Kela

## Kela the Guardian

There is little that is verifiable about the being known as Kela the Guardian. Information about Kela is made up of a collection of myths, patched-together songs and legends from ancient times, some perspectives gleaned from art, and the recent experiences of extraplanar beings that have supposedly been in contact with the ancient figure.

### Appearance

Kela and Fetaen are depicted in very old works of art as intertwining, serpentine dragons with fangs bared against one another. Other artwork depicts them as looking more like humanoid serpent hybrids, appearing very similar to the naga the Ancient Ones supposedly created.

### History

The oldest histories of Kela the Guardian recall her and her sister, Fetaen, as reptilian, possibly draconic beings of immense power. They were the last survivors of an ancient race of creatures like them, possibly called either *Sirrush* or *Sarrukh*, depending on the translation. These creatures are mentioned in some myths as the progenitor race of all sapient reptilian and serpentine creatures on Daera. Other myths say that the ancient ones are responsible for all or most sapient life on Daera. Dragons are typically not fans of the idea of having some sort of more powerful progenitor.

#### Civil War

Far beyond recorded history, the carefully structured society of the Ancient Ones shattered apart in a vicious civil war. The Ancient Ones hurled the people of their slave races against one another, seeking to undermine various seats of power or other strategic advantages. In their battles, tens of millions of sapient creatures died and countless spirits destroyed. Freed of their bondage by they fey (according to the fey), the servitor races rose up against the Ancient Ones and destroyed or drove them from the face of the world.

Kela and Fetaen remained, and sued for peace with the fey and the mortal races. For a while, the world began to rebuild, and for many centuries, there was relative peace.

It is thought that Kela and Fetaen disagreed about how to direct the world after their race was destroyed. The two had fought across the world and the near planes for thousands of years, in a destructive bid for supremacy.

### Alliances

Old stories describe Kela as a friend to the elves, and supposedly taught them the use of magic as they rose up from their primitive origins. Kela is mentioned in the histories of giants and dragons as well, and typically represent her as a primordial force that is fickle, but supportive of sapient life and the accumulation of knowledge. She is known as an instructor of magic to those creatures as well.

At some point before written history, Kela aligned herself with the various races of creatures that valued altruism and community, with some texts suggesting that she blessed their races for their advancement through cooperation and mutual benefit. She supported these beings (elves, certain giants, certain dragons, hobbits, gnomes, certain dwarves) when they battled against the races that had fallen under Fetaen’s sway (naga, goblinoids, some giants and dragons, dark elves, kobolds and the like).

### Destruction

Rather than reside in any one race’s homeland, Kela kept her stronghold in a great tower atop an island mountain in the middle of the Southern Ocean. Today, that island is known as Reikol Island. Somewhere around 4,000-6,000 years ago, Fetaen succeeded in destroying Kela’s corporeal form. How this happened is not known. One text says that after a great cyclone passed over the island, Kela’s tower had completely vanished. Kela’s spirit reportedly lives on and inhabits her former stronghold, which now lies inside the mountain it once stood atop.

Since Kela’s disappearance, the elves and other races allied with her have continued on, in much the same trajectory that she set them upon, but with some deviation. The fortune of the elves has changed considerably since Kela’s disappearance, and their world-spanning empire has now shrunk to a frightened and listless kingdom confined to the shores of their own continent.

### Extraplanar Recruits

Through some great magical effort, Kela was able to bring a group of creatures to Daera from a distant extraplanar world. She has given them some minor artifacts that seem to be tied to her, and has tasked them with acquiring a series of artifacts - the Five Keys - that will supposedly be able to restore her physical form once again.