The Sea Ascended

ke kai akua

A short History of The Sea Ascended

Have you ever stood on the bow of a ship and felt that strange tingle, the one telling you, that there is more, that the sea itself is a living, breathing being?
The Sea Ascended is one of the oldest, if not the oldest gods that exist on this plane.

Mortal Life

The Sea Ascended is as old as a god can be. Such is that their story has been lost to time, many cultures and people have tried to remember, to remake, to create anew the story. For many centuries it has been a great exercise for young bards to come up with their own versions. No one remembers if The Sea Ascended was a human, an elf, a dwarf, merfolk or even a kuo-toa. No one knows if they are male, female or nothing at all. It is questioned if The Sea Ascended was young or old, inbetween or maybe already a ghost. In short - nothing is known and the Sea itself remains ever silent on the matter.

Ascension

Once again everyone has their own theory on this. Was the Sea a lover left, giving themselves to the water and receiving power instead? Were they a mage that discovered an arcane secret ascending that way, claiming the open waters as their domain? Were they a pirate, a sailor, that loved the waters so much, that they simply never left? The events that led to the ascension and the method itself remain lost to the ages. Maybe they will be unearthed, maybe they will remain a mystery.

Worship

Worshippers

Everyone living on, by or close to the sea pays them their reverence. The Coral Kingdoms build large shrines and temples for them, the pirates of the Shifting Isles sacrifice the blood they spill during a raid and the booze they drink in their honour, traveling merchants pay a price of wares thrown overboard. While it may be rare that the Sea itself intervenes, one can never be too sure, a calm day can turn into a storm very fast.

Priests

Many claim to speak for the Sea, very few rarely do. Among the merfolk and the pirates a couple clerics and paladins of the Sea exist. Ensuring that they get their appropriate worship and sacrifices. Orders received in dream and visions, spoken in a language no one speaks anymore, understood nevertheless.

Paladins

The few paladins that exist are sworn to protect the Sea and its independence. No one shall ever claim it as their dominion, they may be permitted to cross it, or make a home between the waves, but no one will ever truly rule the waves. Those that claim to do so will receive a strong reminder that they are at the mercy of a being so much older and more powerful than them.

Acts of Worship

The Sea is a gentle god, the Sea is wrathful god. Their mood changes as fast as the weather. It is best to stay on their good side, this way they won't target you with a storm, Kraken or other calamity.
Show your deference by puring part of your first drink on any ship into the sea directly, give a few scraps of your first meal to the sea. When the storm comes show that you are frightened, when it is over show that you are grateful.
If you pillage and plunder throw at least one coin into the sea, or spill the blood of your enemies directly into it.

Temples

The Sea does not care what forms the temples and shrines may take, as long as they are used to worship them. Beneath the waves technically anything could count as a shrine. Most often large gatherings of coral are used, if temples are built, they are sung into existence by merfolk, using existing shrines and growing them taller and taller until they may serve as buildings to house a congegration.
On land the Sea has much less power, but still, sailors carry rowboats and even entire ships inland, prop them up enough, so that they can see the sea an perform their worship there.

The crashing waves their breath, the howling wind their voice, the salty water their gift

— Beginning of a traditional prayer to The Sea Ascended

Followers:
Aquatic Creatures,
The Coral Kingdoms
Many Pirates and Sailors

Sayings:
Crashing Waves & Howling Wind

Divine Classification

Ancient God

Related Myths

• Three Betrayals