Moreno is an ancient and powerful entity – the primordial spirit that guides and protects the vast, unforgiving waters of the Afalon Sea. He has existed since before the first mariners dared venture out in crude rafts, an elemental force as old as the oceans themselves.
To gaze upon Moreno's visage is to behold the fathomless depths incarnate. He appears as an ancient, wizened man with a long gray beard that sway hypnotically in the underwater currents. His body is covered in barnacles and wrapped in robes of waving kelp. Moreno's eyes are an enigmatic, turbulent gray-blue, churning like the sea before a great squall, flecked with golden sparks that could be the reflected glint of sunlight on the crests of waves or something deeper.
Despite his calm, impassive expression, there is an intensity about Moreno that hints at the vast power coiling within. He moves with a slow, inevitable force, surrounded by an ever-present retinue of sea turtles, sharks, whales and other marine creatures that comprise his eternal court. Fish swirl around his lumbering form in shimmering cyclones, adorning him like living jewelry.
Moreno speaks in a rumbling baritone that resonates like the pounding of the tides against rocky cliffs. Though he can take humanoid form, his true immensity is impossible to comprehend - a vast consciousness that spans the entirety of the Afalon, its darkest trenches and highest swells an extension of his very being.
Mariners who risk traversing his domain tell tales of sudden, violent storms born of Moreno's eternal vigil. Mountainous waves rise from peaceful seas without warning, hammered by howling winds and lashed by torrential rains that trap ships in his turbulent grip.
Wise sailors know to pay deep reverence to Moreno before daring to cross his watery realm. In ports across the Afalon's coastlines, supplicants make offerings at wave-worn shrines adorned with driftwood and shells. It is said that pouring a portion of the finest rum into the sea before launching can appease Moreno's temper and ensure calm winds and fair skies.
On the open water experienced captains order all boisterous songs, loud noises and foul language be ceased once their vessel passes the Afalon's outermost shoals. Most precious of all are the seaworthy charms and talismans fashioned from the shed teeth, bones and scales of Moreno's aquatic courtiers. Dangled from masts and gunnels, these sacred relics are meant to identify the craft as being under the sea god's protection. So long as proper rituals are observed, legend holds that Moreno will safeguard their passage with his great power over the oceans.
Yet even the most devout know better than to test Moreno's mercurial favor. At the first sign of darkening clouds or increasing swells, orders are barked to douse all flames and offertory lamps. Not a spark must remain to incur his turbulent wrath. Seasoned sailors lash themselves to the decks with sturdy ropes and don cork jackets that may let them float if struck by one of the primordial deity's towering waves.
All they can do is brace and utter whispered prayers as Moreno's tempest descends upon them in a thunderous onslaught of wind, rain and ocean. Those unlucky enough to be caught in the vortex can only hope their terrors and suffering amidst the maelstrom earn them Moreno's mercy. Perhaps in time the sea will spit them back upon the shores in a thick tangle of joists, canvas and whipped cordage - humbled survivors left to spread tales of the sea's indomitable and eternal master.