(last month's offering was a little weak. So have 5000 words about Birthright!)
The explosion of Mount Deismaar spread the essence of the old gods far and wide across Cerilia, and in the fifteen hundred years since, people have spread it further. It should come as no surprise, but often does, that this blood is also found among the races that live off the coasts, and they form kingdoms under the sea. Undersea life doesn't lend itself to the density of life on land; there are no large cities, and few large provinces.
Unsurprisingly, the most common bloodline derivations undersea are Masela and Azrai; Masela because of her connection to the sea, and her scions' continued embrace of it, and Azrai due to the corruptive nature of his blood; any other bloodline might become an Azrai bloodline, if the situations are right. There are higher incidences of different bloodlines near traditional territories; areas near Rjurik lands are more likely to have Reynir bloodlines under the sea (and the selkies are primarily Reynir-blooded), while the Andurian coast sees many more with the blood of Anduiras, und so weiter. The sole exception to this is the Krakenstaur; though near the Brecht lands, the people of Brenna, none live too close to the great beast. Of course, other major awnshegh are generally avoided.
Peoples of the Sea
The major intelligent races of the sea include the sahuagin, the merfolk, the koalinth, and the selkies; while the sea hags, sirines, and cetaceans should not be ignored, they have little influence beyond their immediate area. The sahuagin are concentrated on the southern coast, interspersed with merfolk holdings. The merfolk themselves are concentrated in the Strait of Aerele, but extend up the eastern and western coasts, living next to the koalinth; the koalinth go further north than the merfolk do, but nonetheless avoid the arctic waters. Selkie are primarily in the northeast, off Rjurik coasts, but ply those arctic waters the others shun.
The Sahuagin
The sahuagin are the scourge of the southern coast, striking from the deep, overwhelming ships and destroying villages. The black-eyed sea devils know no mercy, and train their sharks into dangerous killing machines. If a ship is attacked by sahuagin, the sailors know to fight to the last, as fiercely as possible, as there will be no mercy, no quarter, no survival.
Sahuagin society in many ways mirrors human society; there are kings and princes, barons and chiefs, though they are called words in their watery tongue which few others speak. Chiefs rule small settlements, while barons manage towns. There are a three sahuagin kings along the southern ocean; one claims the Gulf of Coeranys, one the Ajari Deeps and Serpent's Reach, and the third the sea south of Caelcorwynn, and towards Mieres. They are not the least bit allied to each other, and barons on the edge of each territory will defect to one or the other, depending on which way the current flows, or will find themselves stuck between both. The Seadrake's presence prevents them from spreading further west, and, while there are sahuagin northward along the eastern coast of Cerilia, there are no kings there, only chieftains and barons.
Southern sahuagin worship a collection of dark gods of the sea, often depicted as sharks or giant squid. They are served by priestesses of up to 5th level; there are no male priests among the sea devils. Each kingdom may worship several of these, and their few blooded priestesses fight viciously among themselves, god against god. The limited size and strength of their holdings protects many a landsman from Realm magic from beneath the waves.
Szisithisz, of the Ajari Deeps, is perhaps the most powerful of the three, having subjugated the entire undersea near him. He controls seven provinces, though the nature of sahuagin society is such that he has only law holdings, and his priestesses have only temple holdings. His warriors raid into Djafra, Khourane, and Suiriene, and battle fiercely with the servants of the Serpent. There are merfolk in his domain, but they pay tribute to him, which offers some scant protection. He has only a minor Azrai bloodline, and collects little regency; he may have seven provinces, but they are all rating 1, so no more than 1 level of law holding. Much of what he collects goes into increasing his personal power, raising the blood score. He is Battlewise, with a Minor affinity for Serpents, and a major resistance to Poison. He has met the Serpent in battle before, and hopes to steal his blood. The Serpent, his part, covets the undersea source holdings, but any attempt to seize them is rebuked; for all his power, the Serpent cannot match Szisithisz in the sea.
T'scach'nth rules the Coeranys Gulf, but only four provinces, none which touch shore-bound provinces. The merfolk of the sea have allied with the dolphins and whales of the Gulf, and keep him hemmed in his kingdom. He rages against this constantly, launching attack after attack on his neighbors, spawning more and more sahuagin to bolster his wars. He is the only male allowed to fertilize eggs in his territory, and so every sahuagin carries his Azrai bloodline, and it increases each generation as he fertilizes eggs of his own daughters, and devours many of his sons in an orgy of bloodtheft. This inbreeding has also increased the incidence of four-armed sahuagin in his territory, so nearly one in four is such a mutant. However, for all that his blood score approaches 100, T'scach'nth possesses only one blood ability: Major regeneration. Others of his brood possess other abilities, but he tends to eat those of his sons who display significant blood abilities.
Wexwizw'n controls the seas south of Mieres and Caelcorwynn. While he hates the merfolk of his kingdom a normal amount (for a sahuagin), he desires most the seas of T'scach'nth; Wexwizw'n, he knows, could control those seas better, but T'scach'nth has recovered from many wounds that would have crippled Wexwizw'n. He nominally controls eight provinces bordering the ocean spaces to the south, but, unlike Szisithisz, he has only light control of them; only two have any holdings at all. Wexwizw'n has a bloodline of Masela, with the valuable ability of Travel; in an aquatic person, this allows him to appear anywhere in the ocean he has been before, not just travel from shore to shore. He also bears a Divine Aura, and, ironically a Protection from Evil, which stands him well in fights against other sahuagin.
Northern Sahuagin are a different and reclusive breed; they are described in Havens of the Great Bay. They labor under the Kraken, and have exterminated the Merfolk of the Bay, and most of the koalinth.
The Merfolk
Merfolk prefer the warmer southern seas, but are not strictly tied to them; they make kingdoms as far north as the Tael Firth in the west and Yenin Frith in the East, and individuals and small groups can be found anywhere south of the Thaelsian Sea or the Leviathan's Reach; those waters are too cold to be endured for long. There used to be communities in the Great Bay, and those near the Dauren Arm survived until almost 900 HC, but the predation of the Kraken destroyed those societies.
The elves of old knew the merfolk near Cerilia, though they were neither great friends nor great enemies; the elves had their forests, the merfolk their seas, and the two seldom contacted each other, much less competed. With the coming of the humans, the merfolk faced competition; both the Brecht and the Maselians were often at sea, and none of the peoples ignored it. Conflicts raged in the early years, but the merfolk were gradually driven away from coastal areas claimed by humans.
This distance and history means that merfolk are often unwilling to engage in trade with landfolk; there's little the land has that they desire. Far more common are defense of territorial rights... too many human ships in an area can lead to merfolk attacks, and aggrieved communities of merfolk can destroy many ships in very short order. However, they prefer negotiation to war. While they do not want much from the landfolk, the landfolk also out number them by more than a hundred to one, and that's just the folk near the ocean. And the merfolk, especially those of the Gulf of Coeranys and the Suidemere, do have something that the landfolk can help them with: sahuagin.
Sahuagin like the same territories that the merfolk do; the temperate waters of the southern seas are their home. Unlike merfolk, they tend towards the deeper seas, even the ocean areas that the merfolk do not inhabit. Sahuagin towns, carved from stone, can hold hundreds of the devil men of the deep, and their ferocity means that they can decimate the less martial (though often more populous) merfolk realms. So, the merfolk have learned the art of putting bounties upon sahuagin, trading pearls, undersea treasures, and sailing rights in exchange for sahuagin heads. At some shoals, when the moon is full, they will greet ships of landfolk and pay for the heads of sea devils.
Most merfolk holdings are small; level one provinces, with law, guild, source, or temple holdings to match, but seldom more than two of those. Often, these provinces will be discontiguous; one province surrounded by unclaimed seas, as the merfolk are scattered and the blood of the old gods is rare among them. The exception is the Strait of Aerele, where they merfolk live under the nominal and expensive protection of the Seadrake. He does not seek to protect them, but the expense of his seas means that there are fewer to molest the merfolk, and he gladly fights the sahuagin (because they refuse to pay him tribute). The domains are still small; the largest is only a level two province; but it is surrounded by other merfolk provinces. They have no king, each province a land unto itself, ruled by a separate tribe, and all tithe to the Seadrake; goods from the sea floor, pearls, and art made by mermaids.
Merfolk follow primarily Nesirie and Ruornil, and their priests can reach up to 6th level. Very rarely, they have wizards capable of True Magic; unsurprisingly, many of these are water elementalists. Their wizards and magicians (priests of Ruornil included) tattoo their spellbooks upon themselves.
Koalinth
Koalinth are aquatic goblins; man-sized, they are sleekly built, but share many traits with their land-dwelling kin. However, their gills do not serve them well on land; they can stay on land for only one or two hours before they have difficulty breathing. Like the merfolk, koalinth have long lived in the seas around Cerilia, but their home range was the Great Bay, until the Kraken came and destroyed many of their settlements; they hold that the Krakenstaur was once their fortress. The coming of the Kraken led to three separate lineages; the Bay, the East, and the West, for lack of better terms.
Some few koalinth still live in the Bay in isolated tribes, most in the east, near Muden and Berhagen. They hold few provinces, and most are nomadic tribes, trading with pirates and landsmen alike, herding shoals of fish. They have a legend that one day a koalinth will kill the Kraken as part of a vast war that retakes the entire Great Bay, but each tribe has different traits for that goblin, and none are sure how the original legend goes.
Eastern koalinth concentrate in the bay between Velenoye and Zoloskaya, but range down the coast as far as the lands of the Magian (formerly Pipryet), where the merfolk, pinned between them and the sahuagin of the Ajari Deeps, have resisted dislodgement. Eastern koalinth sometimes venture north, into the Leviathan's Reach, and it is regarded as a sign of great bravery, though the Leviathan hasn't been seen in three generations of koalinth.
Western koalinth settle up and down the western side of the continent, from Halskapa to Taeghas; never fond of the coldest waters (though able to endure them), their loss of the seas near Jankaping and Hogunmark after the growth of the selkie population was not grevious (and very very long ago). Unlike the other koalinth communities, the western koalinth have direct contact with the goblins of Thurazor, and do significant trade with them, and serve as something of an ace in the hole against landsmen; if Thurazor is pressed too closely, they may ask their koalinth allies to raid against seaward provinces of their enemies. Backed by Thurazor, they have spread through much of the Tael Firth, with an outpost in many of the sea regions, connecting the tribes who swim the shallow sea. Koalinth view the selkies as competition, and will contest their holdings when feasible.
Koalinth shamans follow primarily an obscure underling of Kartathok; they have few true priests, and few of them are blooded. Their clerics, however, can reach 7th level, and they have some few witch doctors, who combine clerical magic and that of the magician (similar to priests of Ruornil).
Selkies
The selkies are descendants of a Rjurik ehrshegh; one of the first, born from Deismaar itself. Coll was his name, and he carried the doom of a shapeshifter. After being anointed with the blood of Reynir, Coll was thrown into the water, and into seal shape. He swam home to Jankaping, but feared that he would be forever in seal shape, separated from his wife, slowly losing himself to seal form, as so often happens to shapeshifters.
But Coll did not lose his mind, to his own astonishment, and, after a year of trying, was able to turn himself into a man. He wept in rejoicing, and returned to his wife, who bore him many fine children. But, as each came of age, each one turned into a seal and slipped into the sea.
Coll's doom came to him centuries ago, but the selkies still live. They live much of their lives in the sea, but retain the doom of the shapeshifter... only that they can assume the form of humans only for seven days each moon, during the darkest phase. During this time, young selkies will go to land and find lovers; some other selkies, many landfolk. Those born to the selkies will remain so; those born on land will often join the selkies when they grow up... or perhaps not. Who knows how many may descend from selkies, and don't know it?
Though most selkies are Reynir-blooded, other bloodlines have bred into the selkies over the centuries. Furthermore, the selkie tradition of taking human lovers means that the Reynir bloodline is, in many cases, attenuated. Selkies understand and speak Rjurik, but also their own selkie language, suited for the undersea. They have formed tribes and kingdoms, with secret, air-filled, grottos where they raise their young. Unlike seals, adult selkies can breath the water as easily as the air. They are little affected by the cold, but can only manage dives of about 700 feet deep. Though their hands are fully functional, their arms in seal form are very short, making the use of weapons nearly impossible. They prefer to use their speed to avoid danger, rather than face it with only their teeth.
Some selkies are priests of Erik, though Ruornil, and Nesirie are not uncommon; they can rise to 8th level. Followers of Erik and Nesirie replace the granted powers of their faith with the abilities of a Sea Ranger three levels higher (see Complete Book of Rangers), including Animal Empathy, Sea Tracking, Land Scent, and Aquatic Combat. Selkie warriors may have up to 8+8 hit dice, though 3+3 is the norm. True Wizards and magicians are rare among the selkies, though they have their share of bards. Shapechangers, they find the merfolk tattoo spellbooks more difficult, and so keep communal spellbooks inside their sea caves and grottos.
Like those of the merfolk, selkie provinces are low in population, but they are more likely to be arranged into multi-province kingdoms. The heart of selkie territory is north of Jankaping, but they have spread throughout the Thaelesian Straits, and down into Tael Firth, where they interact somewhat uneasily with the merfolk provinces there. The merfolk regard them as, essentially, land folk, and so negotiate territorial rights with them, often ceding coast-adjacent territories to them, in exchange for free reign in open water. The two are largely not antagonistic, but that doesn't mean they're not competitors for the same resources, at times.
Sea Hag
Everyone who has sat by a fire and listened to a bard has heard of The Hag, who lives between Grabentod and Drachenward and keeps the two at each others throats. But there also the lesser hags; powerful magicians who drink the blood of scions, using it to fuel the True Magic that their unblooded state denies them.
While other hags concentrate on other magics, sea hags can the normal array of magician spells normally, and use blood to cast spells of the water and air schools, as well as necromancy. Every three points of blood strength from a victim allows the casting of one level of spells; once spent, the blood is gone. Thus, a sea hag who consumed the body of a scion with a 39 blood score could cast up to 13 levels of air, water, or necromancy spells, though illusions, divinations, and 1st and 2nd level spells of any school are governed by the usual rules of magicians.
Hags can also absorb blood scores willingly given. In exchange for blood score, freely given, hags will offer many favors; three points of blood strength from a scion gives the hag a pool of one point to use in their blood-powered magic. Furthermore, points gained in this way return at the dark of the moon, and are replenished then they consume a scion. Some sea hags have traded favors for centuries, and have impressive pools of blood points that they can spend on their horrid magics, even without eating a new scion.
Hags are, by their very nature, unblooded; once a magician becomes a hag, they can not be invested with a blood score; it will merely add to their pool. As such, Hags do not control provinces by right of blood. But powerful sea hags will extort blood from scions, or threaten them with curses, storms, and other calamities. Should they gain control of a regent, their reach can be expansive.
Dolphins
The dolphins of Cerilia have long had the blood of Masela, even before Deismaar. She loved her creatures, and blessed many with her power. But they form no provinces, only travel the ocean.
What makes dolphins remarkable is that their connection to Masela continues to Neserie, to the point where some dolphins are Paladins of that goddess, reaching up to 7th level of ability. These dolphin-paladins lead other dolphins through the sea, waging war on sahuagin and other evils of the deep. No dolphins are of other classes, though some will advance in skill and HD, up to 6 HD.
Sirines
Sirines are not native to Cerilia; it is believed that they came first from the elemental plane of water. They are little involved in the affairs of land folk, only sometimes venturing into populated areas for more than a day or dalliance. There is a 1% chance that a water elemental summoned by means other than the power of Nesirie will be a sirene; she will not be under the summoner's control and will often be very upset. If allowed to flee, most will; they know that someone who can summon a water elemental is often a dangerous foe in other respects.
Realms and Regency
Scions of undersea races form their own realms, as noted above. Sahuagin will have only Law and Temple holdings; they trade no goods and work no wizard magic, so they have no guild or source holdings. Merfolk seldom have Guild holdings, but it is not unheard of, especially in the Straits, where they trade with each other. Koalinth seldom have Source holdings. Selkies will have the full range of holdings; they will trade with the land and each other, they worship the gods much as they do on land, and they have some few true wizards among them.
These holdings generate regency and gold bars for their rulers, just as they do on land and, if means can be found, land-bound (or land-prefering) realms can trade with them. As on land, trade routes must connect different terrain types; a sea valley must connect to a reef or bank or canyon, not another valley. However, they can also connect a sea floor to a land-bound coast or plain or mountain. Temple holdings can be the source of divine realm magic. Law holdings can help control an area, including taxation. Sources, however, are somewhat different.
Tides and Trade
Trade happens underwater, and between the water and the land and, in many ways, is simpler than it is on land; the Rjurik bards call the sea the whale-road, and it is also road to selkie, merfolk, and koalinth.
Guild holdings can be connected via trade routes, much as on land, but do not require roads to be built. Trade routes can even be connected to land, through traditional trade routes, and both the koalinth and selkies have such. Trade routes between land and sea provinces require ships, but trade routes between sea provinces do not. The small size of many sea provinces reduces the value of trade to them for land traders; do you send a route to the rating one province beneath the sea or the rating seven province on land?; but they are valuable to the sea folk.
The major impediment to trade between land and sea provinces is simply that those adapted to land can seldom breathe water, and those adapted to the water can seldom move well on land; koalinth walk well, but cannot stray far from the water or they asphyxiate. Selkies move better than seals, but not much (movement of 3 on land when not in human form), and merfolk can neither walk nor stray far from land. Sahuagin can survive longer on land than koalinth, and walk better than selkies, but are also not involved in trade. Many trade routes are therefore negotiated in harbors or on board ships.
Sources and Sorcery
As noted above, most undersea realms are small. Many sea areas are the size of entire kingdoms, and, often, any given sea area will have only a single province with a ranked population; there simply are not that many fish in the sea, no matter what your mother told you. The largest province in the sea is a three, part of the selkie ancestral holdings north of Jankaping. This, however, is of great use to wizards among the undersea races, and some few blooded wizards of the land.
The mebhaighl of the undersea is not as concentrated as above; some elves hold that it is because the lands have not had millennia of elven stewardship to nurture it, while other wizards believe that it stems from their relative insulation from the divine essence spread after Deismaar. But material from the land flows into the sea, and the waters of Cerilia are as magical as its glens, and so mebhaighl is found in the deep. Many are relatively weak; plains and valleys beneath the sea. Others, like vast kelp forests, have more strength, and those on the edge of oceans stand as if on high mountains.
Most often, these sources go untapped, as the undersea races have few true wizards, and the land races find it difficult to spend a month underwater, developing a source for their own use. But most often is not "never". Selkies and merfolk both produce True Wizards at times, and some from the land, by magic or blood, can spend their time (a domain action; a whole month) under the sea. Because of the relatively unsettled nature of these, and their inaccessibility to others, the undersea provinces are powerful Sources, when properly managed.
Generally, the sea can be considered to have four major land forms of note: Shelf Plains and Valleys, Banks and Shoals, Reefs and Kelp Forests, and Submarine Canyons.
Shelf Plains and Valleys are broad areas of the continental shelf; they are the most common type. In many ways, these are characterized by a lack of other features; they may have kelp, or small reefs, but they are not dominated by anything other than the ocea itself. The valleys are the remains of ancient river systems, and often lie at the mouths of extant rivers, where a flow of material from the land spreads out across the sea floor. They have a source potential of 4.
Banks and Shoals are raised areas from the sea floor; underwater hills, in many places, which tend to shelter a huge array of life, close to the sun. These will stand opposite rivers, many miles away, where the material from the land settles once free from the more turbulent water near the river mouth. These have a source potential of 6.
Reefs and Kelp Forests are smaller areas, usually located off banks or shoals, where unique plants, fish, and other creatures flourish among the protection. While a broad plain under the sea will not be devoid of life by any means, a reef or kelp forest explodes with it, much like an old forest where few men have tread. They usually have a source potential of 7.
Submarine canyons are scars in the continental shelf; deep passages to the ocean floor, down to the cthonic depths of the ocean areas. These canyons contain a key to ancient life, as the mebhaighl of the deep flows upward, mixing with the mebhaighl of the sea and land. These have a source potential of 8 or higher, but they are also dangerous; not only are the favorites of the sahuagin, but creatures of the dark deeps may stray upward.
Sea Sources have a unique difficulty; as their atmosphere is shifting tides, and their "land" is often made of silt and other loose earth, they are subject to erosion. On a Natural Event domain event, natural disasters may cause a shift in the mebhaighl. Upon determining that there is a natural disaster, roll 1d6, as usual. In addition to the usual effects of the event, roll 3d6 for a minor event, 2d6 for a major event, and 1d6 for a catastrophe. If the total is less than the developed rating of the source, then a shift in the mebhaighl has caused that source holding to lose 1 point. Note that the province does not lose potential; a province that could once support a 7 Source can still do so. But one point of developed source is lost, and must be Ruled again, at the normal cost in GB and RP.
The Ley of the Sea
Many ley lines between islands and the coast never enter sea provinces; they are entirely within adjacent coastal provinces. Others will cross over sea provinces without touching them; the surface of the sea itself acts like a province border, and so a line that travels above that border, never entering the sea beneath, needs pay no cost for crossing it. Beneath the waves, this can provide a means to connect sources without crossing intervening provinces; one must curve the line above the sea (inflicting the normal cost for curving a line and for crossing a province border in the air), and thus reach other sea provinces within the normal 150 mile range. This can also be done to connect land sources to distant sea sources. It is unknown if this would work on land, curving lines through the sky; there's not as a clear a barrier as the sea surface.
If a sea source holding is subject to erosion (qv), this may impact any ley lines to which it is connected. The owner of the ley line may, as a free action, perform a Forge Ley Line action to maintain the line (at no cost in GB, and only 1 RP, plus any spent to improve the roll). It will not prevent source erosion, but it will maintain the line.
War Beneath the Waves
Mechanically, war beneath the sea is conducted the same as war on land; units meet each other in the ocean and fight, comparing attack to defense, and manuevering across the battlefield. However, the sea devil is in the details.
Moving sea-based troops by sea requires 1 GB per 10 units, as with moving land units by land. However, movement by sea troops does require a success check to account for the vagaries of weather, currents, and tides; a land unit soaked by a storm doesn't wind up three provinces away. While that won't mechanically happen to a sea unit, it certainly might narratively.
On the other hand, sea provinces seldom have terrain movement costs; they have individual landforms, and thus terrain cards, but these seldom affect cross-province movement (that's what the movement success roll is for). Additionally, castles do not block troop movement underwater, nor does one require an artillerist to assault them, since you can swim over the walls. Their effect, however, is to make it impossible to subdue a province until they are reduced to zero. If the province is fortified as well, it must be separately besieged. A unit inside a castle cannot use charge attacks, and can only use melee attacks if the other side attacks them in melee, but receive a +1 to defense.
Shelf Plains & Valleys and Banks & Shoals land types do not have associated land cards; these areas are relatively open.
Reefs and Kelp Forests
Movement: Units must stop moving when they enter an area containing this card. (Unit can leave the area without penalty)
Combat: Units in this area cannot be charged. Missile attacks fired into this area suffer a -2 penalty to their attack ratings.
Submarine Canyons
Movement: Units which stop in this area must roll 1d6; on a 4 or higher they are pushed 1 area in another direction. Roll 1d4, with 1 being towards the other side's reserve, 2 being right (for the owner of the unit), 3 being back, and 4 being left.
Combat: If the area is occupied when a routed unit is forced into it,, roll 1d6; on a 4 or high they are pushed 1 area in another direction. Roll 1d4; if 2 or 4 are rolled, and are valid directions (not off the battlefield or into an enemy unit), then they survive the rout and may attempt a morale check to rally.