Umberlee

No seaside community can ignore the influence of Umberlee, the furious sea god whose tempestuous nature is reflected by the waters of the deep. Coastal villages and towns host festivals to propitiate the Wavemother, seek her favor, and avoid seafaring disaster. Although mercurial in temperament, she can be generous to those who do her honor, as any great queen should be. Some Druids worship Umberlee as a manifestation of nature in its cruelest form.

Umberlee manifests as a woman colored like the sea in blues and greens, with taloned hands and fins on her elbows. Clad in a cape of purple jellyfish and wielding a trident, she rises from the sea to terrify sailors. When she speaks through emissaries, she sends an Air Elemental, a Water Elemental, an awakened Giant Shark, or a Kraken.

The Wavemother is worshiped out of fear instead of adoration. Ship crews toss gems over the side as offerings to calm storm-tossed waters. She is capricious and cruel; the sea is a savage place, and those who travel it must be willing to pay the price of challenging her domain.

Umberlee's priesthood thrives in its lack of organization. Her priests roam coastal cities, warning of doom and demanding free passage on ships in return for ensuring the god's pleasure, or at least her indifference. They wear the colors of waves and decorative items reminiscent of the sea's dangerous nature—a necklace of shark teeth, seaweed wrapped around a bone, and so on. The preserved hand of a drowned person is thought to be a particularly holy object, and her priests use such severed hands as holy symbols. Sailors leave flowers or small candies at Umberlee's shrines in coastal cities in hope she will spare them on their next voyage. Both Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate have temples dedicated to Umberlee, staffed by priests whose loved ones were lost at sea.

Umberlee imbues aquatic people and creatures as her Chosen, counting mighty sahuagin warlords and krakens among their ranks. These Chosen enjoy power over the tides and storm and carry their queen's fury into the dry world.