One of the wealthy residents of East Island, Lirin Desh made her money by innovating the creation of a matchmaking service to help customers find, as her publicity puts it, their true loves. What started as a small neighborhood operation in Streamside grew to a national concern and then an international one; while Desh's business is headquartered in Djarvin, she has clients from all over Curcalen. Desh gathers information about her clients' tastes, proclivities, and preferences and then, using proprietary methods, matches them with other clients who her algorithms suggest will be romantically compatible. While Desh certainly has her share of detractors and doubters, she also has a lot of faithful customers and supporters, and her business has been an enormous success.

Desh nowadays is a wealthy woman who has stepped away from the day-to-day operation of her company, which she leaves to executives in the company offices in Stonewalk. Though she does attend some social events, she spends most of her time in her mansion in East Island, lavishly decorated with erotic art some of which is in questionable taste, where she entertains a motley assortment of guests. However, she does make herself available for personal attention to the rich and influential, and—for suitable fees—has traveled to other cities and lands to arrange and manage matchmaking balls and other events. She also does the occasional private consultation at her home—again, for sufficiently important clients, and for sufficiently large fees.

Lirin Desh is a gangly woman whose flamboyant gestures emphasize the flaps of loose skin on her arms. She wears her hair, once black but now gray and going on white, done up in elaborate buns, and likes using light-colored lipstick to contrast with her dark skin. She treats everyone like a close confidante, invading personal space and frequently responding to interlocutors' remarks with an enthusiastic "yes!" in her throaty voice even when she then goes on to disagree completely. Desh likes wearing several layers of long, filmy gowns with elaborate ruffs and mufflers about her shoulders and neck; her favorite color is pink, but she sometimes varies things up with green, blue, or yellow pastels.