Kalgara

The first thing anyone noticed about Kalgara was the cascade of red hair reaching nearly to his knees. Red tattoos marked both shoulders, and a small pair of white wings sprouted from his back as with all Shandia. His heavily muscled frame and his wild, staring eyes set above a manic grin gave him the look of a true demon, far fiercer than his stoic descendant Wyper. He dressed in purple laced-leg trousers worn beneath a grass skirt.

Above all else Kalgara lived to serve and shield his tribe, charging at any threat without a moment's pause and speaking of wiping out his foes, though he often let retreating sailors flee if they surrendered their cargo. His devotion extended to the Shandia's customs and the worship of their ancestors; he never doubted the Pantri's word and believed disaster would follow if the gods were slighted. Forced to offer his own daughter in sacrifice, he found no joy in it yet held it to be necessary. Even so, he was no zealot. Once Noland gave him sound reason, he was willing to abandon the practice and embrace the idea of progress. Beyond his warrior duties he proved a kind and loyal man whose bond with Noland was the first true friendship he had known, and he kept his word to it with the same fervor he showed his traditions. He could wield a giant chained iron ball capable of wrecking a ship in one blow, used Observation Haki, and was swift and powerful enough to ring the Golden Bell alone.

When a plague the Shandia called Tree Fever struck their village, the Pantri demanded a maiden be sacrificed, and Kalgara watched his daughter Mousse brought to the altar of the serpent deity Kashigami. The foreign explorer Mont Blanc Noland slew the beast and declared the sacrifice needless, prompting Kalgara to attack him. After Noland pledged to deliver a cure and end the practice, the chief gave him a deadline, and over the following days Noland's honesty won Kalgara over. Noland's medicine saved the village, sparing Mousse and forging a deep friendship between the two men, who often rang the Golden Bell, the Light of Shandora, to guide their ancestors home. Their bond fractured when Noland's crew cut down the white Ancestor Trees, but the rift healed once Mousse revealed the trees had been infected with Tree Fever. Kalgara raced to the shore as the explorers departed and asked Noland to return one day, a promise Noland made in turn. Four years later a Knock Up Stream hurled their part of Jaya into the sky near Skypiea. Returning to find the God Ubau's warriors invading, Kalgara rallied the Shandia and fought to keep ringing the bell for Noland, but fell in the battle before reaching it. Generations later the tribe still revered him, raising a statue in his honor, and his promise was finally kept when the Golden Bell rang again 413 years on and Noland's descendant Mont Blanc Cricket heard it from below.