[normalphil]

OK, let's cast our nets.

The objective is to envision a triton-centric LE oceanan nation, for the purpose of competing with LE R'lyeh beneath the waves.

Here's my dominating constraint; ME R'lyeh. What apparently happenned is that R'lyeh swept over all the worlds oceans, creating a slave-based empire and eradicating every other undersea civilization, and then promptly collapsed in an sustained reality-mishap. This is why the LE oceans are chock full of independants and no faction-civilizations; the software just isn't there any more. Each of these provinces is whatever was left after the slaves sorted themselves out locally. Personally I'd be surprised if a non-trivial number of them were even literate any more. They've all got the sociological development of a neolithic tribe. This is the dark age, and the Oceanan Tritons haven't risen again for the same reason the Druids didn't resume control of France after the Romans fell; total break in cultural continuity.

That means a LE Oceanan-triton faction is going to have to spawn primarily from MA R'lyeh's culture. We shouldn't be thinking up an Oceanan-centered faction with void-worship, we should be hashing out a void-worshiping faction that's trying to become oceanan again. Four main points.


First is the matter of the bloodline; obviously it's survival needs a narative. You can spawn locally from Amber-clan in MA R'lyeh service (heck, I use 'em), or use 'hidden in the far corners of oceans'. Personal I go with the first, the Oceanan Triton leadership hasn't been a facter since EA... if they were coming back, they'd have done it in MA. Respawn from the purest strain available, and legends of the past.

Second is character; these are lords of slaves. They can't mind-blast, they don't make shambler thralls, but when the Illithids suddenly all fell down and went into convulsions, they were middle-management and had the best idea of what a coherent operation actually was (if amber clan). So they took over by virtue of being the only somewhat-organized successor faction. Tritons with meteroic armor (and sharks, sharks are cool and shark-riders are still around memetically), slaves to take the fight above the waves if needed, but not the big thing.

Third is religion; some flavour of void-worship. The pretender-god of oceana is dead as a doornail and failed them besides, the magical tradition has a continuity break in it, the void is here and the void is mighty (and it mind-fried the local illithids, which is why they're free at this point). Dial it down though; they see the void creatures vaugely as the MA R'lyeh did with the added bonus of them being agents of their liberation. They aren't feeding the world to them. I would express it by giving them extremly astral-demanding national summons for some void-creatures, and a sacred mage type with heavy astral and 10% insanity. They don't have the void-gate, they aren't affiliated with the dreamlands, but the holy and powerful amoung them can with massively localized power 'bore through' a small space and get something to come out. The backwash acounts for the trace insanity for initiates of the process.

Four is agenda. The inscruitible powers of the void gave them a reprieve; they understand it for what it is and they mean to make the most of it. Racial superiorty, a return to poorly-remembered past glories, and vengance on the illithid scourge (all the while ironically copying their methods and thinking themselves champions of their own past).


Back at you.