Deep One

The **Deep Ones**, also known as the Frog Men, are a race of amphibious humanoids that reside within the bottom of the oceans of Earth. They worship the Ogdru Hem, such as Cthulhu, Dagon, and Mother Hydra.

## Appearance

The Deep Ones are humanoid beings with fish, human and amphibian-like traits, they are described as having greyish green, glossy and slippery skin with white stomachs. They have scaled, ridged backs, as well as webbed hands and gilled necks. Notably, they have a head similar to that of a fish, with eyes incapable of blinking. They move about in an inhuman fashion, by hopping oddly, and occasionally move on all fours.

## Description

Deep Ones are often regarded as unholy perversions of Merfolk, as if they were made to mock what was once attributed to the divine. Robert Olmstead describes them as having abhorrent, croaking voices that spoke a language other than English. Their form was so horrid that their mere appearance caused Robert to lose consciousness for a while.

All hybrids are shown coming from a female Deep One and a male human. It is a safety measure based on the fact that both of those possess the limiting growth gene of their own species, otherwise the child would become much larger. It is similar to a liger, a hybrid born from a male lion and a female tigress who never stop growing until their maturity.

## Overview

The Deep Ones are an amphibious race that primarily serve the two beings known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, but also have strong ties to Cthulhu, and are known to employ Shoggoths as servants. Locked in the timeless depths of the sea, their alien and arrogant lives are coldly beautiful, unbelievably cruel, and effectively immortal. They are a marine race, unknown in freshwater environments, and globally have many cities, all submerged beneath the waves; one is off the coast of Massachusetts, near Innsmouth, called Y'ha-nthlei, while other sites, such as Y'lu-Y'loa (off the British Isles), K'toch (off Northern Europe), and Y'ha-gom-loa (off Antarctica) are said to exist.

Deep Ones are immortal until slain (so are any hybrid offspring), and may be worshipped by humans. From time to time, the Deep Ones establish and foster relationships with isolated human communities, offering to trade golden treasures from the depths of the sea, along with bountiful fish catches, in return for certain promises. Such communities eventually fall under the grip of the Deep Ones, and any dissent either evaporates or is fiercely dealt with. Such humans willingly accept the Deep Ones as their master, as the gift they bestow are wondrous (at least, at first), and their god's will is demonstrable in both tangible and beneficial terms -- in comparison to human religions based purely on faith alone. Such targeted communities, already rundown and desperate, are eager to accept the riches, food, and promise of immortality offered by the Deep Ones, and, consequently, readily accepts the worship of Dagon, Hydra and Great Cthulhu. In Innsmouth, the Deep Ones' imposed religion was know as the Esoteric Order of Dagon, although elsewhere around the world the names of such orders may vary.

The religion offered by the Deep Ones usually takes the form of certain oaths, offered at rising degrees of "membership", that commit human worshippers to certain agreements. While appearing beneficial and relatively innocent at first, it is not long before the Deep Ones begin to demand more, even to the point of requesting human sacrifices. Such people devote themselves to the Deep Ones, with some eventually taking the Third One, entering into breeding rites to produce hybrid offspring to further promote the Deep One race.

With such historic links with humanity, the Deep Ones have an extensive network of human (hybrid or otherwise) supporters, who act to further the will of the Deep Ones, which usually takes the form of "disappearing" those who would broadcast knowledge of the reality of the Deep Ones, ensuring human hybrids can "find" their way to the Deep Ones when the "change" comes upon them, and planting seeds to foster new worship in out of the way communities.