Help me with D&D Lore: Beneath the Waves

[Nimblegrund]

I am putting together a D&D campaign that takes place exclusively under the water. The premise being that the world above experienced a cataclysm (The Age of Fire) that covered nearly the entire world in water, save for a few mountaintops. The undersea races have now taken over, advancing significantly technologically and culturally- no longer the collection of xenophobic, stone-age bottom dwellers typically presented.

That said, classic D&D lore about undersea races is rather sparse, and somewhat lacking in detail (at least what I have been able to find online) but I think it would make a good jumping off point. I have found some information online in various wikis but it tends to be unsourced.

So what I am looking for are good sources of fluff for aquatic races. Edition doesn't matter. Campaign setting doesn't matter. It could be a campaign sourcebook or an adventure. Even pictures or maps that I can use as hand-outs. Information about the Elemental Plane of Water is also welcome. Information about undersea deities, too (Eadro, Blibdoolpoolp, etc.)

You don't have to give me the information here, but just telling me where to look would be appreciated.


Also, share your ideas! One of the challenges I have is making this undersea world self-sufficient technologically. I don't want to have to rely on amphibious races to take advantage of what little land space remains for things like forging metal, etc. Though there are ruins scattered around the undersea continent from the world above that could contain useful technology to the undersea races. Also, I kind of like the idea of utilizing unusual sea life as a form of technology.

Thanks!

 

[Nagol]

Well, the first source that pops into my mind is Stormwrack for 3.X.

The old Dragon magazines had a bunch of articles over the years. Checking out one of the online indexes might point you in the right direction for those.

There are a few d20 adventures/sourcebooks that came out in the early 2000's like The Deep and Depths of Despair.

Other games systems have covered the material as well some might have ideas you find suitable. Polaris is one from France, but it's more high-tech post-apoc. Blue Planet was another science fiction game (and also has a GURPS supplement).

 

[Nimblegrund]

Alright, Ill check those out. Thanks.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I know Eberron does some interesting stuff with undersea races, maybe in Races of Eberron?

 

[Nagol]

I know Eberron does some interesting stuff with undersea races, maybe in Races of Eberron?

The Races book covers Shifters, Warforged, Changelings, and Kalashtar mostly. There might be something aquatic in it somewhere, but if there is, it's pretty minor.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The Races book covers Shifters, Warforged, Changelings, and Kalashtar mostly. There might be something aquatic in it somewhere, but if there is, it's pretty minor.

Damn. I know Keith has thoughts on the subject, maybe his blog has some?

 

[ChaosOS]

Avid reader of his blog; He's never gone into great detail unfortunately, only expressed that earlier drafts of the setting had extensive coverage of the Sahuagin and Merfolk empires.

 

[Igwilly]

I’m going through AD&D 2nd Edition right now, and some books may be interesting to this purpose:
DMGR4: Monster Mythology probably has some deities from the undersea (among many demihuman, humanoid and monster deities).
GA1 The Murky Deep, is an adventure taking place mainly underwater. I bought it but still didn’t read it. It’s best meant for characters of level 5-8.
Sea of Fallen Stars: this is the big one. It’s for Forgotten Realms, but touches exactly upon the subject, describing a whole undersea section, lore for that kind of stuff, and some mechanical things too: undersea races for PCs and the Dukars – a type of wizard. I didn’t bought it yet, but I plan to.

 

[DragonMan]

I am putting together a D&D campaign that takes place exclusively under the water.

Omigawd! So am I. I am going to be launching my aquatic game this coming week. I'll be using the Pathfinder Rules for undersea gaming called Cerulean Seas. I'm nervous and excited about it. I've created my own Players Handbook and improved some of the badly written rules in CS. Plus, I built six platform trees, so we can have 3D combat. I hope it goes off okay.

 

[DragonMan]

Also, share your ideas! One of the challenges I have is making this undersea world self-sufficient technologically. I don't want to have to rely on amphibious races to take advantage of what little land space remains for things like forging metal, etc. Though there are ruins scattered around the undersea continent from the world above that could contain useful technology to the undersea races. Also, I kind of like the idea of utilizing unusual sea life as a form of technology.

Thanks!

You don't need abovair technology. Most items are not interchangeable anyways. The surface stuff gets waterlogged and falls apart in the water and the undersea stuff dries and decays in the air. Just about anything that can be done in the air, can also be done in the water. For forging, some parts of the sea floor have volcanic vents, black or white smokers. Some of the races, such as the sebek-ka use these vents to forge aquadynamic items.