Dominaria is home to many continents and many different species and nations. But most of the world is covered in water, and the vast expanses beneath the white-capped waves belong to the merfolk. Secretive and proud, the merfolk rule the world's only true global empire—a federation of tribes and states knit together by trade and common heritage. The center of this society lies in the Voda Sea off the eastern coast of Aerona, in the empire known as Vodalia.
Unlike the merfolk of many other planes, Dominarian merfolk have no legs. As such, they can't leave the sea without magical aid, so they are not presented here as a potential player character race. This section instead focuses on adventures involving Vodalia and the seas.
Vodalian Adventures
As they have through most of Dominaria's history, the struggles of the merfolk and their aquatic rivals and allies play out almost entirely beneath the waves, out of the sight and mind of the world's surface cultures. Though it is possible for a surface power to harm the merfolk, doing so is difficult—and the Vodalians can easily retaliate by locking down oceanic travel if necessary. At present, the Vodalians charge for safe passage through their seas, but they take no sides in the political struggles of the surface. But if anything should upset that delicate balance, an opportunity might arise for adventurous characters to right the situation.
Vodalian Quests
Because Vodalian merfolk find it challenging to accomplish business in the surface world, they often use agents of other races to undertake quests and missions among the air-breathing peoples. Characters might be hired to perform these tasks, or to do them in exchange for a favor performed by the merfolk. Or they might be ordered into service, and threatened with a terrible fate if they refuse.
| d6 | Quest |
|---|---|
| 1 | Retrieve an artifact from ancient Vodalia that is kept in a Tolarian museum. |
| 2 | Sabotage a Cabal port on Walassa, where ships set sail for Aerona carrying Cabal cultists. |
| 3 | Protect a peripatetic member of the Society of the Conch on a journey to learn about your native culture. |
| 4 | Defend a surface port loyal to Vodalia from a land-based attack. |
| 5 | Find a pirate captain who slaughtered a group of merfolk, but who has not been seen in the Voda Sea since. |
| 6 | Retrieve an item of historical significance from a Keldon fortress. |
Vodalian Sites
In contrast to quests given by Vodalian merfolk, adventures involving Vodalian sites almost always involve venturing underwater.
| d10 | Adventure Site |
|---|---|
| 1 | A shipwreck on the ocean floor |
| 2 | A surface-built city that sank in a magical catastrophe |
| 3 | A temple to Svyelune |
| 4 | A city built on the back of an enormous leviathan |
| 5 | A palace in a coral reef |
| 6 | A ship crossing the Voda Sea |
| 7 | A well-preserved Thran or Phyrexian artifact deep underwater |
| 8 | A deep ocean trench |
| 9 | A sea cave on an island shore |
| 10 | A beach where merfolk trade with surface-dwellers |
Vodalian Villains
Despite their difficulty in leaving the water, determined merfolk villains can have a profound impact on the surface world—not least because the seas are the primary mode of communication and trade between nations.
| d8 | Villain |
|---|---|
| 1 | A hotheaded young military officer, part of the Akula Current, plans to escalate conflict with a surface port in hopes of eventually annexing the port. |
| 2 | A notable aristocrat decides that no ships may cross their territory—and sinks a merchant vessel to emphasize the point. |
| 3 | A mage manipulates coastal waters, causing saltwater to back up rivers, beachfront land to flood, and docks to be swept away by the waves. |
| 4 | A group of merfolk turn to piracy, angering both surface-dwellers and other merfolk. |
| 5 | A trickster lures sailors into shipwrecks, then either takes them captive or watches them drown. |
| 6 | A spellcaster calls up horrific monsters from the ocean depths to attack a coastal town. |
| 7 | A general's crusade against homarids is driving those creatures into human-occupied coastal lands. |
| 8 | A wizard seeks the Golgothian Sylex—the artifact that destroyed the island of Argoth and launched the ice age—in hopes of destroying all land on Dominaria. |
Homarid
The merfolk of Vodalia have waged bitter war for generations against the cryptic, cold-loving crustacean race of homarids. The surface ocean waters have become too warm for the homarids in recent times, but in the years following the Brothers' War, as a global ice age settled over Dominaria, the homarids swarmed to the surface and nearly unraveled the fabric of the first Vodalian Empire. Even now, these creatures teem in the deep, frigid trenches to the west of the Voda Sea.