Kai Li is one of the members of the Krono Krew party. A sorcerer from Xi-Di, she is actually from Timeline 2 and was brought to this timeline by her malevolent alter-ego native to the Prime Timeline.

Biography

Early Life

Kai Li was found and raised in the orphanage of The Sacred Lotus, a large monastery in Xi-Di. She was then trained under the guidance of master Shinwei, the head monk, from a very young age. She also started having visions at some point in which she saw herself practicing magic and manipulating energy. She shared these with her master, who then revealed to her the underground division of sorcery: The Order of the Veil. Here the monks studied sorcery and magic and also master to manipulate mana.

The monks believe in Harmonism or Yu Heng Liu (Universe, Balance, flow); the belief in the harmony of the flow of energy, as well as the Monoliths not that she knew that. Certain "chosen ones" also gain the ability to control and manipulate energy.

It is the sacred duty of the Order the Veil to bring back the chosen ones to the monastery and guide them to the harmony so that they may know how to use their powers correctly. Master Shinwei had not revealed any secrets of the Order of the Veil to Kai Li.

The monks are forbidden from leaving the monastery, as venturing out may lead one astray from the harmony. Once a person leaves, they are abandoned by the Sacred Lotus. But Kai Li grew curious and as a young teenager she wanted to seek knowledge outside of the Sacred Lotus. After a painful farewell from her mentor, she left the monastery out towards Aurial, and he forbade her to ever return.

Shards of the Empire

Finding herself in the Great Kingdom of Terros on her travels, she was dropped off through the Etasch River near the town of Mystearica. She then traveled aimlessly towards Rockham, as she found a call to adventure from the Department of Dungeons. She was picked up by a farmer's caravan on the way, and meets Gideon Huxley. Deciding to travel with him to the DoD, she meets the other members of the party at Rockham and decides to join their team. She gets introduced to beer at the Nosali Fall Harvest Festival.

Later, when the party is heading to the expedition to Varkaria, she spies on Gabryel von Gothwyn, even disguising as one of his knights to talk to him at one point. At Varkaria, she gets separated, ending up with Ingrid, Werner, Meras, and Dagaek. When they all meet back up, she discovers a rainbow skull next to a Feywild portal, which she keeps.

After the first fight with Gothwyn, they name the party the Krono Krew. She starts hearing voices from the skull, who later absorbs enough souls to reform into a full lich known as Zuq'zeen the Mighty. He says that Kai Li is his favorite, promising rewards and disappearing. At the College of Zaubarovia, Kai Li researches more into monoliths and her own powers. Asking help from Prof. Urmene, the professor summons an Ulitharid and asks Kai Li to look into its head. She gets a vision to the Far Realm where she sees aberrations of all kinds linked to her powers. This actually ends up releasing the Ulitharid, who kills Gideon by eating his brain. Kai Li is apologetic to him as he is revived. She is instrumental in beating Gothwyn for the second time, keeping the time gears safe through the fight. She then takes a few sorcery classes in their time at the college.

Through most of chapter 3, Kai Li escapes many near-deaths through their adventurers in Vogh Vulfrhûn and the Underdark. Seeing corpses of the people dressed up as Ingrid and Werner does shake her up somewhat. She finds great humor in treating Bakos as a pet after they capture him, and alongside him, her disguise is important in Baron Emeraldeye's eventual defeat after which she is celebrated alongside the rest of the Krono Krew as saviors of the city. Ingrid promised her unlimited wine, and delivers on that promise. After that, she decides to head back to her Monastery in Eteru for some answers.

Kai Li takes a ship from Etabrück back to Xi-Di, which was a long journey back. Upon reaching her monastery, she was not welcomed back by Master Shinwei. They had warned her earlier that she was forbidden to return if she left. However, when she brings up her experiences with the Monolithic entities and the Far Realm, they let her come back inside to discuss her journey.

He then reveals to her that she is a "Celestial Child". The celestial children are born under the signs of the Monoliths, and have aberrant powers unexplainable to most. The Order of the Veil gather all of these celestial children that are born in Xi-Di and train them to be sorcerers and warlocks that work for the good of the country. However, they hold significant political power due to the strength of these children stolen from their homes. Kai Li would see the inherent darkness within their actions, and would also realize that she was likely not an orphan, but was taken from whatever her true home was. In a burst of darkness from within her, she accidentally summons multiple aberrations including Hounds of Tindalos.

The ensuing chaos nearly destroys the monastery, as all the monks fight the aberrations, many of them losing. When faced with the choice to help them or to leave, Kai Li turns around, leaving Master Shinwei to die. As she would walk away from the monastery, she would find herself in a dreamlike state- In a realm of blue, of paused time and deep fog. Surrounded by aberrations of all kinds, she would see a flash of a being in front of her, realizing it to be the monolith she was born under. By letting the monolith destroy the Order, she subconsciously made a pact with the otherworldly old one.

She would find herself back in the monastery the following morning, finding it destroyed and smoking. The guilt of letting them die finally starting to hit her, she spends the next few months figuring out all she can about the monolith that she just made a pact with and dealing with the darkness and guilt within her. She finds out that the monolith she was born under is one who has dominion over time, not unlike the goddess Tempos that created the time gears. Realizing that she was destined to be connected to time, she finds out a name for this monolith: "Orr'eeyar, the March of Time".

Eventually, she receives a letter from Werner- He is trapped in Etabrück, and is calling on the rest of the Krono Krew to come rescue him from his mother as Gothwyn's plan escalates. Almost feeling a push from the monolith she was born under, she sets out on a ship back to Terros.

On the day of the Riversong Resonance festival in the city of Etabrück, the Krono Krew come back together to rescue Werner from Arxbrück Castle. They discuss politics and the current state of things with his mother, Duchess Iôlwen von Gaten. They ask for her to not try to kill Innes, and she asks them to go talk to King Renaer Aldriglød and convince him to attend the Grand Wedding held at the capital in a month’s time. Having his enemy there would prompt Gothwyn to get reckless and reveal their true self. They agree, but she doesn’t let Werner go with them.

The party then catches up and goes to celebrate in the festival, where they get their fortunes told and play a drinking game. In the morning, they use the map to teleport to Fort Huxley. They meet all the members that work there as well as Tasmyn. Everything seems to be converging at the capital. That night, Ingrid and Kai Li seem to have a shared dream of the plane of Tindalos. They see corpses of goliaths and monks alike, and sense a time gear under Timeron. They then see a flash of Orr’eeyar. In the early morning, Ingrid wakes up to Kai Li taking out the time gear from her bag, who apparently sleepwalked into the state. After some misunderstandings with the others when they see the two in Ingrid’s room, they all have a serious discussion about the time gears and the monoliths. Werner gives Kai Li his time gear for the time being.

At Hyarat, Werner eventually located Captain Jahaesko, who has some business in Uppborg and willing to drop them off at Aldrigvinter. The next days are spent mostly through storms and harsh seas, and dealing with reaper crabs. Kai Li introduces the party to Momo, her aberration familiar.

The day before they reach Uppborg, the crew overhears Jahaesko and Ingfrid argue. Busting into his office, they make them reveal their smuggling operation and deal with the Lunars in Uppborg. They decide to help out and interfere if the need be. That night, the party sneaks into the cargo hold and unlocks the magically locked crate without triggering the trap. They see the Abysscube, which nearly charms Ingrid. They decide to lock it away again and see how things play out. In the ensuing chaos of the Lunar Deal, Ingrid accidentally blows up the entire warehouse full of gunpowder using a fireball, nearly killing Ingfrid. Kai Li, in disguise as Alfarihm, scares Ritsin as they take the money and run back to the ship, sailing out of the harbor and onto Aldrigvinter.

The city is decorated for Vakosi Arcanos (the holy day of Varkanus during which all mages are stronger) soon, and they head into Castle Fyrst. At a meeting room, they meet Ser Gerion Ulfheart, one of the most important generals in the Førish military and one of Ingrid’s mother’s main rivals. When King Renaer enters with a book in his hand, he has a civil conversation about his reasons for wanting independence. They eventually end up telling the full truth about Gothwyn and the time gears to him and Ser Gerion, which makes them reconsider and try to call off the war. However, he’s already made alliances and set things in motion that he can’t easily undo, such as an alliance with JIIK HAN, the ruler of Shatterrealm. Alfarihm helped him make this contract.

They head into Shatterrealm, and take on Jiik Han's offer of calling off the deal by winning the Shatterworld Tournament on Varkosi Arcanos. Zuq'zeen gives Gideon many diamonds for revivify, setting the tone. On the day of Varkosi Arcanos, in the first round, Werner and Kai-Li face off against Yatra and Blazar. Yatra kills both of them, but Kai Li’s revival of Werner comes in clutch. Kai Li dies, and Werner barely wins the fight after Blazar’s forfeit. She is revived by Gideon.

In Round 2, Zuq’zeen, Gideon, and Kai-Li face off against Xephak, Ophelia, and Izana. The fight is pretty evenly matched, and at one point Xephak transports everyone into his demiplane. After Gideon kills him, the others forfeit. After the others win against Alfarihm, Kai Li gets his legendary robe of the archmagi.

Khaz Jiik Han jumps into the ring, and challenges the remaining primerealm fighters directly in a final Round 3. The fight is difficult, with most of the fighters not managing to beat out their fear of him for a while, until Ser Gerion’s aura helps them. He kills werner with a ki beam. Ingrid blocks all of Jiik Han’s attacks at one point, and eventually manages to get the kill on him. Zuq’zeen revives Werner and sends out a big proclamation to Shatterrealm to choose their next emperor next year, and that they are forbidden from trying to conquer Primerealm for another century. They teleport back to Castle Fyrst back in Abmarah. The next day, Gideon has a bad dream and wakes up having lost 30 kgs, most of his health, and with black veins. Weakened, he even tries to stab out his eye before he’s stopped by Kai Li.

Back in Fort Huxley, they received an invitation to dinner with Gothwyn in her Timeron mansion. Ingrid and Kai Li had another shared dream of Tindalos. This time, it felt like it was triggered by Tempos. In Timeron, they finally reunited with Team Ivory Suns. Guildmaster Holroth introduced them to the DoD Grandmaster, Aam-Fen-Ross. They decided to reveal everything about the time gears and Gothwyn to Holroth and Fen, who agreed to help out the party if push came to shove. Fen revealed that the Ivory Suns had been working for Gothwyn for the past year. Meras said that they have been working for Gothwyn to be closer to the enemy, and had a map to the time gear under Timeron.

Next evening, they headed to Villa Gothwyn. The dinner got heated, and they managed to reach no real compromise. Gothwyn still wanted the wedding to proceed without any issue, and for them to not fight during the ceremonies. They agreed for now, and she vowed that even in her perfect world, neither she nor any future Gabryel would erase them from the timeline- promising the party their perfect ending in her world. The party didn’t realize it, but she used time stop to steal the time gears as they left. Back at Villa Gaten, they found alternate universe versions of people they knew, and Kai-Li faced off against an evil version of herself. In the Green Wedding, they interacted with a lot of nobles and important people from all over the world, most importantly Emperor Sombra of the Crimson Empire. He instantly sensed their powers, items, and abilities, and asked them how important their goals are, eventually trusting them. They then saw King Renaer enter last, much to everyone’s stress. He knelt before the Kaiser, preventing war. He then baited Gothwyn out into the gardens, where she tried to kill him. The party intervened, and managed to kill Gabryelle, and this time they ended up taking Time Gear Alpha before the new Gothwyn arrived, who felt much stronger than any before.

The party eventually headed into the depths under Olzarburg. Kai-Li and Erna realized that they were both gay in a heartfelt moment before heading deeper in. The party got lost in the labyrinth a fair bit despite the map, and after many trials they ended up in the deepest chamber where they saw the goddess Tempos in her slumber alongside the final time gear. As Ingrid finally realized that her prayers truly would never be answered by the slumbering goddess, 'Kai Li' suddenly tried to kill her. “Prime Kai-Li” revealed herself to both the party and to Kai-Li. She revealed that our Kai-Li was from a different timeline all along, and she was the one who had the pact with Orr’eeyar. Ingrid ended up defeating her, and as that happened, Gothwyn showed up with Stella di Silvestri. During the final fight, they ended up traveling back through time all the way back to the Rockham Depths, where they finally killed Gothwyn.

The Temporal Spire was restored, and the timeline ironed itself out and fixed everything, including closing all these gateways to other timelines. Uxius decides to scatter the five time gears again, and raise new temples and guardians to protect the time gears again. Orr’eeyar, through Kai Li, offered to protect Tempos. Ingrid agreed, as Time Gear Alpha alongside Tempos herself were transported to Tindalos for good. Later, they all shared farewells with each other and discussed their future plans, as the wedding continued without a hitch. With time finally restored, their work came to an end.

Kai-Li left Terros with Yi-Wen Ma to continue her journey across Abmarah, content to live in this timeline instead of returning to her own.

After the Campaign

Kai-Li after her travels separated with Yi-Wen and headed back to Xi-Di. There, she reformed the Sacred Lotus into a new Lotus of the Void, and became its leader. She continued to look into monolithic entities and the true nature of the world.

In 3E498 during The Light of Lunaria, the Darklight Crusaders discovered a dossier of important individuals that Skion Labs was keeping a track of. This included Kai-Li, who they knew as someone from a different timeline and marked as a potential source of 'temporal energy'.

Kai-Li herself, now 35, was exploring caverns deep underneath Eteru while researching the pure darkness. There, she and some acolytes found pure Azbaan ore, but were immediately sucked into darkness and ended up in the god Gammus' demiplane, the Hunting Grounds. There, everyone else was paused in time but her. She then met Vasirr again, and later Viera Blackreyne, Zahn Zwei, and Dravin Bahubaahu. Together, the five faced off against the The Dark Hunt and managed to kill the god Gammus once and for all.

Timeline

• 3E465 - Kai Li is born in Eteru.

• 3E480 - At the age of 15, Kai Li leaves the monastery to go explore the world.

• 3E482 - At 17, Kai Li finds a pamphlet from the Department of Dungeons, starting off the events of Shards of the Empire. After saving Vogh Vulfrhûn, she heads back to her monastery in Eteru, where she makes a pact with the March of Time.

• 3E483 - Chapters 4 and 5 of Shards of the Empire take place, including the Shatterworld Tournament and the Green Wedding.

• 3E498 - Kai-Li disappears for two years while excavating caverns deep under Eteru. She ends up in Gammus' demiplane during the events of The Light of Lunaria, and helps kill the god alongside the Chimera.

Gallery

Kai-Li during Ch. 1 of SotE (Credit: Jouweria)

35 Year Old Kai-Li during TLoL (Credit: Jouweria)

Male Kai-Li (Credit: Jouweria)

Kai-Li Beer (Credit: Jouweria)

"Evil" Kai-Li from Another World (Credit: Jouweria)

Kai-Li BG3 (Credit: Baldur's Gate 3)

Kai-Li during Ch. 2-3 of SotE (Credit: Jouweria)

Kai-Li Fireball (Credit: Tara)

Kai-Li and Orr'eeyar (Credit: Jouweria)

Kai-Li (Top Left) with some other characters of Jouweria (Credit: Jouweria)

Kai-Li during Ch. 4-5 of SotE (Credit: Jouweria)

Kai-Li attending the Green Wedding (Credit: Jouweria)

Pixel Art Evolution (Credit: Daibik)

Garden of the Sacred Lotus (Credit: Jouweria)

Transformation from the Drow Priestess (Credit: Aaron)

Kai-Li Mii (Credit: Tomodachi Life)