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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdweller00" data-source="post: 9626740" data-attributes="member: 6778479">The empire is secretly run by a cabal of aboleths who bioengineer various species and monstrosities in their efforts to destroy the (terrestrial) gods.  The aboleths have set up a blasphemous imperial religion using one of their creations - krakens - as divine figureheads ruling the smaller and more humanoid underwater species in their stead.  They maintain an oppressive theocratic state broken into castes based on species.  Sahuagin, ixitxachitl, kuo-toa are the enforcers of their rule.  Merfolk, tritons, sea elves, locathah are all subjugated species.  The aboleths view more humanoid body types as reflections of the despised terrestrial gods, and generally seek to punish or mutate species of those types.  Storm giants are the great enemy - descendants of titans and distant offspring and relatives of the terrestrial gods.  The empire breeds and controls many aquatic monstrosities like enormous sharks, sea serpents, and various other titanic carnivores to use as mounts or living war machines; but has limited reach on land.  Their armies are outfitted in weapons of magically-imbued coral and bone; and armor of fish scales and chitinous plates, harvested from giant bio-engineered crustaceans.  Metal implements are difficult to craft underwater; and prone to rapid corrosion.  They do occasionally make use of bronze, forged by slaves in submarine air pockets or stolen from surface-dwellers.  Once covered in a layer of verdigris, the metal holds up well in seawater.  The empire's lower-caste laborers farm seaweed, kelp, schools of bait fish, oyster beds as food for their ravening masses.  The higher castes farm sentient, aquatic, lower-caste humanoids to serve as sacrifices to their kraken overlords; channeling souls and spiritual power to serve the fell ambitions of their aboleth masters.The empire raids the drylanders occasionally for food, slaves, and sacrifices. But because their armies of monsters have difficulty surviving on land and because they have very limited access to arms and armor of metal, they tend not to try and conquer territory on land.  Instead they send spies to destabilize and sow discord among terrestrial nations.  They foment wars, conflict, and distrust.  They work to turn land-dwellers away from their gods at every opportunity, converting them to the worship of false powers if not the kraken figureheads in an effort to subvert the hated terrestrial deities at the aboleths' direction.  The aboleths have created a species of shapeshifter that can pass as a dryland humanoid.  But these creatures are imperfect - sometimes their facial expressions are a bit off, they must immerse themselves in saltwater periodically, and smell faintly of fish if not masked with perfumes or other artificial scents.  These agents often attempt to gain rank and influence or steal the lives of those with rank and influence among the land-dwellers to serve the goals of the empire.</blockquote>

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