so his mother found him an apprenticeship with a smith, and he found himself enjoying it. After mostly churning out nails for the dockyards for a few years, he decided to take to the road and learn more; nails became horseshoes, arrow heads and tools, and Ferris wandered the breadth of Arvum as a travelling smith. After the first few crude bits of plate armour left his anvil he realised that that was what he most enjoyed making, and sought further training; after spending time with the armies of various Highlords, and more importantly with their smiths, he found himself supplying the soldiers retaking Bastion. In the wake of that conflict - and with a good purse of money in his favour - he's returned to Arx to rejoin the family and set up shop as a professional armoursmith. After all, everyone knows how much money you can make in Arx if you're good enough, and Ferris is entirely confident that he's good enough.

With salt and pepper scattered liberally in his hair, and lines etched in his face, Ferris is pretty much exactly what people think of when they think of 'smith'. A broad and burly man with a well-kept beard and long hair kept braided down his back, his arms - when bared - show the tiny flecks and burns of someone who spends a lot of time around hot sparks. Whether it's permanent soot thanks to the forge-fire or a natural tan, Ferris isn't exactly the palest-skinned man around, but the gleam of bright blue eyes in his face and the fact that most of his wrinkles line up with smiles suggest that he's perhaps not as forbidding as most burly men who know what to do with a hammer.

While Ferris has learned to be gruff and professional when out and about and when working, a man who doesn't suffer fools gladly and yet is happy to work with the customer to determine what they want, when it comes down to it he's perhaps not quite as gruff as he appears. It's no accident that the wall of the forge is part of the wall of the shop, and the alleyway on the other side has a lean-to up against the wall that hasn't been cleared away. Those who try to take advantage, however, will soon find out that Ferris is still an Ulbran and not inclined to be taken advantage of.