Anguileusis (an-GWILL-ew-sis)

The Abiding One, Eel of the Depths, the Life-Crafter

Nearly forgotten even by his own race, Anguileusis was the creator and patron of the deep-dwelling anguiliians. While a cold and calculating power, he took a direct and active interest in the lives of his followers, and directed them to conquer the oceans of the Prime Material plane. He also gifted them with the knowledge of harnessing and channeling his divine essence in the creation of demi-magical items and magical creatures. It is likely that before his imprisonment, he was a lesser or intermediate power.
Little is known of Anguileusis prior to his imprisonment. So sparse are documented recordings of his name that most sages of the divine dismiss them as translation errors or misspelled references to the anguiliians themselves. Those sages who find tales of the Eel of the Depths credible believe he once inhabited a now-dried up ocean realm on Gehenna, and his anguiliian followers arose deep within the oceans of a single Prime Material world, although details of that world are not recorded in any known tome. With his divine essence, he allowed his followers to open undersea gates to the oceans on other worlds, establishing cities deep beneath the waves on many worlds. They were initially content to colonize the deep trenches of these worlds, pushing out the relatively few and solitary inhabitants of these areas such as morkoth and krakens (and, as a couple sages speculate, the kuo-toa). According to the sages who give credence to his existence, Anguileusis craved dominion beyond the deep sea areas, and planned to lead the conquest himself. To this end, he planned to fully incarnate himself on the Prime Material plane, but during the process, he was discovered by some outside force, believed by a few sages to be an elven enclave of wizards studying the oceans and the aquatic races. In a desperate act, they interfered in his incarnation ritual, and managed to imprison him after his essence had left the Outer Planes, but before fully manifesting on the Prime. Some sages speculate that this event was what caused Mellifleur to ascend to godhood, and others hold that Corellon Larethian or Deep Sashelas had a hand in the act. The truth at this time is unknown, however. This act of imprisonment tendered most of the anguiliian civilization’s demi-magical items inoperable and prevented them from creating the magically altered creatures they relied upon; without these elements, their society could no longer sustain itself and the civilization collapsed. Anguiliians today are little more than nomadic tribes wandering the deepest parts of the ocean, where the strongest rule by challenging their betters, and shamans have little in the way of magical ability. The only record of Anguileusis’s prison is believed to be a single passage from an ancient, badly damaged elven tome that mentions an artifact called The Stone That Abides; no other details have been discovered by even the most diligent sages in of the world.
Few of Anguileusis’s ancient relationships are known, but it is suspected he had a rivalry with Sekolah. There appears to be some relationship between sahuagin and anguiliians, given their related languages. Speculation on the actual relationship varies widely, however, with some sages positing that Sekolah altered anguiliians (intentionally or not) into sahuagin, while others believe elven, dark elven, or non-elven wizards attempted to create an aquatic elven race from a mixture of elves and anguiliians, resulting in modern sahuagin and malenti. Still others believe the anguiliians, having lost their civilization, were enslaved for a time by the sea devils, adopting their language before somehow gaining freedom. He may have rivaled Panzuriel as well, for both the primary followers of both deities were deep-dwelling races. Finally, some sages draw a connection between the pincers of anguiliians, and likely Anguileusis as well, and the pincers that the Blibdoolpoolp’s iconography portrays, and the pincer staves used by kuo-toa. These sages speculate the two deities may have been mates, or that the Sea Mother was once a deity of the anguiliians before leaving to find new worshippers. Little hard evidence exists to support this claim, however.
Anguileusis was once an active deity, communicating directly to his followers and infusing the power he normally would have used to create avatars in a handful of powerful priest-leaders and the multitude of demi-magical items the anguiliians used in their everyday life. Some elements of his power likely survived his imprisonment, but not a form capable of replacing or regenerating him.

Manifestations

Anguileusis appeared as a large, somewhat more humanoid anguiliian. His scales were serpentine-green, with pale yellow eyes and fins, and pitch-black claws. He could not cast any spell that created or affected fire.
Anguileusis communicated directly to his priesthood, instructing and directing them as necessary. He was not known to communicate in any other way; today he is only able to manifest as a brief but intense empathic urge on a very infrequent basis. Because of the rarity of these urges, anguiliian priests have a difficult time interpreting them. As Anguileusis channeled so much of his divine power into the magic of his people, he was never known to manifest directly to aid them.
Anguileusis was served primarily by eels of all sorts, including electric eels, giant eels, gulpers, marine eels, and vurgens. He used no other creatures, nor did he ever manifest his favor or displeasure through subtle means. Instead, he sent message and images directly to his priests when they have especially pleased or disappointed him. When a priest failed him due to gross incompetence, negligence, or other personal error, he typically sent a pair of vurgens to attack at a time the priest was alone; if they survived, their failure was forgiven.

The Church

CLERGY: Clerics, shamans
CLERGY’S ALIGNMENT: LE, NE, CE
DOMAINS: Tempest

Virtually nothing is known of Anguileusis today, even among anguiliians. Any rivalries or alliances his cult once had are long forgotten, not even preserved in myth and legend among the eel-people. The anguiliians simply oppose any races who get in their way on their nomadic travels or have food or goods they wish to acquire. Should Anguileusis ever be released from his imprisonment, it is likely he would direct his followers primarily against those of Panzuriel and Sekolah, both to subvert their followers and eliminate rivals.
Temples built to honor Anguileusis were subterranean structures, often built into the sides of deep aquatic trenches, around which anguiliian cities arose, both within the Rock and on the trench floor. They consisted of a series of spherical chambers, tiled with serpentine stone magically created through Anguileusis’s direct divine power. The size of the chamber dictated its function, with the largest being reserved for the altar chamber itself, which contained a serpentine statue of the Eel of the Depths himself. Creatures and treasure were sacrificed regularly, as a means of fueling his power and as a thanks for all he did for his followers; there was no fear or threat in such sacrifices. The spherical chambers were connected by cylindrical tunnels, usually on a horizontal plane, that were bored out of the stone by great heat from large magically altered worms created for just those purpose. Each tunnel and chamber had a “door” made of a magical green membrane; magical keys were created that would open and close them. Otherwise, the membranes were virtually impenetrable by normal weapons. The temples, and indeed the cities themselves, were full of demi-magical objects and magically engineered creatures which all served extremely specific purposes. After Anguileusis’s imprisonment, most items stopped functioning, and most of the creatures died of neglect.
Little is known of the hierarchical structure of the Anguileusian clergy, although some documents indicate cities were ruled by a mated pair of priests called the Deep Mother and Deep Father. Nothing is known about lesser positions or titles, which have not been preserved by the modern shamanistic clergy. Anguiliian tribes have no more than one full shaman, who gains the position by slaying or driving off the previous shaman. They may have up to three apprentices, but they often eliminate ones who appear ready to challenge them. All shamans in the tribe are called Abiding Ones, although the meaning of this name has been lost. Shamans today are overwhelmingly male (80%), although in the ancient civilization the gender ratio of the priesthood was apparently completely even. Among anguiliians today, only shamans are known; in the past, it seems the priesthood was divided between clerics (25%), specialty priests known as deep crafters (30%), and a unique form of wizard (45%) who were able to tap directly into Anguileusis’s divine power to cast their spells; with the imprisonment of the Eel of the Depths, they lost all their power and had not even the most basic understanding of magic to transition into regular wizards or witch doctors.
Clerics of Anguileusis cannot use magic that creates fire of any kind. These spells do not appear on their spell list.
Dogma: Anguileusis’s ancient teachings reflected his desire for conquest. It stated that the seas were the rightful domain of the Eel of the Depths and his children, and it was their right to take territory by force and establish great cities in his honor. His power was to be used to improve living conditions and achieve victory in battle; he directed that everything from weapons and armor to farming tools could be powered with his divine essence. In addition, the Life-Crafter taught that his power could be used to shape living creatures into forms better suited to specific uses; everything from giant eel-habitats to worm-excavators and cephalopod custodians were created, although few could care for themselves.
Shades of these teachings can sometimes be found in tribal anguiliian beliefs, but they are usually highly divergent. Modern Anguileusian dogma tends to focus on the search or hunt for something, someone, or some place. The shamans don’t know exactly what the search is for, but believe they’ll know it when they find it. It also often includes a belief in the inherent superiority of the anguiliian race, and the shamans teach that destroying enemies (basically whoever the shamans decide at the time) is proper to prove it. Finally, the teachings often include a belief that other sea life exists only to serve anguiliians in some form or another, be it food or raw materials for weapons, tools, and shelter.
Day-to-Day Activities: Anguiliian shamans spend their time as other anguiliians do. The younger shamans accompany hunting parties, raiders, and scouts as appropriate to their skills, while the elder shamans teaches the young and advises the chief. Most other races, even aquatic races, have trouble distinguishing the shamans from normal members of the tribe until they unleash spells in combat.
The ancient anguiliian priests were in charge of all magical endeavors, and served as rulers and administrators, architects, engineers. They developed the demi-magical items and bred the magical creatures that were integral to their society. While only a relatively small portion of anguiliian society, virtually every important role other than military leadership was filled by a priest.
Important Ceremonies/Holy Days: Holy days are unknown to anguiliians, and all ancient ceremonies have been lost to time. Shamans tend to have impromptu ceremonies when they deem it necessary, either to raise morale, congratulate the leaders and warriors, or to try to alter undesirable behavior.
Major Centers of Worship: Modern anguiliians are nomadic, and create no permanent temples or shrines, and their shamanistic faith now has no real concept of permanent holy sites. Some elements of the old civilization are considered holy, while those anguiliians who still have some knowledge of the old civilization are deeply respected.
Affiliated Orders: Whether the Anguileusian church ever sponsored any martial or monastic orders has been lost to time.
Priestly Vestments: Anguiliian priests have no formal garments, but many wear trophies or other decorations during services. Even ancient priests had little in the way of formal garb beyond their holy symbol. The holy symbol used by ancient priests was an ornate eel figure with an S-shape, carved from green serpentine. Full shamans now use an ancient artifact from the old anguiliian civilization passed down through the tribe, while acolytes use the preserved jaw of an eel or some trophy from an enemy they’ve killed; trophies from morkoth and sahuagin are preferred.
Ancient anguiliian priests used a variety of living demi-magical items as armor and other equipment. Few of these items have survived the millennia since Anguileusis’s imprisonment, but those that have are often employed by shamans.

Anguileusan Domain

Clerics of Anguileusis may select the Anguileusan Domain instead of the Tempest Domains if they choose. Clerics that select this domain are known as Deep Crafters.

DOMAIN SPELLS

Cleric Level	Spells
1st	absorb elements, dissonant whispers
3rd	electric eel*, enlarge
5th	haste, lightning bolt
7th	stone shape, swarm of eels*
9th	create membrane*, transmute rock

*indicates a new spell described below.

Bonus Cantrips

At 1st level, deep crafters add both lightning lure and shocking grasp to their list of cantrips.

Channel Divinity: Craft Serpentine Stone

Beginning at 2nd level, deep crafters can transmute one cubic foot per level of hard organic material (coral, bone, ivory, teeth, scales, shells, etc.) to serpentine stone by expending one use of their channel divinity. The resulting stone is solid and slab-like; it does not retain the form of the original material. This material is suitable for carving into figurines or cutting into tiles, and is used heavily in the creation of temples and iconography.

Channel Divinity: Eel Summoner

Also at 2rd level, deep crafters can summon 1d4 electric eels to fight for them or perform simple tasks by expending one use of their channel divinity. The eels leave after the battle or task is concluded, or 1 hour passes.

Creations of the Deep

Beginning at 6th level, deep crafters can create demi-magical items, similar to normal magical items. Most of these perform as described in the Dungeon Master Guide, but draw their magic from Anguileusis rather than innately containing the full magical power. In addition, they can create a wide variety of other unique items. Item creation takes half the time as normal magical items, but requires much of the same preparation. Once an item is ready, it is infused with power from Anguileusis rather than involving the actual spells of the item; the deep crafter can infuse a variety of wizardly magic in items in this way as well. Deep crafters have a variety of unique items they can create as well. These items cease to function permanently if cut off from Anguileusis.
Also at 6th level, deep crafters can infuse the power of Anguileusis in creatures during the breeding process, creating a variety of magical item/creature hybrids, such as pangs and synergetic crustaceans (see the adventure module Sea of Blood for more details), as well as a large variety of other such creatures. While such creatures do not require continued power from Anguileusis, they often cannot survive without extensive care and cultivation, and as such, few have survived. It is possible that some monsters of the deep are in fact former creations of the anguiliians that have survived and thrived on their own.

Divine Shock

At 8th level, deep crafters gain the ability to infuse their weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of their turns when they hit a creature with a weapon attack, they may cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 lightning damage to the target. When they reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

Deep Glow

At 17th level, when a deep crafter receives lightning damage, they are healed by that amount instead.

Anguileusan Spells

Electric Eel

2nd level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

When this spell is cast, an eel-shaped bolt of electricity “swims” toward the target, bursting on impact and shocking other creatures within a 10-foot radius globe. Make a ranged spell attack against the target; a miss indicates it bursts within the target's square but doesn't do the extra impact damage. If the attack roll is successful, the target suffers 2d8 points of damage. Those within the burst globe, including the original target if the attack roll was a miss, suffer 1d8 points of damage. A successful saving throw vs. spell halves the damage taken (although the original target does not get a save if they were hit by the eel).
At the caster’s option, the electric eel can be set to burst immediately with no attack roll, as if the caster were the target. This is a favorite tactic of anguiliians, given their natural immunity to electricity.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 3rd.

Swarm of Eels

4th level conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 300 feet (10 feet)
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 10 minutes

With this spell, the priest summons a sphere of hungry, carnivorous eels in a 10 foot radius sphere up to 300 feet away. The eels swim swiftly around the target, darting in and out to nip and bite at the creature each round. The sphere spreads around corners. The sphere remains for the duration, and its area is lightly obscured. The sphere's area is difficult terrain.
When the area appears, each creature in it must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature takes 4d10 piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature must also make this saving throw when it enters the spell's area for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there.
If at the start of the caster's turn there are no targets inside the sphere, the caster may use a bonus action move the sphere up to 30 feet away from its present location.
In addition to his holy symbol, the caster needs a few drops of eel blood (anguiliian blood will also suffice).

Create Membrane

5th level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: self
Components: V, S, M
Duration: see below

By means of this spell, the caster can create a tough but flexible green-tinged membrane that can be put to a variety of uses as designated at the time of casting. The easiest and most common usage covers the caster’s body and limbs (but not head, hands, feet, fins, etc.) in the membranous coating for 1 minute, and granting them resistance to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks, and an AC of 18. If exposed to air, the membrane becomes dry and brittle after one minute, and no longer offers any further protection. This casting requires a small piece of gut lining from any aquatic creature, roughly two inches square in size.
The second, rarer casting creates a membrane large enough to cover up to a 20-foot diameter passage, openable in the center. This membrane is permanent if a pearl or piece of ivory worth 400 gp is used in conjunction with the normal material component, a piece of gut lining from a large aquatic creature that can cover the passageway. This form opens along the seam, and can be destroyed if 30 points of cutting damage is dealt to it in one round. If an intelligent creature is sacrificed at the time of casting, this membrane can further be strengthened to be impervious to all but magical cutting weapons; even then, it takes a week at least of constantly sawing and hacking at the membrane to destroy it. The normal components as detailed above are still required in this version. Finally, with the casting of this version, the priest can designate a small carved ivory or serpentine figure to act as a key for the portal; such a key radiates faint magic and glows a bright green if brought within 10 feet of the membrane. These membranes are not water-tight, but they do filter out toxins and contaminants of all sorts, but if you exposed to air for a full day, they become dry and brittle, losing all their magic. They disintegrate after a week, but can also be destroyed with a solid strike of any sort. Note that these membranes cannot be magically dispelled or cancelled after a week in existence.

Demigod

Far Realm Pantheon

Titles
The Abiding One, Eel of the Depths, the Life-Crafter
Sphere of Influence
Anguililians, Conquest, Empire, Aquatic-based Life, Magical Creation
Alignment
Lawful Evil
Symbol
An s-shaped eel with pincers
Home Plane
Imprisoned on the Prime Material Plane

Superior
None
Allies
None
Foes
Sekolah
Worshipers
Anguiliians, some sahuagin
Worshiper's Alignments
LE, NE, CE
Domains
Tempest, Anguileusan