Thalassos

The Boundless Sea

> "It is an ocean without a surface.
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> It is domain of current and wave.
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> It is a bottomless depth."
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> - *The Tome of the Planes III: The Elements*
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Thalssos, known as the Elemental Plane of Water, is an Inner Plane and one of the four Elemental Planes. This plane is abundant with life: native creatures born of the elemental nature of the plane itself, sentient water-breathing peoples, and most every species of aquatic life that could survive after being sucked through a vortex from their plane of origin.

## Description

In Thalassos there is no deep or shallow, no dark depths nor wavy surface, just an endless ocean that feels as if you are submerged several feet in any body of water on the Prime Material Plane. There is no sun, yet the water itself seems to glow dimly with a bluish green luminescence. Volumes of water at any temperature and salinity can be found here, ranging from the fresh and warm to the salty and cold. The Great Wheel cosmology model explains this by the proximity to the para- and quasi-elemental planes: water becomes cold and forms icebergs as you near the Plane of Ice; water becomes brackish as you approach the Plane of Salt; water becomes silty and slimy as you near the Plane of Ooze; water starts to boil as you approach the Plane of Steam. These border regions are known as the Sea of a Thousand Mounts, the Brine Pools, the Seeping River, and the Scalding Vents. Impurities such as bubbles of air, chunks of earth, and even short-lived balls of fire can be found floating about due to elemental vortices or the workings of powerful beings. Habitats and settlements typically form near sources of food and shelter, or near portals and vortices to facilitate trade.

Supporting the teeming life of this plane are the corals and plants that make their way here and find purchase. Huge drifting three-dimensional reefs and loose spheres of freshwater grasses, kelp, and seaweed are home to myriad species and are fertile fishing spots. Travelers have to keep in mind that large predators know of these fishing grounds also, or else they might discover just how bite-sized they actually are. Just like a Prime Material ocean, the Elemental Plane of Water seems to have no limit on how large some creatures can be as giant squid, aboleths, and krakens are known to prowl the plane. Small creatures can be deadly too, with poisonous spines or barbed tails. The smallest of them all are perhaps the deadliest: algae that form the infamous "red tide". Exposure of the eyes or lungs to the red tide causes a blinding sickness as virulent as any disease.

If the Plane of Water has any weather, it is the currents, whirlpools, tidal bores, and flows of ice, steam, or silt that can inconvenience a traveler or be a deadly surprise. Usually invisible, currents can be strong enough to pull visitors off in some direction for long distances before they are able to exit the current. Tidal bores are the most dangerous currents, hitting like a thrown boulder and carrying the unlucky creature away for miles. Whirlpools are caused by countervailing currents that suck everything in a tightening spiral, some of which lead to vortices to other planes. Ice and silt flows are fairly easy to spot before encountering, but steam flows are nearly undetectable and can cause nasty burns or boil the flesh from your bones.

Thalassos can be reached via the Ethereal Plane, an adjacent elemental plane, or by an elemental vortex. The Pale River vortex on the Elemental Plane of Earth has its source here, and there is a vortex to the Plane of Air called the Bubble Net. If traveling through the Deep Ethereal, a green curtain of vaporous color indicates the boundary of the Plane of Water's Border Ethereal region. Once in the Border Ethereal, a traveler could observe the Plane of Water and be detected by its denizens. Elemental vortices can occur wherever a high concentration or nearly pure form of an element is found, and can be temporary or permanent. Vortices to the Plane of Water can often be found in the deepest parts of the seas and oceans, in clear underground lakes, or as surface whirlpools in any large body of water.

To reach the Plane of Water with the plane shift spell, one requires a planar fork of lead. Travel to this plane is obviosuly dangerous for non-aquatic creatures, as the lack of available air will spell doom for even the most iron-lunged of travellers. Despite this, Thalassos is one of the most commonly visited Inner Planes, as the grand palaces of the marid Padishahs and the many scattered kingdoms and empires of tritons and sea elves draw much interest.

## Rulers and Governments

Thalassos does not have much of a ruling body. Many societies and kingdoms have made their homes among the floating reefs and shifting currents, but none claim dominion over the infinite blue of the Plane of Water.

The closest Thalassos has to a ruling government is the Council of Padishahs, which holds court in the Palace of the Great Padishah in Umbati. These powerful, wealthy marid exercise a large degree of inlfuence over the civilized regions of the plane.

The Elder God Seluva manintains a valid claim over the plane, being the manifestation of the sea. Her divine realm has a permanent portal in Thalassos, its location shielded by the Oracle of Vidaia. Seluva herself rarely interacts with the plane, choosing to have little involvement with realms beyond the Prime Material. Her followers however claim a substantial amount of influence over Thalassos, the threat of their mistress' wrath enough to make even the Padishah's take pause.

## Landmarks

This section is a work in progress. It will be updated soon.

## Denizens

It is difficult to determine what type of creatures are the most numerous in the Elemental Plane of Water, though it is commonly assumed that water elementals hold this title. They can take on any shape their fluid bodies can form, but they are extremely hard to see, similar to the effect of a robe of blending, and therefore are often described as blurry versions of Prime Material Plane animals and monsters, typically of the aquatic variety. Water weirds, an intelligent form of water elemental, are also thought to be native to this plane.

All other peoples and creatures are interlopers or inadvertent immigrants by way of being sucked through an elemental vortex. Those that make a home here and thrive include some storm giants, the marids, the nereids, and the tritons. Besides almost every species of salt- and fresh-water marine life, there are reports of sightings or encounters with many creatures including aboleth, merrenoloths, baleen behemoths, black, bronze, and topaz dragons, dragon turtles, ixitxachitls, mephits of the ice, ooze, steam, and water varieties, sanguisuga, sea hags and sea furies, sea serpents, tojanida, and walking reefs.

Trade also brings many different races to the Elemental Plane of Water. Merchants that trade with the dao and the marids include aquatic elves, humans, kuo-toans, lizardfolk, locathah, mercanes, and sahuagin.

In more isolated and murky areas of Thalassos, kraken are rumored to dwell. Forming large empires with their sea spawn and uca slaves, they dwell among ruined marid palaces and sahuagin keeps, plotting their hopeful return to the Prime Material. Expeditions to hunt these titans are common, with the Padishahs paying massive sums to those who return with the head of a kraken.