King Triton

King Triton was the ruler of the Merkind but is presumed dead following the Ocean Blight. Aside from his father the former King of the Maritanis, Triton also had a half-brother named Manta whose Krill mother prevented him from gaining crown of the Merkind despite his status as Triton's elder brother.
Triton married the noble mermaid Athena and together the couple had seven daughters before her death at the hands of the pirates. Following her demise, Triton became extremely suspicious of pirates and humanity alike, a trait that he had only just begun to resolve prior to his demise.
== Early Life ==
Triton was the second son of the last King of the Merkind, but was the only son born from a noble mother. Despite his older brother Mantra's slightly advanced age, Triton was raised from the moment of his birth to one day become King of the Merkind. Though he tried to befriend his brother, all attempts were fruitless and were undermined by jealousy on Mantra's part. 
Triton was still a boy when Mantra was sent away to join the Priesthood of Lyrielle and he never saw his brother again. Although marriage was not a required practice among the Merkind and his own father never married, Triton found himself in love with the beautiful Athena from the time he was a young man. When he had come of age, he made his intent to marry her known and the union was smiled upon because of Athena's noble family line. Though, some claim that Triton was never gifted with a son because of he had chosen the institution of marriage, something that belonged to the Matchmaker and was not a construct of Lyrielle, their premiere and patron goddess.
== Fatherhood ==
Athena and Triton wasted no time in adding new branches to the royal family's three. In what was relatively quick succession, Athena gifted Triton with seven healthy and beautiful daughters, each more unique than the last. Although Triton desired a son to fulfill the line of succession, Athena was unable to give him one prior to her death. Her inability to provide a son for the royal family became a slight bone of contention between the loving King and Queen, something that appeared to be slowly degrading their marriage.
Triton and his young family made their way to the Sanctuary at Athena's urging that the children should all see what the land above the sea was like both to give them an education about the outside world and to quell the curiosity of some of their daughters who seemed to have a voracious appetite for all things 'human'. Unfortunately, during their outing, the Athena was struck by a passing pirate ship while trying to save one of her daughters from the fatal blow and subsequently died. Triton became convinced that the accident was a deliberate attack and decreed that none of the Merkind could visit the Sanctuary again and declared war on all of Pirate kind.
Although his marriage had been on the decline before Athena's death, Triton still deeply loved his wife and forbade the court to discuss any intentions to see him remarry or mate with any more of the Merkind in an effort to have a son. Instead, going against custom, Triton named his eldest daughter Attina as his heir.
== The Blight ==
Triton loved all of his daughters, but Ariel reminded him so much of Athena that it pained him. He feared above all that her curiosity about mankind would see her suffer a similar fate to Athena and so he attempted to keep a careful eye on the rebellious teenager. Unfortunately, his efforts to protect her were misconstrued as efforts to control her and Ariel rebelled by going to the seawitch for legs to join humanity and leave Merkind behind.
Triton was deeply wounded and deployed a rescue time to find his daughter and bring her home before the seawitch or the Blight took her from him forever. Unfortunately, before Ariel could be found, the Blight began to attack the ocean at full strength. The barrier Triton had previously erected with the magical trident gifted to the kings of the Merkind by Lyrielle herself failed as the sea goddess weakened with the gradual death of the seas. Desperate to protect the city from the onslaught of monsters, Triton led the military charge. Unfortunately, as Lyrielle died and created the Sea of Lyrielle, Triton was too far from the boundaries of the city to be swept up in the magic that relocated it to the Sea. He and the soldiers with him have not been seen or heard from since. Though no body has yet been recovered, it is widely accepted among the Merkind and his own daughters that Triton is dead and they must carry on without him.