Karena

Karena was a keeper of tidal charts and river histories. For years, they sat within the pale stone temple of Waterfall City, their tranquil nature suited to poring over scrolls that mapped the flow of water and time. Their knowledge was a quiet, deep pool, sought by fishers for predicting currents. But the river also carried raiders. When the city's outer docks were burned by a crew who used the river's own eddies against them, Karena realized their archives were incomplete. They had charted the water's generosity but never its violence. The next morning, they appeared in the main plaza not with a scroll, but with their face painted for battle. The scholar hadn't vanished; their research had simply found a new, urgent application.