Quote Originally Posted by Segev View Post
I'll grant permission for this. This should be interesting.
Hm:

Sekeva, The Drowned Emperor

In a time before history, before humanity existed as we know it, there existed a tribe of primitive humanoids. Now, these humanoids were only primitive in that they were obviously ancestors of humans, somewhere between apes and true humans, but they were already massively intelligent, and perhaps could have built a lasting culture of their own, were it not for the the fact this was also the day of the aboleth, the chaos creature, the primordial monsters produced by errors of the gods in their creation of the plane. Some did form kingdoms anyway, countries made for the express purpose of overthrowing the alien and cruel lords. The founder and ruler of one of these kingdoms was named Sekeva. (DC Knowledge (History) 17).

Now, Sekeva was more than just a member of the primitive humanoids. He was, in fact, the child of a male of his proper race and a primeval goddess of the hunt and sea. From their union came what was quite possibly the first demigod to ever exist, certainly the first one recorded. Instilled with the wild spirit and powers of his mother, and the compassion of his father that attracted her in the first place, Sekeva grew to despise the primal monsters that enslaved the world, and rose a city from the ocean to create a civilization of their hunters. This did not end well, as evinced by reports of his island sinking beneath the sea.(DC 20).

What many scholars don't know, however, is that this wasn't because Sekeva's hunt was unsuccessful. Not hardly. He is likely the reason humans are not ruled by aberrations to this day, and why aboleths sulk in the sea, brooding on the ruins of their once-great people. Rather, Sekeva overcame the primal monsters by being more ruthless than they could fathom, in ways only a human-like mind could devise; sacrificing thousands of the men he believed in for a single shot at killing one of the hated aboleths, betraying the trust of his mother, killing his father to invoke a mighty spell...in time, Sekeva became almost as vile as his prey, a ruthless tyrant who was the only one who still believed his cause was noble. In truth, he had long convinced himself that the only humanoid fit to rule humanoids was himself. (DC 25)

It went further than that, however; Sekeva had come to despise the weakness of his race, how the loathsome aboleths could endure thousands of tons of pressure to flee and plot in, while his armies scowled on the surface. No, he turned to the forbidden art of fleshwarping to achieve that. The most brutal and vicious of his warriors and generals were made in the image of mighty sharks to continue the pursuit underwater, no matter how deep; the ancestors of the sahuagin people (Sekolah is, in fact, the result of Sekeva's greatest general ascending to godhood himself). When the true gods realized what the hunter-king was doing, they confronted him, only to realize that Sekeva was no coward; he did nothing to his generals that he had not already practiced upon himself. He had become a monster of elemental water and pure predation, one part rabid beast and one part vicious cunning. The gods, realizing that Sekeva's madness would not end with his death and he would return to torment the world as an undead being, sank his entire coral city beneath the waves, imprisoning him under it. (DC 27)

Unfortunately for the world, he had planned for this. Sekeva had secretly set out five of his most trusted artisans and magicians to hide idols of his ancient kingdom all over the word. As his city sank, the idols "remembered" the stars as they were over the lost kingdom; a conjugation known as a Grand Cross. Whenever the planets align in another Grand Cross, the idols awake and subtly influence the people in whose nations they lie to bring them together, infecting all they command with some of the sahuagin's bloodlust and warlike nature (hence why Grand Crosses are viewed as omens of strife and conflict throughout the world). Should the Five Storm Keys ever come together (or three, now; Sekeva made it so that even the ghost of the Keys may serve the same purpose), they will unleash a massive temporal spell that will make it so that the sinking of the city never happened, and the Drowned Emperor will begin his hunts anew-forever. (DC 32)

Goals: Sekeva's motives, for all of his greed and bloodthirst, ultimately spring from something positive; his belief that humanoids should govern themselves. He doesn't hate the gods (he would have manipulated things to have killed Sekolah long ago if that was the case), but it is his belief they should advise the mortal races rather than quietly puppeteers them. The war against the primal aberrations changed him for the much worse, however; he views himself as the ideal ruler of all mortals, and violence as the only honest form of communication. He also looks down upon land dwelling races as weak, as well as people who will not sacrifice everything to achieve victory, no matter how total or ruthless. He is, quite simply, a paragon of the race he founded, and as the sahuagin are reminded of who their ancestor is, they and other evil aquatic races will flock to him.

Sign:

Storm of Stars

The awakening of the Storm Keys brings about an age of warped time and hostile seas, as the ocean is slowly brought back to an era of constant storms and chaos; ideal for the Drowned Emperor and his servants, not so much for any landlubber that intrudes upon his domain.

Effects:

Faint: The seas become more difficult to navigate; stars seem to move out of their proper positions as navigators attempt to chart them, freak currents and winds blow ships off course, and freak accidents occur on those ships on a regular basis. More than that, coastal towns suffer an upswing in sharks and other predatory fish, all who seem eager to harass the air-breathers-especially those with aberrant blood in their history.

Moderate: Two of the Storm Keys are united, and the seas begin to churn faster; it actually appears the stars visibly move now, and storms that seem intent on disrupting sea travel and providing ample opportunity for pirates become commonplace. The marauding fish grow more aggressive and monstrous; larger and more brutal sharks seem to attack in entire schools, and coordinate their activities with smaller predators such as barracuda and lionfish. Worse, said predators are found further and further inland, even (especially) in the Underdark.

Strong: All three of the surviving Storm Keys are gathered, and the naval phenomenon becomes impossible to mistake for natural. In place of storms, there are vicious elementals of air and water, the sea beasts appear in landlocked freshwater lakes with more intelligent sea life often leading them, and space itself seems to buckle and warp on the open ocean, with distances being whatever they feel like at the time. Phantoms of a colorful city of coral begin to dance in the horizon.

Overwhelming: Having been left to sleep together, the ghost of one of the Storm Keys joins its brethren. The Drowned Emperor's city begins to manifest fully, its location an island of almost perverse stability in a world surrounded by a constant hurricane. Tears to the Elemental Planes of Air and Water become commonplace, the sealife becomes a constant siege, and the ocean becomes a place where a ship may arrive at the west side of a continent by moving south from it. The one upside to all this is that aberrations are the focus of much of the land phenomenon, a hunt resumed...but the hunters, sahuagin and devil-worshipers who look up to the Drowned Emperor, demand greater and greater power for their "heroism."