Dirtyhands (not Kaz, I mean specifically his alias)
Oh, that's a good one.
I'm not even sure where the lines blurr between man and legend in canon, but that just means I can have more fun.
Headcanon A: realistic:
He wears the gloves so his hands don't become soiled by all the dirty deeds he commits. Discard the gloves and he'll never be caught red handed. Anyone in Ketterdam who deals with dead bodies on the regular knows to protect their hands this way, and just shake their heads at the upstarts and the reckless knuckleheads who feed into legends about his demonic claws.
Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious:
The council leaves him alone because they theorize he may be a counceler's disgraced son. They don't know who's, though, and they don't want to meddle in each other's affairs and cause unnecessary conflict with each other. Surely, the respective father can take care of his own mess. He's known as the bastard of the barrel, a young man who dresses in a merchant's colours, who is well-educated and possesses a mind for money rivalled by few men twice his age. Of course Dirtyhands fell from a higher place then most. So they side-eye each other when talk of the barrel lords comes up, they look for a twitch of an eyebrow, nervous sweat. They see it everywhere. One counceler coughed, another's lips twitched. They all have different theories on whom Dirtyhands belongs to. Some make subtle suggestions about it. Two councelers started a fist fight once because one implied a bastard of the other becoming a barrel rat. (One of them was Van Eck before his fall. You go figure why).
Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends:
Dirtyhands has no friends. His people are incredibly loyal, but do not mistake loyality for companionship, do not mistake fear for reverance, not usefullness for good grace. Dirtyhands owns the Wraith, because he pretends he doesn't care for her ownership, that she can be free. His associates are all indetured, all bought with the promise of freedom, as soon as they are payed for. None of them realize Dirtyhands would leave them for dead in the ditch the second they outweighted their usefullness to him. Dirtyhands cares more for the life of his enemies than the lifes of his associates, because at least his enemies can still be bled dry.
Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own: Whatever crawled out of the river that night wasn't entirely human. His shadow is longer and darker out of the corner of your eye, if you get close enough to his person you can smell the lingering stench of rot and decay. The rasp crawling from his throat is laced with the desperate pleas of the souls he's claimed. They say he has a ledger, and once you shake his hand your name will be forever marked in black ink, regardless of the nature of your agreement. Even if the deal goes smoothly and to the satisfaction of both sides. The monster that dragged a boy's corpse out of the cold and dirty riverwater always requires interest. And you will always pay up, one way or another.