Happy New Year, and welcome to the first entry in my next project, the Greco-Roman Mythos! We start off with the eldest of the Twelve Titans, Okeanos. He’s the only one of the brothers to have stayed neutral through most of the conflicts of the Titans and Olympians. As a Titan, he represents water as an element and the river Oceanus on the outer planes.
Okeanos (PDF Version)
(Deep-Whirling, Deep-Running, Loudbooming, Progenitor of the Potamoi, the Wise, of the Sleepless Current)
Greater Power of Arborea and Carceri, N
Portfolio: Water, the River Oceanus, outer oceans, encircling oceans
Aliases: Hydros, Oceanus, Ogenos
Domain Name: Ossa/the River Oceanus (Okeanos’s Temple) and Porphatys/Okeanos’s Temple
Superior: None (formerly Kronos)
Allies: Akheloos, Deep Sashelas, Eadro, Hera, Istishia, Lethe, Persana, Poseidon, Styx, Surminare, Tefnut, Tethys, Trishina, Water Lion, the Okeanides, the Potamoi, the Olympians, the Titans
Foes: Blibdoolpoolp, Demogorgon, Panzuriel, Sekolah
Symbol: An oar and a fish or a circular ring of water
Wor. Align.: Any
The ever-moving embodiment of water is Okeanos (oh-KEY-an-os), first born among the true Titans. He is seen as the source of all water on the Prime Material Plane through his children the Potamoi, and in that sense a bringer of life. Deep-Whirling Okeanos remains aloof from his kin among the Titans and the Olympians, and for this reason he represents so-called outer oceans; those deep, encircling waters that surround whole continents.
Few gods are older than Okeanos, at least as the followers of the Titans and the Olympians see it. The first union of Ge and Ouranos begat this elder Titan, and with his birth came the fresh water that feeds the streams and rivers of the many worlds of the Prime. In the mythology of these pantheons, this water first formed the great river Oceanus which crosses the Upper Planes, eventually emptying into the sea of Ossa, where Okeanos first settled and made his abode. From this location he has steadfastly avoided entangling himself in most of the conflicts that have embroiled his siblings and their children and as such kept their respect.
Of the children of Ge and Ouranos, Okeanos and his sister Tethys were the first to wed, and together they sired a great many children known collectively as the Potamoi and the Okeanides. Traditionally numbered three thousand strong each, many sages speculate that there is a far greater number of each as no attempt at a full accounting of the groups ever agrees in their entirety. The Okeanides, or Daughters of Okeanos, are a diverse lot, including goddesses, companions of gods, and divine servants listed alongside the ancestors of mortal lineages. So many Olympian deities and heroes are said to be descended from the Okeanides that they have come to be called the Mothers of Gods and Men. By contrast, the Potamoi are a nearly homogenous lot; with rare exception they are male, and each one bears the name of a river of importance to worshipers of Olympian and Titan alike, with Akheloos serving as leader of the group.
When Kronos urged his brothers to join him in taking revenge on their father Ouranos for his cruelty to their non-Titan siblings, Okeanos chose to stay neutral, neither helping nor hindering their actions. He did this not out of love for their father but because he felt it was his duty to offer their sisters someplace safe to ensure they were protected in case the attack on their father failed. He maintained this neutrality even when Kronos’s son Zeus rose up to overthrow the Titans and end their rulership from Olympos. As with the prior conflict, he offered his realm to shelter the Titans and Olympians who chose not to participate in the conflict; in this manner he became a surrogate father for Hera and her sisters Demeter and Hestia. However, his neutrality was not so total during this conflict. When Styx, representing both Okeanos’s Potamoi and Okeanide children, asked for his advice on the nascent Titanomachy, he advised her and her siblings to ally themselves with Zeus and his Olympians for he could see they would succeed in their battle.
At some point after the Titanomachy, Okeanos’s relationship with Tethys became strained. The reason for this break in their marriage is unknown, although he is said to have fathered other children with Theia and Ge in addition to those children he had with his wife, so many sages speculate that this was the cause. However, the known children of these unions appear relatively young, so not all sages are convinced. His children by Theia are called the Kerkopes, a pair of young males with monkey-like tails who are known throughout the planes for their knavery and thievery and are known to have gotten on the bad side of Heracles. His child by Ge, according to some myths at least, is the young farming god Triptolemos, companion of Demeter. Whatever the cause, through Hera’s intervention some centuries back, the pair made up and were reunited in happiness.
Some apocryphal copies of the Great Theogony have an interesting tale regarding Deep-Running Okeanos’s children. In these versions of the history of the gods, Okeanos and Tethys are the parents of the rest of the Titans rather than being Titans themselves. To fill out the Titan list to twelve, the Okeanid Dione is added, as well as the monstrous Phorcys. While those who follow these texts hold them to be a true representation of the history of the gods, most other followers of the Titans and Olympians seek to destroy the copies that they come across.
Okeanos is not active in his followers’ lives and rarely dispatches his avatars to the Prime Material Plane. Instead, they travel the course of the River Oceanus, observing the events that take place along its shores and occasionally visiting the Olympians or the other Titans. It is said that he dispatches his avatars to observe great events that affect followers of the three pantheons he is a part of, but never does he interfere.
Okeanos’s Avatar (Cleric 35, Water Elementalist 32, Fighter 24)
Okeanos has two primary forms that he appears in, and his avatars cannot easily change shape between them; any such change requires a turn and full submergence in water. However, his size can easily be altered over the space of a single round, anywhere from normal human height up to his full 100-foot height. His older form, best known among followers of the Titans, has an upper humanoid body with an exceptionally long serpentine lower body that is four times as long as he is tall. Great curved bull horns sprout from either side of his bearded head. His other form, more commonly known to worshippers of the Olympians, is that of a grey haired and bearded man of otherwise fit condition with a small pair of crab-like claws sprouting from his temples and wearing grey robes that leave his chest bare. In this latter form, he often appears riding in a chariot drawn by a pair of griffins appropriate to his size (treated as if enlarged, with hit points appropriately increased). He draws his spells from all schools save necromancy and all schools save chaos and law. He never uses fire-related spells.
AC −3; MV 12, Sw 36; HP 209; THAC0 −3; #AT 5/2
Dmg 6d6+18 (oar+4, +12 Str, +2 spec. in oars)
MR 50%; SZ M–G (6 feet tall to 100 feet tall)
Str 24, Dex 20, Con 22, Int 21, Wis 23, Cha 20
Spells P: 15/14/13/13/11/10/9, W: 8/8/8/8/8/8/8/8/8*
Saves PPDM 2, RSW 3, PP 4, BW 4, Sp 4
* Numbers assume one extra water elemental spell per spell level.
Special Att/Def: While Okeanos dislikes combat, if forced into melee he wields Pedalion, an oar +4. This wooden shaft is carved all along its length with snakes and eels, and once per round it can create 1d4 snakes or eels within 10 feet (as sticks to snakes, with eels of the same statistics being created in water). Furthermore, Pedalion can part water just by chopping into the water, once per day. When not at his full height, Okeanos operates as if under the effects of a reduce spell.
The Progenitor of the Potamoi can cast tsunami once per day, and once per day he may summon a water elemental who serves him with willingly for six turns. He can raise water or create water at will, and grant water breathing to any and all creatures he wishes within 30 feet.
Okeanos can only be struck by +3 or better weapons. He is immune to all water-based attacks, charms, and size alteration magic. No natural or giant snake or aquatic animal will attack him unless magically compelled, nor will free-willed water elementals.
Other Manifestations
Like all major true titans, Okeanos rarely manifests on the Prime Material Plane. When he does, it is usually to stir up calm waters or to still churning waters. He can direct currents and flows in such a way to bring favored beings to the safety of caves or the shore, or Okeanos can use those same currents to keep creatures away from safety. He can also send floods to any land touched by spring, lake, river or sea, usually on the orders of the head of the Titan or Olympian pantheon, depending on what is worshiped in any given land. He is slow to anger, and thus such occurrences by his own hand are nearly unheard of.
The Titans call on asuras, lesser titans, and monsters of legend as their preferred servants, but Okeanos is also served by aballins, asrai, balaenas, bronze dragons, crabmen, dolphins, dragon turtles, einheriar, giant nautiluses, giant squid, golden ammonites, griffins, mermen, nereids, normal and giant fish all sorts (especially eels), noviere eladrins, pearl dragons, sea lions, selkie, sirines, snakes of all sorts (but especially sea snakes), topaz dragons, tritons, water elementals, water mephits, and whales. He shows his favor through the discovery of stream-polished stones of exceptional beauty, and his disfavor is heard in the sudden sound of roaring, rushing water with no actual flood of water. His omens are carried in the sound of water and the swirling of river and ocean currents.
The Church
Clergy: Clerics, specialty priests
Clergy’s Align.: NG, LN, N, CN, NE
Turn Undead: C: Yes, SP: No
Cmnd. Undead: C: No, SP: No
All clerics and specialty priests of Okeanos receive religion (Titans) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency. No cleric or specialty priest of Okeanos can become lost while on the River Oceanus on the Upper Planes, nor can they be fooled by artificial reefs, coves, or other nonmagical manufactured traps and hazards along its waterways.
Despite being widely revered and propitiated among followers of both the Titans and the Olympians, he has but a small clergy. They are rarely called upon by others, for there are often priests serving more relevant deities such as Pontus or Poseidon; while Deep-Running Okeanos represents oceans and rivers, he does so in their pure elemental form and has little to do with navigation, sailing, or the dangers that such waterways hide. The exception to this situation is the River Oceanus; since priests of Okeanos are flawless navigators of its waterways, they are in high demand with only their rarity keeping them from dominating this sort of trade along that planar river.
Temples built to honor Okeanos follow the standard columned plan for most temples constructed for the Titans and Olympians. The pediments at each end of the temple always show scenes from Okeanos’s mythology; his marriage to Tethys is most common, and he is frequently surrounded by his children, the Potamoi and the Okeanides. These temples always favor much more blue than is common on other temples, and the roof is always made of either blue slate or glazed blue tiles. The interior of the temple features mosaics or statuary of Okeanos and Tethys, for all his temples are dually dedicated to his spouse as well. The statues are centrally located so those entering the temple proper Altars are placed outside, overlooking either the ocean or a local natural freshwater source. Sacrifices made to Okeanos and Tethys consist mostly of fish and other aquatic creatures as well as clay, wooden, or precious metal models of such creatures.
Novices in the service of Loudbooming Okeanos are called Trickles. Full priests of the Progenitor of the Potamoi are called Full Flowing Ones. In ascending order of rank, the titles used by the priesthood of Okeanos are Quiet Meandering, Fluvial Forcing, Broad Coursing, Turbulent Gurgling, Loud Tumbling, and Wide Swirling. High ranking priests have unique individual titles. Specialty priests are called deepwhirls. Males (72%) are significantly more common in Okeanos’s clergy than females (28%), who are often restricted to certain roles in the older, more conservative temples. Specialty priests (81%) dominate the priesthood, with clerics (19%) comprising the remainder, and typically only found in the lower echelons of the clergy.
Dogma: Water is a necessary element of life. Its flow can be observed to predict the future, but only mortal hubris believes it can ever truly be controlled. Water brings life and death, boon and bane equally and without malice or favor.
Day-to-Day Activities: Besides their regular temple duties, the Okeanan clergy focus on teaching others valuable skills related to living near water. Swimming, fishing, and boat piloting are the most common skills they offer, but individual and itinerant priests often have other skills as well. In their shared temples, they focus on the cleanliness of their facilities while the Tethyan clergy usually handle the administrative aspects.
Important Ceremonies/Holy Days: The most important holy day for the priesthood is held with the first thawing after winter, when rivers begin to flood or the snow melt otherwise raises the water level of rivers for the first time in spring. This festival, the Hydrophoria, celebrates fresh new water flowing through rivers and merging with the sea. During this celebration that honors Okeanos, Tethys, and their children, young adults are ritually purified in anticipation of them becoming full adults later in the year, and a great feast is held in honor of the upcoming growing season during which a bull or ox is sacrificed to the gods. Those who have been purified during the ceremony then throw small sacrifices of wooden, ceramic, or bronze figurines representing bulls, fish, or boats into the river, ocean, or other body of water the temple overlooks to symbolize their wishes for the year.
Major Centers of Worship: All temples dedicated to Okeanos are dually dedicated to Tethys, and his faith maintains no independent temples just as the clergy of Tethys has no temples independent of the Okeanan priesthood.
The most important temple of Okeanos and Tethys is located at the headwaters of his namesake river on Thalasia, the fourth layer of Elysium. Called the Kephalobrusion, this temple complex rests at the very point where the great sea of Thalasia flows into the River Oceanus. A great school dedicated to teaching the dangers and the secrets of the great river of the Upper Planes resides among the many buildings of the complex, and it is from here that all the best guides graduate. In addition, they offer the fastest ferry service to the Blessed Isles of the Elysian Fields, the resting place of the greatest heroes and most virtuous men and women known to the cultures who venerate the Titans and Olympian gods.
On the Prime Material Plane, one of the few great temples to Tethys and Okeanos is located on the world of Thesalys in Greatspace. Built in classical style on the outer coast of a straight between the two northernmost continents, the Encircling Hall serves as the center of all worship of Okeanos and Tethys throughout the sphere. While reasonably well-off overall, it struggles to gain relevance in the modern age of Greatspace’s civilization, and the priests worry not enough young people will be drawn to Deep-Whirling Okeanos’s service.
The only subsidiary temple in the Greatspace hierarchy of the Okeanan church is located on Lagor’s World. As on Thesalys it is a coastal temple, known as the Loudbooming Wave; it maintains an excellent shipyard from which all the royal vessels of House Shambrath are built. The priests of the temple maintain that it was Tethys herself who showed their first priest the methods of constructing a ship sturdy enough to sail out of sight of the coast.
Affiliated Orders: The Guides of Oceanus is the only order sponsored by the churches of Okeanos and Tethys. Found only along the River Oceanus on the Outer Planes, this guild consists of priests and non-priests alike who offer their services to guide travelers through the dangers of that river. Their skills are unmatched, but so are their prices; as such, there are many less-skilled guides who undercut them. Those who long travel the river know that the higher cost of the Guides of Oceanus comes with a near-guarantee of safety, however.
Priestly Vestments: When performing ceremonies, traditional clothing made of fine cloth such as the chiton or peplos is worn in shades of pale blue. Over this, a himation of light grey with a fringe of dark grey is draped. These garments will vary in regions where other forms of clothing are the norm; in such locations the clergy wears old-fashioned formal garments. The holy symbol used by the priesthood is a brooch or pendant depicting an oar and fish, usually crossed, or a pendant-ring of silver engraved with waves.
Adventuring Garb: When traveling or adventuring, the clergy of the Progenitor of the Potamoi wear simple garb common for their area, typically a chiton or peplos of sturdy fabric and a himation or chlamys worn over it. If combat is expected, scale or lamellar armor is favored for defense, while the preferred weapons are those that can serve as walking sticks, such as spears, staves, and tridents.
Specialty Priests (Deepwhirls)
Requirements: Wisdom 13
Prime Req.: Wisdom
Alignment: N
Weapons: Club, dagger, dart, javelin, knife, long bow, net, short bow, sling, spear, staff, trident
Armor: Any up to scale armor, plus shields
Major Spheres: All, animal, creation, elemental (water), healing, protection, time, travelersMinor Spheres: Divination, elemental (air, earth), weather
Magical Items: Same as clerics
Req. Profs: Swimming
Bonus Profs: Fishing
- While the majority of deepwhirls are human, any aquatic race capable of becoming priests may be drawn to Okeanos’s priesthood, although for most of these races this is strongly frowned upon.
- Deepwhirls are not allowed to multiclass.
- Deepwhirls may cast wizard spells from the school of elemental water as defined in the Limited Wizard Spellcasting section of “Appendix 1: Demihuman Priests” of Demihuman Deities.
- Deepwhirls can cast create water or sanctuary (as the 1st-level priest spells) once per day.
- At 2nd level, deepwhirls can cast water breathing (as the 3rd-level priest spell) once per day per three levels of the caster.
- At 4th level, deepwhirls can cast pressure resistance or withdraw (as the 2nd-level priest spells) once per day.
- At 7th level, deepwhirls can cast oars to snakes or raise water (as the 4th-level priest spells), or their reverses, once per day.
- At 10th level, deepwhirls can cast airy water (as the 5th-level priest spell) or eel strike (as the 2nd-level priest spell) once per day.
- At 15th level, deepwhirls can cast water form (as the 7th-level wizard spell) once per day.
Okeanan Spells
In addition to the spell listed below, priests of the Progenitor of the Potamoi can cast the 4th-level priest spell oars to snakes, detailed in Faiths and Avatars in the entry for Umberlee.
2nd Level
Watery Roar (Pr 2; Conjuration/Summoning)
Sphere: Elemental Water
Range: 20 ft.
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
Casting Time: 5
Area of Effect: Special
Saving Throw: ½
By means of this spell, the caster may unleash an incredibly loud torrent of water from their mouth. The volume of water isn’t significant, but the force of the blast is enough that a single target up to 20 feet away suffers 2d6 points of damage, plus 1 point per level of the caster. The target is allowed a saving throw versus spell to suffer half damage, and a second saving throw, this time against paralyzation, must be made to avoid being knocked down. Finally, every creature within 40 feet of the caster must make a saving throw versus spell or be deafened for 1d3 rounds. The caster is immune to the loud roar created by the spell.
2nd Level
Phantom Oar (Pr 2; Invocation/Evocation)
Sphere: Travelers
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 turn/level
Casting Time: 1 rd.
Area of Effect: 1 phantom oar
Saving Throw: None
This spell creates a magical oar of force anywhere from four feet to sixteen feet long, as desired by the caster. This oar, when used to row an oared vessel of any size causes each pull of the oar to propel the ship slightly further than normal, increasing the vessel’s speed by 10%. This effect is concentrated on the vessel itself and not the oar, so using the phantom oar on one side of galley or similar vessel does not cause it to drift in the opposite direction. If the phantom oar is used in place of a steering oar, it improves the turning rate of a vessel without adversely affecting stability, improving its maneuverability by 10%, or one rank, depending on the rules used. For example, if using the rules from Of Ships and the Sea for naval combat, the phantom oar increases the pursuit dice results by 10% (rounded up) if used for rowing, and if used as a steering oar, it increases results of the maneuverability dice by 10% (also rounded up).
Finally, the oar can be used as a weapon in melee combat and counts as a +2 weapon for determining what it can hit and dealing 2d4 points of damage per strike. In this way it can be used as either a club or a staff, and nonproficient penalties apply. If used in this way, the phantom oar’s duration is significantly shortened and the spell expires in 1 round per level of the caster, unless the remaining period of the original duration is shorter.
The material components for this spell are the priest’s holy symbol and a small fragment of an oar.
3rd Level
Eel Strike (Pr 3; Invocation/Evocation)
Sphere: Animal
Range: 15 yds. + 5 yds./level
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Instantaneous
Casting Time: 6
Area of Effect: 1 creature
Saving Throw: None
When this spell is cast, the priest conjures a ghostly eel that streaks towards a target. This eel strikes as a fighter of the same level as the priest, with a +3 bonus to hit. Any creature struck suffers damage based on whether it is mostly submerged (or fully submerged) in water, or standing in shallow water or on dry ground. Those targets mostly submerged suffer 3d4 points of damage from the eel, plus two points of damage per level of the caster, while those on dry ground suffer 1d4 points of damage, plus one point per level of the caster. The damage dealt by the eel is magical force, and as such a shield spell will block it, as a magic missile.
The material component for this spell is a small piece of dried eel skin.