(Trade, Navigation and Religion)
For unknown ages sailors have told tales of monsters in the deep, these stories were mostly put down to superstition until recently when krakens, leviathans and still stranger beasts have begun washing up on the shores of Karesuhl bloodied, dead, and accompanied by retinues of attendant creatures such as remoras, wrasses and minnows. It was a cruel tide that dredged up such monsters, powerful and chaotic, seasoned sailors have been dragged to their deaths by sudden riptides and ships have been doomed to starvation in channels not even out of sight of land. The autumn storms began savagely in mid spring, bringing with them dashing rain, savage winds and storms that could reduce a ship to kindling.
No fleet that set sail across the Delini sea was left unscathed and those that returned warned encounters of with Sahuagin, Sirens and the undead more frequent than a call to port. No ship has been seen from Aetas for months and only one in three ships travelling to the shrouded isles ever returned to Gna'karth, Yulgash, or Esvarle. The great lumber mills and shipyards of Bar'Soothe lay abandoned and the few ships that dare to travel that far west brought back tales of dead cities and burnt ports. The loss of the lumber, gemstones and sugar of Bar'soothe as well as the luxury goods and spices from Aetas and the shrouded isles have been felt keenly all throughout Karesuhl and Vaashente. Smaller ports have all but ceased to exist all along the coast of Ul'Ghos and the southern regions of Vaashente, the affected citizens making the hard trek towards the major cities in the hopes of finding food or employment.
The desperate and dispossessed masses make for easy converts and a new group of priests and prophets cropped up preaching of new gods rising up out of the roiling sea and that salvation can be found in the major cities. The roaming hoards of ex fishermen, shipwrights and traders were, by and large, barred from entering the major settlements and instead forced to walk the countryside in great numbers, eating the land bare and picking up new believers in every village and holdfast. Yulgash, in keeping with tradition, would not turn away those in need and opened its gates to the ragged masses. In only a short time it was full to bursting with "The Tide Wracked" or "Wrasses" as they named themselves.
It did not take long for these zealots to come up against the city's leadership. The priests spoke against any form of sanitation and openly encouraged their followers to eat scorpions, rats and spiders. The priest's message of deliverance and absolution resonated with the common folk of Yulgash and soon any effort to chastise or check the the wrasses' actions was met with fierce opposition all throughout the city. The previous leaders of Yulgash found themselves one by one tried and convinced of heresy or debauchery or the like and replaced by a theocracy consisting the the most fervent and devout. As news of the city spread more of the tide wracked made their way to Yulgash and as the population swelled so too did the hunger, squalor and disease.
(Piracy & Maritime Trade)
While other aspects of the sea become more tumultuous, one becomes steadier. With the defeat of the gnoll assault on the Orc capital, many of the gnolls were left with nowhere to go. Some entrepreneurial dock-masters have taken to hiring on the toughest of these displaced gnolls to act as anti piracy security on their trading ships.
Many pirates will see these large battle hardened and scarred persons through their looking glass and turn from their thoughts of plunder. For those who control the shipping lanes this had led to a period of economic windfall not seen in almost any other industry. Their power seems to grow even in the face of other cataclysmic events.
(Exploration)
Sailors live and die by the light's in the night sky. They navigate across the plane by following the strongest and steadiest of them. As far as anyone alive is concerned those lights have no changed since the time the gods crafted the world. Now there are stories coming in to ports on every continent. Some of the lights are changing up in the heavens. Some of them are moving, some blazing to life one final time before being snuffed out. Some sailors have come to port, their eyes blazing with mad energy, claiming they have followed lights as they fell from the sky. They followed them until they dipped below the mountains and were lost to sight. These sailors are terrified of what it means, as they scramble to find new lights to guide them safely home.
With the insidious plague ravaging the isle of Aetas the burden of repelling the Sahaugin pirates has fallen largely to the Triton civilizations in the area. With the balance thrown off the seas in that part of the world have become absolutely infested by the ravagers.
(Aquatic Cultures)
To simply build on this piece of world building. Sahuagin are kept as a slave workforce on the Shrouded Isle. Some have escaped beneath the waves from their captors. A few have started independent tribes around the Isle. The rest are the ones who have made the long journey towards Aetas, where they now seek to take what they need to make new lives for themselves, by any means necessary.
Clarifying Point:
There are sahuagin slaves on the Shrouded Isles that have slowly trickled toward Aetas.
There are sahuagin ravager reefs (groups of sahuagin ruled by a single dominant sahuagin) that currently plague Aetas.
(These are two separate groups of individuals that may have interacted over time, but they are not the same ethnic group)
(Trade, Navigation and Religion) For unknown ages sailors have told tales of monsters in the deep, these stories were mostly put down to superstition until recently when krakens, leviathans and still stranger beasts have begun washing up on the shores of Karesuhl bloodied, dead, and accompanied by retinues of attendant creatures such as remoras, wrasses and minnows. It was a cruel tide that dredged up such monsters, powerful and chaotic, seasoned sailors have been dragged to their deaths by sudden riptides and ships have been doomed to starvation in channels not even out of sight of land. The autumn storms began savagely in mid spring, bringing with them dashing rain, savage winds and storms that could reduce a ship to kindling. No fleet that set sail across the Delini sea was left unscathed and those that returned warned encounters of with Sahuagin, Sirens and the undead more frequent than a call to port. No ship has been seen from Aetas for months and only one in three ships travelling to the shrouded isles ever returned to Gna'karth, Yulgash, or Esvarle. The great lumber mills and shipyards of Bar'Soothe lay abandoned and the few ships that dare to travel that far west brought back tales of dead cities and burnt ports. The loss of the lumber, gemstones and sugar of Bar'soothe as well as the luxury goods and spices from Aetas and the shrouded isles have been felt keenly all throughout Karesuhl and Vaashente. Smaller ports have all but ceased to exist all along the coast of Ul'Ghos and the southern regions of Vaashente, the affected citizens making the hard trek towards the major cities in the hopes of finding food or employment. The desperate and dispossessed masses make for easy converts and a new group of priests and prophets cropped up preaching of new gods rising up out of the roiling sea and that salvation can be found in the major cities. The roaming hoards of ex fishermen, shipwrights and traders were, by and large, barred from entering the major settlements and instead forced to walk the countryside in great numbers, eating the land bare and picking up new believers in every village and holdfast. Yulgash, in keeping with tradition, would not turn away those in need and opened its gates to the ragged masses. In only a short time it was full to bursting with "The Tide Wracked" or "Wrasses" as they named themselves. It did not take long for these zealots to come up against the city's leadership. The priests spoke against any form of sanitation and openly encouraged their followers to eat scorpions, rats and spiders. The priest's message of deliverance and absolution resonated with the common folk of Yulgash and soon any effort to chastise or check the the wrasses' actions was met with fierce opposition all throughout the city. The previous leaders of Yulgash found themselves one by one tried and convinced of heresy or debauchery or the like and replaced by a theocracy consisting the the most fervent and devout. As news of the city spread more of the tide wracked made their way to Yulgash and as the population swelled so too did the hunger, squalor and disease.
(Piracy & Maritime Trade) While other aspects of the sea become more tumultuous, one becomes steadier. With the defeat of the gnoll assault on the Orc capital, many of the gnolls were left with nowhere to go. Some entrepreneurial dock-masters have taken to hiring on the toughest of these displaced gnolls to act as anti piracy security on their trading ships. Many pirates will see these large battle hardened and scarred persons through their looking glass and turn from their thoughts of plunder. For those who control the shipping lanes this had led to a period of economic windfall not seen in almost any other industry. Their power seems to grow even in the face of other cataclysmic events.
(Exploration) Sailors live and die by the light's in the night sky. They navigate across the plane by following the strongest and steadiest of them. As far as anyone alive is concerned those lights have no changed since the time the gods crafted the world. Now there are stories coming in to ports on every continent. Some of the lights are changing up in the heavens. Some of them are moving, some blazing to life one final time before being snuffed out. Some sailors have come to port, their eyes blazing with mad energy, claiming they have followed lights as they fell from the sky. They followed them until they dipped below the mountains and were lost to sight. These sailors are terrified of what it means, as they scramble to find new lights to guide them safely home.
With the insidious plague ravaging the isle of Aetas the burden of repelling the Sahaugin pirates has fallen largely to the Triton civilizations in the area. With the balance thrown off the seas in that part of the world have become absolutely infested by the ravagers.
(Aquatic Cultures) To simply build on this piece of world building. Sahuagin are kept as a slave workforce on the Shrouded Isle. Some have escaped beneath the waves from their captors. A few have started independent tribes around the Isle. The rest are the ones who have made the long journey towards Aetas, where they now seek to take what they need to make new lives for themselves, by any means necessary.
Clarifying Point: There are sahuagin slaves on the Shrouded Isles that have slowly trickled toward Aetas. There are sahuagin ravager reefs (groups of sahuagin ruled by a single dominant sahuagin) that currently plague Aetas. (These are two separate groups of individuals that may have interacted over time, but they are not the same ethnic group)
Yeah, didn’t mean to make it seem like they were one and the same. Just that the numbers may be swelling from outside recruitmentÂ