Nalani “Finn” Kaiomere
Name (Etymology):
Nalani — A melodic Finfolk name meaning “deep sky” or “the calm beneath.” Traditionally given to those born during still tides or clear-water births.
“Finn” — An honorific nickname used by Wendmorians to refer to water-sages and coastal guides; often earned rather than inherited.
Kaiomere — A family line known for tide-reading and mirrorwatching, derived from kaio (“wave-bearer”) and mere (“seer” or “listener”).
Combined Meaning: One who hears what the ocean keeps and sees what the surface forgets.
Details:
- Age: Appears late 20s (young adult for Finfolk)
- Gender: Female (She/Her)
- Race: Finfolk (Aquatic Folk, Sharklike Traits)
- Occupation: Water-Sage, Listener of Coral and Currents
- Region: Tidelands of Southern Wendmor, now living in Seven Mile Bottom
- Affiliation: Consulted by Far-Seers, friends with Luna and Azar
Appearance
Nalani has deep blue skin with gentle rippling undertones that shimmer like sun on saltwater. Her hair falls in sea-foam curls threaded with kelp rings and barnacle clasps, and her eyes shift with the tide — glassy turquoise when contemplative, storm-gray when focused.
Her voice carries the softness of a tidepool and the rhythm of a cresting wave. She wears off-the-shoulder wraps woven from tide-fibers, fastened with drift pearl clasps. Her scent is unmistakable: a blend of citrus peel, toasted cardamom, and wild mint — bright, bracing, and oddly reassuring.
Home
Nalani lives in the Driftwood Den, a kelp-draped shoreline cottage perched just above the tidal reach. Mossy planks, rounded glass panes, and sea-shell chimes hang from every beam. A bucket of sand-damp boots always sits by the door, next to a basket of salt-rinsed scrolls and broken compasses.
Inside, coral fragments glow gently in glass bowls, and seaweed charts stretch across the rafters. Her tub is a tide-fed basin sunken into the floor — not ornamental, but essential. Guests are asked to knock twice, then hum once.
Background
Born in the southern Tidelands of Wendmor, Nalani was marked early as a tide-listener — a child who heard changes before they surfaced. She spent her youth swimming reefward with pod-folk and listening to the warble of whales through kelp-rooted canyons. Her family, the Kaiomere line, is known for mirror-seers and salt-scholars — but Nalani never took to doctrine.
Instead, she followed rhythm. Coral rhythms. Weather shifts. Heartbeats in brine.
When she was sixteen, she dove after a drift-lantern that had sunk beneath a storm. When she surfaced, she carried a shard of mirror-glass that hummed when storms approached. No one asked what else she saw down there. Nalani never said.
Now she walks among landfolk as a Water-Sage — offering guidance during floods, dreamtide readings during solstice, and solace when the ocean takes more than it gives.
Skills
- Reading tide-swell patterns and coral-song pulses
- Communing with mirror-glass relics and drift-echoes
- Echo-listening (the Finfolk method of emotion-tracing)
- Saltscript drawing and aquatic cartography
- Salt-preservation of memory-corals
- Fluent in the dialect of pearl-clicks used by reef whisperers
Notable Belongings
- A mirrored compass that always points toward the nearest unspoken truth
- A kelp-wrapped staff embedded with coral knots and pearl channels
- A shell pendant carved with the symbol for “stay” — her sister gave it before swimming beyond the ridge
- A jar of stormwater collected during a silent vigil
- Her old dive belt, still weighted, still worn — even on dry land
Reputation
To most, Nalani is an enigma wrapped in seaweed and patience. She's gentle with children, sharper with doubters, and unafraid to leave a silence hanging until it makes meaning.
Azar claims she once ended an argument with a single raised eyebrow and a bucket of brine. Luna swears she caught moonlight in a bottle. Bella mostly just wants her salt-preserved lemons.
To some, she’s a sage. To others, a current too deep to chart. But all agree — she’s not here to be understood at a glance.
Ongoing Project: The Forgotten Currents
Nalani is trying to track an underwater migratory pattern lost to living memory — a route followed by glassback rays during eclipse seasons. She believes the pattern might map onto lost Mirror-World crossings.
So far, she has drift-scrolls, eclipse residue, and a half-remembered lullaby.
Azar offered to help. Nalani gave him a fishbone stylus and said, “Only if you hum while you write.”
She’s not in a rush. The tide always returns what matters.
Quote
“Some waves crash loud. Others change the whole shore without saying a word.”