Hiraeth Creature #1177 - Tideforged“The land of Hiraeth is known for its balance and guidance&

Hiraeth Creature #1177 - Tideforged“The land of Hiraeth is known for its balance and guidance— folk, spirits, and other magical beings find a way to work in tandem that ensures survival and fair judgment. This cannot be said for the seas of Hiraeth, which are known for their overwhelming scope and monstrous fury. The realm of Tethys is beautiful and teeming with life both gentle and ferocious, but in the absence of a ruling power, the oceans can be deadly to travel with no reservation of swallowing innocent souls whole if they cower beneath her waves or catch the eye of a hungry sea beast. In her unending waters, Hiraeth feels like a whole different world, and this separation loosens the connection spirits and other beings out in the open water have with the folk travelling there, and makes communication difficult if it is even possible at all. The epitome of this harsh reality is the Tideforged— magical constructs who guard areas of the ocean sacred to Tethys.Created by sea spirits, the originals were shaped by Tethys herself as guardians for hallowed ground beneath the currents and spiritual hunting waters. They rise from the depths and wade through crashing waves to let their presence be known to interlopers, giving them a chance to turn their ships around before they get shattered to splinters. As the Tideforged march across the ocean floor and move their limbs, they make a thunderous creaking and clanging that reverberates through the water around them, creating a somber and nerve-wracking chime. Their bodies hold immense strength and resilience, able to brace against titanic waves and create them with a strike of their limbs. Primal water flows through them and they can use it to create geysers, whirlpools, and massive deluges. They can bend water’s form even further by hurling javelins of ice or erupting the ocean around them into boiling steam. Tideforged primarily guard against those deemed as trespassers, such as seafarers and malicious spirits, but they are occasionally known to wrestle with temperamental sea monsters looking to exhaust some inner rage, making for dynamic and vicious spectacles.Each Tideforged is said to look somewhat different depending on the crafter: some are bipedal, others are quadrupeds, and those made for the deeper parts of the ocean resemble purely aquatic creatures. Though each is unique, they are all made from the same parts. Four key contributions are needed, each from Hiraeth’s four bordering seas: the bones are taken from departed sea monsters resting in the Sea of Naga, sinew is braided from sea flora from the eastern Sea of Flowers, flesh grows from eternal ice found in the northern Silver Sea, and life is seeped into their frame from embedded shards of fertile coral from the southern Sun-Fire Sea. Those adept at primal magic may be able to make their own Tideforged if they can make the journey to each sea, but it would take unfathomable magic to make one at the colossal scale of the ones roaming Tethys freely.” -- source link

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