Homo tempestivagus
The Storm-Born were once the people of Hrafnmǫrk, a northern land lost when demons poured from the Maelström 1,596 years ago.
At a glance
Darkvision Darkvision
Languages Common, Hrafnmǫrk, Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if positive), chosen from languages to which you have access
Height 5 feet 4 inches to 6 feet 6 inches
Weight 130 to 260 pounds
Lifespan 80 to 100 years, adult at 15
At the table
Your ancestry is that of a people shaped by life close to the sea and the Abyss. You are a humanoid with the Storm-Born and human traits.
You can see in darkness and dim light, though in darkness you see only in black and white.
Your years aboard ship teach you the routines of vessels and the practical knowledge of keeping a crew moving. You become trained in Sailing Lore.
Storm-Born often cultivate Constitution and Wisdom through hard voyages and watchfulness, though an individual’s upbringing and choices matter more than any inherited aptitude.
They gain a swim Speed of 15 feet.
Accustomed to cold water and long dives, Deepwake Storm-Born serve as divers, wreckers, and guides through reefs and shoals. Their eyes are often dark and reflective, and many have webbing between their fingers and toes.
The Storm-Born were once the people of Hrafnmǫrk, a northern land lost when demons poured from the Maelström 1,596 years ago. Their survivors built immense ships and made the open sea their enduring home. Today, they roam in great errant fleets, each named for a sea monster and shaped by its own customs and purpose. A Storm-Born adventurer may be a fleet’s envoy, a runaway deckhand, a guardian of Hrafnmǫrk’s memory, or simply someone who has found that the wider world is another kind of sea.
Storm-Born are humanoids whose ancestry bears the subtle mark of generations spent near the Maelström, the terrible rift to the Abyss in the northern seas.
Their features vary widely, but many have dark or weather-pale complexions, eyes that catch light like banked coals, unusual pupils, small horns, ridged brows, or hair that moves faintly as if stirred by a breeze. These traits are not uniform, and some Storm-Born show no obvious sign beyond an uncanny resistance to cold spray and a steady gaze in darkness. Their clothing favors layered wool, oilskin, leather, and metal fastenings that can survive salt and weather.
Aquatic; chiefly aboard ships on open seas, with occasional visits to ports and island holdings
Children learn shipboard duties early, but are not considered full crew until they can keep watch and answer for their mistakes.
A young Storm-Born earns a place aboard ship through a season of service, often taking a chosen duty and a first watch-name.
Adults may serve as sailors, navigators, artisans, merchants, captains, or keepers of fleet law.
Elders are honored as living charts of family, weather, and obligation. Many continue to advise crews even when they no longer sail.
Storm-Born life is organized around vast errant fleets that roam the seas throughout the year.
Each fleet takes its name from a sea monster and develops its own specialization and philosophy: one may be renowned for trade, another for shipbuilding, exploration, or warfare. Ships function as homes, workplaces, and civic communities. Fleet law emphasizes shared labor, responsibility for the vessel, and a voice for those whose lives depend on its decisions. Fleets periodically stop at ports to trade and repair, and they hold islands, small towns, or harbors across Ryma. These places support commerce and provide burial grounds, but the Storm-Born do not call any land their home.
Storm-Born practice many faiths, including reverence for sea, weather, and ancestral powers.
Their fleets often keep a shared shrine aboard, but religious authority rarely outranks a captain’s duty to the crew. Some honor the heroes of the crusade that drove the demons back; others remember its cost and distrust its legacy. Their history encourages fierce loyalty and self-determination, but Storm-Born can be of any alignment.
Storm-Born have practical ties to land nations through trade, diplomacy, repair, and their scattered island holdings, but few consider themselves subjects of those nations.
They may be welcomed as skilled sailors or treated with suspicion because of their abyss-touched ancestry and history of conquest. Their fleets remember that neighboring kingdoms eventually drove the demons back, but also that Hrafnmǫrk was left lost. Such memories complicate alliances without preventing them.
The Storm-Born have no homeland on land.
Their enormous ships are built as traveling villages, with sleeping quarters, workshops, shrines, storehouses, and open decks arranged around the needs of a long voyage. They maintain scattered ports, small towns, and islands across Ryma for commerce, repairs, and burial. These holdings are not considered a replacement for life at sea, but each is kept as a practical harbor and a place where the dead may rest.
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