Nakshatra Meenu
Giant brittlestar, nakshatras (literally “stars”); CR 3/5/7
Home Plane: Unknown, mostly seen on the Elemental Plane of Water
Alignment: Often LN
Hundreds of strange races inhabit the multiverse, and nakshatra meenu are among the strangest of them. They are giant sapient brittle stars—like a sea star, but with very long and spiny “legs”. A circular maw opens on the bottom side of the creature, but there are no eyes around. The truth is—nakshatra meenu are almost blind. Their tiny dot-like eyes can only barely distinguish light from darkness. But this doesn’t mean sneaking on one is easy. Giant brittlestars have well-developed sense of touch that allows them to perceive motions of water around them. Truly, these beings have a unique perspective on the world, which is reflected in their society and culture.
COMBAT: A single nakshatra meenu can prove be a tough foe. Its five tentacles can grapple and constrict foes, and it is much larger than a human in sheer size. Like their smaller relatives, nakshatras have the ability to regenerate from damage, being able to survive even if they have just a single tentacle left. The most savage of the nakshatra meenu can even tear their own limbs off and send them to attack their foes from multiple angles. A nakshatra meenu’s limbs can act independently, although they are non-intelligent and bound to die after a short time. However, the original brittle star retains control over its limb while it is within 120 feet of it.
Nakshatra meenu that have time to prepare for battle have even more in store. Making use of their regeneration and high pain tolerance, they implant bone spikes and plates under their skin. Others fashion clubs or blades to hold in their arms. Elite nakshatra meenu warriors even use spells and strange magic items. The only significant weakness of nakshatra meenu is their speed—these brittle stars are quite slow to move and especially slow to swim. However, unlike many other underwater races, they can also crawl on land, if awkwardly.
HABITAT/SOCIETY: Nakshatra meenu have a developed society with caste system as its cornerstone. They have seven castes—servants, workers, artisans, entertainers, warriors (who are also the rulers), mages and priests. The only nakshatra meenu society known in the Bottomless Blue is the Empire of Five Rays, ruled by the maharaja Yam Bhaya Akhoot (planar nakshatra meenu ghost warrior [he/they] / LN). He has authority over five rajas, who each oversee a multitude of families, each of whom belonging to one caste. Families of different castes don’t seem to join together often, which suggests a status separation, although it is difficult for two-legs to judge such things.
As was said earlier, nakshatra meenu cannot see, nor can they hear or speak. To compensate, they have developed two languages. One of them involves flailing their arms about, creating disturbances that can be picked by wavesense. This method is imprecise and can only convey fairly primitive messages. The other is their tactile language. A nakshatra meenu’s tentacles are lined with tiny sensory appendages that also help them move and pick up items. When two brittlestars meet, they lock their tentacles and chat by tapping messages on each other with those tiny legs. This language seems to be very sophisticated, and hasn’t been decoded yet. Those outsiders who wish to communicate with this mysterious race have to use telepathy, and even then understanding the thoughts of nakshatra meenu is not an easy undertaking.
Since they have no reliable means of communication over large or even medium distances, couriers and messengers are held in high regard. Male nakshatra meenu are smaller and more nimble than females, so they are usually employed as couriers. They also often become high-ranking wizards or clerics, although females can occupy these positions as well. Nakshatra meenu clerics worship deities of the sea and some members of the Vedic pantheon. In fact, these powers have been the source of most information divined on the strange brittlestars. However, brittlestar clerics also worship their nation’s undead leader Yam Bhaya Akhoot. It isn’t clear whether or not they actually gain spells from their patron, nor how Yam Bhaya Akhoot maintains his undeath.
Magic employed by nakshatra meenu wizards is strange and so-far impossible to use by any other creature. The main spell every wizard of theirs knows is a modified version of mage hand that summons multiple arcane tentacles that allow for precise manipulation and extends their own sensory reach. As means of attack, they can empower these tentacles to act like grim tentacles spell. Nakshatra meenu cast this magic without any speech, replacing it with strange somatic movement of their many arms. Nakshatra meenu wizards are recognisable among their peers by artifacts they wear or hold. One of them is an assortment of five crystal balls. The wizard envelopes each ball in one of their tentacles, and this greatly improves their sensory capabilities. The magic-wielding brittlestar turns into a sort of living radar, aware of everything that goes on in their settlement.
Nakshatra meenu have established their civilization in the Silt Flats, where their ability to ‘see’ despite the murky water gives them an advantage over their foes. Their empire is called Nirina Samrajya, and its center is a citadel named Bhumi Kota, where maharaja Yam Bhaya Akhoot resides. From there he delegates responsibilities to the rajas of the warrior caste. These rajas do not rule alone, but along with the high priest, high mage and other officials. Artisans are often held in high regard by warrior rajas, since they are the ones with the power of fleshwarping—a mysterious art of grafting additional parts on a creature. Nakshatra meenu high-ups often have additional limbs granted by this process.
ECOLOGY: Nakshatra Meenu can eat corals, fish, sponges and any other kind of seafood. Their feeding process is disgusting to mortals, as the brittlestars can regurgitate their own stomachs in order to digest food outside of their bodies. The feeding process is seen as intimate by nakshatra meenu, and few outsiders have had a chance to see it and live to tell the tale. Nakshatra meenu live in close-knit family groups. They lay their eggs in the communal dens, where every family member cares for them and newborn larvae. Nakshatra meenu live up to 150 years.
Nakshatra meenu are avoided by most races. As well as being hard to communicate with, it doesn’t help that the brittlestars are prone to acts of vengeance, and will go after berks, who they believe have slighted one of their own. However, in recent years some canny merchants have started to figure out a way to communicate with nakshatra meenu well enough to make a trade deals. Nakshatra meenu can offer pearls, bone and strange magic items in exchange for metals and unusual trinkets. The current chant among rock-hoppers goes that the brittlestar merchants, who used to be see as low-ranked workers, have begun to amass wealth. This is sure to lead to some changes in the nakshatra meenu society. Whether outsiders will even be able to observe those changes is an whole other question…
Source: Margarita. Mythwatch: Nakshatra Meenu are based on creatures of the same name from the folklore of Karnataka, India. Credit to https://abookofcreatures.com/ for informing the world of these extremely obscure things.