Underwater Horror

Overview

There are deeps in the oceans of Koria and then there are deeps. Feared by Selkies, a hideout for some mermaids or Sirens and a living for other, unholy folk.

Created by Death, the things on the ocean floor have a vicious mind and an evil intelligence. Like Sirens, Mermaids and Selkies, but infused with the will and the power to do harmful things to all earth-dwellers (and sometimes to merfolk too).

What kind of horrors lurk in the dark of the ocean? Let's say, it is not so dark on the ocean floor than you might think.

Teeth, fangs and voices

There are a few species on the ocean floor which are nice to look it; some are beautiful, some are even considered sexy to a degree, but all are more or less deadly.

They built settlements and even entire cities with stone and corals. Large enough to house fully grown dragons in it. Why? Because they are bigger than dragons. Nearly everyone of them has fins to swim and they only look like humanoid species. As Sirens they only appear to be human or anything like it.

They make a difference in their assignments: Slaves, Workers, Masters.

Slaves are just the common merfolk. Things with eyes, tentacles and a lot of hands, birthed in the hundreds with one go, created by dark magic (also funneled through the veil).

Workers are the strong stuff. Also having a lot of eyes, but only a few strong parts which they can work with, be it tentacles, arms, hands or claws.

And the Masters are... well, the Masters. Small or large beings with tentacles, evil eyes (some of them glow) and the affinity for magic and the evil will to use it. They can also speak and sometimes they speak to the ships at the surface, to the fishermen hunting for food, to the child in its cradle or to the woman who lost her husband, child, family.

They speak. And they do it well. With mouths large enough to swallow entire barrels, filled with teeth and tongues, speaking a language old as Life and Death. The Masters have no names one can pronounce beside themselves. Their ultimate goal is to create enough loyal Slaves who can survive the extreme change of pressure from the ocean floor to the surface. The goal of the Masters? To punish those who clutter the ocean floor with debris and corpses and to rule over all surface-dwellers.

Cruel magic

The magic the Masters wield is also based on the Arcana Basics of the entire world of Koria, but they perverted the runes to something different. Somehow they also changed some of the meanings, which resulted in corrupted workings and sometimes darker meanings.

With these runes they created their labs under the oceans floor, brewing genetic soup, creating rituals, spells and techniques to alter their own self and their Workers and Slaves to engineer the perfect army.

Rulers overrule Rulers

The largest problem and - lucky for the surface-dwellers - their biggest weakness is the lust for power over other beings. Nobody really knows how many areas of reign are down there because it varies and changes so quickly even the best historian would go mad over time. Or very angry.

This lust for power results in wars similar to clan wars under the sea. Over ground, over settlements, over more Workers and Slaves or just over the fact that someone has blinked the wrong way. The stories about thunderstorms with purple lightning and Kraken so huge they could swallow an entire ship are not just stories. They are the signs of a war, fought unseen from the surface with more rage and bloodlust than a Garladans lust and curiosity.

But there will be peace eventually. Not now, not next year, but there will be peace. And when there is peace under the sea, they'll bring war to the surface. It is only a matter of time.

Underwater Horrors by CrazyEddie via Midjourney