Douhaja Zmieja, The Sea Thane

Douhaja Zmieja the Sea Thane

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Hoarder of Sunken Ships, Dweller in the Wave-Swallowed Cities, The Planet Constrictor
Worshipers: Dwellers in the Ribbon Trench, near the Seven Principalities
Domains: Destruction, Scalykind, Strength, Water
Favored Energy: Negative
Favored Weapon: Harpoon
Favored Creature: Sea Snake
Favored Instrument: Bagpipes

Legend
According to her followers, the planet was once covered in a solid shell of rock and stone. From the unimaginable depths of the Oceanus, where it meets the Lower Plane of Perdition was spawned the Sea Thane, Douhaja Zmieja, the “Great Squeezer” in the tongue of the long-dead sea-elves. When Douhaja Zmieja came to Porphyra, drawn by the whisperings of the All-Dragon, she constricted around the world, crushing the shell where she coiled and squeezed the water out to create the seas. To this day, she squeezes tighter and tighter, forcing continents apart and causing the oceans to widen. Her snake like body can be found, it is said, deep in the harsh darkness of the Ribbon Trench, where only the bravest and vilest underwater races pay her homage, out of fear and respect. It is from her immeasurable body that all sea serpents and aquatic dragons first issued.

Church
Most church-cults of Douhaja Zmieja lie deep beneath the ocean waves in ravines on the ocean floor, but some can be found on land within sight of the sea. Nearly all of her followers consist of undine, serpentfolk, and various underwater races. They are notorious for their penchant for sacrificing land-folk, always by drowning at the peak of certain tides, which cultists call “the heartbeat of the Mother”. Their other main activities besides kidnap and ritual sacrifice involve engineering the drowning the land under the mantle of the sea, methods for which have proven quite inventive, such as enslaving massive dragons to sabotaging dams and the like. Her adherents are xenophobic, and tolerate few other races or non-followers of the Dweller. Those undines that follow the Sea Thane are iconoclastic renegades from more typical Elementalist or neo-Deist allegiance, and are the most feared of all the lot, more able to infiltrate land-dweller society. Douhaja Zmieja herself offers no afterlife to her followers, for she is a world destroyer bent on annihilating all life.

Spell Preparation Ritual
Find a boulder or large stone and squeeze. Maintain your hold and pray. Imagine crushing the rock in your embrace, then try to. Be stubborn, single-minded. If anyone asks what you are doing, hiss at them. If you cannot find a stone or boulder, curl up in a ball and think of something to hate. A ritual drowning sacrifice at dawn to “the heartbeat of the Mother” also serves for this purpose, for all cultists involved, who thereafter gain a +1 morale bonus to hit and damage for an hour.


See Also

OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a - All text is Open Game Content.