Aquine Verti are a strange species of undead creature originating in the depths of the oceans. They are said to be the result of many sailors and stowaways who are thrown off their sailing vessels during a voyage.
Description
Appearance
The Aquine Verti are eternally dripping with water, their hair and bodies soaked as if they've just come out of the water. Many of the Verti resemble a humanoid whose body has shrivelled after extensive exposure to water. However, a number have also started to develop fish-like scales that give them the smell of rotting fish whenever they surface from the depths of the ocean.
While many retain the hair they have from life, much of this is clumped and matted as if it was undried or dealt with incorrectly by the creature after its passing. The clothes worn by these creatures resemeble the leathers and outfits of many traders, pirates and other nautical figures, torn and worn as if roughed in the seas for many months.
Abilities
Aquine Verti have the following abilities:
- Amphibious: They can breathe air and water.
- Swim Speed: Aquine Verti have a swimming speed of 40 feet. They are however limited on land to 20 feet of movement.
- Control Water:
- Superior Darkvision: They can see in dim light within 120 feet as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light, but they can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
- Emisary of the Sea: Aquine Verti can communicate simple ideas to other aquatic creatures, though they have no special ability to understand them in return.
- Lurker of the Depths: Since they are adapted to even the most extreme ocean depths, Aquine Verti have resistance to cold damage.
Known Aquine Verti
- Verti Lycross – The first of the Aquine Verti and the namesake of the species. It could speak, but only in broken words that were their own name, Verti Lycross.
- Heravin of the Kryna - An Aquine Verti that was discovered by their sister after the course of a long expedition to find them. They were killed by their sister to put them out of their misery.
- Ulranis Trylan - One of the first Aquine Verti that could speak, this particular creature was able to join society as a unique fisherman and became the first of the Aquine Verti to make landfall.
History
The history of the Aquine Verti is unknown to creatures within the world, as each of them are devolved as a nature of such a curse. There are many theories as to their origin, of which only one seems to have some origin in the truth.
There was once a ship captain called Vertin Lovaris who went missing during the 4th century, there was a belief that the captain and his ship were enticed into the home of a coven of sea hags. Many of the sailors stayed for decades, encapsulated by the beauty of the hag's human forms, though some, including Vertin, became disillusioned by the hag's charms. Each one becoming cursed by the hags as they attempt to leave, their forms altering to become more enhanced to the aquatic landscape, but removing much of their mental fortitude. Each of these sailors is then forced to drown in the air that once saved them, and cast into the ocean, saved by a wayward spirit and becoming a naturally unatural part of the world.
Art Credits
Aquine Verti Main Image created with Heroforge
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