Umberlee

Umberlee was the evil sea goddess in the Faerûnian pantheon, most often worshiped by sailors or people traveling by sea, out of fear of her destructive powers. She was known as a particularly malicious, petty, greedy, and vain deity who controlled the harshness of the sea while reveling in her own power and was not hesitant to drown people if she so pleased.

Personality

Umberlee was temperamental, evil, and malicious. She did not feel the moral obligation to honor any of her agreements or promises if the end result was not beneficial to her. That, and her desire for the valuables and excessive tributes, characterized her insatiable greed and cruelty. She was power-hungry and loved exercising it, toying with her worshipers. She fed her sadistic nature by destroying naval vessels and feeding shipwreck victims to her sharks while watching the others drown.

She rarely favored individual mortals unless it benefited her in some way. Umberlee did not tolerate any one member of her clergy becoming famous and overshadowing the church and the goddess herself.

Divine Realms

After the Time of Troubles, Umberlee resided in Blood Tor, the 13th level of the Abyss, flooded characteristically to its ruler.
Following the dire changes brought on by the Spellplague, Umberlee, along with Silvanus, Auril, Mielikki, and Shiallia resided in the domain of the Deep Wilds. She made home in the realm's deep dark ocean.

Relationships

Umberlee was strongly opposed to Selûne, whose stars guided navigators at sea; Valkur, who guided travelers safely home; Sune, whose beauty made her green with envy; and Chauntea for her dominion over land.
Silvanus was technically Umberlee's superior, as the ruler of the dominion the Deep Wilds within which she resides. However, Umberlee rarely, if ever, saw herself as Silvanus' servant.
Umberlee openly fought with Selûne, the goddess of the moon; Chauntea, the goddess of the earth and land; Sune, whose beauty spurred jealously within the Bitch Queen; and Valkur, the deity to whom sailors prayed for safe return from the sea.
Deities of Fury
Umberlee was a member of the Deities of Fury, a group that included Auril and Malar, led by the Storm Lord Talos. As Talos encroached upon Umberlee's portfolio since both deities ruled over storms, she attempted to distract him with a romantic relationship.
Even though Talos was her superior and patron, he often attempted to usurp Umberlee's power over sea storms and hurricanes, folding them under his own portfolio. Despite that, the Queen of the Depths positioned herself as a flirt, keeping herself in Talos' good graces. Although her ambitions were limited by not being able to affect land directly, given the opportunity, she would have gladly destroyed her patron, taking his portfolio of destruction for herself.
The closest deity Umberlee could consider an ally was Auril, the fellow member of the Deities of Fury. When Umberlee required aid, she was likely to call on the Frostmaiden.
Deities of the First Circle
In the late 15th century DR, Umberlee was a part of the loosely related group of deities known as the First Circle to their worshipers. The First Circle consisted of the gods who lorded over nature: Chauntea, Eldath, Mielikki, Silvanus, Auril, Malar, Talos, and Umberlee herself.

Avatar

The Bitch Queen's seldomly seen avatar was a giant woman with the body colored like the sea, of blues and greens. Her hands had talons. Her elbows had fins and green hair of seaweed and kelp. Her white eyes were reminiscent of pearls, and her voice sounded like the fiercest sea storm, booming with breaking waves. The goddess appeared in that form to scare and impress the mortals on board of dying ships. The towering avatar wore jewelry made out of seashells, carried a trident, and was dressed in a flowing cape made out of countless pale-purple jellyfish. Umberlee's avatar laughed with malicious glee as she toyed with the doomed vessel.
Umberlee's avatar had access to divine spells (except earth, fire, sun, thought, and time magic) and arcane spells (except earth and fire). All of the water magic the avatar was able to cast manifested at triple strength, making it extremely hard to avoid. The trident the avatar wielded was a powerful magical item that combined the powers of a trident of submission and a trident of fish command. She could summon 6-12 sharks or 2-6 giant sharks to do her bidding every 30 minutes. Every 12 hours, the avatar of Umberlee was able to summon water elementals of various sizes and power to serve her. All the creatures summoned by Umberlee could not be controlled by any mind-affecting magic.
After the Godswar, Umberlee's aspect that gathered her devotees from the Fugue Plane appeared as a humanoid with a manatee face and green seaweed hair.

Manifestations

The most common manifestations of the Bitch Queen were waves and winds of the seas. Sailors knew that when storms hit their ships, and the winds or waves carried sinister cold laughter or hissing words, they were facing the cruel goddess herself.
Following the Time of Troubles, Umberlee's powers were decreased, and she could manifest gales of wind four times a day. Her watery manifestation in the form of waves did not have many limitations in the sea. She used the wave forms that reached 160 feet (49 meters) in the length of considerable power. These waves could momentarily kill an unlucky victim or grab and carry away items and treasures of value from the ships, including items such as rings and gauntlets.
Another common manifestation of the Great Queen of the Sea was the shape of an aquatic monster of terrible size. She took on many shapes, including monstrous-sized sharks, krakens, and aquatic undead and undead lake-dwelling monsters. Her most notable aspect was the kraken-like Dweller that grew within the Temple-Under-The-Sea, slowly increasing its strength and corruption influence.

Worshipers

The Great Queen of the Sea was worshiped out of fear by most. Umberlee acted on her turbulent whims when making deals with mortals. Temples of Umberlee were few and far between, and the church was disorganized, universally hated throughout Faerûn, and perpetuated out of fear of the goddess. Umberlee's church rested on her chaotic nature where disputes were ruled in favor of the strongest individual.

Druids who worshiped the First Circle also venerated Umberlee, as she was a representation of nature in its cruel form.
In the lavish magical hedge maze of Moonstone Palace, Evermeet, multiple globes of illusion depicting moments from the history of the elven race were placed. One of them depicted the birth of sea elves, with the avatar of Umberlee rising from the depths of storming sea.
Non-human worshipers Umberlee had worshipers among krakens, sahuagin, anguiliians, water genasi, and other evil sea creatures. In addition, some tanar'ri priests were known to pledge themselves to Umberlee's service.
Most weresharks, created by the Queen of the Depths herself as a way to undermine her bitter opponent Selûne, venerated Umberlee out of admiration rather than fear.
Dogma The Undrowned and Umberlants held no ethical standards nor persuasions; the only thing that was set in stone was their belief in the cruelty and viciousness of the sea, the most dangerous place. The folk who were brave enough to travel the savage seas should have been ready to pay the price for their challenge to the Bitch Queen's domain. The Church of Umberlee's doctrine was fear; all were to tremble before the Queen's power, as her waves and winds were all-reaching. The mercy of the Great Queen of the Sea was to be bought with generous offerings, as they brought fair winds. All who dared to travel through her domain were to know that Umberlee controlled the monsters of the deep, the drowned dead. The priests and priestesses were to spread the holy word of the Bitch Queen and spread the fear of her rage, and perform no service in her name without collecting high tithe. They were to promote the fear of Umberlee's waves and winds unless her clergy accompanied the travelers. The final divine directive was for the followers of Umberlee's faith to slay anyone claiming the storms over the seas were Talos' doing.

It was a typical tribute among sailors and ship crews to toss gems, gold, and valuables overboard to appease Umberlee and calm the storming waters. On cargo ships, the sailors often tossed the transported valuable trade goods overboard to gain favorable winds, while the sounds of mouthpipes played tunes dedicated to the goddess. When the danger was especially severe, the sailors made sure the goods tossed overboard contained living creatures. On some occasions, ships with Umberlant priests on board ran aground or foundered; in anger, the sailors turned against the priests who promised them safe passage. The desperate sailors made sure the treacherous priests of Umberlee were killed before the ship sank. There have been bloated corpses of the Bitch Queen's priests washed ashore with as many as 30 cutlasses stuck in them.

Before a voyage, sailors often left small tokens on Umberlee's shrine altars in hopes of calm waters. The most common tributes were flowers, candles, coins, and candy. Such tributes were also often paid by merchants who transported their trade cargo by sea, the townsfolk of coastal cities and islands who did not have a powerful patron deity and were in danger of storms and hurricanes. When no other was present, the clergy of the Bitch Queen removed the offerings from the shrines, washing the altars with seawater and kelp to symbolize the goddess claiming her tithe.
The pirates and sailors of Alamber Sea paid some homage to Umberlee, who was not commonly worshiped in the region. They did send sacrifices into the sea's depths, but it usually consisted of unsalvageable goods and cargo.
Worshipers of Umberlee in the pirate city of Tharkar often placed small sacrifices to the goddess. To protect the buildings from flooding and collapse, the folk drowned small critters like rats and squirrels in bowls of seawater decorated with seaweed. These sacrifices stood on plinths in their bowls, left alone in the buildings' basements, creating foul smells of wet decay.
Umberlee's clergy performed the rite known as the Drowning. It was a ritualistic drowning of the Untaken supplicant (novice cleric of Umberlee). If they survived, they were confirmed in the service of the Queen of Depths.
The islanders from Kelthann eagerly accepted any dead body to perform a burial in their catacombs just to avoid performing burials at sea. Kelthanni believed that performing the rites of the burial at sea strengthened Umberlee. Those who performed the rites against the Kelthanni tradition were told that the earth was going to reject their bodies, and upon death, the Bitch Queen would claim their bodies and use them as her sea zombie servants.
Umberlee was a common namesake for ships. A caravel called Umberlee's Get was helmed by a notorious and fierce sea wolf Jezgar Skentzin of the Inner Sea circa 1359 DR.
Holy Days
First Tide: This holy day was celebrated when the ice broke up in a harbor. It consisted of a flute and drums parade through town with a caged animal, which was tied to a rock and then thrown into the sea. If it survived, it was magically healed and treated as a sacred animal with the rank of an Umberlant. This was an ancient custom with its roots in the days of old when Umberlee selected her clergy from among the human sacrifices drowned in the same manner as the animals of the First Tide.
Fair Seas Festival: A Waterdevian holiday that took place at the end of Fleetswake. It was the festival to appease Umberlee during which the worshipers paid tithes by throwing the valuables and the coin made off of the temporarily raised docking fees into the deepest reaches of Waterdeep's harbor. The valuables then were swept away by the currents and taken to Umberlee's Cache, the deep chasm in the waters of Waterdeep.

Titles

• The Bitch Queen
• Great Queen of the Sea
• Queen of the Depths
• Goddess of Oceans
• The Wavemother
• Goddess of the Deep Wilds
• Stormgoddess of the Seas
• Sea Queen
• Ri'dea'brela
• Sea Bitch

Deity Level

• Intermediate Deity

Aspects/Aliases

• The Dweller

Alignment

• Chaotic Evil

Symbol

• Wave curling left and right

Portfolio

• Sea

Domains

• Tempest

Worshipers

• Coast Dwellers
• Sailors