Uk'otoa

→This page is about the leviathan. For the tabletop game of the same name, see Uk'otoa (game).

Uk'otoa
Fan art of Uk'otoa, by APixelTaurus.
Deity information
Type	Lesser Idol
Title	The Great Leviathan False Serpent The Leviathan Lord
Common symbol	Yellow, slitted eye
Gender	Masculine
Pronouns	He/him/his
Alignment	Neutral Evil
Home plane	Material Plane (Exandria)
Realm	Beneath the Lucidian Ocean
Worship
Worshipers	Ki'Nau, Sailors, Pirates
Major temples	Temple of the False Serpent
Associated domains	Knowledge Tempest
Associated patron archetypes	The Great Old One The Hexblade
Appearances
First seen	"The Open Road" (2x05)
Last seen	"The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 2" (Sx74)
Stream	Campaign Two (10 episodes) Specials (2 episodes)

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

Description

Appearance

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 deity 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.

Biography

Background

Fan art of the corruption of the temples of Uk'otoa, by Clara.

Uk'otoa is a creation of Zehir, the Cloaked Serpent, left to rule the entirety of the Lucidian Ocean as his proxy after Zehir was banished during the Calamity.

The Ki'Nau of the Swavain Islands were granted the blessings of Uk'otoa. Captain Avantika expressed that, with this blessing, "nothing and no one could stand before them." The Leviathan Lord protected the Ki'Nau on several occasions, massacring the Vukan when they attacked his followers around 400 PD. However, after that Uk'otoa demanded that all the allies of the Ki'Nau (Marquesians who were settling in the Menagerie Coast) should worshiping as their god, which they refused. By then, this had been noticed by the surviving worshipers of the Cloaked Serpent, who grew jealous, conspiring against the demigod with the assistance of the Allegiance of Allsight and sealing him beneath the depths of the Lucidian Ocean, defacing the temples built in his name.

At some point (although it is unclear if it happened before of after his imprisonment) Uk'otoa formed an alliance with two other powerful pseudo-gods, Desirat and Quajath, and after all of them ended up sealed, it was decided that if any of them were to be freed, helping the other two would be their priority. To win his freedom the False Serpent would try to forge pacts with people wanting power, or in desperate situations (such as sailors in a shipwreck). This way, he gained to warlocks, Avantika and Vandran, with the former being considered his chosen, and willing to kill to help his lord. However, the two warlocks (who had been lovers) ended up becoming enemies, and she tried to sacrifice him to the Great Leviathan.

Uk'otoa was enraged when Vandran abandoned his path, so when during a storm (likely caused by him) the sailor's ship was sabotaged, the demigod left his old to drown (although he would survive, reaching Bisaft), choosing instead a new warlock: one of the young sailors (and Vandran's pupil), Fjord.

"The Open Road" (2x05)

Fjord's patron contacted him for the first time through a dream. He found himself underwater, facing an enormous yellow eye. He tried to speak to it, but it responded only in single words: "Watching. Potential. Learn. Grow. Provoke. Consume. Reward. Patience." He woke with a start, coughing up seawater, and found that his falchion was missing from its sheath, but could now be summoned by him. Fjord discovered he had bonded with the sword as his warlock pact weapon.

"A Favor in Kind" (2x16)

As Fjord fell asleep, he faded into a dream of himself standing in total darkness; in his hand was the Waste Hunter Blade. A large yellow eye appeared in front of him. A voice said "Consume". Fjord opened his mouth and pushed the sword into it. He felt pain but also a strong hunger and continued to push the sword further. After he had swallowed the sword, the voice said "Good". The eye closed. Fjord realized he was underwater and started trying to swim against the current. After a few seconds of struggling, he woke up suddenly. The Waste Hunter Blade was gone. Fjord wiped his mouth and found a little bit of blood. He summoned his pact weapon. Instead of the Waste Hunter Blade, his weapon took the form of his falchion again, but it had a more curved appearance similar to the Waste Hunter Blade.

"Stalker in the Swamp" (2x21)

During the fight with the Merrow, Beau flung one of the corpses around intending to hit an enemy, but instead it went through a tear in reality opened by Uk'otoa. After the fight Fjord heard his patron's voice in his head say "Learn", leading him to dive into a dark pool in the merrow lair.

"Lost Treasures" (2x22)

After the Mighty Nein defeated the merrow in their lair, Fjord touched a yellow orb found in the chamber. He immediately had a vision of himself in a different place wearing different clothes in a human body holding the orb in his hand and standing over the body of its previous owner. His right hand in the vision summoned the same falchion Fjord now has. He heard a voice in his head say "Potential". He felt uncontrollably hungry, then pushed the orb into his stomach. It went into him painlessly as a voice said "Consume". The hunger went away. Suddenly feeling exhausted, he fell to his knees. Fjord looked into a nearby pool, and saw Vandran's reflection instead of his own. The voice said "Reward". Fjord came back to his own body looking into the pool where the orb was found, but it was gone. The next time Fjord summoned the falchion it had a yellow eye in the center of the hilt.

"Dangerous Liaisons" (2x37)

Fan art of Uk'otoa, by Clara.

The Mighty Nein met Avantika and discovered she was also a follower of Fjord's patron. She told them its identity: Uk'otoa, the Great Leviathan. That night, Fjord had a dream of being under the ocean.

"A Pirate's Life for Me" (2x41)

Fjord received another dream from Uk'otoa, in which he saw three glowing lights going towards a tilted tower underneath an archipelago of three islands.

"The Diver's Grave" (2x44)

In the lair of Dashilla, the party found the third Cloven Crystal. As Fjord touched it to his chest, his vision went black. He saw the same dark ocean and three yellow eyes he had seen in dreams before. An endless row of teeth smiling at him appeared and the vision was gone.

"The Second Seal" (2x47)

After placing a Cloven Crystal in the Gravid Archipelago sunken temple, Fjord saw a vision of a coastline with three cities, a jungle, and the final temple to unseal Uk'otoa.

"Cornered" (2x53)

Sleeping outside the city of Asarius, Uk'otoa revealed himself to Fjord, adding the words Wander, and Punish, before crushing him in the dream.

"Agreements" (2x61)

Uk'otoa appeared yet again to Fjord in a dream, this time angrily repeating the word Punish and causing the Half-Orc Warlock to feel the sensation of drowning. When Fjord awoke, he found that Uk'otoa had temporarily taken away his powers. His magic returned later during the day.

"Chases and Trees" (2x65)

Fan art of Uk'otoa, by Christian Thor Lally.

Fjord had a dream in which he was surrounded by dark and cold waters and Uk'otoa once again appeared, saying loudly, "Return" and "Release". The yellow eye of Uk'otoa began to tear open as snaking vines pushed out of the center, but The Wildmother called out to him to come to her temporarily-offered sanctuary at the Arbor Exemplar.

"Family Gathering" (2x71)

The Mighty Nein teleported to Nicodranas from Rosohna and spent one day there. 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 say "Return".

"Clay and Dust" (2x72)

Fjord dreamed of waking on a beach, and saw above him the moon turn into the eye of Uk'otoa. Tendrils reached out and restrained him, and the familiar voice said, "Don’t. Run. Find. Take. Consume." As the tendrils drew him through a huge mouth, the voice said, "Return. Or consume", and he was crushed within the mouth. He woke up suddenly, and his powers were again gone. He found the falchion and went stealthily to the lava pool, where he held the falchion against his chest, saying, "You need me more than I need you. Give it back." Nothing happened, and he gradually pushed the sword into his chest until he was suffering serious damage. With no response, he pulled the sword out and threw it into the pool, where it sank into the molten rock.

"Dark Waters" (2x98)

Fjord had a dream of being in a forest. As he was walking around, the forest seemed to expand on endlessly. He decided to summon his sword and try to listen for the Wildmother. Instead of summoning the Star Razor, the Sword of Fathoms appeared in his hand. The dream ended when an assassin stabbed him in the chest, trying to retrieve the Cloven Crystal.

"The Chase Begins" (2x112)

Minions of Uk'otoa attacked the Mighty Nein on their way towards Eiselcross aboard the Midnight Hammer. With the aid of a magic crystal, they located Caleb's amber necklace, shattered it, and forced the contents to spill out onto the deck of the ship, revealing the Cloven Crystal. A now-undead Captain Avantika crawled up over the side of the boat and tried to pull Fjord overboard, but failed.

"A Heart Grown Cold" (2x113)

Continuing with the battle upon the Midnight Hammer, Fjord ran over to where the Cloven Crystal had rolled and created a layer of fog to obscure the area. Avantika ran in after him and was able to find and pick up the crystal at his feet. Fjord managed to Command Avantika to drop the crystal but she quickly picked it up again. After another spell, she said "I got what I came for" and Dimension Doored away with the Cloven Crystal in hand. The party finished off the other minions of Uk'otoa and Polymorphed some of the group into killer whales while the others held ropes held in the whales mouths. After swimming out looking for her, they eventually spot Avantika swimming frantically away. The party engaged and Fjord dealt the killing blow when the Star Razor grew in power, sending two halves of her body in opposite directions. Fjord managed to reclaim the Cloven Crystal.

"The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 1" (Sx73) and "The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 2" (Sx74)

Screenshot of Uk'otoa's mini from "The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 2" (Sx74) at 2:50:00.

While sailing in a storm aboard the Nein Heroez in the Lucidian Ocean, Fjord found himself in darkness and heard the familiar but long-unheard voice of Uk'otoa in his head saying, "I found you." He saw a yellow eye open in front of him before his vision cleared. Immediately thereafter, Uk'otoa's minions attacked the ship, nearly killing Jester. To stop the attack, Fjord handed them the third and final Cloven Crystal. Gathering the Mighty Nein together again, they hurried to the temple of Zehir holding the final lock upon the leviathan. When the minions arrived bearing the crystal, the Nein battled them but were unable to prevent its unlocking and the release of Uk'otoa.

The party teleported to Nicodranas where an ominous storm on the southern horizon and multiple evil omens and visions had alerted the authorities to send out their navies. The party chartered a ship and sailed that night toward the southern Lucidian, where Uk'otoa was freed and moving north to the Menagerie Coast. While Uk'otoa was able to easily destroy most of the ships sent against him, the Mighty Nein were, after a long battle, able to damage him sufficiently to cause him to withdraw into himself, and Fjord, using sigils and runes granted to him by Zehir, re-imprisoned the leviathan and created three new Cloven Crystals. Fjord stated he intended to give one to the Cobalt Soul, hide one in Vokodo's lair in Rumblecusp, and keep the location of the third to himself.

Relationships

Avantika

Uk'otoa communicated with Avantika through dreams as well. It is implied she had less contact with Uk'otoa than Fjord, saying in "Dangerous Liaisons" (2x37) 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 "The Chase Begins" (2x112), 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

The murals of Urukayxl in Beau's journal, by Hunter Severn Bonyun from The Chronicles of Exandria - The Mighty Nein, page 209.

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.

Character Information

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.
• Tidal Wave: Creates a wave of water 250 feet long and 250 feet tall, which causes damage and on a failed STR save knocks all creatures in its path prone. Rolls to recharge.
• Multiattack: Bite, tail, and slam
• Lair actions:
  • Anger of the Storm
  • Battering Winds - all non-underwater terrain becomes difficult; knocked prone on a failed DC 17 STR save
• Uk'otoa's fury builds if he takes sufficient body damage in one round. Damaging his eyes can reduce (or not increase) that fury. When it overflows, he attacks with six lightning bolts.
• Legendary actions
  • Slam attack (bludgeoning plus additional acid damage, grappled on failed STR save)
  • Tail swipe (bludgeoning plus additional acid damage)
  • Move
  • Control Minion
• Legendary resistances
• Resistant to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing from non-magical attacks
• Immune to acid and poison damage
• Immune to being charmed, exhausted, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, or stunned

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.

Appearances and mentions

The concept art for Uk'otoa's mini, by Tyler Walpole.

• The Mighty Nein Origins: Fjord Stone
• Campaign Two
  • "The Open Road" (2x05) (first appearance)
  • "A Favor in Kind" (2x16)
  • "Stalker in the Swamp" (2x21)
  • "Lost Treasures" (2x22)
  • "Dangerous Liaisons" (2x37), mentioned only
  • "Dubious Pursuits" (2x40), mentioned only
  • "The Diver's Grave" (2x44), in a vision
  • "The Second Seal" (2x47), in a vision
  • "Homeward Bound" (2x48), mentioned only
  • "Cornered" (2x53), dream
  • "Chases and Trees" (2x65), dream
  • "Family Gathering" (2x71)
  • "Clay and Dust" (2x72), dream
  • "Fond Farewells" (2x141), mentioned only
• Specials
  • "The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 1" (Sx73)
  • "The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 2" (Sx74)

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.
• (to the Mighty Nein, before fighting them) "These waters have ever been mine. You trespass. You shall be made an example."

Trivia

Official figurine of Uk'otoa, from the tabletop game of the same name.

• A recurring gag is the players habit of repeating Uk'otoa's name in hushed whispers when a character speaks it out loud.
• Uk'otoa's name bears close resemblance to the race of degenerate fishmen, the kuo-toa. Despite the similarity it is currently unknown whether Uk'otoa or its creator the Cloaked Serpent has any connection to these creatures.
• Matt confirmed in "Talks Machina #89: 'Dubious Pursuits'" (TMx89) 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.
• Matt confirmed in "Talks Machina #89: 'Dubious Pursuits'" (TMx89) that the three entities pictured in the yuan-ti temple, including Uk'otoa, were creations of the gods that became "pseudo-gods" after being left behind by their creators.
• There are some parallels between Uk'otoa and Sahyaadon, both being created by powerful deities, and having influence over domains controlled by their creators or over which said creators aspired to rule.
  • Their respective creators are enemies, and the relationship of the idols with each of them is completely different: while Uk'otoa tried to become a god and had temples of his own, being punished by the Cloaked Serpent for it, Sahyaadon has a statue of the Wildmother in Zha'Vrollo, honoring her in their own temple.
• If the Mighty Nein had failed to re-seal Uk'otoa in "The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 2" (Sx74), the leviathan would be roaming free. It wouldn't be an entire apocalypse, but it would put a big shadow on the whole Menagerie Coast and the Lucidian Ocean would be much more treacherous. A whole portion of that area would be locked off to the rest of the ocean.

References

Art: