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Quote1 From this day, let my wrath be my life! From this day, let death be my lover, my patron, my soul! Never will I rest until Loki lies as dead as he whose love was the purest I have ever known! Let the word go out to Loki, wherever he may hide. Let him know that Kelda Stormrider seeks his life, and will not rest until that debt is paid! Quote2
Kelda[src]

History

Kelda was one of the many Asgardians who Thor resurrected after the Ragnarok Cycle. While the rest of her people were content to sit within Asgard and live out old glories, the golden-haired goddess instead sought out new experiences within Midgard. She traveled to the nearby town of Broxton, Oklahoma, stopping at Bill's Diner where she attracted the attention of one of the mortal residents, Bill, the local fry cook.[citation needed]

Kelda invited Bill to meet her in Asgard. Bill mustered up the courage to answer Kelda's standing invitation to visit Asgard, and dropped by, bringing her flowers, though the attempt to deliver them ended with her getting hit in the face with a rock. She showed him around Asgard, while they playfully flirted, and he tried to explain basketball to the Asgardian men.[citation needed]

In time, Bill and Kelda fell in love with one another, to the extent that Bill left his home and business in Broxton to move to Latveria with the other Asgardians. For Kelda, Bill's curiosity about the world around him and his sense of justice were some of his greatest qualities, and a few of the reasons she fell in love with him. While in Latveria, some unruly Asgardians hassled Bill and goaded him into a fight. Before Bill could enter the fight, Kelda arrived with an ice spear she summoned from the ongoing storm, broke the Asgardians' weapons, and then gave it to Bill, explaining it was poison and one scratch can kill an Asgardian. The Asgardians fled and Bill intended to investigate the recent move of Asgard to Latveria from Oklahoma. Tragically, Bill was murdered when he stumbled upon a conspiracy by Loki and Doctor Doom to harvest the organs of the Asgardians in order to give the armor-clad despot the secrets of immortality. Before his death, he told Balder Odinson of Loki's treachery and asked him to tell Kelda he loved her. When Kelda saw her mortal love dead before her, she swore vengeance on Loki and traveled to Castle Doom to confront him. Instead she met Doctor Doom, who goaded her into a fight. Blasting Doom with a bolt of lightning revealed him to be nothing more than a Doombot. Following a trail, she ventured deep into the castle and fell straight into his trap. Doom ripped her heart out and left her body on the floor.[citation needed]

Thor and the other Asgardians from Latveria, arrived to punish Doom for the wrongs done to the people of Asgard. During the battle, Doom threw the corpse of Kelda from his castle. Loki appeared and claimed he knew how to save Kelda. But in order to do so, Loki said he needed someone to recover her heart. While Thor was fighting Doom, Balder retrieved the heart and brought it to Loki who was able to bring her back to life. While alive, Kelda was torn with heartfelt grief over Bill's death.[citation needed]

Later, Kelda went to visit Bill's parents in Broxton to inform them of their son's fate. The house was surrounded by H.A.M.M.E.R. agents who demanded she surrender herself and shot her as she exited the house. While Bill's father tried to reason with the aggressors, Bill's mother talked with Kelda to bring her back to her senses, since she didn't intended to fight back. Kelda healed the wounds and rose up in the air, raining lightning down on the soldiers and freezing them solid.[citation needed]

After the Siege, Kelda was shown by a Valkyrie that Bill had been chosen to live in Valhalla but her love denied her entry since the "dead and the living can love but not be together". Kelda stated they would find a way to make it work since they were able to form a bond between goddess and mortal as well.[citation needed]

Later, it was revealed that when Loki was tending to her during the battle against Doom, he met her upon an astral plane. He explained to her that he required a raw ingot of her empathic soul to forge the blade Eir-Gram to cut down the old enemies of Asgard: the feared, cannibalistic Disir. The process would also leech some of her memories from her in an attempt to ease her inner pain; however, Loki also told her that this would prevent her from growing emotionally. She would remain emotionally as she was, her agony and anguish bound. Loki's last words to Kelda were, "But if the memories ever return, know this: I'm sorry, Kelda. If I could, I would make the sacrifice myself...but purity of spirit was never amongst my virtues."[2] Kelda slowly went insane due to Bill's death and Loki's tampering with her memories and soul, and tried to kill Balder before her soul was purified by Thor.[citation needed]

She later wandered in the wilderness and was taken up by Norns to fulfill the role as the "Maiden" to ease her pain and obtain closer contact to Bill in Valhalla. However, she was betrayed by the Crone, who was actually Karnilla in disguise, who beat her to death with a rock.[3] Her soul later reunited with Bill in Valhalla and they shared a tender kiss at the reunion.[4] She married Bill while they were in Valhalla together and were seen in various future battles as souls fighting on behalf of Asgard.[5]

The Mighty Thor[]

Kelda was part of the list of women Odinson suspected to be the new Thor.[6] As a ghost, she was one of the many women warriors (Asgardians and Avengers alike) Odinson and Freyja brought to help Thor in her fight against Cul Borson, as he commanded the Destroyer armor under Odin's order.[7] They fought him off until Odin aborted Cul's mission.[8]

Attributes

Power Grid[13]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Some Training:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Regenerative:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Speed of Sound:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (25-75 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Learned

Powers

As an Asgardian, Kelda possesses conventional superhuman abilities of an Asgardian female, or "goddess." Her Asgardian metabolism gives her superhuman endurance in all physical activities. However, on Midgard, all Asgardians are physically weaker and more vulnerable than on their native plane; their natural magical power is also somewhat reduced.

  • Superhuman Strength: Kelda possesses the strength of an average Asgardian goddess, being able to lift 25 tons.[9]
  • Superhuman Durability: She has durability great enough for her to withstand the impact of bullets from such firearms with minimal injury.[10]
  • Superhumanly Dense Tissue: Her Asgardian flesh and bone is about three times denser than similar human tissue, contributing to the her superhuman strength and weight.
  • Superhuman Speed: Able to move at the speed of sound itself, she traveled in storm clouds and appeared to levitate while not actually in the cloud.
  • Extended Longevity: She is extremely long-lived (though not immortal like the Olympian gods), aging at an extraordinarily slow rate upon reaching adulthood. She is immune to all terrestrial diseases and resistant to conventional injury.[9]
  • Regeneration: Kelda can regenerate minor wounds at will with her magic lightning and can survive for several minutes with major organs removed.[9]
  • Flight: Kelda can walk on air and turn her lower body into mist to fly at 50 mph.[9]
  • Sorcery: In addition, Kelda is numbered among the few Asgardians whom have developed their innate mystical talents, her "magics" able to give Asgard warning if any enemy approached it from beyond. According to Kelda, "born was I from light and sky, of sunrises and wind." She also utilized an enchanted wooden staff, likely to help focus and magnify her inherent mystical abilities, but it is shattered when Kelda's heart is torn out by the Doom-controlled Destroyer. Loki describes her as "high among us" to Thor and Balder, and that thus, Kelda's life flickers within her still some time after even the removal of her heart, and she could fully recover if her heart is retrieved and placed back in time.[11]
    • Weather Manipulation: She claims that she controls "the wind and the storm". When she discovered Bill's death, she revealed her name to be Kelda Stormrider and demonstrated the power of flight, turning the lower portion of her body into a twister of snow and clouds. She also displayed some level of storm manipulation, causing it to rain when she confronts Doom, and blasting him with celestial lightning from the skies. After declaring vengeance on Loki and Doom, her form changes and it begins to glow brightly, just like it did during her and Bill's first nighttime encounter. Kelda shows herself capable of freezing mortals solid and projecting multiple bolts of lightning simultaneously from herself at will powerful enough to destroy highly advanced firearms.
    • Poisonous: She can summon a poisoned ice spear from a storm deadly enough to slay three warrior Asgardians with but one scratch. Her own tears were also described as being poisonous for ingestion.

Abilities

  • Allspeak: Thanks to the Allspeak she can communicate in all of the languages of the Nine Realms, Earth's dialects, and various alien languages.

Notes

According to myths, the sea goddess Ran or Freya's sister Frid was Asgard's storm goddess, and Skadi as goddess of winter, but it is possible that Kelda may be another name for one of them, or that the myths may overlook Kelda in favor of them, because of Kelda's disinterest in adventure made her poor material for Viking sagas (or simply that Kelda's domain overlook theirs).[1]

See Also

Links and References

References

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