Atargatis - The Sea Empress

Atargatis, also known as "The First Merfolk", or "The Sea Empress", is a large merfolk-like being created by the joined efforts of the Asathalfinare, the pantheon of deities worshipped by the good aligned aquatic races. When times are dire or promise to be soon, they summon this being from the heavens to protect their peoples, granting it impressive powers, strength, and intellect to do so.

CR 23 : OCR 24 - DCR 22

CR 24 (in her lair) : OCR 25 - DCR 23

Divine Shelter. Upon her summon, the gods will send a message to their respective clerics, priests, warlocks and paladins, warning them of the dangers to come, and telling them to find refuge at the Sea Empress' location if they can, charging them of spreading the word and shepherding followers there. This can create massive migrations towards a singular place, the refugees then begin constructing large city-like settlements a fair distance away from the lair of their divine protector, obeying her commands to brace for the incoming disaster. Atargatis can wait hundreds of years for the disaster she was summoned to fight to appear, in the meantime becoming proactive in fighting evil at sea and sometime even at land, suppressing any threats in the egg before it becomes a problem.

Atargatis will usually settle to live near the surface in shallow waters, no deeper than 1 mile, in gigantic temples-like constructions made of ancient stones or corals, or natural giant caverns along the coast of deserted islands or isolated shores, sometime only partially underwater. Atargatis' domain has no size limits and can increase exponentially over the time during which she is active. At the periphery of her domain, marking and warnings signs will be erected, informing others that this area is under divine protection, and that creatures entering will be subject to the pantheon's laws.

Imposing Grace. Atargatis appears to be a merfolk of gigantic proportions, but whose appearance seems to slightly change each time she is summoned, safe for a few traits that remain. Her entire body length is around 100 feet from head to tail, her skin is a though whale-like leather covered in a few glowing golden glyphs. She has two large pectoral fins around the waist, glowing golden eyes, long pointed ears, and black hairs that can adopt various lengths and styles but always take a black smoke-like gaseous appearance underwater. Despite her though-looking skin, gigantic size, and bulk, her face remains delicate and her silhouette bears great majesty and grace.

Extremely wise, she always de facto take the position of background leader of the settlements surrounding her lair. She however does not directly rule over it, leaving the populations to organize themselves around a backbone of rules and social structures she provides. Her word is absolute divine law, and important decision must have her approval, or it's direct representatives' should she be unavailable : a powerful head priest chosen collectively by the pantheon. While she is a benevolent and protective entity, she is unforgiving with outsiders and merciless with potential threats and traitors.

Strategist & Titan Slayer. Being good aligned, the pseudo cities and areas under Atargatis' protection thrive enormously in peace, protected from nearly all-outer threats. But when one of theses threats finally shows up, it has to face a well prepared line of defense, led into battle by the Sea Empress herself. In combat, Atargatis acts as an exceptional tactician and leader, using complex mutli-layered strategies to defeat the opposing force. She can use her mystical voice to turn the tide of battle or achieve victory before even starting the fighting, but, made to fight world ending calamities one-on-one, she excels in one-on-one duel against large foes. Atargatis can summon her signature soul bound trident, a godly weapon forged to hunt and kill very large monsters, especially titans. It is made of a pitch black metal, and underwater it's shape becomes a blur as it take a gaseous form of black smoke similar to her hair. It, combined it with a mastery over the surrounding water, a diverse and powerful array of spells, and a voice bearing magical properties makes Atargatis a versatile and incredibly powerful opponent.

The two mains events that would see the summon of Atargatis would be the rise in power or activity of a Kraken, or the summoning of a Leviathan. After the main threat she was originally summoned for is dealt with, not matter how long she had to wait before that, if the region is peaceful for long enough, Atargatis's temple will be sealed and she will fall into a deep slumber. In fact, the body sealed in that temple is just that : a body, kept here as her essence returns to the heavens. The regional effects of her lair perdure through time, making it so that at the heart of many thriving underwater cities sits a very old and sealed temple of stone. If a threat emerges once more, her essence will retake control of one of theses still living body, being directly summoned at the heart of the crisis.

Fun fact. The name "Atargatis" was chosen because it's the name of the first mermaid in a few real world mythologies !

CR 24 in lair.

Atargatis lives near the surface in shallow waters, in gigantic temples-like underwater constructions with made of carved stones or corals, or natural giant caverns along the coast of deserted islands, sometime only partially underwater. Her presence attracts Merfolks and other good aligned aquatic creatures seeking divine protection, who then form large settlements a respectful distance away from her lair.

Her residence, the surrounding settlement, and the land in a 1-mile radius around it counts as her lair.

Regional Effects

The region containing one of Atargatis's lair (inanimate body included) is brought to a state of peace and tranquility, which creates one or more of the following effects:

Ocean Monarch. Evil-aligned creatures feel uneasy and ill in this domain, they begin to harbor a deep fear of being found treading on it. The first time they enter the domain on a day, they must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom Saving throw, or outright refuse to do so. They must repeat the saving throw every 8 hours they spend inside of the domain, on a failure, their new immediate goal becomes leaving as soon as possible, and if they can see Atargatis, they have the Frightened condition. If they fail this saving throw, Atargatis (or her head priest) receives a brief mental ping of their current location, except if they are protected from divination magic.
Sea and Storms. While in her lair, Atargatis can cast Control Weather, requiring no spell components and using Charisma as the spellcasting ability. If only her body is present, her head priest can cast it instead over the course of an hour without spending a spellslot.
Plentiful Resources. Beasts grow larger than usual, crops wield twice as much food, and water cannot be polluted by any means. Beasts and plants also become immune to diseases.
Friendly Livestock. All Beasts within 10 miles of the lair have the Charmed condition while in that area. Good Aligned creatures have Advantage on Animal Handling checks.

If Atargatis' body dies, she immediately turns into sea foam as a pulsing orb of light appears and promptly goes back to the pantheon of her masters, theses regional effects then fade over the course of one day.