I'm thoroughly enjoying writing up the Sagahin.


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The Sagahin 

The aquatic reptilian-fish humanoids of the ocean’s waves call themselves the “S’Augwin” which roughly transalates to “(Child) of Old Ones,”  However, due to the cultural discovery of pesky humans, they have also adopted the human term “Sagahin.” They claim to trace their ancestry from the first of ancient marine rulers, sea creatures who had evolved beyond and became the first transcendent sapients.  This claim may be true as they resemble their terrestrial cousins the Kobold in some ways with longer tails, fins and webbed claws. The key differentiating feature is the comparative length of the muzzle between the Kobold, which features a longer snout, as well as their reptilian scales, which are dry as opposed to the slimier scales of the Sagahin.  Human scholars suggest some divergent evolution between the two species, much to the dismay of Sagahin scholars. 

Regardless, living within the sea waters have kept the Sagahin relatively safe, as humans were terrestrial creatures, thus most of the Sagahin population remains protected under the depths of around 3000 meters and cool water temperatures. Humans most commonly encounter the small villages which stay near the shallows, but these are the equivalent of backwater Sagahin which are hardly the educated and mysterious race they truly are. These backwater Sagahin tend to misrepsent the culture and intelligent society the Sagahin have created within the deeper oceans and are often slaughtered by heroic humans for their assumed practices of worshiping demonic cults and kidnapping human citizens from local farms or stealing during times of hard fishing. 

While the backwater Sagahin are indeed the more miscreant and unrefined of their race, the Sagahin belief system is a mixture of rationalism and mysticism. They believe in a scientific origin for their racial origins to a certain degree of evolutionary processes, but the original creators of their ancestral origins were primordial beings known as the “Augwin” or The Old Ones. The Old Ones are powerful ancient forces, living embodiments of life which existed in the deepest oceans as their physical avatars slumber in the depths since creation. Their “Gods” include a pantheon of mystic entities that are indeed often portrayed as amalgamations of fantastic sea-life to inspire grandeur and mystery of these great Old Ones.  Thus the appearance of barbaric tendencies comes from practices as these and of course eating their meals raw and as fresh as possible.

Being almost completely aquatic, the Sagahin have developed their cuisine without the intervention of fire, although they are able to use the heat from the undersea vents as forges to create their metal craft, these volcanic hotspots would easily burn through flesh. Therefore, the Sagahin have always devoured their meals raw, and often still living as a method of avoiding bacterial growth on spoiled foodstuffs. While upon land they are seen as carnivorous, They are actually omnivorous and will maintain a diet of kelp and laver, however in keeping with such practice, every meal becomes a hunt for Sagahin not living near the great cities that have public food gardens filled with kelps and small schools of farmed fish. Sometimes conditions near the water’s edge are so terrible that humans report instances of cannibalism to further their assumptions that Sagahin are indeed monsters. 

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