Homebrew Depthsong Sirens – Elders of the Drowning Call Species Details

Most mortals remember their first siren’s song the way a fawn recalls a wolf’s shadow: a thrill that is half wonder, half doom. Where common sahuagin bully the waves with tooth and scale, Depthsong Sirens sculpt them with melody. Scholars claim they descended from nereid choirs who bartered freedom for power when the moon first kissed the tide. The sirens themselves tell a different tale:

“The moon did not grant us power,” they trill, “it merely asked that we share our lullaby of endings.”

Society: Reefs of Mirrors

Sirens cluster in mirror-reefs—natural labyrinths of quartz outcrops polished by centuries of tidal swirl. There they practice the Nine Verses of Undoing, each verse a cadence that shapes minds, mists, or currents. Novices learn by weaving their voices together until individual tones vanish into a collective resonance called the choral rift. Rank within a pod is fluid; the singer who can steer the rift through the most intricate cadence leads until another bests her artistry.

Rituals & Hunt

Before a raid the pod gathers at the reef’s heart, where a mosaic of shattered figureheads glints beneath tidal lamps. Each siren selects a shard, presses it to her lips, and imbues it with a single memory—joy, grief, or anger. The shard dangles from kelp-cord at her throat, vibrating in harmony with her song; when the ship cracks beneath them that shard is cast into the depths, never to resurface.

“Steel rusts,” intones Hunt-Mistress Vaela, “but memory sinks deeper.”

Siren Adventurers

Occasionally a siren’s curiosity eclipses pod-loyalty: perhaps she hears a human lullaby that will not leave her thoughts, or she seeks the lost canticle said to quiet krakens. Such wanderers drape themselves in hooded cloaks slick with drying salt, carrying conch-harps whose strings are woven from their own hair. Allies soon learn a hard truth—friendship with a siren is as deep and dangerous as the ocean itself.

Relations

Tritons hunt Depthsong Sirens with zeal, seeing them as living storms. Elves speak of them in elegies—beauty sharpened to a blade. Even ruthless pirates respect the unwritten law: pay the Wave-tithe (a bar of silver cast overboard at new moon) or risk hearing the Crescendo of Keels on the wind.

Anatomy 
A Depthsong Siren’s long, shimmering tail is not permanent flesh but a living tide-weave of cartilage and scale. The moment a siren leaves the water, the tail splits along mirrored seams, folding into two lithe, digitigrade legs tipped with webbed toes. When she re-enters the sea, the legs knit back into a powerful caudal fin in a heartbeat—no blood, no pain, just the slick whisper of scales shifting like pages in a book.

Depthsong Sirens – Elders of the Drowning Call Traits

TRAITS

Drowning Melody

As an action, you sing a haunting phrase. Each creature of your choice within 60 ft. that can hear you must succeed on a Wisdom save (DC = 8 + Charisma modifier) or be charmed for 1 minute. While charmed, it uses all its movement each turn to move toward you by the safest route it can find and can’t take reactions. The creature can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. If a creature’s save succeeds or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to your Drowning Melody for 24 hours.

Mist of the Deep

 (1/short rest). As a bonus action, you exhale shimmering vapor. Until the end of your next turn, you are heavily obscured (creatures see illusory after-images instead of you). If you are underwater, you instead become invisible for the same duration. The effect ends early if you attack or cast a spell.

Riptide Pull

 PB/Day Reaction. When a creature fails its save against your Drowning Melody, you can use your reaction to move that creature up to 15 ft. in any direction (it must remain on a surface it can stand on or in water it can swim through)

Enhanced Darkvision.

You have darkvision out to 90 ft. In addition, while underwater you can perceive vibrations in water within 10 ft. of you even if you are blinded, deafened, or in darkness.

Crescendo Echo

 

1/Long rest. Whenever you activate Mist of the Deep you may immediately use Drowning Melody as a bonus action in the same turn. When used this way, the melody can target any number of creatures you choose within range.

Song of Shattered Keels

1/Long Rest Action. You unleash a thunderous chord. Every creature charmed by you within 30 ft. must make a Constitution save (DC as Drowning Melody) on a fail take 4d10 thunder damage (half on success). Charmed creatures automatically succeed on the save if you want them to. Wooden ships and Large or smaller objects in the area take maximum damage. Charmed creatures then lose the charmed condition.

Death-Refrain

1/Long Rest, No Action. When a creature within 30ft. drops to 0 HP, you enter Sirens’ Crescendo for 1 minute:  
• Bonus-Action Melody. You can use Drowning Melody as a bonus action each round with no rest required.
• Predatory Swell. Your melee and spell attacks against creatures charmed by you deal +2d8 psychic damage.  
• Tidal Resilience. You have resistance to all damage except force. The Crescendo ends early if you are incapacitated. When it ends, you gain 1 level of exhaustion.