The Dark Seldarine: Deep Sashelas

The pounding surf that brings down a cliffside. The coming storm that turns sails to tatters. The raging whale sperm maddened by the harpoons of seamen. All these things are the province of Deep Sashelas, the Wave Lord.

The patron of the sea elves sits at a remove from the rest of the Dark Seldarine. He keeps an ambassador in Corellon Larethian’s court in the form of a male nixie called Rivertooth (who is actually an aspect of Sashelas, and into whom he has poured the entirety of what little humor he possesses). But he is a king in his own right of the world’s oceans. Any elf crossing a great body of water pays homage to him, as does the entire race of sea elves.

Like the oceans, Sashelas is ever-changing and often contradictory. He is the patron of rangers who go out to hunt alone with just a trident. He revels in the destruction of crushing waves, casually erasing coastal villages. But he also calls sea elves to create huge undersea empires, and he blesses their coral cities with strength so that they defy even his own destructive urges.

Sea elf clerics thus have to be careful readers of signs and portents, divining Sashelas’s mood and adjusting their rites accordingly. One spring they might call for all seal pups to be protected; the next they might order the blood sacrifice of a halfling every night of the full moon. Often sea elf communities become theocracies, as that is the simplest way to ensure their lord's demands are met.

Deep Sashelas’s great secret may be that these whims are actually part of a careful balancing act. Despite the harsh rituals he calls for, he is not naturally as chaotic nor as prone to evil as his kin in the Dark Seldarine. He finds grace in the inherent order of the coral spires constructed by his worshippers. And he recognizes that it takes discipline and teamwork to survive in the ocean depths—and even moreso to build an empire.

The plain truth is that he cannot afford the selfishness and self-indulgence of the Chaotic Evil mindset. Besides his ancient enemy Sekolah, the sahaugin deity, the Wave Lord and the sea elves share the watery depths with beings the likes of Yeathan, the deity of death by drowning (Book of Vile Darkness), and the alien intelligences of the aboleth powers (Lords of Madness). By alternating bloodletting and beneficence, he keeps his followers close, protecting them from the other sea deities—both their predations and their proselytizing. He knows full well that there is madness in the depths, waiting to drag him under like an unwary swimmer should he let down his guard.

Alignment: Neutral (Evil tendencies)
Cleric Alignment: CN, LN, N, NE
Domains: Elf, Knowledge, Ocean, Water, Watery Death (Underdark)
Favored Weapon: Trident