Triton

Tritons were an outsider race native to the seas but hailing from the Elemental Plane of Water.

Description
Tritons are a humaniform race, notable in their many underwater adaptations that render them visually distinct from other humanoid races. Their skin is most commonly a deep-blue, but has also been known to appear as pearl, light green, or in rare cases, other mutant colors. Their hands and feet are webbed, and they have minor dorsal fins that run from their mid-calf and end at their ankles. They are notably shorter than humans, averaging around five feet tall.

Triton hair tends to be dark blue or dark green, and are worn in the form of long, flowing ‘manes’. Triton men typically cut their hair around five inches past their shoulders, braiding it to keep it out of their eyes. While triton women occasionally follow this rule, they have also been known to let it flow free. Triton hair does not grow within two inches of the base of their pointed ears, giving the appearance that it is shaved there. When heading into combat, they often bind their hair into styles such as tight ponytails, so as to maintain visibility. They have also been known to weave pieces of coral or metal into their hair for emergency use as bludgeons.

Triton eyes typically seem to vary between brilliant shades of green or blue. If seen in standard lighting (typically within 200 feet of the surface of the sea or near a typical torch), their eyes appear similar to a human’s. In dim lighting, their pupils expand greatly to allow for better sight in the dark, sometimes turning the entire eye black. Their eyes also possess a nictitating membrane, which protects them from sudden changes or flashes in light. All of this allows for them to have normal vision even up to depths of 1,000 feet under the sea, though the triton have been known to be able to safely swim down to 3,000 feet.

Personality
Tritons are a very proud people, with many biases and preconceptions as a result of their way of life. Having spent centuries protecting the world from supposed great evils under the sea, they believe they are entitled to a certain amount of fealty and respect from other races, something that is rarely acknowledged due to the lack of awareness many people hold for the triton. Their isolation from the rest of the world also leaves them ignorant of the grand achievements of other civilizations or struggles the rest of the world has dealt with. When they are aware of such things, they consider them minor compared to the triton’s attempts to protect the world.

Despite this, the triton are a noble and kind-hearted people who value the world and other races. Their arrogance aside, they will readily sacrifice themselves to protect others, willing to fight and die for the other races of the world. They harbor a sense of guilt over allowing the evils of the Elemental Plane of Water threaten this world, and feel a need to make up for this crime. The fact that their name, ‘Triton’, translates to ‘guardian’ in their language is an example of their heroic nature.

Government
Triton society is a patriarchal feudal system that consists of inherited noble titles. In addition, the military and priesthood share a great deal of power, with the priesthood ruling over citizens at home and the military ensuring the survival of the communities. Their rule does not extend past their own protectorates, as each protectorate is a sovereign nation independent from the others.

Triton settlements are built in a very orthodox, logical manner that stems from a characteristic orderliness. Triton protectorates start with a single garrisoned outpost, which takes the form of a central tower surrounded by additional buildings or caverns to provide more space. There are then four more outposts created sixteen miles from the center tower, in each of the four cardinal directions. More outposts are then created, in sets of four, to create a grid-like pattern, ensuring that each settlement is within a half-day’s journey of each other. These protectorates end up being composed of a capital city, a ring of eight trade cities, twelve farming villages, and twenty-four outposts guarding it all. These cities reach no higher than 1,250 feet below sea level.

The triton make regular use of hydrothermal vents to smelt metals and produce valuable weapons and armor. However, continued exposure to the mineral-rich waters can make them ill, so they limit their interactions with them.

Religion
The triton are a theocratic society, with all triton having ties to the church of their creator-god, Persana. All that non-tritons know of Persana’s worship is that it places a great deal of focus on craftsmanship and guardianship, with the triton creating great cities in his name. Persana’s priests are known to work readily with those of other faiths, if such an arrangement would benefit the triton, something that Persana would do himself.

The triton believe that Persana created their species out of magically treated water from the fountain of the Elemental Plane of Water. While Persana seems to only care about the triton in particular, he will cooperate with other races and their gods if it means aiding his people. Rarely, he will have his avatar appear in triton courts to guide them, or will send omens in the form of things such as pearls, underwater whirlpools, or living caverns.

Persana’s priests have many responsibilities in triton life. They have been known to administer justice in court, act as architects for undersea cities, and even lead others in battle.

Some triton also claim the god Eadro as their creator. The triton are also said to have a more significant druidic population the air-breathing races, tending to their aquatic environment and protecting it from harm.

Combat
The tritons have a special weapon that is unique solely to their culture, known as the tapal. These are weapons traditionally carried through family lines, to be presented to a triton when they become an adult. Triton have also been known to use more traditional weapons, such as unique aquatic variants of crossbows, designed with thicker wire and reinforced to withstand the pressure of the sea. They also use other aquatic weapons, such as stingray whips, daggers, javelins, nets, and their favored weapons, tridents. Triton weapons tend to be made from bone or coral, with enchantments to strengthen them. Some use metal, with magical enhancements to make them immune to rusting and pitting.

The triton of Serôs wear two unique kinds of armor. The first, called silverweave, is a light and flexible fabric made out of coral fronds, treated so that it has the durability of chainmail but moves like cloth. This is rarely worn outside of war, and usually is made to protect the legs. The bulkier, ornamental pearl armor serves as a counterpart, offering protection akin to plate armor while being much lighter.

Triton spellcasters tend to use various shells in the place of magical staves. When it comes to writing down spells, they forgo books in favor of carving spells into a cavern wall, typically in a language only the triton wizards know and in a cave only they can access.

Triton believe in the Law of Duels, in which two combating armies may instead put forward their champions to represent their faction and fight a personal challenge. This public conflict may be nonlethal and to first blood, if the challenged (not the challenger) chooses so.

Organizations
The most well-known triton-founded organization are the Dukars (named after their first Grand Master) are common in Serôs. The Dukars, through a mysterious ritual, use coral implants in their skeletons that cause magic to flow through them. The Dukars are divided between the Lorekeepers, who strive to preserve history, and the Peacekeepers, who keep the peace and gather knowledge. Their numbers consisted of many races, with some claiming they counted storm giants, great whales, dolphins, koalinth, and ixitxachitl among their ranks. The organization disappeared due to an unknown conflict six hundred years ago, however, bringing an end to their 8,000 year long campaign for peace. They remain, but only in small number, with their goal being to maintain the fragile alliances in Serôs.

The triton are also said to have an order of paladins known as the Order of the Crimson Shell, whose purpose is to destroy the sahuagin and put an end to their cult, the Jaws of Sekolah, as well as the terror it spreads.

Relationships
Tritons had good relations with giant sea horses, hippocampi, and sea lions, such that these creatures would hark to a summons by the sounding of a conch shell horn. They were uneasy around dolphins, who would invade their space without care and often would try to break down the triton’s aloof attitude. The triton also domesticated twilight turtles, a species of black-and-purple aquatic turtles which glow with bioluminescence, while also acting as a pack animal.

Triton have a number of sapient allies. One of these are the Aventi, a race of sea-dwelling humans who often help them repel threats from the sea and the surface. In Serôs, their allies included the shalarin, the merfolk, the morkoth of Qatoris, and the inhabitants of Myth Nantar.

They were sometimes found as courtiers or servants in the palace of the marid Kalbari al-Durrat al-Amwaj ibn Jari, the Citadel of Ten Thousand Pearls, and entire tribes of them would occasionally accompany her whenever she traveled on the Prime Material plane. Besides her, tritons often acted as bodyguards of traveling marids.

Despite their xenophobic attitude, the triton rarely kill outsiders without reason. Instead, their preferred method of dealing with intruders depends on the quality of the individual, which is tested in a triton court. Those deemed innocent awaken the next day on a nearby shore, while the guilty are stripped of their belongings and set adrift ten miles from the nearest shore. This practice is called leaving them “to the fate of the seas”.

History
The triton were said to be created long ago, when their patron god Persana created them out of magically treated water from the Elemental Plane of Water. They are said to be the ‘cousins’ of nereids, sharing a common ancestry.

Centuries ago, the triton fought a number of elemental evils within the Elemental Plane of Water. These evils--such as the krakens, the sahuagin, and much more--were eventually defeated, and forced them into the Darkest Depths, a dark and crushing part of the plane. Eventually, the triton noticed that their enemies were strangely silent, causing them to investigate the Darkest Depths. There, they learned that their enemies had fled into the Prime Material Plane.

The triton, feeling guilty from allowing this to occur, decided to pursue their enemies. Triton volunteers, skilled in weapons and magic, were sent into the Prime Material Plane to seek out these evils. They spread across the ocean, creating protectorates that served to guard locations they believed these creatures might lurk in, such as near portals or deep sea trenches.

Once they had banished these evils to the farthest reaches of the ocean, the triton chose to stay in this plane, waiting for their enemies to return. Their cities spread throughout the seafloor, trading with other races but remaining so remote that even the merfolk and sea elves would rarely meet them.

The first recorded appearance of the triton in Toril was in -106 D.R., near the end of the Seventh Serôs War. The triton suddenly appeared from the deepest trenches of the Sea of Fallen Stars, where they struck at the morkoth Theocracy of the Deep Ones, forcing the morkoth to retreat back into the depths. From then on, the triton would keep balance between the shalarin and the morkoth, making a home on the ocean floor. The triton would continue to play an active role in Serôs, creating three new protectorates in the area: Ahlors in -91 D.R., Vuuvax in 12 D.R., and Pumana in 165 D.R. These protectorates would act as sovereign city-states, separate from one another.

In the time approaching the Twelfth Serôs War, the triton ignored the disruptions caused by the evil megalodon Iakhovas, believing it to be an “upwater problem” that would distract them from protecting the ocean floor. They wouldn’t involve themselves in the war until a triton conch was stolen by a mermaid and shalarin who sought aid against their enemies, causing the triton to chase after them. Soon afterward, the morkoth invaded the triton protectorates of Pumanath and Abydos, taking back fel magic that they would use to fight the Twelfth Serôs War. This caused the triton to realize their arrogance, and inspired them to join the war soon after.

In Flamerule, 1369 D.R., the triton would join an alliance between the shalarin of Es’rath, the merfolk of Voalidru, and the good-aligned morkoth of Qatoris; this in an attempt to rally against the growing plans of the morkoth of Olleth. In the month of Uktar, the triton would formally join the war, breaking the army of Iakhovas in two at Myth Nantar. The war ended soon afterward with Iakhovas being banished from Serôs.

Notable Triton

 * Dukar, a triton wizard who founded the Dukar organization.
 * Jhimar, the triton warrior maiden who founded the now Lost Order of the Dukars, the Red Adherents, dedicated to the use of their coral weaponry.
 * Keros the Wanderer, a triton exile who came into possession of the corrupt Claw  of  Xynakt, and ended up helping his people during the battle at Myth Nantar.
 * Pythan, a triton wizard who sacrificed her life to seal away the greatest evils of Serôs within the Alamber Sea.
 * Rusar, the first triton to learn to forge weapons with Rusar’s Coral, a type of coral that, when heated, becomes a steel-hard emerald-green crystal.
 * Vodos, the Great Builder, a priest of Persana who designed the Sharksteeth Mounts and the Sharksbane Wall.

Appearances

 * Board Games:
 * Dragonfire