The Songless Siren
“ Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster,
and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. ”
...look...
There is a place far beneath the oxford ocean waves in The Fated Depths, past the peaks of the tallest seamounts, a couple leagues down in its depths. The tectonic plates in their structures down below are alive; they are juggernauts in their steady constants to create these deep fissures. The abyssal pressures are hundreds of atmospheres that would effortlessly crush most metals; they plunge the undersea crust into the earth's igneous mantle and the fissured trenches take you down further to the range of the volcanic hell looming beneath. Yet, on the contrary, the waters are so frigid that they would sooner hungrily seize possession of your soul. Only the exotic and uncanny creatures thrive in these conditions where life should not exist. Nearly all of the aquatic brethren in the sea cannot withstand the unforgiving waters in this underworld zone, let alone a man. Not even God's light will touch the profundity of these waters and so here the ocean is shrouded in eternal darkness.
Everyone down here communicated with movements and lights. The jellyfish displayed their entire body in lights to boast of their size. Twinkling lights like fireflies or flickering stars belonged to the tiny copipods flashing to talk to one another.
Some lights in the water looked like waving and spiraling ribbons of constellations; their gelatinous forms gliding with ease wherever they pleased, but it was charms like these that should fare as a warning to those that did or didn't know any better.
Those beautiful strings of stars are no different. Even with their long enchanting bodies of lace, they are carnivorous predators with a curtain of silty tentacles that capture their victims. As for the flamboyantly lit squid, their limbs would sooner grab you to pull you into the concentric rows of jagged teeth around the dire hole that is their starving mouth.
Sometimes small orbs of light swaying in the dark attracted many a creature, but only to lure them to a certain death in the wide open under-slung jaws of the anglerfish; these creatures in actuality were hideous behind the light with a dead stare and sharp, ghastly fangs.
There were also fiendish sharks, dire sharks, giant squids, and krakens. Although even worse than those, the demons; Myrmixicus, Piscoloths, Skulvyn, and Wastriliths were much more horrific to behold, and if you saw one you would not live to tell about it. So even for the creatures that were blessed with sight, it was also uncertain on how to survive.
Ophelia Coventina
"Serpentine" & "Help"
Name: Ophelia Coventina
Age: Unknown (up to 300 yrs)
Gender: Female
Race: Merfolk
Occupation: Dancer
Alignment: Neutral Good. A character of this alignment is guided by his conscience and typically acts altruistically, without regard for or against rules or tradition. They may have no problems cooperating with lawful officials, but does not feel beholden to them. In the event that doing the right things requires the bending or breaking of rules, they do not suffer the same inner conflict as a Lawful Good character would.
Personality: Altruistic, meek, friendly, quick to help and trust.However, she is also prone to being easily frightened in the most dangerous situations. Also, due to the spirit link she has with her deceased familiar, there may be another personality harbored with more possessive and aggressive attitude.
Backstory
On the night of Ophelia's coming of age, like for any other merfolk, a ceremony was to be held by the Cacaellan priestesses that oversought her care. She had learned just about everything they could have taught her and was recognized as a woman on this night of a new moon. Although Ophelia's worship of another God, Eadro had converted many of The Sea Mother's followers. Revenge would be sought for her to rue the day.During Ophelia's performance, The Sea Mother ravaged the temple with her followers, and murdered everuone that had attended the ceremony. Ophelia was left to live, but her left eye was torn from its socket. The siren passed out from the terror and pain.
When Ophelia came to, there was a Marid looking her over. In exchange of being free of suffering any more of The Sea Mother's wrath and other demons of the abyss, she allowed the Marid to place a wager on her life on land. Although Ophelia had promised from the beginning that she was going to bring her grimpomethius familiar with her.The Marid said that it would be impossible for this to happen as her familiar would be surely perish in the change of pressures and could no way live on land. As a cruel joke, she destroyed the creature before Ophelia's eyes and afterward said that she could perform a sacrificial ritual to bring him back from the dead.She sent the siren on a trial to make it through an undersea demonic forest to reach an oceanus dragon that would take her to the surface. Nearly losing her life, she accomplished this and was released to the shallow depths of the ocean, only to be caught by convict fisherman led by a most notoriously dangerous man. Second in Command to the bad of men he was, and perhaps one of the youngest men onboard. He had yet to see his 28th summer, but he was already deemed heavy-hearted and battle-worn. He had a chiseled face with brooding and penetrating azure eyes, the perfect nose, slender yet prominent, lips that seemed soft as silk, strong arms, his stomach hard and defined with satin fair skin covering the steel hard muscles. His most noticeable feature were the torrents of blond hair that fell over his lower back and shoulders, looking and acting just like liquid gold.Leandros...A name that she would remember forever. A man that deserted his ship just to make away with her. Ophelia was not aware of the man's original intentions to sell her, as unexpectedly he fell in love with her. However, perhaps it was not meant to be. Even after many travels and trials faced together the two became separated by politics and dramatic events. Ophelia was whisked away on a ship to be taken to a temple where her rumors as a witch would be absolved of her sins and what was believed to be evil energy attached to her being.She has since been traveling with companions through various lands.
Skills
Dance - Ophelia is passionate about belly dancing and incorporates it in her abilities.
Harp - Can intuitively play the harp with expertise. However, not with magical effects.
Weapons
Marid's Dagger - A dagger gifted by the marid in order to perform dark art rituals.
Abilities
Waterbending - The hydrokinetic ability to control water in all of its various forms.
Healing - A sub-skill of waterbending that allows the bender to heal wounds; by using water as a catalyst, they can redirect energy paths around the body, concentrating more energy into a wounded area and allowing that area to heal at an accelerated rate. While this technique is effective on external, physical wounds, its ability to repair internal injuries and cure illnesses is more limited. In which case, she will sacrifice her own blood.
Eel Shock - A melee spell attack against a creature that she can touch or touches her.
Grimpo's Cirri - Deceased octopus that is spirit bound to Ophelia. Shadow tendrils sense undetected foes in 5 foot range. Don't let Grimpo catch you...
Darkvision - See dim light as if it were bright light and to see in darkness as if it were dim light.
New Moon
SPECIAL
Mother of Pearl - The power of her cursed eye is at its peak on the Sea Mother's new moon, causing those that look into it to either succumb to illusions, sickness, sleep, or insanity. Like the drowned goddess of chaos, not even Ophelia can't control what will happen if looked upon.
Full Moon
SPECIAL
Bloodbending - A specialized sub-skill and rare variant of waterbending that allows an extremely advanced water bender to manipulate fluids within an organism's body, allowing to move the muscles. This is a dark art and endangers the user's mental state.
Tongue of the ancients
The Forgotten Song
The divine vocals of the siren resounding in the The Fated Depths had so much clarity, that every note had powerful sound waves that could penetrate the pressures of the abyss to fill the area with maddening tones of bliss. The song of ancient tongue, wuth a voice so otherwordly could bring harmony and the inclination of entrancing the sub demons and denizens to temporarily coexist at the bottom of the sea.
But never again will anyone ever hear my voice. . .