Doji Akeru was a courtier of the Crane Clan, the owner of the Thousand Leaves tea house in the City of the Prosperous Dawn, and a member of the Kolat conspiracy. Akeru sought out potential explorers, recruiting those who might be able to find answers about why the Heavens would open up these dangerous islands to mankind. He was most interested in what laid at the center of Umi-Bozu's Teeth, the vast whirlpool found in the center of the archipelago.