Athamaru

Athamarus are fish-like humanoids who form tight-knit communities underseas, with villages of siblings led by a common matriarch. Athamarus engage in subsistence farming of seaweed, train eels to serve as mounts, and create elaborate works of coral art.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Athamarus are fish-like humanoids who form their settlements at the edge of Coast Lines. Rough relations with other aquatic races causes them to turn to land dwellers for trade and relations.
Athamarus have the appearance that resembles fish. Their brightly colored skin often matches the reefs where they build their communities. Frills, barbels, and crested fins add to their flamboyant appearance. The sheer variety of crest shapes, scale patterns, and fin styles make individuals distinct, even as communities share features. These similarities are often environmentally advantageous, such as scales that allow them to blend into seaweed or longer toes in areas with stony seabeds. Outsiders often note that athamarus have a distinctive smell, which comes from pheromones, used for both communication and defense.
While the level of control varies, all Athamarus can communicate basic emotions chemically, and individual settlements have unique variations to their pheromones that serve as a community fingerprint. Masters of pheromonal expression can communicate complex philosophical concepts purely chemically, occupying a role similar to master singers in other communities.

Biological Cycle

One notably and well documented aspect Athamaru, they are capable of undergo physical changes called metamorphisis, to their bodies to help fulfill various functions within their communities. These changes include changing their color, size, shape, fins, and various other parts of their anatomy.

Civilization and Culture

Beauty Ideals

Beauty ideals within Athamaru culture blurs the line between clothing, accessorization, and body modification. Athamaru are capable of growing or shedding extra fins, changing the color of their skin by tending to coral or other modification thru the symbiotic connection to their oceananic homes. Fins are often adorned with jewelery and cuffs.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

In the past, the Athamarus were pulled into a war that was not their own, and suffered great losses as civilians. As a result of their past, they fled from the Deep Ocean to occupy the coasts of the Land, forging bonds and relations with land dwellers.
While often limited to coastlines without use of special devices, Athamarus value experiencing new things, coming ashore often to take part in festivities, partake in trade, and gather and spread news of the ocean’s happenings. They are extremely social creatures, able to make quick friends with their charismatic charms and upbeat attitude.
Their communities tend to be small villages consisting of a singular matriarch who parents the rest of the community. The matriarch leads the community until it is no longer able to give birth. At this point, those that seek to take up the position of matriarch undergo physical changes to their body to announce their intentions.
Despite their friendly demeanor however, their violent and tragic pasts still haunt them. Underneath their pleasant exterior, Athamarus still holds their martial and magical prowess they developed during the time of war. As though embedded directly into their genetics, Atharmarus are skilled in combat and defense, some communities embracing this part of their past, serving as mercenary guilds, and some as pirates against trade ships.

History

The Athamaru come from a violent past, being forced to participate in a war between the Sahuagin and Azarketi. Their ancestral home was caught in between the two races, both seeing it as a strategic location to capture to assault the other side. When the War of The Deep began, the Athamaru tried to keep their peaceful demeanor, but overtime the two sides began vying for their allegiance.
When the prime matriarch denied their requests, the feuding sides turned their tridents towards them, seeking to take Artoska. However, they had underestimated their prey’s strength. Using their ability of metamorphosis, many craftsmen and tamers changed themselves into powerful warriors, intending to defend their home.
Through these changes, the Athamaru were able to successfully defend their home, but the change to their bodies were permanent, and the tension between them and the other aquatic races was strained.
As a result, the Athamaru left their home in the Deep Ocean, choosing to live along the coastlines of the land instead. Overtime, they began weeding out the offensive and hostile parts of their anatomy, trying to return to a semblance of their life before the War of the Deep, but that part of their history is forever hardcoded into their genetics, and will always be part of their being.