Triton

Tritons are aquatic humanoids of various temperate seas and oceans. They look very much like humans, apart from pale greenish skin, blue-green hair and webbed hands and feet that let them swim fast. They breathe with gills but also have weak lungs that let them manage at the surface and even come ashore briefly; like most sea creatures, though, their skin must stay wet or they soon dry out and die, and an hour out of water is usually fatal.

Both sexes attract humans, and the races are thought able to interbreed, but Tritons are shy, so most of what is known comes from stranded Tritons rescued by humans, tales that may be exaggerated. Few humans have ever visited their realms.

They reportedly build great undersea cities of shaped living coral, farm seaweed, herd fish, dolphins and above all the hippocampus, and forge metal at undersea volcanoes. Their culture is a collection of independent city-states each ruled by a king or queen, which trade freely and readily help one another, especially against the Makara, their bitter foes. That long war has turned a naturally gentle people into fierce fighters armed with tridents, spears, short swords and strong crossbows that shoot far even underwater. A few clans trade with men. Every Triton is telepathic, speaking mind to mind in its own language or human ones and reading the thoughts of non-telepaths within 100 feet, so conversing with humans is simple. Most Tritons reach levels 1-8, though an occasional individual climbs higher. They may become Paladins, Priests, Rogues, Scholars, Spies, Warriors or Witches.