Mighty dwellers in the deep, far from civilized lands, the triton people thrive across the world's oceans, occasionally venturing to the surface to meet other people. Blessed with an affinity to the cosmic forces of water, triton folk have great talent in manipulating water, not just surviving in it.
A triton is as a rule massive, able to swim freely under the crushing pressure of hundreds of feet of water. Their powerful hands and feet are webbed, improving their agility in their home environment. Sets of gills ring their necks and collars and sharklike teeth fill their mouths beneath slitted nostrils. Their ears are mere slits, able to regulate the severe pressure of their home. Tritons do not grow hair, but most tribes have webbed fins which frame their heads like crowns; some have fins stretching down their green-skinned limbs as well. A triton stands about as tall as the average human and has a build comparable to an orc.
Unlike the fish-tailed merfolk, which tritons are sometimes compared to, tritons exhibit fairly strong sexual dimorphism, similar to humans. They give birth to live young who are born readily able to swim and breathe water with little assistance, but are fed by their mothers for a while much like many land dwellers.
Tritons in the World
Most people will never meet a triton in their lives. These folk keep to their homes at the bottom of the sea, and are one of the only peoples on this earth who can survive in such a place inhospitable to most every other sort. Occasionally tritons have been known to send envoys to land dwellers in times of desperate need, or a land dweller with access to magic might famously pay them a visit. Even tritons who like to travel and explore the world above the waves tend to linger near islands and coastlines, so they are never too far from their native environment.
The most notable triton civilizations nearby Des Forabis are the individual kingdoms beneath the Prism Sea to the south and the Sea Narawa to the west. On the Prism Sea, the tritons occasionally treat with the free people who travel there; some have even been known to join pirate crews. The tritons living beneath the Sea Narawa are less-accessible, living in even deeper trenches and visiting the surface more rarely. Supposedly, these folk tend to see themselves as warriors; protecting the world at large from threats from the darkest deep.
Thanks to such isolation, most civilizations throughout history have been on friendly terms with their triton neighbors. There has never been a recorded war between land dwelling civilizations and triton civilizations, likely because neither group has any want for the place the other lives.
Triton Player Characters
As a triton on an adventure, you are out of your element; most adventures take place on land, in groups with other land-dwellers, making triton adventurers quite out of place. For that reason, you surely have an extremely good reason for being here: an urgent quest of deadly importance or a calling you cannot deny. Even individual triton families living on land are a rarity.
If your quest brings you back to water, however, you excel naturally. You have elemental magic in your blood and can easily befriend swimming beasts. While you might move a bit clumsily on land without practice, in the water you can move faster than any other, and can swim deeper than anybody else without a worry.
Triton Traits
Ability Score Bonus. You gain a +1 to Strength, a +1 to Constitution, and a +1 to Charisma.
Age. Tritons reach physical maturity around age 15 and can live to 200.
Size. Your size is Medium. Tritons are about the same size as humans, but tend to be fairly heavier due to their naturally larger muscle mass.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. You also have a base swimming speed of 30 feet.
Amphibious. You can breathe air and water.
Control Air and Water. You can cast fog cloud with this trait. Starting at 3rd level, you can cast gust of wind with it, and starting at 5th level, you can also cast wall of water with it. Once you cast a spell with this trait, you can't cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Emissary of the Sea. You can communicate simple ideas with beasts that can breathe water. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return.
Deep-Dweller. Adapted to even the most extreme ocean depths, you have resistance to cold damage.
