Sahagin (Final Fantasy XIV)

Sahagin are an aquatic race of "beastmen" in Final Fantasy XIV. On Hydaelyn they reside in a city built at the bottom of the Indigo Deep, while on the First they live in the Tempest. The Sahagin are known for attacking ocean-faring Lominsan ships and dragging sailors into the murky depths. They worship Leviathan whom they often call as a primal, and have a stronghold on Vylbrand in the Sapsa Spawning Grounds. They are known to be allied with the Serpent Reavers, pirates who have been tempered (or "drowned") by Leviathan himself. 
In the First, Sahagin are known as the Ondo. Unlike their counterparts from the Source, the Ondo are reclusive and prefer to stay in the Tempest, occasionally interacting and trading with people on the surface for goods such as fruit. Due to the darkness of their home, they remain relatively untouched by the sin eaters that plague Norvrandt.
==Characteristics==
===Appearance===
The webbing and fins adorning the wiry frames of the Sahagin allow them to glide through the depths with uncanny grace and swiftness. They are able to remain submerged indefinitely by breathing through their gills, making any protracted underwater clash with the scaled beastmen a reckless proposition at best. Even on dry land the Sahagin are not to be underestimated, the coiled strength of their springlike musculature lending explosive force to their attacks.
===Society and culture===
The social structure of the Sahagin resembles a pyramid: they are governed by a single egg-laying queen, the Indigo Matriarch, and outside of her spawning season, the matriarch remains ensconced within the palace, ruling her subjects from her throne on the ocean floor. It is claimed that when the queen becomes infertile with age, she will appoint a new Indigo Matriarch from the most promising young females before taking steps to end her own life.
The Sahagin population is overwhelmingly male, with females accounting for less than a tenth of their number. From this small pool of females, the most dominant and capable individual ascends to the throne of the Indigo Matriarch, a position from which she bequeaths clutches of eggs to those male champions proven worthy of her favor. A male Sahagin who has thus earned the mantle of clutchfather will construct a nursery in the coastline's shallows, raising his adopted offspring on land until the spawnlings become sufficiently developed to breathe through their gills. During this period, the clutchfather teaches his charges everything a young Sahagin needs to flourish: from efficient swimming and fishing methods. Those who hatched from earlier clutches often assist with such instruction, a practice that explains the race's tendency towards strong familial bonds. In the rare cases that a female is born, she is sent to live in the matriarch's palace deep beneath the waves, where she is carefully groomed alongside her sister Sahagin as a candidate for future queen.
The Sahagin diet consists primarily of fish and shellfish. Such fare is cooked without the aid of fire, the vent-heated water of hot springs used to flake flesh away from bone or boil fish broth in which the tough meat of axolotls is stewed until tender. Sahagin are not entirely carnivorous, and consume a variety of seaweed as well as fruits, the La Noscean oranges being a particularly popular treat among the younger spawnlings.
===Nomenclature===
Sahagin names consist of short and unique combinations of letter-qualities that are believed to have arisen from the need to facilitate communication in underwater environs. Neither family nor clan names exist, with individuals commonly referring to their clutchfathers when identifying their lineage. While clutchfathers are responsible for naming their adopted sons, the right to name daughters is the sole province of the Indigo Matriarch, with the queen deciding such appellations when young females are first brought to her court.
===Novv's Clutch===
Although the Sahagin have little love for the other races of Eorzea, not all desire conflict. Among those, Clutchfather Novv believes continual warring against Limsa Lominsa in the wake of the Umbral Calamity is suicidal. He feels establishing more peaceful relations is vital so the Sahagin race can recover, even going as far as aiding those harmed by more aggressive Sahagin, such as the Coral Tridents.
==History==
Prior to the Warrior of Light's arrival in Limsa Lominsa, the Limsa Lominsans and Sahagin have been locked in hostile territorial disputes. The Sahagin require shoreline to breed and raise their young while the Limsa Lominsans have been seeking to expand their territory in Vyrlbrand. This led to armed conflict and culminated in the Sahagin summoning their god, Leviathan. After Leviathan's defeat by the Company of Heroes, the Sahagin and the Limsa Lominsans maintained a stalemate with smaller armed conflict, each side carefully watching the other. The only group of man the Sahagin interacted with were the Drowned, solely because Leviathan had tempered them.
The stalemate was threatened to be broken after a minor Ascian taught the Sahagin high priest the secrets of soul transfer. Believing himself to be invincible, he led his followers in a summoning ritual to resummon Leviathan; the priest was mistaken and his essence was absorbed to fuel the summoning. Following Leviathan's defeat, the Sahagin presumably laid low and did not attempt to do anything that attracted the Warrior of Light's attention.
One faction of Sahagin, led by Novv, broke away from the main Sahagin brood in an attempt to live in peace. With the Warrior of Light's help, they navigated the fragile diplomatic relations between Novv's clutch and the Limsa Lominsans, eventually altering perceptions of the Sahagin to be more favorable; however, this only appears to extend to Novv's Clutch.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers===
In the First, the Sahagin were referred to as the Ondo. Alphinaud Leveilleur attempted to strike a business deal with them as a means of getting into Eulmore; however, a sudden change in circumstances led to him abandoning the initial deal without warning.
The Scions of the Seventh Dawn encountered the Ondo when they traveled to the Tempest. For the Scions to gain passage to Amaurot, and to repair the damaged relations from Alphinaud's failed dealings, the Scions helped the Ondo of the Ondo Cups retrieve stolen supplies from a rival Ondo faction.
After returning to the Source, the Warrior of Light and the Scions learned that Limsa Lominsa was making efforts to seek a lasting peace with the Sahagin. Unlike the Kobolds, the peace talks with the Sahagin appeared to have produced fruit. A representative for the Sahagin traveled to Ala Mhigo to discuss a new alliance among all Eorzeans, tribes included, to combat the Telophoroi. The Sahagin participated in the battle of Cartenau against the Imperial forces.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker===
During the return of the Final Days, the Indigo Matriarch succumbed to her despair and transformed into a blasphemy. Mistakenly believing the transformation to be a gift from Leviathan, a Sahagin that was still hostile to the Eorzeans attempted to rally a belligerent faction, encouraging them to transform into blasphemies to destroy Limsa Lominsa. The Sahagin realized too late the foolishness of his plan and was killed by the transformed Indigo Matriarch.
A Sahagin representative traveled to Old Sharlayan to help create a non-hostile version of Leviathan to fuel the Ragnarok for its journey.
==Other appearances==
===Final Fantasy Trading Card Game===
Sahagin appears with a water-elemental card.
==Citations==
Category:Beastmen in Final Fantasy XIV