Umberlee
The Bitch Queen, Great Queen of the Sea, Queen of the Depths, Goddess of Oceans, Stormgoddess of the Seas
Umberlee is the evil sea goddess. She is most often worshiped by sailors or people traveling by sea, out of fear of her destructive powers. Ship crews often toss gems over the sides of their vessels to calm storm-tossed waters. She controls the harshness of the sea while reveling in her own power and is not hesitant to drown people, if she so pleases. The Queen of the Depths is responsible for the creation of weresharks within the Realms.
The Bitch Queen's seldomly seen avatar is a giant woman with the body colored like the sea, of blues and greens. Her hands have talons and her elbows have fins and green hair of seaweed and kelp. Her white eyes are reminiscent of pearls, and her voice sounds like the fiercest sea storm, booming with breaking waves.
The goddess appears this way to scare and impress the mortals on board of dying ships. The towering avatar wears jewelry made out of seashells, carries a trident, and dresses in a flowing cape made out of countless pale-purple jellyfish.
She is known as a particularly malicious, petty and vain deity. Acting on her turbulent whims when making deals with mortals. She is quite greedy for power and hungry for the flattery of others. She does not feel the moral obligation to honor any of her agreements or promises if the end result was not beneficial to her. That, and her desire for the valuables and excessive tributes, characterize her insatiable greed and cruelty. She is power-hungry and loves exercising it, toying with her worshipers. She feeds her sadistic nature by destroying naval vessels and feeding shipwreck victims to her sharks while watching the others drown.
"And we all row! With the spray upon our necks,
And we all row! With the spray upon our backs,
And we all row! With the sea beneath our feet,
And the Bitch Queen stays the storm.
Wavemother, wavemother.
Lash us to the prow.
Wavemother, wavemother.
We ask to sail your skirts if you allow.
Wavemother, wavemother.
Sink us if you will.
Wavemother, wavemother.
Our skulls are yours
With brine and sand to fill.
Souls aweigh and anchors still!
The wind won't move
Without the Bitch Queen's will!
We'll wait gladly, years and days
Till the Bitch Queen brings the waves!
Hey! Ho!
She told us so!
Hey! Ho!
~ A sea shanty dedicated to Umberlee.
Divine Domains
- Tempest (Ocean, Storm, Water, Watery Death)
- War (Chaos, Destruction, Envy, Gluttony, Pride, Wrath)
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Wave curling left and right
Tenets of Faith
The sea is a savage place and those that travel it had best be willing to pay the price of challenging Umberlee's domain. All should know the bitch queen and fear her, for the wind and the wave can reach everywhere if sufficiently angered. Fair offerings bring fair winds to sea travelers, but those that do not pay their respects will find that the sea is as cold as Umberlee's heart. Spread the word of the might of Umberlee, and let no service be done in her name without a price. Make the folk fear the wind and wave unless a cleric of Umberlee is there to protect them. Slay those who ascribe sea and shore storms to Talos.
Social
Religious Views
Temples of Umberlee are few and far between, and the church is universally hated. Most places of worship are shrines located near docks and wharfs, where boats and sailors can be found. The shrine is composed of a simple dark stone altar, often sluiced with sea water and seaweed. Worship often involved sacrifice by tossing a living creature into the sea to drown
Novice priests are known as the Untaken, but once Umberlee has confirmed an individual as a priest, she or he is entitled to take offerings, lead prayers, and bestow blessings in her name. Full Umberlant priests can adopt any of the following titles (regardless of true rank and powers): Flood Tide, Dark Breaker, Puissant Undertow, Wave of Fury, Savage Seawind, and Wavemistress or Wavelord. Specialty clergy are known as Waveservants or True Servants of the Wave and use the same titles as other Umberlants with the addition of the word "Dread" in front of them.
Umberlant priests are a varied, disorganized lot, much given to dueling with hooked, sickle-like knives to settle differences of primacy and rank (these dueling knives represent Umberlee's reapings of those who sail the seas).
Umberlant priests roam coastal cities, living primarily off the offerings left by fearful sailors. In addition to the traditional lit candles and small candies, Umberlants are increasingly demanding more real coin be left on the altars. When there are no worshipers present, Umberlant priests then remove the offerings from the stone block altars at Umberlee's shrines and sluice the altars with buckets of sea water containing seaweed to signify that the Sea Queen has come for what is rightfully hers. Umberlants are also paid handsomely to travel on ships from port to port, for their presence (it is thought) guarantees that Umberlee will not destroy a vessel.
Those who relish her power and potential become specialty priests. Specialty priests make up most of Umberlee's clergy, since the advantages of the faith prove to be quite handy when superstitious sailors want to dump a priest overboard at the first sign of a storm. A few clerics have made some progress in status in the faith, and most of them work in the adventuring order of the church.
Umberlee cares not why people worship, only that they do. She rarely comes to favor individual mortals, but she does do a little extra for those who faithfully make offerings. To gain favorable winds for a voyage or to deliver them alive from storms, sailors sacrifice valuable cargo to her by throwing it overboard, playing tunes dedicated to Umberlee on mouthpipes as they do so. They usually ensure that the cargo contains something alive if their peril is great.
Divine Classification
Deity
Religions
Children
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