Nereids

## Introduction

The Neireids are one of the six great clans of the Ammetai and by far the oldest. Unlike their cousins they do no fear the sea but are deeply bound to it. Percieved as fey and strange by most other Undead, the Nereids live an alienated life in the depts of the sea. Through their accursed arts they have learned to give false life to shipwrecks and the corpses of marine life, binding them into unnatural vessels to roam the seven seas.

## History

The tale of the Nereids begins in the first city Eridu. It was here that the Ghul-Afflicting was born as Pazuzu, one of the *Eldest* began to study the darker arts of necromancy. His ancient studies layed the groundwork for the school of Execration and Contagion. Unlike most of the *Eldest* Pazuzu seeked destructive ways to increase his power. Since he was turned by Ahriman himself he felt a strong hatred for his brethren, although the reasons for his spite are lost to time. Unlike most of the Edimmu he did not indulge in the mastery of the spirits but developed more earthly ways to gain power. His greatest achievement werent the curses or the contagion he was able to unleash but the mastery over his own flesh. Pazuzu was the first Undead to learn the arts of Metamorphosis and reform his flesh as he desired. He discarded the last traces of his humanity and turned himself into a vile beast with gigantic wings and sharp claws. He passed on this knowledge to his own childer and when he deemed the time right, he rose to war against the other Eldest.

First Pazuzs host unleashed a great cloud of pestilence over lands of Eridu and Ur. From its vile clouds the first Ghul and his creations emerged and slaugthered most of the human population of Ur. He was not only joined by his children but by countless other more malevolent beings that rose in the first cities. The Lamien marched at his side as they layed siege to Eridu. It required them three years to breach to spell-prove walls and invade the ancient city. However there forces where repelled by the other Eldest and a host of war-spirits at tore down Pazuzus bone-constructs

In the end the great Pazuzu was surrounded and attacked from all sides, yet the other Eldest were unable to kill him. His unnatural flesh regenerated faster than it cut be cut, smashed or burned. In the end they summoned a great host of spirits to quickly sever Pazuzu form. He was cut into uncounted pieces which where cast into the sea, hoping that it would sunder and spread Pazuzus remains so much he would not be able to reform. This way the Eldests flesh and conciousness where washed away and spread across the great oceans.

Since this day Pazuzus children, back then known as Utukku, where ordered to serve the Edimmu as a punishmeht for their betrayal. Each of their Afflicted was degraded to a mere servant, putting their arts of resurrecting and reforming the flesh of the dead to good use for the first cities. Those that opposed this decree where brutally punished. The most common form of punishment was to cut a Ghul into pieces and cast his still living remains in an iron casket which was chained to a rock and thrown into the sea. There they would wait for eternity as their prisons would slowly fill with sea water.

The majority of Utukku grew fearful of the sea and they either fled from Mesopotamia or accepted their fate as servants. However neither Pazuzu nor his loyal children in their caskets where truly dead.

## Courts of the Drowned

Long ago the ocean was divided between the great Deepholds of the Nereids. Since then it is decreed that each of them is bound to the sea they drowned in and its respective Deepholds. While the Nereids do not have Strains perse, they distinguish themselves heavily depending on their fealty to one of the holds. The largest Deepholds are:

* **Schurken der Meere**
* **Ritter der Tiefe**

### Lesser Courts

* **Widows Fleet-** The infamous fleet of the pirate Zheng Yisao has long sunken but they are still active, terrorising canton and the chinese coast.

## See also

* Nereids (Overview)
* Nereids (Rules)
* Opinions