Kaida Adalinda

The Dragonkin Queen of the Deep and ruler of the Sundered Sea

Kaida's Origin to Present

Kaida's story begins with a bit of history, 450 years before she was born.In a faraway land known as the Sundered Sea, lies the home of Adalinda, the Noble Serpent. She is an eikon worshiped by the Dragonkin who live alongside her as the one true goddess.After 300 faithful years of coexistence, Adalinda blessed one of the Dragonkin, sharing with the woman her mighty power. The blessed woman was then revered by her people, and her status rose to that of royalty.Soon after, the woman fell in love. To honor their goddess, she and her husband took the surname Adalinda on their wedding day and were dubbed King and Queen of the Deep by their people. The Dragonkin village prospered under their powerful union, passing the Noble Serpent's power from one queen to the next, and grew into, what is now, the Royal City. Eventually, the royal family's reach extended beyond that of the Royal City, and spread across the rest of the Sundered Sea.Kaida Adalinda was born into the royal family, 150 years later, and became next in line to hold the title of Queen of the Deep. In preparation for her future role, Kaida trained in the art of combat under the tutelage of her mother, Libelle Adalinda, the strongest queen to have ruled over the Sundered Sea.Just like her mother, Kaida showed signs of being a gifted fighter at a very young age, practicing every fighting style across the spectrum. It was no surprise to the kingdom that she would surpass her mother's skills once she was crowned as the next queen.Then one day, tragedy struck.The Royal City was attacked by none other than Adalinda, the Noble Serpent, herself. Though it was clear that the eikon had been corrupted, Queen Libelle had no other choice but to defend her people. She fought tirelessly against Adalinda and somehow forced her away from the city. Queen Libelle stood her ground until Adalinda was no longer in sight before collapsing onto the floor.Filled with shock and despair at what had transpired, Kaida and her father, Cadmus, rushed to Libelle's side, only to discover that the queen had been fatally wounded. Kaida tried desperately to heal the wound, but it was beyond her magic ability."Enough, my beautiful daughter," Queen Libelle said as she wiped away the tears from Kaida's cheek. "You are now the Queen of the Deep. Please, the two of you must find out who corrupted our goddess and restore her to her former self."With the last of her energy, the queen grabbed her daughter's hands and channeled her power into Kaida, hoping that their people would rebuild and prosper alongside their goddess once again.To honor her mothers's dying wish, the new Queen of the Deep searched far and wide across the Sundered Sea while her father wrote to his scholarly associates and scoured ancient text from the kingdom's library. Alas, their efforts were to no avail. Adalinda was nowhere to be found, nor any clues as to how she became corrupted.Just when Queen Kaida and her father had given up hope, they received promising news from the realm of Eorzea. A group known as the Scions of the Seventh Dawn were actively investigating the odd behavior of beast tribes in the surrounding areas, which they believed was related to primal activity.Though she was hesitant to leave her people behind, Queen Kaida knew it was her only hope of finding answers and saving the Dragonkin's goddess. After much preparation, she trusted the care of her kingdom to her father and left the only home she had ever known to find answers in the realm of Eorzea.

The Great Eikon Battle

This tale takes place 200 years before the Dragonkin came to the Sundered Sea and 650 years before Kaida was born.Long ago, Adalinda, the Noble Serpent, roamed the sea in solitude for a thousand years. Two centuries before the Dragonkin arrival, a terrifying eikon known as Hydra Lernaia, the nine-headed serpent, had invaded Adalinda's domain. There was no clear reason as to why Hydra Lernaia appeared, but Adalinda would soon confront it, thus leading to the start of the great eikon battle. Their conflict would be the reason why the Sundered Sea eventually had received its name.Both of the eikon's aether levels exploded at the start of the battle and was so intense that a hurricane formed. Water spouts manifested nearby and lightning crashed across the sea.As the battle went on, Adalinda noticed that she wasn't inflicting much damage to Hydra Lernaia. She then realized that the heads would need to be destroyed if she wanted to prevail in this fight.Though it was nine heads to one, Hydra Lernaia was still at a clear disadvantage. The eikon was far less agile and Adalinda used this to her advantage. Adalinda fought with patience, waiting for a vulnerable opportunity against Hydra Lernaia. While creating distance, Adalinda gathered a powerful concentration of energy in her mouth.An opportunity now showed itself as she evaded a vicious lunging bite from Hydra Lernaia. In response, Adalinda fired her charged-up attack. It was a massive cannon-like blast of aether that cut right through, obliterating one of the nine heads. Hydra Lernaia writhed in pain but still fought strong, as the battle was far from over.Adalinda was successful in removing four more heads from the beast by continuing to utilize her charged attacks. At this point Hydra Lernaia had been greatly damaged and was now desperate to turn the tides of battle.The eikon began gathering its remaining strength, forming an unworldly amount of aether in each of its four mouths. It would be a much more devastating attack than Adalinda's, by far, surely to leave a fatal blow if she was hit by it. Adalinda could sense this and retreated under the waves. Hydra Lernaia attempted to follow.Hydra Lernaia's attack was now fully charged and didn't hesitate to fire all four charged beams at Adalinda. Adalinda saw the attack coming from behind and attempted to change her path to throw off the attack's trajectory, but her idea didn't work since it appeared to be a homing attack.
The attack was now catching up to Adalinda as she desperately fled deeper into the sea's depths. She approached the seafloor and the beams came crashing down behind her. Though there was only a small window of escape, Adalinda successfully evaded the attack and swam quickly away as the beam exploded into the ground. It caused a fissure to violently erupt across the seafloor, spreading for miles in four directions from the point of contact.Adalinda could already sense Hydra Lernaia moving towards her direction. Gauging her aether levels, Adalinda attempted to charge an attack that would take out the remaining four heads in one blast. It would be her final attack before she would completely run out of aether.She continued to charge up as much as possible before Hydra Lernaia closed in on her. The attack was now ready and Adalinda bolted off to the side to try to get a stealth opportunity.Hydra Lernaia had now stopped in place after she couldn't detect Adalinda anymore. Adalinda approached closely, still undetected. Carefully aiming the attack, she fired it at full force towards the beast's remaining heads.Hydra Lernaia failed to react as the attack made contact, obliterating three of her four heads - The fourth one was partially hit, but not completely destroyed. Hydra Lernaia roared in agony, losing most of her blood.Not wasting another moment, Adalinda then charged the beast, coating her hide with the last bit of her aether, and slammed into the final head, tearining it from the hydra's body. What was left of Hydra Lernaia then collapsed, eventually crumbling into dark aether.Adalinda, completely exhausted, realized she had been victorious and was quite relieved. After resting for a while, she swam off slowly and continued to quietly roam the sea in solitude for another two centuries.Upon their arrival, the Dragonkin would meet the eikon and eventually learn of the battle that had occurred through Adalinda's visions that were witnessed by the chieftain of the Dragonkin. This led to the chieftain naming the Dragonkin's new home, The Sundered Sea, based on the great fissures across the seafloor.

The Dragonkin Arrival

The Dragonkin tribe of the Sundered Sea, in which Kaida descended from, originally hailed from a land far away. It was a land home to several Dragonkin tribes who lived peacefully in isolation. Their villages were located on a beach, one undiscovered by the rest of the world. There, they lived simple lives, hunting and planting crops and trading resources with one another to survive. Their community was strong, and generations of chieftains believed nothing would change it.Alas, that would not prove to be true. For one day, one of the chieftains started to hear a faint ringing. It was as if someone or something was calling out to her from a faraway place. At first, she dismissed it, thinking it impossible that a sound, one only she can hear, could travel such a long distance. But the ringing grew louder and louder with each passing day. Eventually, it became too much to ignore, and the chieftain embraced the ringing as a sign that it was time for the Dragonkin to leave their home.The other Dragonkin chieftains, however, were not so accepting of the call. Despite the chieftain’s efforts to persuade the tribes during their meeting, in the end, only her own tribe agreed to follow her. At dawn, around 100 Dragonkin left their home for the first and last time to follow their chieftain on a great journey across foreign lands.The journey turned out to be much longer than they anticipated. The Dragonkin's faith in their chieftain slowly waned and two months in, just as they were about to give up, the tribe emerged from a large forest to gaze upon the shores of a great sea. The cool air around them was revitalizing, and dense with aether. Suddenly, the feeling of exhaustion from traversing endless plains, valleys, mountains, and forests was replaced with newfound hope.Having missed the water so dearly, the Dragonkin children raced to the shore to play in the slightly cool sea. The sound of their laughter brought equal joy to their families and friends. Thrilled to find the area was filled with an abundance of resources and soil rich enough for planting crops, the Dragonkin celebrated their chieftain and set up camp for, what they thought would be, the last time.However, the next morning, the tribe found their chieftain standing at the edge of the water, staring at the vast sea. She looked back at her tribe and told them their journey wasn’t over yet; that they had to venture into the water. Her words were met with fierce objection.The chieftain reached her hand out to her people, and said, “Please. I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didn’t know for sure.”Though they were still reluctant, they knew her words to be sincere. The tribe left their belongings behind and made their way into the water. All eyes were on the youngest of the tribe, a baby less than a year old. As her head dipped below, they were shocked to see her still smiling and laughing like normal. One by one, the Dragonkin exhaled and found themselves able to talk and breathe as if they were on land.With their faith restored, they continued to follow their chieftain into the deep, dark depths of the sea. They stopped as they came across a massive, serpent-like figure. Having lived near the ocean all their lives, the Dragonkin had heard tales of Adalinda, the Noble Serpent. The chieftain knew, without a doubt, that it was her standing before them and that she must have been the source of the calling.Without saying a word, the chieftain swam towards Adalinda and offered her their gratitude. Adalinda let out a cry of acceptance and swam away.The chieftain looked back and smiled at her tribe before following Adalinda to a large pillar in the sea. Adalinda danced around its flat, spacious surface, singing as if to welcome the Dragonkin to their new home.With a plethora of resources at their disposal, the Dragonkin built their village in record time and seamlessly integrated into their lives in the sea. Adalinda mostly kept her distance, stopping by only to leave an occasional gift. One of the greatest gifts she offered was enshrouding the entire village the Dragonkin built with a watery barrier of aether which expunged all water from inside and repelled any from getting in. They were grateful for this, though it wasn't necessary.Though her visits were rare, Adalinda continued to communicate with the chieftain through her dreams, showing her visions of the past, and what could be their future. One of the visions of the past would be about the mighty battle of Adalinda and Hydra Lernaia. It was that vision that lead to the chieftain naming their new home the Sundered Sea.It wasn’t long before the Dragonkin began to worship Adalinda as the one true Goddess and protector of the Dragonkin. With her guidance and blessing, the tribe and their descendants would come to live peaceful and prosperous lives in their new home in the Sundered Sea.