Triton
"Far out at sea the water is blue as the petals of the loveliest cornflower and clear as the purest glass, but the City of Pearl is very deep, deeper than any anchor cable can reach. Oh yes, many a wizard spires would have to be sat on top of each other to stretch from the surface down to the depths of the sea-bed, where she rests.
An' it's down there, where the true sea-folk live.
They began as six lovely children, quarrelsome but kind. But whether they began as folk with two feet or tails like merfolk, none of 'em will tell. Instead they'll do naught but laugh and make merry at yer expense, until you let the matter be. Only thing they speak seriously of, is the rift twixt their people, between those who defend the deepest seas, and those who departed to walk with us across the land."
~Placie Jack, Bosun’s Mate
Tritons wander the great seas of the world, living in small communities along tropical coastlines or in Uxor, their great City of Pearl, where the deepest ocean trenches reach into the elemental planes. Guardians beneath the waves since the birth of the material plane, in the eons since their arrival the capricious Tritons have become two peoples separated by tides and dark water.
Aquatic Pilgrims
Tritons entered the world in response to the growing threat of evil elementals. Filled with purpose, tritons waged many wars against their enemies across the Plane of Water, driving them into the Darkened Depths where they escaped into the crushing pressure and utter darkness. Expeditions to these depths revealed that krakens, sahuagin, and far worse foes had fled the Plane of Water for the emerging Material Plane.
The tritons, tenacious and proud, would not allow their foes to escape so easily. A great host of tritons skilled in weapons and magic entered the Material Plane to seek out their antediluvian enemies. Those tritons spread across the world's oceans and established settlements and outposts to watch over deep sea trenches, portals, undersea caves, and other locations where their enemies might lurk. They defeated their foes when they found them and drove the rest into hiding.
With their foes banished to the deepest reaches of the sea, tritons settled in to watch for any sign of their return.
Over the centuries, this idle waiting became boredom, and the sportive and adventurous tritons took to expanding their communities to include coral drop offs and isolated atolls, observing the surface world discreetly, and occasionally trading with surface races. The social turmoil between their natural wanderlust and their duty as guardians against elemental evil eventually lead to the Departure.
Mercurial Explorers
As a result of their fickle nature and the great distances between coral coastline and deep sea settlements, tritons eventually split into two distinct peoples. Called the Departure, this rift is the source of the vastly conflicting accounts of triton personality and temperament by other races. Seafarers, Sea elves and merfolk often portray tritons as arrogant, volatile, and martial, while fishermen and landed races generally describe the people as careless, sly, and prankish. In contrast, Tritons see themselves as benevolent caretakers of the sea, and they expect other creatures to be thankful for their efforts and pay them proper respect.
This attitude can grate on others, especially those who experience the tritons' capricious and lighthearted qualities, but it arises from a seed of truth. Few know of the tritons' great victories over dreadful undersea threats, and the tritons make little effort to educate them.
Compassionate Caretakers
Despite their confusing manner, tritons are kind beings at heart, certain that other civilized races deserve their protection. Their fluxuating attitudes might annoy surface dwellers, but when pirate fleets prowl the waves or a kraken awakens from its slumber, tritons are among the first to take up arms to protect others.
Tritons will readily sacrifice themselves for the common good. They regularly fight and die for humans, merfolk, and other creatures in need, without question. The tritons believe they have a sacred duty to the world that other races do not, and they will fight and die to fulfill it. Their self-absorbed nature might make them overlook the value of other creatures' cultures, but they know they are the first, and possibly last line of defense against evils of the Plane of Water entering the Material Plane.
At times their fervor and ignorance of the world above can lead them astray. Tritons encountering other creatures for the first time can underestimate them, leaving the tritons vulnerable to deception or haughty arrogance. Also, with their impulsiveness, tritons can sometimes be too eager to leap into a situation without considering the dangers.
Strangers to the Surface
Given their isolation, most tritons have never explored the surface world. Even those who live along coastal drop-offs rarely touch dry land. They struggle with the reality that they can't easily move vertically while out of water, and the dramatic seasonal changes in many regions mystify them.
Tritons also find the variety of social institutions, kingdoms, and other customs of the surface world bewildering. For all the staggering beauty of the Pearl City, they remain innocent of the many political realities of the other races. The typical triton settlement is a commune of several families organized and unified by unspoken understanding and respect. A triton on the surface becomes easily confused by the bewildering array of alliances, rivalries, and petty grievances that prevent the surface folk from truly unifying.
Tritons also have a tendency to emerge from their isolation and assume that their observations from afar have made them experts on the other races. Their limited view of the world leaves them ignorant of the wars and other struggles of the surface world, and tritons often see these tragedies as minor events, having little bearing on their understanding of the world. At its worst, a triton's careless arrogance compounds this tendency. It's easy for a triton to treat a baffling social practice as a weakness or obsession with trivial matters that prevents surface folk from living up to the triton’s preconceptions.
Triton Names
Most triton names have two or three syllables and form simple phrases in their dialect of the primordial tongue. Male names typically end with a "vowel + s" construction, while female names traditionally end with an e.
If tritons utilize a surname, they form it by adding "tha" to the end of the name of their home settlement.
The letter X, in triton names is pronounced as a sharp "sh".
- Male Triton Names: Corxus, Evanis, Gravos, Jomus, Keres, Molnyos, Naleus, Volipos, Zdratus
- Female Triton Names: Aprele, Bexelte, Dianne, Hepite, Kalyme, Polyke, Sarxe, Vranite, Xenae
- Triton Surnames: Aloritha, Ganitatha, Uxortha, Vanivutha
Triton Traits
Your triton character has a number of natural abilities developed and nurtured over countless generations.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength and Charisma scores each increase by 1.
Age. Tritons develop quickly, reaching maturity around age 13. They can live well into their second century, but tritons living mostly on land rarely live beyond 150 years.
Alignment. As guardians of the darkest reaches beneath the waves, Triton culture idealizes order and benevolence. Even those who struggle to uphold a lawful life tend towards Good alignments.
Size. Tritons are between 4 and 5 feet tall. While their lower half is transformed, body lengths range from 5 to 7 feet long. Your size is Medium
Speed. As a foreigner to the surface world, your base walking speed is 25 feet, and you have a swimming speed of 30 feet.
Aquatic Transformation. Triton origins in the Plane of Water have provided them the unique ability to transition between a bipedal form, and a merfolk form.
As an action, you can turn your legs into a powerful piscine tail. Your swim speed increases by 10 feet, but your base walking speed is decreased by 10 feet.
Emissaries from the Deep. Adapted to the extremes of the undersea world, you can breathe air and water and ignore any other drawbacks of a deep, underwater environment.
In water, you can detect and pinpoint the origin of vibrations within 30 feet, provided that the source of the vibrations is in contact with the same body of water, and can see out to 60 feet in dark water as if it were dim light.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Primordial.
Subrace. The ideological rift among tritons that caused the Departure has resulted in two distinct subraces on the material plane: coral shore tritons and deep fathom tritons. Choose one of these subraces.
Coral Shore
As a coral shore triton, you have adapted to intertidal life and are better able to withstand the threats from both sea and land. You probably show your carefree curiosity a little more openly than other tritons, and are likely less confused by land-dweller customs.
Coral shore tritons tend to have a wide range of skin tones with unusual stripes and patterns that help them fade into their coastal environments. Their hair tends towards shades of green or auburn, and their eyes are generally pale, silvery shades of teal, red, or yellow.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity or Charisma score increases by 1.
Lithe Mind and Body. When you roll a 1 or 2 on a saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.
Amphibious. Your life along the coastline has strengthened your ability to change form. You gain the ability to use Aquatic Transformation on your turn as a bonus action.
Adaptive Camouflage. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured. While underwater, you have advantage on this roll.
Deep Fathom
As a deep fathom triton, you are heartier, more martially inclined than other tritons and your perception underwater is much stronger. You might be more standoffish than other tritons, or become confused by the surface world. Most tritons on the material plane are deep fathom tritons.
The tritons of the deep generally have rougher, pearlescent and countershaded skin in shades of blue and grey, with some tritons also having faint stripes or spots. Deep fathom tritons have hair of dark green, dark blue, or black, and their eyes are blue, black, or amber.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution or Strength score increases by 1.
Triton Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the long sword and trident, and are exempt from the close combat disadvantage on attacks made with a net.
Black Water Born. As a child of the deepest waters of the world, the radii of your underwater senses are doubled. you can detect and pinpoint the origin of vibrations within 60 feet and can see 120 feet in dark water as if it were dim light.
Depths Charge. If you move at least 10 feet in a straight line and succeed on a melee attack against a creature of your size or smaller, you can choose to knock the creature prone in addition to any damage dealt. If performed underwater, you will instead stun the target creature until the start of your next turn.
Once you use this trait you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest.