Elara is a towering figure with the granite-like skin characteristic of Goliaths. Her body is a map of her history, decorated with indigo tattoos of kraken tentacles and maritime knots. She wears a tattered, floor-length officer's coat in a faded crimson hue, missing one sleeve to allow her massive arm to swing freely. Her eyes are the color of a stormy sea, and she smells of salt and cheap tobacco. She carries her primary weapon, a literal iron anchor converted into a maul, across her broad shoulders.

Elara is as heavy and dependable as the tides. She speaks in a gravelly rumble and often compares people to various ship parts, callously identifying who is the 'rudder' and who is just 'barnacles.' She is intensely protective of those she considers her crew. While she seems stoic, her temper can flash like a sudden gale, and she has little patience for complex plans when a heavy blow to a hull or a head will do.

The Crimson Current was a legend of the southern reaches, a pirate vessel that specialized in raiding imperial supply lines. Elara was their master-at-arms, a Goliath who found a family among the desperate and the damned. During a horrific hurricane orchestrated by a vengeful storm sorcerer, the Current was torn asunder. Elara fought to the last, trying to haul her shipmates from the surging waves, but the ocean claimed them all. She woke on a desolate beach, clutching a splinter of the mast, cursed or blessed to be the sole survivor. However, the dead sailors of the Crimson Current did not rest. They tied their souls to the only piece of the ship left, which was Elara herself. Now, when her fury rises, the spectral shades of her former crew manifest around her. They lash out at her foes and shield her new companions with ghostly cutlasses and translucent riggings, as if the ship's memory refuses to sink. She travels now to earn enough gold to commission a new vessel, hoping that returning her crew to the sea will finally bring them peace.