Daeled

Daeled the Deepest, father of the Oscus horsehoe crabs, is a sea scorpion. For as long as Nohren has had water, it has also had Daeled. For centuries untold he ruled the seas uncontested, sharing his magic and accumulated wisdom with the early animals. Societies rose up around him, his visage was etched into coral and marble, and he was happy.

All that changed when an invader- a green god called Euphos- amassed a horde of shark-folk called the Sellach and brutally massacred his beautiful cities and their occupants. They came during the quiet times and ate anything that so much as twitched, without mercy, without thought, simply indulging a bottomless appetite on their master’s command.

Daeled fought bravely on his own to avenge his fallen people, but his sorcery was no match for their sheer numbers, and his tough carapace was giving way to their teeth. Magic poured out of him like so much copper-rich crab blood, just as blue and foaming with the potential for flow and alteration. Knowing he could no longer hold out, Daeled retreated, strategically darting this way and that, filling the sea with the magical foam of his blood.

This act would change the face of the southern seas forever. As he retreated to a dark, dark trench, his magic gave rise to sudden explosions of new species, all lit up with God’s Eyes and charged with tension and a sudden inexplicable urge to repel the invaders. Sepler cuttlefish and Nepler lobster-folk, Carixan shrimp-people and the hearty Manta all burst into being together, Daeled’s blood coalescing into new, lesser gods to guide them. This new army avenged the massacred Oscus and bought Daeled the time he needed to heal, but by the time he was ready to leave his trench again, society beneath the waves had been totally reimagined by these new cultures he brought to life.

Heaving a bubbly sigh of resignation and understanding, the giant sea scorpion returned to his trench and made a new life for himself, reading the currents and tracking the Sellach swarm and the Green God that changed everything for him. Now he seeks champions from the surface and offers them strange blessings and gifts of secrets in exchange for their fealty and service. In time, he will send them marching, swimming, sailing north to Euphodael, to take the fight to the Sellach on their own surf. For now he watches, and he waits.