Merus, The Drowned Demigod

Merus (a.k.a. The Howling Storm)

The forgotten name for the son of an all-but-dead god that still whispers into the howling winds of Nereida. The salt in the waters of the Ligean Sea. The bubbles that rise from a decaying warship, deep in the drowned trenches below the cliffside city. In a world without gods, a demigod means even less than a mortal.
The Nereins mutter the tale of Merus, son of Umberlee, who in an Empire before theirs ran amok along the coastline of Sek. He was an unsettling creature to behold even as a child, which might have been why he was sent to live among the humanoids on land. Some say the gods saw him as every bit the greedy, destructive, tempermental being his mother was, and she alone imbued him with the pride to never turn down a challenge. Even the sea despised him. He always said it was because it feared what he could do with the waves at his fingertips.
He quickly learned that the gods did not want him, and the mortals did not understand him. More than anything, he wanted to be believed. Merus came and went like a storm through every village, chasing after the few priests who still placed their faith in the Forgotten Gods. He claimed he was the bridge between the Planes, that he alone would be the key to opening the gates anew and bringing the gods back into the Material World. He was shocked when even the clerics recoiled at his words. They were content to wait forever for the Pantheon to return, and they were resistant to entrusting their fate in the hands of an impossible child of a god.
Impossibility did not save them from the wrath of the sea.
Merus continued his journey in search of a mortal who would believe his tall tales of divinity, until he stumbled across the humble city of Psaman. There, he met the young paladin Ipra, who stopped him at the gates of her family's home. She heard tales of Merus' rampage, and sought to test the limits of his godhood. Ipra challenged him to a series of three contests, him against her and her siblings, to see if he was truly the son of the Wavemother. Merus gleefully accepted.
First was the contest of strength, issued by Ipra's eldest sister. She claimed that no man, god or not, could beat her in javelin throwing. However, when Merus' javelin cleared the city walls, Ipra could only watch in horror as he speared her sister's head as his prize.
Then came the contest of magic. Ipra's younger brother bet that Merus could never beat him in a fair duel, because unlike the demigod, he did not need faith in the gods to harness his power. His confidence failed him when Merus made him cry all of his blood out of his body.
Finally, Merus faced Ipra with the spear of her sister and the skin of her brother. He told her that her family's challenges had insulted him and the memory of the gods. He challenged her to prove that mortals were stronger than the gods, an impossible task. Still, she knew the threat that Merus posed to the city if he won, and so she devised a final contest of skill. She wagered that if he was the son of Umberlee, then he would find no match on the open sea. She arranged a ship race from Psaman to Nereida with no rules. Merus laughed at the simplicity of the challenge, and offered her a chance to forfeit and save her family's legacy. She politely declined.
On the day of the race, a small crowd gathered to watch Ipra and Merus prepare their ships. Ipra carefully checked each line and sail, while Merus lashed her brother's skin to the bow of his vessel.
Ipra's father rushed down to the water to hand his daughter an ornate wooden talisman as a final prayer for her safety. With tears in his eyes, he left, and the two set sail for the port of Nereida.
They sailed for four days and four nights before Merus spotted the flickering city lights on the horizon. He called out a final insult to Ipra and raised the waves to steer his ship into the harbor. As he surged ahead, Ipra raised her talisman to the gathering clouds and roared.
Merus heard his ship splinter underneath him as the sea clawed away at the wood. He tried desperately to quell the tide, but his pleas were drowned out in the howling storm that Ipra now set loose. The sea dragged them both under the waves within minutes, before they were able to reach Nereida.
The city of Psaman honors Ipra as their patroness with statues of her and her siblings, who gave their lives to save their home. As for Merus, his name faded into children's tales, as nothing more than a spiteful demigod chained to his own sunken ship at the bottom of the Ligean Sea. Sometimes, in a thunderstorm, the Nereins can hear him crying out over the cracks of thunder, begging for someone to challenge him again.

Divine Domains

Sea Storms, Shipwrecks, Pride

Artifacts

The Spear of the Sister, The Skin of the Brother, and The Father's Chain

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Steering Wheel (sometimes depicted as fractured)

Divine Goals & Aspirations

The Drowned Demigod claimed to be the key to bridging the Celestial and Material Planes as a herald to the return of the Forgotten Gods. To this day it remains unclear if his words were heresy or prophecy, but his followers preach that he will open the floodgates to the heavens and bring down the thundering wrath of the gods on the unfaithful.

Divine Classification

Demigod

Alignment

Neutral Evil

Current Status

Drowned in the Ligean Sea

Current Location

Nereida

Church/Cult

The Eyes of the Storm

Age

450

Pronouns

He/Him

Ruled Locations

• Nereida

From what little is known about him, Merus seems to have no living mortal relatives. Any information about the circumstances of his birth or his father have been lost to time, and current scholars are discouraged from trying to learn more about the demigod. Only Merus' followers seem to have near-autobiographical knowledge of his life and partial-death, likely because of his direct influence.