Elaramis is a haunting figure, her skin so pale and translucent that the blue flicker of her veins is visible like currents on a map. She is hunched as if bearing the weight of a mile of water. On her left shoulder and along her collarbone, clusters of actual, living barnacles have rooted into her flesh, occasionally clicking in the damp night air. Her hair is a matted tangle of salt-bleached grey that feels like dried kelp. Most unsettling are her eyes, which are wide, bioluminescent indigo, and never seem to close even when she sleeps.

Elara is a woman split between two worlds. She is profoundly patient with the tides but snaps into a manic frenzy if she smells fresh rainwater. She treats the objects she scavenges from the docks as if they are living relics of a dead empire. While she ignores the shouts of local guards, she will weep openly at the sight of a cracked seashell. She is cryptic to a fault, believing that speaking plainly would offend the heavy silence of the deep ocean.

Three decades ago, Elara was the lead salvage diver for the Azure Merchant Company. During a routine expedition to recover a sunken vault, her tether snapped and she was lost to a lightless trench. She was presumed dead until she washed up on the pier three days later, her lungs full of saltwater and her mind shattered by visions. Since that day, she has refused to leave the docks. She spends her nights mapping the silt-covered streets of the city that exists directly beneath the harbor, claiming it is more real than the one built on the surface.