Water Genasi: Genasi born of the brine are one step closer to Living Water than some are comfortable with, and their origins are...complicated. Marids are vastly powerful beings, and one is as likely if one encounters one in the ocean to find oneself in possession of vast wealth or stripped of flesh to the bone. The marids almost never take sides, in any conflict, and are not moved by pleas about the ‘greater good’. They care only for what benefits themselves. And while there are love ballads about them falling in love with a mortal of many different races, it is always a selfish love where they are left with a child of elemental nature to raise on their own or abandoned on a whim to never see their lover again. Families who live near the places where the worlds thin between the worlds, though, can also find themselves gifted with an elemental child. One born a touch uncanny in the ways of the deeps and a bit fey in looks and manners. And they are known by many as Wiksah’s Tears. Whether those tears are of sorrow, joy, love, or fear is a matter of some debate. But those born with the long markings from the corner of their eye and stretching down their face...they are held to a higher standard. And not always for the better. Not all Genasi are scattered, though. There are places where the elemental presence is so strong that they eventually took over the population in that place as more children were born genasi in each generation, until the original occupants become a rarity amongst the many.
Tracing their ancestry to the genies of the Elemental Planes, each genasi can tap into the power of one of the elements. Air, earth, fire, and water — these are the four pillars of the Material Plane and the four types of genasi. Some genasi are direct descendants of a genie, while others were born to non-genasi parents who lived near a place suffused by a genie’s magic.
A typical genasi has a life span of 120 years
Water genasi descend from marids, aquatic genies from the Elemental Plane of Water. Water genasi are perfectly suited to life underwater and carry the power of the waves inside themselves.
Their skin is often shades of blue or green, sometimes a blend of the two. If they have a human skin tone, there is a glistening texture that catches the light, like water droplets or nearly invisible fish scales. Their hair can resemble seaweed, waving as if in a current, or it can even be like water itself.
Water Genasi who are born to genasi parents can be from anywhere in the ocean. Those born to non-genasi parents are generally on the sea-shore. Of those born to a non-genasi family, they rarely find their way truly ‘home’ again to the depths beneath. And when they do, are often treated as partial outsiders by those born there for having not been there their whole life. This becomes especially true the deeper one pushes into the Abyss.
Water genasi can be born bioluminescent, and it is generally known there are a few deep, deep cities that do not encourage outsiders to visit with strange rules and customs around said bioluminescence.