Omm-wa

Omm-was, the 'water-people,' are large, intelligent manatee relatives and barely humanoid. A plump gray or black body tapers to a broad flat tail; flipper-like forelimbs with small webbed hands sit near the head, and there are no visible hind legs. Its head is tiny for its bulk, with a straight snout over a cleft lip set with bristles. Muscular lips tear up water plants for the molars and front pads to grind, and males bear two small tusk-like incisors. A grown omm-wa may reach 1,300 pounds and a length of 9 to 11 feet.

Big eyes see over 300 feet through clear water; in air their vision is human-normal but light-sensitive. These air-breathers of warm waters pass freely between fresh and salt, seldom dive past 100 feet and can stay ashore no longer than thirty minutes.

They defend with nets in the water backed by tridents and spears, and some have underwater crossbows traded from the wizard-lords of a wizard-governed nation. Shamans (8th level maximum) rise as priests, and one male in five can rise as a fighter. Each family has a female shaman of levels 1-3; every 30 omm-was include a fighter of levels 3-5, every 60 a warleader equal to a fighter of levels 5-8, and every 100 a wise woman, a priest of levels 4-6.

Females hold all power and come of age at 12; the most battle-scarred warleader obeys the youngest adult female without hesitation. Mothers head families, descent runs through them, and daughters inherit their rank.

Females are nurturers who revere an earth-mother goddess they call Mother Ocean, creator and guardian of new life, and consider governing and raising the herd their duty. Males are fatalistic warrior-guardians who honor a god of courage and war they call Dugong. Male rank is constantly challenged and shifts often, and males die young, eagerly trading their lives for any female or calf. Few (5%) have kits, usually Defender. Females see this eagerness as plain male idiocy and suspect that unchecked, males would soon wipe themselves out.

Expert aquaculturists, they tend vast underwater plant farms and graze in them by night. Silica in the plants wears teeth fast, so molars creep steadily forward, worn front teeth fall out, and new ones grow at the back. This shapes their philosophy: like a tooth, every individual will be replaced by someone as capable, so each serves the herd while it can, unafraid of falling. They wear no clothing but use tools, often carrying a pouch or belt.

Treasure is mostly pearls, coral and shells, plus gold and silver from trade with scalewardens and the wizard-lords. They also harvest potato-sized seabed nodules rich in iron and manganese, with a little curse-warding red metal and traces of others, taking only what the beds can replace. Rumor says they forge metal using curse-born gifts, shaman magic and these nodules.

Permanent writing is arranged colored pebbles of varied size on the sea floor; each stone and position means something, and a trained eye also sees a three-dimensional picture holding more. Quick notes use knotted cords and beads of shell, pearl, coral, stone and metal, which make up most of a lair's treasure. A warrior's bead necklace delivers a message or declaration, not mere decoration, and as a joke omm-was have traded land-dwellers necklaces insulting their wearers. Shrewd bargainers, they resent depending on the wizard-lords and would welcome another source of manufactured goods.

Each omm-wa usually stays near its family farm, grazing. Families have three to six members, occasionally herds of 15 to 20. Rare twins are always a sister and a brother: she becomes a shaman (up to 8th level), and he her protector and a great fighter (up to 10th). Females often live to 40 or 50 and bear four to six young; males seldom die of age.

The gator men of the great bayou hunt omm-was for meat, hides and blubber oil, but usually lose them in the water, since omm-was swim better. Omm-was have hated them since the gator men seized the bayous, and sometimes aid travelers who are lost there or about to fall to them.