Sahuagin

“I waited for dusk and ebb tide, then embarked, heading east. East, across the night seas. East, borne on the naked backs of murdered men... Stomach filled with raw meat; gull blood caked upon my chin, I drifted on towards Davidstown. My home was there. Nothing would take it from me.” -- Max Shea, Tales of the Black Freighter





The night watch dozes and ship planks creak as shark-kin pirates haul their dripping bodies aboard, spears and teeth gleaming in the moonlight. Fish and pearls and oils are rowed into the docks each morning, unloaded by tattooed sea devils with muscles like rough-hewn stone. A bounty hunter greets the dawn by tipping a canteen over his finned head, sighing with relief as his rough hide glistens.

Sea Devils

Along coastal waters, inland seas, and vast archipelagos, the sharklike sahuagin are figures of caution at best. Those who come in peace are hunter-merchants or deadly privateers, while less friendly sahuagin are nightmarish raiders who break the surf on foggy nights.

Many ports strike profitable alliances with the sea devils, accepting the inevitable violence at drinking halls or crowded docks as the price of business and safety. The sahuagin themselves dismiss mere complaints.

You cannot stop moving forward. If you stop, you die.

Armed to the Teeth

Piscine humanoids whose rough skin ranges between green and gray, sahuagin have broad forearms and powerful upper bodies with little fat. A dorsal fin sprouts from their head or back, and a powerful, finned tail swings behind. Dark eyes and a thin-lipped mouth packed with sharp triangular teeth complete the selachian resemblance.

The shark-kin are oddly prone to mutation, from armored or rubbery skin to extra limbs, fins, and organs. One sahuagin snout might resemble a shark's head, while its brother's face could be flatter, almost human in structure.

Sahuagin distinguish sex by scent, but females have sharp patterns and a rougher hide. A mature sea devil continues to slowly grow its entire life, and might someday exceed 9 feet.

Feeding Frenzy

The sahuagin are driven by a firm sense of purpose. Tribes are divided into castes, assigned by augury or merit, and it is the duty of each sahuagin to be an exemplar of that role.

A sahuagin's mutations are living proof of it purpose, direct tweaks from the divine. To deny destiny is repulsive, and contrary feelings – whether boredom, doubt, or compassion – are thought of as base animal urges. The sahuagin keep such things shameful and private.

This sense of fate runs deep, for the sahuagin people are convinced that the ocean itself is their manifest destiny. Those who stand in their way, from the noble tritons to the abyssal kuo toa, and especially the hated sea elves, are a foul and childish provocation.

Fish Out of Water

A variety of sahuagin become adventurers, from well-armed privateers to fate-scorned exiles and sorcerous mutants. All, however, believe that destiny called them to adventure.

Adventurers of other races often share this certainty of purpose, which sahuagin appreciate. Those less sure – or clearly wrong – are troubling: a shark-kin friend will try to put such comrades in their place, or push them toward their destiny, whatever they believe it to be.

Sahuagin Names

As with many races, sahuagin names are split between feminine and masculine, though this reflects the shark-kin's role rather than its sex. Tribe names usually sound similar to those surface-dweller give to ships, a mixture of convenient translation and cultural cross-contamination.

Sahuagin make sure they know the name of any group they join, for a sahuagin's name reflects their current tribe or affiliation, not the family that birthed them. A sea devil named Kaipeno, acting for the Seven Suns Trading Coster, would call himself "Kaipeno, of the Seven Suns".

Sahuagin Masculine Names: Akamu, Ekewaku, Hopokai, Iokepam, Jinbai, Kisakom, Lopak, Mako, Tamsin, Velok

Sahuagin Feminine Names: Akena, Haleili, Iekihua, Konanei, Lahual, Lonana, Makani, Pahuahi, Tia, Wikolua

Tribe Names: Bold Melora, Cythera, Departing Joyful, Ebon Pearl, Lord Dagon's Revenge, Old Tooth, Shaari Baron, Red Kelp Fall, Thunder Child, White Wave