Osishe

To most people on the continent, a naga is just a creature of myth. The race’s history spreads in the form of songs, but hardly anyone considers them more than legends. This is simply because very few on Armuda have ever seen a naga, and the ones who have are rarely believed. Reputable adventurers have searched for their tracks, but the search often leads to nothing. Naga live in an isolated area of the sea, and only  mages of infinite wisdom know of their existence. No one knows exactly how long Osishe has guarded the temple. The naga are unaware of what lies inside it, but they are born with a sense of duty to guard it.

Armuda certainly isn’t lacking adventurers willing to take risks. Many have heard myths of the temple and sought out its treasures, but only a select few have ever found it. The first time adventurers did find the temple was over a thousand years ago. Osishe encountered a team of mages seeking out its supposed treasure. She did not know their language, and she was unfamiliar with their clothing. Osishe attempted to expel the intruders, and they attacked her. Knowing very little about naga, the mages did not expect her to escape the attack so easily. Osishe was offended by their intrusion and started to play her magical harp, which quickly whisked the invaders into a deep sleep as the music poured into their ears.

The mages didn’t die, but they have slept at the bottom of the sea ever since. They never had the opportunity to explore the secrets of the temple or return home to share their stories of the naga. Osishe hoped this was the last she had seen of adventurers, but ever since the mages, only more have seemed to find their way to the temple.

At first, people only appeared every hundred years or so. That eventually turned to every decade. The more adventurers that came, the more prey there was for Osishe. She continually put adventurers to sleep and tethered them around the temple. Some of the more lucky adventurers escaped Osishe’s clutches and spoke of the other sleeping adventurers. They described them as floating like seaweed with their clothes ripped away and their muscles corroded by seawater. When Osishe was bored, she would swim through this special collection of seaweed and count her victims again and again.

Despite the nuisance of the occasional adventurers, the realm of the naga has remained mostly undisturbed – until recently. A mysterious force has swept through their waters. This time, however, the invaders were far from the typical adventurers. The bottom of the sea shook, and magical powers became unbalanced. The temple collapsed into itself, and all of its revealed treasures disappeared. Osishe and the other guardians were filled with intense shame. The temple they had been guarding for generations was gone, and so was their will to keep going.

The naga weren’t able to identify the invaders, but they concluded, by the direction of the mysterious force, that the culprits were somewhere on land. Osishe was still sworn to her duty as a guardian. She volunteered to travel to the land and recover not only their temple’s lost treasures, but her honor as a guardian as well.