[Sombre]

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

Largely, yes. But the nation must be able to escape onto the land to some degree, which requires amphibious troops / mages / priests that aren't useless. They don't have to be great, just not useless.

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.

I agree in part. This nation is obviously going to be seriously influenced by MA and LA Ryleh. On the other hand in Dom3 'history' both Ermor and Arco are supposed to have ruled huge empires - you can see their influence in some nations (and the destruction of others, such as marverni) but others have managed to escape them. LA Ermor is like the LA Ryleh of the surface, but not that many nations are thematically built around surviving their onslaught and not that many surface nations vanish (ie are wiped out) from MA to LA.

Now in standard Dom3, where there's no LA Oceania, you have to assume that the seas were essentially all controlled by the MA Ryleh empire. But if we /do/ have Oceania, that could be proof that MA Ryleh didn't quite take everything before reality started to fall apart for them.

So while LA Oceania /must/ be influenced by Ryleh, they could still have sustained their own culture by radical and desperate means.

So upon reading your 4 main points and agreeing with many parts, here's my take on things



I agree that the reign of the Triton kings shouldn't be brought back. I could come up with reasons for it coming back, but it wouldn't feel like a natural progression. However Oceanian tritons were still part of MA Oceania, though they had been relegated to the position of underwater specialists and the amber clan had either gone rogue or been enslaved.

I agree that the amber clan, who have survived where the old tritons kings failed, should be a strong presence in LA Oceania. I also think they would have been enslaved (though not wholly) by the illithids.

Here's how I see the bloodlines.

Amber Clan - Gave Ryleh many common triton slaves, retained their minds and became an even darker secret society. Obsessed with racial purity and the survival of their bloodline, they developed secret ways of resisting the minds of the illithids without alerting them while slowly and spitefully undermining and destroying common triton and atlantian slave revolts. When Ryleh fell they revealed their surprising strength, murdered many illithids and began manipulating other slaves to rebuild the ruins of ancient pearl cities. They have learned some darker magics from their time with Ryleh.

Oceanian Tritons - As the Capricorns and their halfmen fought for the coasts against ever expanding Ryleh, the Tritons, unable to leave the water, suffered the most. They became embittered through constant war with triton slaves (both common and Oceanian) and declare that any Oceanian mentally enslaved is officially cut from the bloodline. Though they fight loyally for the Capricorns they are betrayed and the halfmen flee to the safety of land to be absorbed into the declining Pangaea as proponents of modern ways. The Oceanian tritons, left behind and in serious trouble, manage to keep themselves alive and fight soley against Ryleh, adopting different tactics (such as rangers, shark knights, darker magic). They use non Oceanians as fodder, forcing them to fight and caring little if they die - even sacrificing them to attract more sharks. As Ryleh begins to tear itself apart they launch a crusade to find a place shrouded in mystery, a pearl city their few leaders claim is still held by dimly remembered Triton Kings and their elite guard. When they finally arrive they find it to be a ruin, but in their darkest hour the Amber Clan arrive and promise much.

The AC know how to spin a situation - they see a battered but willing supply of racially pure (although not amber and therefore still inferior) Oceanian Tritons, something they never imagined they'd get their hands on. They present their own warped view of histoy, mesh it with that of the surviving Oceanian tritons and voila - as a new god of the sea awakens in the ruins of the pearl city a new nation of LA Oceania is born. They have returned to the deeps, but have new knowledge of manipulation and an awareness that if Ryleh is to be destroyed and the old glory brought back, they will need followers. The cowardly halfmen are long gone, the atlantians are fled,... but there are creatures on the shoreline who are being pushed INTO the water rather than out - a desperate Ichtyid culture of blood worshippers. They will make useful soldiers, first in the sea, then on land.

So we have a largely sea-centric culture which is influenced by: Hate and bitterness. Racial superiority. The glory of the past (or their warped version of it). Fear of being enslaved or betrayed again. The ruthless drive to survive (shark influence). The void next door. Reclaiming lost territory.

At the same time they have taken the Ichtyids on board who are also influenced by the void (called/driven into the ocean), are blood users, are more than happy to leave the land, but that want to return and destroy those that drove them off the coast.