Dorian

Dorian is one of the secondary protagonists of The Starless Sea. He named himself for Dorian Gray, and he is the mysterious, barefoot man who leads Zachary Ezra Rawlins to the Harbor on the Starless Sea. His interests include hating shoes, tipping well, and getting drunk to tell stories.

Appearance
Dorian has dark hair, graying at the temples, and is described as looking unconventionally/ruggedly handsome. His eyebrows are often furrowed, and he wears clothes that tend to be well polished and put together, often including a peacoat, slacks, and (when necessary) shiny wingtip shoes. Underneath those shoes, he wears purple toe socks. Despite being a guardian, Dorian does not have the tattoo of a sword on his chest. Zachary finds this out in Zachary (14), where he remarks that while Dorian's chest is well muscled and covered in a fair amount of hair and bruises, there is no ink. He does, however have a large tattoo on his back, which depicts a forest of cherry blossoms, and centers a book-and-honey covered tree stump with an owl on top. The owl is wearing a crown.

Personality
Dorian, upon first encounter, seems very brisk, somewhat standoffish, and judgemental. When he first meets Zachary, he's very withholding about why he needs his help and what his actions will lead to. It seems that he operates on a very need-to-know basis with those around him when he isn't familiar with them. Dorian is an expert in body language and observation in general due to his time with the Collector's Club.

He wishes for close relationships, and admires the ones from The Secret History for their intensity, but not their "bacchanalian murderousness", as he puts it in Interlude III. Dorian doesn't believe he will ever be capable of those kinds of relationships, but he is proven wrong by Zachary by the end of the book. At heart, Dorian just wants to feel at home.

By his own admission, Dorian is trying to be more impulsive, since he's spent so much of his life under others' control. He also makes reference to the fact that he experiences his emotions very strongly. He is a storyteller at heart, and that tends to make him a little introspective and sometimes vague. Still, he is logical, and points out the obvious solution to problems on multiple occasions.

Early Life
Dorian is the boy from There are three paths. This is one of them (2), in which a woman in a green scarf comes up to him in a library and asks him to keep an eye on one of her books for her. He does, and a while later another, nearly identical woman comes and picks it up. Dorian informs her that that book is spoken for, and she leaves. This is supposed to be the first of his trials in becoming a Guardian, but according to him, he only ever went through that one trial.

Over the course of his life, Dorian trains to become a member of high standing in the Collector's Club. The book he was asked to protect in his trial was Fortunes and Fables, which he then loses to the Club when he defects from them.

The reason for this defection is Mirabel. They met for the first time at the Algonquin Hotel Annual Literary Masquerade, 2014. He is the man in the photo with Mirabel that Zachary stumbles across that eventually leads him to the Starless Sea. That night, the night after the party, Dorian draws Mirabel back to his hotel room, under the fake name of 'Mr Smith', and attempts to stab her, but she is immortal, so she doesn't die. Then, she explains to him the truth about the Harbor on the Starless Sea, and he officially leaves the Collector's Club.

Since then, the Club has been trying to hunt him down. They know that he knows too much, and are trying to silence him. Dorian was faring just fine, until Zachary came along.

Book I: Sweet Sorrows
Dorian does not feature much in this part of the book. He is only in three chapters of it, towards the end, and named for only two. In the first chapter he's in, Zachary (5), he pulls Zachary into a darkened hallway and tells him the story of how Fate fell in love with Time. He tucks his business card into Zachary's pocket, with a bee stamped on the back and the message to meet him at 1am by the lion statues of Patience and Fortitude outside the New York Public Library on the front. Then, he returns him to the party

Later, when Zachary joins him, he informs him of the fact that the woman in the white fur coat stole Sweet Sorrows from him, but that Dorian stole it back. He tells Zachary that he can have it back if he does something for him, namely, steal Fortunes and Fables back from the Collector's Club. He can't do it himself, since they are still not over him leaving them uncerimoniously the way he did. He explains his plan to Zachary, and tells him that he will be waiting across the street for when he's done. He's made a deal with Mirabel to have a door painted for them in Central Park so they can escape back to the Harbor.

Zachary emerges, and tells him that the plan went wrong and they have to go immediately. They get in a cab and drive to central park. Dorian tips the cab driver well, and rushes Zachary to the door. He gets him in just as the people from the Club show up. The most you have to do to destroy a painted door is paint over it, and so before Dorian can pass through it, they throw paint over it, which leaves him stranded and alone. They take him prisoner.

Trivia

 * Dorian had a sister, who is only mentioned twice in the book. She died when he was 17. Once, in There are three paths. This is one of them (2), where it is mentioned that he is waiting for his sister at the library, and once in Dorian (8), where he tells us that the things he came across below the Harbor sometimes wore her skin.
 * He speaks multiple languages, including Arabic, Mandarin, and Urdu.
 * Though Dorian was unconscious when first entering the Harbor, when Zachary and Mirabel did the test for him, he rolled one of each die (a key, a bee, a sword, a crown, a heart, and a feather), and the drink tased of wine, salt, and smoke.
 * According to Zachary on multiple occasions, Dorian smells good, like leather and lemon.