Undersea Triat

The Undersea Triat are an alien trinity of deity-figures that are the alleged rulers and creators of the seas, both Umbral and physical. Members of the trinity are commonly known as Vatea/Kun, C'et and Dagon/Qyrl.

Overview

The exact nature of the Undersea Triat is elusive, and it depends much on who is telling their story, whether it is a mage, a werewolf or a changeling, since a precise definition would undercut the cosmology of one or another of these groups. According to legend, the Aquatic Triat is composed of three immensely powerful beings known by their titles: The Fish Bearer, The Tentacled One, and The Shelled One - which most of the surface dwellers would classify as Incarna of the Triat itself.

The Fish Bearer

The mer know this ancestral figure as the male "Fish Father", Vatea. The Rokea call the Incarna the female Kun, the "Mother of Fishes". These are only two of the entity's faces; this legendary being is allegedly capable of quickly changing its mind, its shape, its gender, and its very location. The Fish Bearer is as tales have it, constantly attended by a haze of millions of its children. It is commonly depicted as a huge fish which combines aspects of many of its children (pufferfish scales, lionfish fins, eel tail, shark teeth, etc.). Some mer claim that Vatea has human legs; this is an idea that bothers all of the mer – such a thing would imply a certain alienation between themselves and their spiritual father. The Rokea affirm no such thing; Kun is simply the incarnation and mother of all bony fishes, and has nothing to do with the creatures of the Unsea.

The Tentacled One

The Tentacled One is a creature of nightmare, also called Qyrl by the Rokea and Dagon by the Mer. The Rokea see her as the mother of all spineless, soft creatures of the ocean, parent to jellies, octopi and squids. Garou Galliards recount the name of Kraken, and murmur that the Tentacled One is the underwater head of the Hydra. Mer legends (as well as a few human occult texts), paint this horrible entity as a dread, primordial thing that lies in wait for the time to return to the land where it was worshipped as the god it was. In all cases, the Kraken is seen as an entity of corruption and malevolence, a creature vaster than an island and impossibly old. It is known to have a fierce rivalry with its "sibling", the Fish Bearer, and their struggles color the legends of mer and Rokea alike.

The Shelled One

Easily the most mysterious and withdrawn of the aquatic Triat, the Shelled One plays a rather enigmatic and minor role under the sea. The Rokea know her as C'et, the parent of all crustaceans. Relatively unmolested by its siblings' rivalry, the Shelled One is content to make her presence known in small ways – the perfection of a single pearl, the mathematical precision of a snail's shell, and even the colorful symmetry touching the Fish Bearer's millions of children are all the marks of her presence. The Garou, who are fond of reinterpreting things to fit their own perspective, consider the Shelled One to be one of the Weaver's many facets. They might be right; the undersea Weaver-spirits known as Scuttlers have a habit of leaving the various Crab-spirits and suchlike be as they go about their tasks.

References

• WOD: World of Darkness: Blood-Dimmed Tides, p. 26