Name: Ulrich Leonhard von der Sieben Meere
Official Titles: Third Royal King of Panthalassa, Majesty of the Antarctic, Southern Pacific and Southern Atlantic, Ruler of the Deep
Age: Old. So old. At least a couple hundred, but he had lost count ages ago.
Birthday: ???
Gender: Male
Category: Misc. Temporary Residency, Ambassador of the Southern Seas
Occupation: The current ruling monarch of an undersea kingdom called Panthalassa, his domain spans the Antarctic, Southern Pacific and southern Atlantic, with the Indian Ocean still being fought over.
Appearance Description:
In his natural state, Ulrich can be easily described as an aquatic hydra. His body is a large unknown, having never touched the sun or breached the surface in the past. It remains in the abysses of the sea, too deep for anybody to find. Anything that stumbles across it will likely think it’s the sea bed itself, covered in sand and deep ocean life. The only sign of life is the occasional shift, or when he lifts his body off the sea floor so his heads can breach and interact with the surface. A series of spines down his back look like miniature mountains.
Typical of hydra, Ulrich has multiple heads. The number has changed over the years, some having been cut off or damaged through fights or conflicts with land dwellers. They always grow back, sometimes multiples in place of one or vice versa, though it doesn’t happen instantly as lore would make a person believe. Each head seems to hold a different expression, but they all contain the same personality.
The scales that coat Ulrich’s body are sharp and jagged, occasionally flaking off like pieces of flint. They aren’t smooth, but instead stand off his body like sandpaper, ready to rasp the skin off anything that rubs against him. His mouths are like cracks in stone, jagged and uneven. His teeth are like stalactites and stalagmites that hang off his massive bony jaws.
In the pitch black of the sea, or perhaps on dark and stormy nights, one can see his glowing eyes like pinpoints. There is also a strange glow that emits from the inside of his mouth, making it all the easier to lure prey close so he can eat them. It’s a characteristic typical of many deep sea creatures, and Ulrich is no different.
As a human, Ulrich wouldn’t be considered a giant, but he is quite tall compared to the average person, standing at 6’5”. He’s wiry in build, like he was meant to run long distances as opposed to wrestling a bear to the ground, and he’s fast on his feet. His skin is rather pale, possibly influenced by his lack of exposure to any sort of light as a child and for the majority of his adult years, but it’s always been fairly flawless except for the dark marks that run under his eyes and taper off to the tops of his cheeks. They make him look tired and gaunter than he really is.
His black hair is long and unruly, falling well past his shoulders when down and often tied into a ponytail. It looks lifeless and flat, likely weighed down by all the salt that it's constantly exposed to. After he was crowned king Ulrich began to grey, showing that he was under a lot more duress than he let on.
Ulrich’s clothes are just as monotone as his hair, often in black and white. The fabric is of the highest quality, sewn together by his own tailors, and often consist of suits and ties. It isn’t uncommon to see him doing mundane things in a starched collar. His coats often bear his family’s coat of arms and considering the fact that he loves freezing temperatures, the ones that reach his knees or lower are preferred. Tall boots are an everyday staple as well. However, despite his expensive tastes in clothing, a lack thereof is often more convenient. He’s lived most of his life entirely bare, and the concept of covering oneself up is a very entertaining human thing.
Personality Description:
When thinking of Ulrich, one has to think of the sea. Not the sort where you’d take your family for a fun day at the beach, or a romantic pier where lovers would kiss with the gentle sound of lapping water in the distance. He isn’t a relaxing sandy cottage or a quick boat ride on a sunny day.
Ulrich is the sort of sea that sinks ships and steals away their treasures. He’s the sort of crushing waves that sailors pray they never have to see, and the murky depths that no man has ever probed. He’s the tsunami that sweeps away entire lives and levels villages in moments. Like the sea, Ulrich is curtly polite at times, but with a volatile temper that can destroy whatever lies in its path.
It starts as a rather cold anger, his words becoming more snappish and aggressive if he continues to be aggravated. It doesn’t take long for him to become outwardly livid, even physically violent. In turn, Ulrich is said to be a bit of a warmonger. He isn’t hesitant to challenge other leaders to altercations, though it isn’t quite his default. His branch of the family had never been the kind to sit down at a table and talk; to them, might always makes right and physical altercations are common to resolve any issue.
Still, despite the age old tradition that he bears, Ulrich is still somewhat royal in mannerisms. He is industrious, and though he does admit to indulging in quite a few vices that most would be considered distinctly un-royal, he will always finish what he started. Whether that is a building project for the benefit of his undersea kingdom, or reducing taxes, a promise is always going to be kept if it comes from the king’s mouth. He has all the manners of that brought up as revered as he was, and to everybody’s surprise, often uses them.
With all of this, Ulrich is often painted in a mixed and confusing light. His enemies will say he is a ruthless leader that doesn’t care for his people, only his power. He is a glorified murderer, a tyrant, a serial killer. He will stop at nothing to keep the throne under his branch of the von der Sieben Meere name, and will continue to wage wars to overthrow the other branch of the family and monopolize the Indian Sea.
On the other hand, his followers will say that despite his viciousness, it is only for his people. He is not a kind and gentle ruler, but he is an efficient one who keeps his promises. He maintains safe seas and surfaces to destroy overfishing ships, and those who are cruel to the ocean will always face his personal wrath.
Powers:
Human Shift: Ulrich’s true form is that of a sea monster, and he has the ability to take on a humanoid appearance to disguise himself on land. Because there is such a large size difference between his true and human forms, it takes about half an hour to transform. It’s also fairly painful and leaves him vulnerable, so he often transforms in the sea to add a small level of safety.
Extreme Longevity: A Panthalassian’s life can span thousands of years, and it’s a rare tragedy for one to die of natural causes under the age of one hundred. However, the recent (by their standards) turmoil has caused death rates to rise dramatically in every age group.
Biography:
The history of Panthalassa and its people go back farther than recorded history, when the land remained whole and in a single mass called Pangea. Panthalassa was the name of the sea, and so the name stayed. Lore has it that from the primeval muck that formed the world came the smallest of life forms, and the strongest of those were the origins of the royal leaders of the oceans.
Through time, these early leaders quarreled for dominance and control of their patches of muck, then pools of water, then eventually for entire swaths of oceans themselves. The weakest were torn apart and consumed by the stronger ones, and then those remaining fought amongst themselves for the top. Those who had evolved special abilities and adaptations were the ones to rise and finally, a single leader emerged. This leader handed his offspring the ability to shift forms, proving more advantageous than all else.
The aquatic creatures of Panthalassa were then ruled by a single shapeshifting monarchy that sprouted from those humble beginnings, the name having changed throughout history as Pangea evolved and the seas became divided. Nowadays known as the ‘von der Sieben Meere’, meaning “of the Seven Seas”, they were once a unified family.
That said, the intelligent life forms of Panthalassa were much more creature than what comes to mind as ‘humans’. Many of them weren’t humanoid at all, but took the form of what many would now call sea monsters. Still, they had a very strong sense of hierarchy, and the more important members of this society lived in the deepest trenches, with the royal families residing at the very bottom. This meant the most important members of society were shielded from the dangers of being discovered by the surface, and were held in the safest place. This also meant many of them literally never had the sun touch their skin.
For many millions of years, long before humans were even a glimmer on the horizon, the creatures of Panthalassa built their own society. They had their own politics, their own turmoil and their own times of peace. Their society created their own maps of the skies and the deep trenches, advanced themselves far beyond anything living on earth at the time. For the longest time, they were the only highly evolved life form.
But with all societies, there was conflict. In the past, conflict tended to be few and far between and the infighting between members of the ruling family was kept behind closed doors to be spoken about in very hushed tones. However, as time wore on, the great land mass that was surrounded by ocean began to split. With it, the oceans began to divide into segments with new ones appearing in the rifts left behind.
The royal family’s disputed grew as the rifts did, spilling out to the common creatures and becoming a point of political turmoil and gossip. In turn, regular civilians of Panthalassa soon began to take sides themselves. At that time there were twin princes, both of which wanted to take to take the title of king. They both felt entitled to all the seas both new and old and, because of the family’s tendency towards proving who was right through brute strength, there were many skirmishes between themselves and their respective followers.
Their fights wrenched the society apart, creating such turmoil that it was felt on the landmasses of the surface. The two princes wanted all the seas to themselves, one prince’s army taking hold in the northern oceans and the other’s taking the southern halves. This created an era of conflict with continually shifting boarders and constant fighting, lasting thousands of years as the singular family was dissolved into two branches for the first time in their recorded history.
From these two warring princes came the first separate heirs; two factions of the same family would rule the northern and southern oceans. They carried the previous generation’s battles and were quick to fight amongst each other as well, birthing yet another generation that would viciously destroy each other if given the chance. They had already torn apart all oceans but one, what is now the modern day Indian Ocean, which remains a point of tension.
Three generations after the twin princes split, Emese Magdelene and Ulrich Leonhard were born (or hatched) as the heirs of the north and south seas, respectively.
Ulrich was raised typically as a royal child, using his teeth and claws instead of his words to win arguments. His place on the throne was undisputed, but his loathing towards the northern branch of the family was bred into his blood. Three generations spanning thousands of years of fighting caused some dire consequences for their species as a whole but the two factions were too busy slaughtering each other to realize it.
Ulrich took the throne seamlessly, taking the shifted form of a human male on occasion to interact with the land dwellers as a sort of ambassador. However, this form was so rarely used that even his family often forgot what it looked like. This had the unfortunate pitfall of not being able to recognize each other while in human form.
As a king, Ulrich was invited to events on both land and sea. One such event was where he met a beautiful, pale haired human woman with some very attractive assets. They got very very friendly with each other and parted ways casually in the morning. He returned to the sea without a worry in the world.
That was, until he found out whom the pale haired woman was.
Turns out, it was none other than Emese, the queen of the northern oceans in her shifted human form. His rage caused massive waves and new fissures to form on the ocean floor, but it soon died down to reason. There’s no way she could’ve realized it was him, right? Even if she had, she was more than likely to hide it out of shame, and he wouldn’t be the one talking about it. There was no reason to worry.
Word came from the northern oceans that a heir had been born a hundred or so years after the unfortunate encounter, and then he had a reason to worry.
At first the event didn’t even come to mind. There was hostility right off the bat; the baby would be his future enemy, and it was in his peoples’ best interest to just stamp him out. Killing a proper heir was fair game.
It seemed that Emma realized this very quickly, because messengers were quickly sent to inform him that this baby, Luca, was his.
It meant protection for Luca from Ulrich and for the first time in three generations, both the king and queen of the seas met behind closed doors to discuss what would become of the baby. There was lengthy discussion and plenty of back and forth before it was decided that he’d be raised on land, where both the parents were at a disadvantage. It would keep the baby safe and deter Ulrich and Emma from tearing each other’s throats out. The small island of Monte Carlos was chosen for its isolation and it’s more open minded population.
Because of this, Ulrich had to adopt his human form more often. He split his time fairly evenly between the sea and land, though he found he didn’t favour the latter much. Despite being hundreds upon hundreds of years old, he still has a long way in making potential peace or further wars with his enemy, and an heir tied between two of them to complicate matters.
Additional Information:
The Panthalassians are going extinct. Because of three generations of relentless fighting among the two royal branches and their followers, coupled with the relatively slow breeding rate, they simply cannot keep their numbers up unless something stops their wars. The royal families are somewhat aware of this, but they’re too busy with their feuds to pay it any real attention.
Ulrich has risen to the surface to destroy fishing boats and polluting ships in the past, but has on a few occasions destroyed pirate ships when he thought they were causing a disturbance.
Now that he lives part timeout of the sea, his council has recommended he hire a bodyguard because his usual guard would not be able to set fin or claw on dry land. The reason behind his choice of hire is lost on everybody but himself, it seems, as he took on a man whose boat he destroyed about four years ago.
Panthalassians are born with something they refer to as 'genetic memory'. When they say that the war was in their blood, they aren't joking. Certain 'memories' are passed down generation to generation through DNA, and it isn't uncommon for two hatchlings to hate each other right out of the egg, only to find out their great, great grandparents had a feud.
