Tritons are an amphibious people, at home in the water but mobile on dry land. Their bodies are covered in fine scales that range from yellowish-green through shades of blue to deep purple. Their heads are crowned with prominent crests, and fins sprout from their forearms, calves, and shoulders. Their digits are webbed, allowing them to swim as quickly as they can run.
Well suited to life in the deep, tritons wear little clothing unless armored for battle. They fashion most of their clothes and other items from materials found in the ocean: coral, seaweed, shells, bone, sea urchin spines, the shells of monstrous crustaceans, and so on. Having an old, well-developed civilization, tritons know much of how to refine these materials into garb as rich and weapons as sturdy as any found on land.
Land and Sea
For centuries, dryfolk have fished the seas of Theros and have used the sea’s surface as a means of travel. Many tritons interpret this as an intrusion into their domains. As a result, some warlike triton communities respond with periodic strikes against sailors and fishing vessels. Others believe that turnabout is fair play and so venture onto land to hunt for meat, steal supplies from coastal travelers, or raid dryfolk poleis for riches.
Despite the tensions between tritons and the peoples of the surface, some tritons make their lives on land. Enchanted by the feeling of the winds, the rustle of leaves, the ingenuity of land-dwelling inventors, or any of countless other surface-world charms, every triton living beyond the waves does so for their own reasons. In some places, like the polis of Meletis, whole triton communities flourish among dryfolk neighbors. See chapter 3 for more details on the tritons of Meletis and the Siren Sea.
Hand of Thassa
While tritons pay respects to many gods, they tend to revere
Thassa, god of the sea, above all other deities. Her devotees see her as the primary god of the pantheon, believing she will bring their people to ascendancy over the monsters of the sea and the poleis of the land.
Depths of Curiosity
Many tritons are intrigued by surface culture. The curious among them venture into sunken ruins and shipwrecks, sifting through the debris for whatever grabs their attention. Often these tritons develop collections of a specific kind of object or lore, trading with one another as they develop a sort of expertise in their field. Some tritons approach investigations of the dryfolk with scientific rigor. Such scholars often hold theories to go along with their collections, hypotheses many are eager to test upon meeting new dryfolk.
