KELVARN DEPTHSONG
ElementalsFish-Herder and Amateur Current-Scholar
"They call me a fish-herder like it is a small thing. But I watch the currents every day, and the currents are telling me something the palace does not want to hear.""
Identity
- Residence
- Outer reef settlements beyond the Tide-Weaver Docks
- Civilization
- Elementals
Appearance
• Physical: Kelvarn is a compact four-and-a-half-foot water elemental with the murky blue-green colouration of shallow coastal water. Small fish occasionally dart through his semi-transparent form -- a side effect of his herding work that he has never managed to shake. His movements are quick and darting, more reminiscent of a schooling fish than the stately flow typical of his kind. • Clothing: A patched kelp-fiber vest with oversized pockets stuffed with coral fragments, tide-charts scratched onto shell-flakes, and a battered herding whistle carved from whale-bone. • Distinguishing Marks: A permanent swirl-pattern in his left shoulder where a barracuda once passed clean through him, leaving a current-scar that never settled.
Relationships
- Family - A single Confluence-sibling, Merryl, who left the reef years ago and has not been heard from since
- Allies - A sympathetic Tide-Weaver named Liradyn (#26) who buys his fish and listens to his theories, an elderly Coral-Shaper who lets him shelter in her workshop during storms
- Rivals - The market boss Gullthane, who takes an unfair cut of every herder's earnings, and academic gatekeepers who dismiss his research as "reef-babble"
Personality
- Traits: Irrepressibly optimistic, intellectually hungry, socially awkward, fiercely independent
- Mannerisms: Talks to his fish by name, sketches current-diagrams on any available surface including other people, bounces on the balls of his feet when excited -- which is often
- Voice: A rapid, slightly breathless tenor with an outer-reef accent that drops consonants and stretches vowels, making him sound perpetually hurried.
Backstory
Kelvarn was born through Confluence Birthing at a minor Nexus Cradle on the outskirts of the reef -- a low-prestige origin that marked him for lower-class life from the start. He took up fish-herding as soon as he was old enough to hold a current-staff, driving schools of reef-fish to market for wealthier elementals. But Kelvarn's true passion is the study of deep-ocean currents; he spends every free moment charting tidal patterns and has developed theories about current migration that rival those of palace scholars, though no one of rank will read his work.
Daily Life
Before dawn Kelvarn swims out to the feeding grounds to gather his fish-herd -- a mixed school of sapphire-tangs and golden threadfins -- and drives them to the Dock markets. The pay is modest. His afternoons are spent diving to observation points he has mapped along the Trench wall, recording current speeds, temperatures, and anomalies in a growing collection of shell-charts. He eats whatever unsold fish remain at day's end.
Secret
Kelvarn's current-charts have revealed a pattern that no one else has noticed: the deep currents beneath the Great Sapphire Trench are slowly reversing direction. According to his calculations, this reversal will reach a critical threshold within fifty years, at which point the thermal balance sustaining Aquari Palace will collapse. He has tried to warn the Scholar-Currents guild, but they dismissed him without reading his data.
Story Hooks
- 1 Kelvarn begs adventurers to help him get an audience with someone powerful enough to act on his current-reversal data before it is too late
- 2 His missing sibling Merryl sends a cryptic message from deep waters, suggesting she discovered the cause of the reversal -- and something silenced her
Narrative Value
Kelvarn provides a ground-level perspective on Water Kingdom class inequality and academic gatekeeping. His current-reversal discovery is a slow-burn existential threat that can drive multi-session campaigns, and his underdog status makes him an instantly sympathetic quest-giver. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════