Society
The Sahuagin are nomadic, both by a choice of their own and at the cost of being everyone's enemy beneath the oceans. Travelling in large groups, they go from coastline to coastline, settling down wherever the food is plentiful and predators stay away. Only a few manage to form proper cities of their own, usually formed through underwater caverns and hidden amongst oceanic trenches.
With no agriculture to call their own, they rely on hunting fish and gathering whatever the seabed has to offer. Raids upon the land are also not uncommon, laying waste to coastal villages, attacking small underwater settlements or even sinking ships to plunder any valuable supplies.
Social Structure
The hierarchy of their society is one with very little movement, as most Sahuagin are born and die within their role. Any upwards movement in the order is rare, with those higher up ensuring that their position is not threatened by enabling petty rivalry within the classes, ensuring theirs remains in check. Those who dare to oppose their leadership fear getting ostracised or becoming a mere slave.
However, every so often the hierarchy shatters when one can prove their worth. A Sahuagin that can dominate the rank of another can climb up towards it, if not overthrow the other's position. A hope that aspires many to aim for greatness in their community, often ignoring that even the greatest end up manipulated by those beneath them. For all of them keep trying to climb to the top, dragging others down to do so.
Sea Hags
Sea Hags are the dominant form of rulers admits Sahuagin, gathering in a coven to command their tribes. Many keep their underlings at bay through manipulation and favouritism,
Sea Kings
If a group grows large enough or one is daring enough to overthrow their coven, a sea king emerges out of it. These Sahagin lead their people like any monarch would, providing a more centralised rule than the sea hags below them.Major Organisations
Black Coffins
The remnants of the original tribe after Wahh the Black's defeat, the Black Coffins now roam the Crescent Searebuilding their numbers from the shadows. They favour the usage of necromancy, often seen raising the dead from sunken vessels and naval battles.
Laying low, rumours go that they are planning a grand return, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. When or how nobody knows, with only the faintest hints of another great campaign against the seas.
The Blood Fleet
Little is known about the Blood Fleet, as they appear less as an organised group and more as a plague driving Sahuagin into a frenzy. A murderous frenzy that lures them to the mere scent of bloodshed.
No Sea Hag nor Sea King claims them, believing them to be one of the few communities to function without one. Even so, their rampage has birthed the legends of merciless Sahagin slaughtering ships across the Crescent Sea, and an eternal rivalry with the Saltfroid Family bloodline.
Serpent Hunters
Interspecies Relations
History
Origins
The exact origins of the Sahuagin race remain a mystery, made worse by missing records and conflicting tales. Researchers believe them to have existed for a long time, coming into existence alongside the other aquatic races like Merfolk, but how is a big debate.
Some suggest that they were also Antomniae that sank with the others but got a worse mutation into an aquatic species, others believe them to be a prehistoric shark that evolved under the effect of a titan's blood tainting the oceans. Even their own legends use both origin stories, claiming to be given a higher purpose or to be cursed by the ocean Titan into the creatures they are now.
The Tale of Three Curses
Three curses plague the history of the Sahuagin race, each one bringing further down the name of the fishfolk as monsters of the sea.
The Curse of Wahh the Black
The first curse came from Wahh the Black leading a war against the seas below. A follower of Maritesa, her desire for eternal life led to her usurping her king and taking over her coven, leading a genocidal campaign to bolster her Undead armies.
Wahh's war was so effective that it wiped out several Sahuagin tribes in the progress, for any that did not join her were slaughtered instead. Even those that allied with her crumbled due to differences and internal conflict, leading to more executions and infighting tearing them apart. By the height of her campaign, more than half the Sahuagin in the crescent sea either died or joined her cause.
Several Sahuagin cultures don't even have any records to study anymore. She was that thorough.— Merfolk historian
Not satisfied with the results however, Wahh planned to curse the very waters, robbing all life within them from death. The remaining kingdoms of the crescent sea planned a counterattack to stop her effort, in a final fight managing to slay the twisted necromancer, but not before partly completing her curse. While she did not manage to rob everyone from their death, the Black Coffins were cursed to bear a plague that would, making any that died reanimate themselves and those that fell with them for as long as they served Wahh's cause.
Wahh meanwhile vanished for several decades after her disappearance, only re-emerging in sightings the past half century under the Black Coffins once more. How she managed to maintain her life without resorting to undead remains a mystery.
the Curse of the Blood Fleet
After the Great Sangfroid War, reports came in from Sahuagin sightings showing unusual behaviour.
The Curse of Govv the Gleaming
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Author's Notes