Morkoth

Morkoths () also known as wraiths of the deep, were a cruel and evil race of aquatic predators with hypnotic powersThe Monster Manual 1st edition gives "morlock" as an alternative name for this creature, but that name, perhaps a nod to H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, does not appear to be related to this creature in any other D&D publication. that lived in the Inner Sea and Outer Sea of Faerun. The morkoths of each sea displayed a wide variety of physiological, behavioral, and societal distinctions from one another.
==Etymology==
===Names for Morkoths===
Among the other aquatic races of Serôs, there were a number of names by which the morkoth were referred to. A common name among all Serôsians was the Corrupted. Among the tritons they were known as kraknyth, which in their language meant "kin of kraken." And among merfolk they were referred to by the slang "deep demons".
==Description==
Early descriptions of morkoths were vague and suggested they were humanoid, but as these mysterious creatures got involved in the affairs of other races, a more accurate picture emerged. Many described their bodies as looking like gross amalgamations of various species, including such creatures as elves, humans, kuo-toas, locathahs, and squids.
Morkoths had a dark coloration to their skin that varied from a deep purple to an inky black. The skin on the tips and undersides of their limbs had luminescent quality, glowing a faint silver in the deep gloom. Their heads had gills and were described as being akin to that of a locathah complete with wide jaws, filled with many sharp teeth that were visible even when their mouth was closed, but others were described as having a beak similar to that of a squid, octopus, or kraken. This trait was predominant among those that dwelled in the Inner Sea. The eyes of a morkoth were akin to fish, being on the sides of its eyes, wide, bulging, and moving independently of each other. Additionally, those outside of the Inner Sea were sometimes said to have dorsal fin that went down the center of their back.
Morkoth bodies were overall octopoidal, with eight octopus-like tentacles making up the lower half of their body. They maneuvered themselves through bodies of water through a combination of flexing their lower halves and jet propulsion, the latter caused by pressurizing their surroundings through a rapid intake of water through gills and other orifices. Four forelimbs protruded from their midsections. While most accounts spoke of these resembling the claws and pincer limbs of a lobster, those of the Inner Sea could also be born with additional flexible tentacles or two or more human-like arms and hands that varied in their amount of fingers. In the Outer Seas, those born with the lobster-like appendages had scales along their body, while those of the Inner Sea had chitinous plates.
Young adult morkoths measured about on average, though older specimens could grow larger.
==Personality==
Morkoths often viewed most other races with disdain, suspicion, or complete indifference. Those of the Outer Seas were generally solitary, reclusive, and rarely ever congregated. They valued almost nothing except food, with treasure and magic items holding no fascination for them, being viewed only useful as bait for luring in their next meal or as bargaining chips. While the morkoths of the Inner Sea were once isolationists themselves, by contrast they overtime became more sociable creatures, living with others of their kind in a large magocracy known as the Arcanum of Olleth. And they certainly saw the value in magical items, often viewing them as a target during wars.
They were known to strike deals with other evil races, helping a cause in exchange for a slave or two. Morkoths of the Outer Sea were likely to consume their slaves in a short time, due to their ravenous appetites. Morkoths also reveled in subterfuge and were likely to betray lesser allies the moment it was greatly advantageous for them to do so. Krakens were an exception: morkoths would offer to assist them in exchange for a food-slave now and then.
==Abilities==
All morkoths had innate hypnotic and charm powers. These hypnotic powers could affect creatures from a distance of and had no limit to the amount of creatures that could be affected, though their powers could be greatly extended by designing a special form of lair (see 'combat'). In addition, morkoths had an innate magic repellent that had a good chance of reflecting any spell, spell-like ability, or magic item effect back upon its caster. This ability could be temporarily suppressed by a successful dispel magic cast upon the morkoth. And some morkoths possessed the power to transform humanoids into sea spawn.
Due to a membrane that covered their eyes, morkoths were capable of seeing the natural bioluminescence that was given off by many objects and creatures within the sunless depths of the sea that they commonly inhabited. This natural ability was similar to the spell aquavision and darkvision. They could see out to a range of , though this membrane would retract whenever there was enough illumination in an area for creatures without darkvision to see for at least . They could not easily bear bright sunlight, finding it blinding, and even the light of a full moon was uncomfortable for them.
In the rare case when a morkoth had human-like arms and hands, it was capable of becoming a wizard and casting spells. Due to their underwater environment, such morkoth could not utilize traditional spellbooks. In their place morkoth wizards had their spells carved into spindles of rock, which they read tactilely by wrapping their tentacles around them. As they grew further in their power as wizards, morkoths acquire retainers to carry their ever larger spindles.
==Combat==
The only offensive capabilities a morkoth physically had was its bite, whether it was a mouth full of sharp teeth or a wicked beak, as well as lobster-like claws if it had any.
It was not uncommon to see the sociable morkoth of Inner Sea actively traveling around in groups as slaving parties or war parties. By contrast, those of the Outer Sea relied heavily upon their ability to hypnotize their prey into entering their cave lairs where they could be killed without much fuss and eaten. This lair played an important role in an Outer Sea morkoth's tactics. It was a central chamber with six tunnels spiraling generally outward, intersecting in seemingly random ways, forming a labyrinth of confusing passages. This maze acted like a hypnotic pattern, and allowed the morkoth to greatly extend the range of its hypnotic power.
Any creature that passed within of a tunnel opening was subject to an assault on their willpower. If they failed to resist, the victim swam through the labyrinth directly to the central chamber, where they were likely to be eaten alive. Some reports indicated that once the victim was in the maze the morkoth tried to charm them into submission before the effects of the hypnotic labyrinth wore off.
Being clever and cautious, a morkoth would usually only attempt to lure one creature into their lair at a time. In particular, if a school of possible prey passed by, a morkoth would only choose the one bringing up the rear in the hopes of luring it away without any of its companions being alerted.
==History==
Generally classified as an aberration, the origins of the morkoth were uncertain. One theory as to their origin that was widely embraced by many scholars in Faerûn as a "fact", but largely dismissed by the scholars of Serôs, suggested that morkoths, locathahs, and kuo-toas all had a common ancestor. As the theory went, this ancestor was created through a magical fusion of fish and human slaves for the purposes of gathering food and treasures beneath the sea. Who exactly was responsible for their creation varied significantly, with suggested identities for the creators ranging the gamut of dragons, the Imaskar Empire, the Netherese Empire, the God-Kings of the Old Empires, or in someway all of them. This common ancestor was said to have dived deep into the depths of the Inner Sea where they discovered a group of dark gods that promised them power and freedom from those who subjugated them in return for worship. Some legends suggested that this occurred in the Trench of Lopok. The dark gods were then said to have transformed these ancestral fishmen into the first kuo-toans and morkoths, though some variations of the story further claimed that ixitxachitls and selkies were also created from this.
The Four Arcana of Humbar, a group of spellcasting morkoth, got involved in the Third Serôs War when they came under repeated attack by the merfolk forces of Coronal Essyl of the Aryselmalyr Empire. The reluctant morkoths allied themselves with the rebel Republic of Tivaan in .
The group was again drawn into the Fifth Serôs War when two krakens allied with Vaequiis the Dark attacked and devastated their numbers in .
Hundreds of years later, during the Sixth Serôs War, morkoths joined in taking revenge on the sea elves after the fall of Aryselmalyr in . By the end of the war in the , the morkoth had formed the Theocracy of the Deep Ones and became a major power in the undersea region.
The Seventh Serôs War began when the Theocracy of the Deep Ones attacked its neighbors, Es'rath and Hmurrath in . The war ended abruptly in when an attack from unknown triton forces hit the morkoths on an unexpected front and routed them. But in one of the last battles of the war, an elite force of morkoth warriors defeated the storm giant Lorthar of the Waves wielding Kayas the Krakenscourge. This famed double-ended sword was briefly held by the morkoths, but the tritons reclaimed it in their stunning victory.
A thousand years later, in , another group known as the Morkoth Arcanum of Olleth, under the leadership of First Arcane Xynakt, began a reign of tyranny over their subjects and undertook construction of the Nine Towers of Serôs.
The Great Arcane Aodk of the Morkoth Arcanum ordered the kidnapping of Eadraal's Queen Wylla and two of her daughters in . They were maliciously transformed into mindless beasts and sent to attack their home capital of Voalidru. Later that year, the Eadraani merfolk retaliated by storming Olleth, killing Aodk and his cabal of Arcounts.
At the end of the Twelfth Serôs War, around the 10 to 16 of RoamsongIn the Timesong calendar used in Serôs, Roamsong 10 to Roamsong 16 corresponds to the Calendar of Harptos dates of Marpenoth 30 to Uktar 6. in , some morkoths allied with the Dukar Orders and various sea elves, shalarin, and even some newcomer air-breathers, to keep the peace around Myth Nantar and the Nantarn Alliance.
==Variants==
;Unfettered morkoth: An offshoot race that was created by the Abolethic Sovereignty in the late 15 century DR from subjugating and modifying the bodies of Inner Sea morkoths. What most set these creatures apart from normal morkoths was an ability to fly and a willingness to allow specially trained kuo-toans of the Abolethic Sovereignty to use them as mounts. They served in a variety of roles for the Abolethic Sovereignty, acting as couriers, messengers, honor guard, and occasionally as small skirmisher forces.
==Society==
The average life expectancy of a male morkoth was around eighty to one hundred years old. Among Outer Sea morkoths, females had a far smaller life expectancy of around ten to perhaps twenty years, due to the methods by which they reproduced.
===Diet===
Morkoths were carnivorous and would eat most anything that swam by. Their primary diet consisted of kuo-toans, octopuses, sahuagin, and sharks.
===Homelands===
In the Inner Sea, morkoths primarily lived together in a large oligarchic magocratic nation on the Lesser Hmur Plateau, beneath the surface, known as the Arcanum of Olleth. Outside of this nation morkoths could be found in the cities of Myth Nantar and Qatoris, the latter being a rogue hidden city and remnant of the Arcana of Humbar that stood on the western cliffs above the Bymmal Trench. There were rumors of ruined morkoth cities deep within Mount Teakal, an undersea mountain. And they could occasionally be found in and around the Trench of Lopok. Outside of the Inner Sea proper, they could be found in the connected River Lapendrar.
In the Outer Sea, morkoths could be found in the Shining Sea lurking in the sunken ruins of Untisczer.
===Religion===
While the morkoths of the Outer Sea were not known to worship any gods, the morkoths of the Inner Sea believed that the dark gods who created their race dwelled in the depths of the Trench of Lopok. Referred to by some as "Those Who Sleep Below", early morkoth theocracies of the Inner Sea believed these slumbering dark gods could one day awaken if they continued to offer them fervent prayer.
===Relationships===
They would occasionally serve krakens for rewards of food and only take sides in a conflict if they were being directly affected by the fighting. In the Arcanum of Olleth, morkoths commonly forced locathahs and merrows into servitude. Likely due in part to this history of enslavement, the morkoths and locathahs of the Inner Sea had very hostile relations, with the two prone to attacking each other on sight.
===Reproduction===
The methods by which morkoth reproduced differed between those of the Inner and Outer Seas.
Among the isolationist morkoths of the Outer Sea, a male would leave their lair once every ten years to search for a mate, leaving a pheromone trail behind them as they wandered about. After mating, the male would return to his cave lair, leaving the female morkoth to lay a clutch of eggs. On average they laid approximately twenty five eggs, which they would then bury and shortly afterwards die. Upon hatching, their young would immediately set out in search of tunnels to occupy. Most of these hatchlings wouldn't survive, but those that did would reach maturity in about five years.
Among the morkoths of the Inner Sea, females produced around three to twenty four eggs, but they did not lay these eggs themselves. Instead female morkoths sought magical beings to whom they would implant the eggs among their internal organs. From there the eggs would incubate for about two months before hatching, after which the hatchlings would try to eat their way out from the inside of their host. A casting of cure disease could destroy these incubating eggs, though each casting of the spell would only destroy around one to six eggs at a time.
==Notable Morkoths==
* Arxhadk, the morkoth ambassador of Olleth in Sshamath, circa 1370 DR.
* Gayar, an ancient and soft-spoken morkoth wizard and member of the Dukars that lived in the city of Myth Nantar.
* M'warien, a morkoth that lived in the Sea of Swords and claimed the Eye of Xxiphu in the late-15 century DR. 
* Sallissi, a morkoth that lived in the underground Nepenthe River in the late 14 century DR.
* Vlantir, an Inner Sea morkoth who was a devout servant of Those Who Sleep Below.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===Appearances===
===References===