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Thassa is the god of the sea, aquatic creatures, and the unknown depths. She also holds sway over less tangible concepts such as ancient knowledge, long voyages, and gradual change.
Impassive and slow to anger, Thassa is secure in the knowledge that there are no mortals and few gods who can threaten her status. Once her ire is aroused, however, it is as unstoppable as a cresting wave. She often speaks in the future tense, referring to what tomorrow will bring. She seldom laughs, and when she does, it is usually out of smugness rather than genuine mirth.
Thassa usually appears to mortals in the form of a female triton-like being with octopus-tentacle hair and a crown of crab legs. She seldom adopts the same size as her followers, preferring to be seen from a distance as she towers over the ocean. When she moves closer to the view of mortals, she takes many other forms, often shifting from one to another: a giant squid, an ocean storm, a school of sharks, a fog bank, or a crab, her favored animal. She sometimes speaks out of the ocean itself, in droplets hissing across the surface of the waves.
Thassa’s Influence
To most mortals, Thassa is the sea, and the sea is Thassa. The wind and waves, the tides, and the ocean’s bounty, ranging from small fish to the enormous krakens—all these are Thassa’s dominion. The sea has many metaphorical aspects that Thassa oversees as well: ancient knowledge, long-term change, introspection, voyaging, and repetitive patterns such as the tides.
Thassa governs the slow changes wrought by the passage of time, such as the weathering of rocks and the erosion of beaches. Where Nylea controls the eternal cycle of the seasons and Kruphix monitors the flow of time, Thassa holds sway over the slow-acting but irresistible forces that alter the world over hundreds or thousands of years.
Krakens and other behemoths of the deepest oceans move at Thassa’s command. She is protective of what she calls the greatest of her children, and she usually keeps them out of harm’s way in the darkest depths. A mighty kraken sighted close to shore is a sure sign of Thassa’s displeasure.
Thassa’s Goals
Thassa is never satisfied with the status quo, and she also never advocates hasty, uncontrolled change. She constantly resculpts the physical world, altering coastlines and upending familiar trade routes. There is no ultimate goal to this ongoing transformation; the purpose is change itself. Thassa believes that change is essential to existence, and she opposes anyone who tries to establish or maintain a permanent order to the universe. She aids and inspires forces of change, the rivers that wear down mountains and the tides that claim whole continents. She sometimes seems disinterested in the intrigues of the present, even in her own current schemes, as her thoughts drift toward what the future holds.
Divine Relationships
Thassa disdains the shortsightedness of her fellow gods, most of whom have convinced themselves that they can impose lasting order on the cosmos. At the same time, her realm is unassailable, and she believes that the changes she advocates are inevitable in the long term. So although Thassa frequently disagrees with the other gods, she doesn’t fear them.
Heliod considers Thassa his favorite sibling, despite her unwillingness to agree with his plan for a permanent order. Thassa, who rules depths that have never seen the sun, considers most of Heliod’s schemes pointless and opposes them if they seem to threaten harm.
Thassa took pity on Purphoros and aided him when Kruphix hobbled his mind, and Purphoros has not forgotten it. The two of them agree that old things must make way for new things, but Purphoros’s bursts of destructive energy stand in sharp opposition to Thassa’s gradual alterations. Purphoros regularly makes gifts for Thassa, most recently gifting her a new spear to replace her lost weapon.
Thassa has little use for the gods who oversee work she believes best left to mortals: Ephara with her cities, Karametra with her fields, Pharika with her tinctures, Mogis and Iroas with their armies. To Thassa’s mind, her peers are building castles in the sand, unaware or unmindful that the tide will sweep them away.
Worshiping Thassa
Most of Thassa’s dedicated worshipers are tritons, and the vast majority of tritons are wholly devoted to Thassa. Tritons spend much of their lives in Thassa’s realm, with their god omnipresent. They weave prayers to Thassa into nearly everything they do.
Among humans, Thassa is worshiped by those who rely on bountiful seas for sustenance or calm waters for safety. Sailors, fishers, and residents of Theros’s coasts and islands all pay her at least nominal respect and sacrifice. Her center of worship on land is in the coastal polis of Meletis, where sailors and philosophers pray to her for guidance. The week-long Lyokymion festival (the Feast of the Melting Swell) marks the start of the new year by celebrating the bounty of the sea.
Thassa’s most fervent human worshipers offer prayers at high and low tide. If possible, they do so at the water’s edge. At low tide they walk barefoot out onto the tidal flats, relishing the touch of Thassa’s seabed.
MYTHS OF THASSA
Tales about Thassa typically demonstrate that she is often patient, but never kind.
Callaphe the False. During the last great Silence of the gods, a triton appeared, impersonated a mariner named Callaphe, and traveled the waves aboard Callaphe’s living ship,The Monsoon. This false Callaphe misled the tritons with false prophecies and pulled a kraken from the depths, hoping to harness his power. When the Silence was lifted and Thassa returned to the world, she struck the impostor down with such fury that she shattered her bident. Purphoros, remembering Thassa’s kindness to him on many occasions, replaced her sacred weapon.
Dreams in the Deep. While Purphoros is renowned for his endless creations and desires to bring new ideas into being, Thassa secretly shares similar creative desires. Endlessly bored with the predictable denizens of the land and sky, in the deepest ocean trenches, Thassa wills immortal dreams and nightmares into being. Delicate beauty, undulating grace, and tentacular terrors are birthed in the absolute dark, iterate for generations, and suffer swift extinctions at the god’s whim, never knowing the sun’s touch. Sapient mortals aren’t welcome in these maddening ateliers; Thassa remains bitterly unwilling to reveal her work until her creations—and the time—are absolutely perfect.
Every Tear the Sea. Few myths tell of those who escaped Thassa’s wrath. This isn’t one of them. When the infamous explorer Rasiao failed to steal one of Thassa’s Tidelock Pearls, wave-controlling treasures protected by vicious mollusks, she spent years avoiding the waves before finding her way back to the mainland. Although she’d failed to abscond with one of Thassa’s treasures, she’d avoided the sea god’s wrath, a claim she valued more preciously than gold. For years, Rasiao lived far from ocean or river, making her home in the driest reaches of Theros. She lived a long life, but on one trip to Akros to resupply and brag, she drowned in a bowl of ox stew. Those who found Rasiao discovered a pearl, too large to pass her lips, lodged in her mouth. Fearing further reprisal, Rasiao’s daughters committed their mother’s body to the Deyda River and Thassa’s clutches. The explorer’s daughters never forgot that just as countless drops make the sea, so too is every raindrop, tear, and cup part of Thassa’s domain.
Thief’s Fate. According to legend, a mortal sailor once stole Thassa’s bident and used it to sink an enemy fleet. Thassa cared nothing for the vanquished fleet, but punished the sailor for his thievery by turning his family into eels. The sailor tried to care for the eels, but they blamed him for their fate and disappeared into the sea, leaving the sailor weeping on the shore.
Thassa’s Champions
Alignment: Usually neutral
Suggested Classes: Cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard
Suggested Cleric Domains: Knowledge, Tempest
Suggested Backgrounds: Acolyte, outlander, sage, sailor
Thassa’s champions typically work on behalf of change, embrace new ideas, don’t automatically defend the status quo, and wish to serve the god who controls pounding waves and massive krakens.
Thassa’s Favor
In much the same way that the sea and its secrets simply exist, Thassa trusts that the lives and actions of her champions will serve her long-term goals because of their connection to her. What made the god of the sea turn her attention to you or how did she show her interest? The Thassa’s Favor table offers a few possibilities.
Thassa’s Favor
| d6 | Circumstance |
|---|---|
| 1 | You nearly drowned in a shipwreck, but Thassa answered your prayers for deliverance. |
| 2 | You were found on the shore as a newborn, in a basket woven of ocean grasses. |
| 3 | You dreamed of a great kraken. When you followed your dreams to the sea, the kraken appeared to you and gave you Thassa’s blessing. |
| 4 | You grew up on a fishing boat, and your parents taught you Thassa’s rites. |
| 5 | You were born with a pearl in your mouth, an obvious sign of Thassa’s favor. You still have the pearl. |
| 6 | You have no idea why Thassa showed interest in you, and you might sometimes wish she hadn’t. |
Devotion to Thassa
Following Thassa means devoting yourself to a particular way of perceiving the world. Thassa herself seldom takes a stand on moral issues, preferring to let matters play out, but her mortal champions can’t usually afford to be so patient. As a follower of Thassa, consider the ideals on the Thassa’s Ideals table as alternatives to those suggested for your background.
Thassa’s Ideals
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Devotion. My devotion to my god is more important to me than what she stands for. (Any) |
| 2 | Knowledge. I will learn the secrets of the hidden depths. (Any) |
| 3 | Freedom. The sea can take me anywhere, and I’m not going to tie myself down. (Chaotic) |
| 4 | Bounty. The ocean always provides, and I will share its gifts with those less fortunate. (Good) |
| 5 | Change. Everything’s just waiting to be something else, including me. (Chaotic) |
| 6 | Power. Like the waves, I answer only to Thassa. (Evil) |
Earning and Losing Piety
You increase your piety score to Thassa when you expand the god’s influence in the world in a concrete way through acts such as these:
- Supporting those who would reform or overturn institutions
- Preventing cataclysmic change
- Offering a treasure to the sea
- Defending or maintaining a temple to Thassa
Your piety score to Thassa decreases if you diminish Thassa’s influence in the world, contradict her ideal of gradual change, or attempt to impose artificial order through acts such as these:
- Trying to keep a secret from Thassa
- Using magic to calm the sea’s fury
- Upholding an institution not devoted to Thassa
- Bowing to the desires or demands of another god
Thassa’s Devotee
Piety 3+ Thassa trait
As a devotee of Thassa, you have proven yourself a worthy representative of the god of the sea. You can cast fog cloud with this trait. Fog created in this way smells strongly of the sea. You can cast the spell in this way a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Thassa’s Votary
Piety 10+ Thassa trait
You can cast blink with this trait. Once you cast the spell in this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Thassa’s Disciple
Piety 25+ Thassa trait
You are inspired by the tempestuous, uncontrollable nature of the sea; you have advantage on saving throws against being charmed or restrained.
Champion of the Sea
Piety 50+ Thassa trait
You can increase your Dexterity or Intelligence score by 2 and also increase your maximum for that score by 2.
Inconspicuous. While the haunted puppet remains motionless and out of combat, it gains a +5 to Stealth rolls, and is indistinguishable from a normal puppet.
Evasion. When the haunted puppet is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
Head on a Swivel. The haunted puppet cannot be surprised.
Magical Puppetry. The weapon attacks made by the haunted puppet are considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance.
Multiattack. The haunted puppet makes three Blade Fury or Ranged Bolt attacks.
Blade Fury. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d10 + 4 slashing damage.
Ranged Bolt. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 30 ft., one target. Hit: 1d8 + 4 necrotic damage.
Web of Strings (3/day). The haunted puppet shoots a web of strings at any number of creatures within a 15 foot radius. Creatures within range must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or be restrained until the end of the haunted puppet's next turn. While a creature is restrained in this way the haunted puppet's movement speed is reduced by 10 feet.
Scurry. When a creature misses an attack against the haunted puppet, it can move half its movement speed in any direction without provoking attacks of opportunity.
