Annalide Borguen grew up on the streets of the Docks, but was an exceptionally intelligent and determined child. She studied hard, attracted the attention of a scholarship committee, and managed to get admitted to Blackbridge University, where she studied law. She excelled in her classes and became a fully licensed lawyer. And then, having succeeded in lifting herself out of the stultifying squalor of her home neighborhood... she went back.

She didn't return immediately; she worked as a lawyer in Geridon first, but only for a few years before returning to the Docks. This had always been her plan; Borguen wanted not just to escape the Docks, but to help those who were living in poverty there as she had been. She knew that the law enforcement and the courts often didn't treat the downtrodden residents of the Docks fairly, and she wanted to do her part to make a difference and help change that. Borguen charges the people of the Docks whom she defends no more than they can afford—which often means offering her services pro bono to the destitute. In order to do this, she saved money during her time in Geridon, and although that only lasted her a few years she gets by now partly on the earnings from books she writes about the practice and philosophy of law and partly on donations from philanthropists who support her cause. She is largely beloved by the people of the Docks, although she does have enemies in other places who resent her making it more difficult for them to use the Docks residents as scapegoats.

Annalide Borguen is a beige-skinned woman with a wide stance and a loping walk. A navanar with some secretarybird blood, she has feathers mixed in with her dark brown hair, and lightly scaled legs. Her face is youthful-looking, with an upturned nose and large almond eyes. She talks very precisely, often in short bursts, but is skilled at smoothly changing her register according to whom she's speaking with, be it the lofty sociolect of the wealthy patricians or the rougher patois of the rowdy stevedores. Borguen's usual attire is a brown barrister's robe altered to make it more comfortable and more suitable for day-to-day wear.