Storm-Gulls

"Huh - I wouldn't have expected to see a gull this far out- why is the rail smoking?! Get off of there-"

BOOM

— one sailor's first encounter with a Storm-Gull

Sailors have many spirits and gods that are never mentioned on land. They hold a place in the strange subculture of those who live on the water. One of these creatures is the Storm-Gull. This spirit manifests in the form of an ordinary seagull, perhaps on the large side, which appears shortly before a major storm is about to strike. They are usually seen much farther from land than gulls are normally found, but the only way to know for sure if the bird is a seagull or a storm-gull is to touch it - which is a very bad idea.

Living Thunder

Touching a Storm-Gull is equivalent to being struck by lightning. The poor sailor is blasted across the deck, sometimes off the ship entirely, and may be on fire afterwards. Everyone in the vicinity is deafened by the blast, and any brittle or fragile objects may shatter. Throughout all of this, the bird will usually stand casually wherever it was before the attempt to touch it, as if nothing at all had happened. When it flies off, it will usually leave only a few scorched footprints where it had been standing.

Divine Retribution

While Storm-Gulls can manifest on the edge of any major storm system that touches a Wild Place, they can also be summoned into the Physical Realm by the gods of sea and storm. This is most often the case when one of these gods are offended, and wish to punish some mortal being. When they are attacking, the Storm-Gulls will swoop over their victim, and unleash thunder and lighting with each wingbeat. If the gods were feeling merciful, the ship will be left intact - if not, it will be struck with a dozen bolts of lightning and burned to the waterline. If anyone survives the attack, they are usually rendered permanently deaf from the encounter, and many show a pathological fear of thunder and lightning for the rest of their lives.

Prophets of the Wind

In many stories, Storm-Gulls will carry messages from the gods of the ocean winds, especially those concerning the future. Those who receive these prophecies may wish they hadn't, however. This is because the Storm-Gull does not land nicely and speak the message out - instead, it flies directly into the recipient with all the force and noise of a thunderbolt, dropping the message into their mind along the way. People almost always survive this - or at least, nobody who has been killed ever reported receiving a prophecy in the seconds before being thunderstruck.

Numina Ephemera

Storm-Gulls are Numina, born out of the beliefs of the sailors. But they are rarely ascribed individual identities, nor do they have physical or spiritual anchors that would make them more permanent or stable. As a consequence, a Storm-Gull is a short-lived creature compared to Numina such as gods. They can they can appear in any of the Dreamlands, or they can manifest in Physical Realm via one of the Wild Places like the Middlesea. They only appear in the presence of severe thunderstorms, or when they are summoned by a more powerful Numina, such as one of the many gods of sea and storm around the Great Ring. You can read more about Numina here.