Reborn on an new "Earth"

A pure soul drowned in the universe’s emptiness before finding itself in Aephiria. Okeanos suddenly awakened in what seemed to be a very decorated coral field. Surprisingly enough, he was able to breathe despite being underwater and his legs were replaced by a fish tail. Okeanos realized he wasn’t human anymore, but a merman instead. He couldn’t believe it! He could finally explore the seas without worrying about drowning or about needing a boat! Despite all of this, though, Okeanos was wondering if there was a catch to this, especially since he definitively died before and was given a second life. And so began his explorations around the sea he was reborn in.

Finding out what he can do as a merfolk

Despite knowing how a merman looked, Okeanos didn’t know much about their strengths and weaknesses. To find out, he tried a few random things in hopes of understanding what he is better at. Okeanos began by swimming as fast as he could and found out he was much faster than he was as a human. Superhuman speed, check. Then, he attempted to control the waters around him by gesturing around. Unfortunately, that didn’t do much and he concluded that he didn’t have hydrokinesis.

Being unsure of what else he could try, he headed towards Aquaphonte, where he later finds refuge in the Equinox Library, a library that had all the knowledge he ever wanted to know about mermans. The books told him about all the myths and legends about his current species, as well as about their ability to look more human on land. Of course, knowing this, Okeanos tried to go to the surface for the first time in a while.

He had missed seeing the sun and the earth for so long. For the first time in a while, the merman was able to see the birds, the trees, the soft breeze of the sea, basically anything beautiful the surface had to offer. Wanting to experience human life, Okeanos attempted to walk on the earth. His tail split into two human legs, although he wasn’t able to keep balance for too long. Since then, Okeanos went to the surface a few times to practice shapeshifting and was eventually able to master the art.

Working as a librarian

While at Aquaphonte, Okeanos started visiting the same library that taught him about mermans to the point where he had become a regular visitor. The previous head librarian was starting to be too old for his job and was actively looking for a successor. Seeing Okeanos’s passion for books, he took him under his wing and taught him about the art of being a librarian. Despite Okeanos being way too serious at his job, the previous head was very comfortable at the idea of bestowing his title to the young merman.

After a few months, Okeanos was officially made the head of the library and the former head librarian retired to a modest home in Aquaphonte. Because he had more power, he was able to read the books he previously did not have access to and noticed there were a few of them with incomplete information about many of Aephiria’s creatures. Wanting to complete it, he started searching for a long term adventurer who would help him gather information. For a while, he wasn’t able to find someone who would help him because of how long the contract was.

Reuniting with his childhood friend

It was a calm day in the library. Okeanos had just finished reorganizing the books in his library when he saw a face he had never seen in the library. And yet, they seemed extremely familiar. It is later revealed to be Sirius Greyford, who was previously a childhood friend with the noble goal of bringing peace to his kingdom. They unfortunately were separated as a consequence of his older brother’s antics. Despite that, they caught up and agreed to form a contract where Sirius would look for the creatures Okeanos needed more information on in exchange for payment for things whenever they hang out together.

Despite a very happy reunion, Okeanos has the feeling Sirius came for another reason and would love to know what it is, but doesn’t want to pry in his friend’s matters too much yet.

The book that caused trouble

Despite doing his best at his job as both a librarian who guided people towards the right book and a guardian of the forbidden books that were hidden in the deepest sections of the Equinox Library, Okeanos was not able to prevent a situation from happening. Being acquainted with Demiurge, an ink demon who sometimes explored inside his books for fun, he learned that an inhabitant found herself inside a cursed Alice in Wonderland book.

Said book was previously used to seal an ink demon who tried to unleash a lot of monsters in Aephiria for his own pleasure, thus said book was never supposed to be seen by anyone ever. Thus, Okeanos helped Demiurge and the other characters in the story figure out what to do to get the inhabitant out of the book through extensive research & by protecting the book from evil.

After Minerva, the person who accidentally found herself inside the book, escaped, it is said that the book was stolen despite Okeanos’ precautions.

Months of searching for the abnormal

Ever since the Alice in Wonderland book incident, Okeanos worked hard on trying to find other books with other anomalies such as Alastair. Thus, he started working with Demiurge (and later on, Minerva) in finding those and turning the books back to normal. No one is entirely sure what happened for those to get corrupted, but one thing’s for sure, these anomalies could affect the world if left unattended, especially if they were in ancient books.

During these searches, the librarian was assisted by two new co-workers: Calypso, who would become the library’s main scribe & Vihaan, who would be an assistant librarian. Although, things definitely felt off with her, almost as if she was only pretending. But, Okeanos didn’t think too much about it, as she wasn’t from Aquaphonte and couldn’t find any extra information about her.

Something is wrong

It wasn’t until the librarian tried to invite Sirius to his library that things started to get very odd. The Daybreaker seemingly has never set foot in the library even if he told his friend he would come. And, for months, he was nowhere to be found. But, something felt very wrong when Okeanos came across a book that was not supposed to be in the library. One titled “And Then They Were None”. A book about Sirius committing mass genocide.

Very perplexed, Okeanos spent all of his time figuring out where the book came from & how something this horrible could’ve made its way inside the library he cherished. Very bright, he quickly learned that the actual Sirius had been trapped in that book for a while, and was previously trapped in 4 other books before that Genocide book. And, with the help of Demiurge & Minerva, Okeanos managed to help his friend.

All seemed well, as Sirius rushed to go back to Xena, as he fully knew Xena was worried sick for him. Okeanos seemed happy, but at the same time, had the crushing feeling that something was off.

His first trip outside of Aquaphonte

Plagued with worry, the merman spent a very unusual time looking at the Genocide book. Despite having freed Sirius from it, he can’t help but worry. Who would write something this horrible about his friend? Why did Sirius seem so off when he freed him? Why was Sirius so keen on leaving the library even if he was supposed to meet his friend? Those were all questions that kept plaguing Okeanos.

Because Demiurge & Minerva were both very busy, it took a bit before they were able to re-explore the Genocide book…and found out that the real Sirius was actually still inside…while the Sirius that was out there…was the genocidal maniac that was depicted in the book.

Extremely concerned for everyone’s safety, Okeanos rushed to Obsyma even if he had never gone outside of his region before after quickly teaching a few tricks to Calypso, who would become the main librarian for a little while.

Not long after, a knock could be heard on Xena’s door.

• Because of how important the sea was in his past life (family of sailors & cartographers), Okeanos was reborn as a merman. He's based off the Blue Delta Guppy (Poecilia reticulata).
• Okeanos knows both French & English, although he isn't as fluent in French.
• He has a similar voice to Miles "Tails" Prower.
• Okeanos is a name that means "ocean" in Greek.
• Here's the music that inspired his creation: NORNS
• He's pretty good at cooking and at riding ships.
• Okeanos has a small garden on the back of his library. There was previously nothing there, he did it at first to remind himself of the good times he had with Sirius. Not that many people tend to notice it, though, but he hopes he can show it off eventually.
• He doesn't seem to have a favorite book. In fact, he will always answer that he loves all kinds of books, but tends to dislike the more grim ones.