Uk'otoa

Uk'otoa is a leviathan imprisoned under the Lucidian Ocean and formerly Fjord's patron. As an NPC, Uk'otoa is played by Matthew Mercer.

Description
Legend says that Uk'otoa is a large serpent-like creature with three eyes in its head and many eyes along its body. On the altar above Captain Avantika's door aboard the Squalleater, it's represented by an ouroboros with nine eyes along its body.

Personality
Uk'otoa is an emotionally manipulative being with the driving goal of having the three seals holding him captive unlocked. He has succeeded in having Avantika and Fjord each break one seal by giving them magical powers and promising more.

Before Campaign 2
Uk'otoa is a creation of Zehir, the Cloaked Serpent, and lived in Lucidian Ocean near Wildemount. When Zehir was sealed beyond the Divine Gate at the end of The Calamity, Uk'otoa was left masterless and purposefully. He eventually came to rule the Lucidian Ocean himself.

Uk'otoa eventually called to the Ki'Nau of the Swavain Islands, introducing himself as divine and promising to protect them if they worshiped him. The Ki'Nau accepted and, under his protection, established themselves as the dominant society in the Swavain Islands and Menagerie Coast. Around 400 PD, the Vukan people from Xhorhas began a series of attacks on the Ki'Nau; Uk'otoa angrily destroyed the Vukan's home villages, wiping out the Vukan. Marquesian sailors, who aided against the Vukan and lost many of their ships, subsequently settled in the Menagerie Coast. Uk'otoa demanded they also worship him, but they refused. Zehir, enraged, ordered a secret sect of his Marquesian worshipers to seal Uk'otoa in the seafloor of the Lucidian Ocean. With the help of a cult leader in the Allegiance of Allsight, Zehir's worshipers defaced and corrupted a series of Uk'otoa's temples with Zehir's influence and used them to successfully imprison Uk'otoa with three seals.

In the centuries since, he has made contact with the imprisoned demigods Desirat and Quajath, and the three established a tenuous alliance to free one another from their prisons. Uk'otoa typically reaches out to sailors, particularly those shipwrecked. Many years before 835 PD, he forged warlock pacts with the pirates Vandran and Avantika, though Vandran eventually abandoned the quest to free Uk'otoa. In 835 PD, Uk'otoa ended Vandran's pact, believing Vandran doomed to die in the sinking of the Tide's Breath, and forged a new pact with Fjord, drowning in the same sinking.

Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein
Uk'otoa contacts Fjord for the first time in a dream. Fjord found himself underwater and saw Uk'otoa only as a single, enormous yellow eye. Fjord tried to speak to Uk'otoa, but Uk'otoa responded only in single words: "Watching. Potential. Learn. Grow. Provoke. Consume. Reward. Patience." When Fjord awoke, coughing up seawater, he found that he could summon and dismiss the Sword of Fathoms at will, having bonded with it as his Pact of the Blade weapon. Uk'otoa later contacted Fjord again in a similar dream and urged Fjord, "Consume." This pushed Fjord to swallow his sword, the Waste Hunter Blade, causing the Sword of Fathoms to consume the Waste Hunter Blade in waking.

Fjord and the Mighty Nein traveled to the Labenda Swamp, where Uk'otoa called Fjord forward to "Learn" and explore the dark pools and tunnels in the merrow lair. Fjord found a unusual pool of seawater water around which the merrow arranged various religious iconography. He felt a magical presence within the pool, and Jester Lavorre pulled a then-unidentified Cloven Crystal from the bottom of it. While Caleb Widogast was attempting to Identify it, Fjord touched it, causing him to experience a vision of Vandran with a Cloven Crystal, hear instructions from Uk'otoa ("Potential. Consume. Reward."), and be compelled to walk back toward the pool of water and push the crystal into his body, magically absorbing it. The next time Fjord summoned the Sword of Fathoms it had a yellow eye in the center of the hilt.

Fjord later finally learned of Uk'otoa's identity from Avantika. Uk'otoa sent Fjord another dream that night, in which Fjord ascended a staircase and destroyed a stone statue of Vandran and a statue of Sabian. He also promised Fjord enough power and mastery of the ocean to destroy navy fleets. After Avantika opened the first seal, he rewarded her with the ability to cast Control Water. He then sent another dream showing Fjord the location of a second temple in the Gravid Archipelago. He briefly appeared to Fjord when he touched and absorbed another Cloven Crystal; Fjord saw Uk'otoa's three yellow eyes and an endless row of teeth smiling at him. Fjord soon opened the second seal at the temple, receiving the same reward, and Uk'otoa sent a vision of the final temple in the Cyrios End Forest.

Fjord later left the Menagerie Coast, and Uk'otoa appeared in his dreams some time later. He repeated the same words as before but added, "Wander. Punish." before crushing him to death in the death. Fjord worried that Uk'otoa felt stronger and more present than before. He threatened Fjord again in a dream days later and temporarily took away Fjord's ability to cast magic. He returned Fjord's spellcasting during the day. Yet another threat from Uk'otoa and demand that Fjord return to the quest to release him was interrupted by Melora, because Fjord was sleeping under her Arbor Exemplar; vines tore through Uk'otoa's eye, and Melora helped Fjord through to a sanctuary, promising temporary respite. Briefly, Fjord's spellcasting felt different from how it did under Uk'otoa. Uk'otoa was able to threaten Fjord in waking while Fjord was in Nicodranas. As Fjord stepped into the Teleportation Circle to return to Rosohna, he felt a cold sensation shoot through his head and heard Uk'otoa's voice demand, "Return."

While at the Cinderrest Sanctum in the Greying Wildlands, Uk'otoa contacted Fjord again in a dream, in which the moon turned into the eye of Uk'otoa and Uk'otoa restrained him. He commanded to stop running and crushed Fjord between his teeth to warn Fjord that he must return or be consumed. When Fjord woke suddenly, Uk'otoa had again take his magical ability. Fjord demanded that Uk'otoa return his spellcasting and, claiming "You need me more than I need you," gradually began to push the Sword of Fathoms into his chest until it neared grievous injury. Uk'otoa did not respond, and Fjord destroyed the falchion by throwing it into a lava pool. Fjord was no longer in Uk'otoa service from then on.

Uk'otoa weeks later sent his deep scion servants and warlocks to assassinate Fjord and retrieve the Cloven Crystal, so that the final seal could be opened. As they arrived, Fjord had a dream of walking in a forest and, when he attempted to summon his pact blade the Star Razor to consult Melora, he instead summoned the Sword of Fathoms. Though the deep scion successfully killed Fjord, they were unable to escape with his body. Fjord was quickly resurrected. Uk'otoa later sent an undead Avantika and more deep scion to attack Fjord and the Mighty Nein as they traveled to Eiselcross aboard the Midnight Hammer. With the aid of primal magics in a divining stone attuned to the Cloven Crystal, they located it in Caleb's Vault of Amber. Avantika initially escaped with it, but Fjord killed her and reclaimed it.

After Campaign 2
In Misuthar 837 PD, a storm giant follower of Uk'otoa named Thoonum and seven deep scions, including a mage, attacked the Nein Heroez and successfully retrieved the last Cloven Crystal to free Uk'otoa from his bonds. Uk'otoa sent Fjord a vision just prior to the attack, telling him "I found you."

Avantika
Uk'otoa communicated with Avantika through dreams as well. It is implied she had less contact with Uk'otoa than Fjord, saying in that it had been a few years since her last dream. Avantika had a yellow eye similar to the eye on Fjord's falchion in the palm of her right hand. She claimed the eye appeared after she killed the previous owner of the Cloven Crystal.

Uk'otoa granted her the power to Control Water after she brought a Cloven Crystal to its temple on Urukayxl.

Avantika returned in, despite having been executed by the Plank King. She appears to be a type of undead, but as of now, it is unclear if this is linked to some power of Uk'otoa or an outside means.

Fjord
Uk'otoa communicated with Fjord mostly through dreams. Fjord never had had these dreams or the ability to use magic before finding his falchion.. In his dreams, Fjord was often underwater and would see a giant yellow eye. Fjord's attempts to speak to the entity resulted in single word responses or no response at all, hearing the words: "Watching, Potential, Learn, Grow, Provoke, Consume, Reward, Patience, Good, Release, Wander, Punish", and "Return" in various dreams. Some of these dreams had physical side effects when Fjord woke up. Avantika, Sabian, and Vandran have appeared in Fjord's dreams.

Fjord has felt Uk'otoa's presence outside of dreams when a Cloven Crystal was nearby, when he placed a Cloven Crystal in the sunken temple to unlock Uk'otoa, and when teleporting away from Nicodranas after being near the sea for the first time in over a month.

Vandran
Vandran was described by Avantika as being another of the "Chosen" of Uk'otoa. She told Fjord Vandran had a sword similar to Fjord's Sword of Fathoms before the shipwreck caused by Sabian. She also claimed Vandran showed her a ritual to get in contact with Uk'otoa. This implies Vandran had contact with Uk'otoa through dreams as well.

According to one of Fjord's dreams, Vandran absorbed a Cloven Crystal in the same way Fjord did. This implies Vandran was, and possibly still is, a warlock of Uk'otoa. At some point in the past, Vandran was working with Avantika to release Uk'otoa. He changed his mind for unknown reasons, and took his Cloven Crystal with him when he left her. The Mighty Nein discovered Vandran had a Cloven Crystal hidden in his quarters on the Tide's Breath at the time it sank.

Desirat and Quajath
In the Yuan-Ti temple on Urukayxl, the Mighty Nein saw three murals - depicting a giant purple bird with fire-like wings and three eyes of onyx, a gigantic sea serpent emerging from the water, with many small eyes of amber and three large eyes, and a worm-like creature with three eyes of ivory inside its mouth, plowing through the earth. The three lesser idols have a pact; apparently, if one escapes, it will help the others. Uk'otoa's followers helped Desirat to establish a following and nearly dug deep enough to free the phoenix before the Julous Dominion took power in the Marrow Valley and put an end to the colony there.

Notable items

 * Cloven Crystals - Three orbs that are used as keys to release Uk'otoa. They are to be used in three temples scattered about. Two have currently been deposited in their respective temples located at Urukayxl and the Gravid Archipelago; the third and final one remained in Fjord's possession. After the attack on the Balleater while sailing near Urukayxl on the way to the peace talks, a Greater Restoration spell allowed Fjord to vomit out the remaining crystal, and it was placed in Caleb's Vault of Amber for safekeeping. As of the end of the campaign, the final crystal was once again in Fjord's possession, in his Bag of Holding.

Abilities

 * Uk'otoa is able to communicate with his followers by gifting them dreams and visions.
 * As a entity of notable power, Uk'otoa is able to gift his followers with the ability to Control Water. He is said to have done this in the past with the Ki'Nau, and more recently has done so to Avantika and Fjord as a reward for using their Cloven Crystals to unlock two of the binds holding him captive.

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign 2

Quotations

 * "Watching. Potential. Learn. Grow. Provoke. Consume. Reward. Patience." - Fjord hears the voice of Uk'otoa in his head during a dream.
 * "Watching. Adapt. Reward. Release." Said to Fjord within a vision after he inserts the key into the second temple.
 * "Watching. Return. Reward. Wander. Punish." Said to Fjord in a dream after Fjord ignored Uk'otoa's third temple.
 * "Punish." Said to Fjord before stripping him of his power, after weeks of Fjord ignoring him.

Behind the scenes
Travis Willingham wanted mystery around Fjord's patron, so he left the design of the warlock patron to Matthew Mercer.

If Uk'otoa had been released while Fjord was still in his service, he would've been pressed into expanding Uk'toa's domain and helping release Desirat and Quajath. These three allied creatures, with three eyes each for a total of nine eyes, was intentionally left as a red herring so that the players would confuse their nine eyes with the nine eyes of Somnovem.

On May 27, 2021, a tactical semi-cooperative card game named after Uk'otoa was released. It was developed by Darrington Press LLC and designed by Jeb Havens and Gabriel Hicks. In the game, players control factions of sailors on the Lucidian Ocean who fight for survival against the leviathan.

Trivia

 * A recurring gag is the players habit of repeating Uk'otoa's name in hushed whispers when a character or player speaks it out loud. One of these repetitions also occurrs in Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, simply because Lou Wilson describes Nydas Okiro's sea monster tattoo.
 * Matt confirmed in that the reward for putting a Cloven Crystal in place to unseal Uk'otoa is a free Eldritch Invocation. This invocation, nicknamed "Dank Water Powers", gives the power to cast Control Water once per day without expending a spell slot.