Although not as popular as some of their other mythic beast counterparts, taniwha are by no means pushovers, nor do they have a negligible history. The moniker of 'water gods' that they now have originated from a slightly odd tendency that the creatures have. That being, they tended to adopt settlements of smaller civilizations and then take care of them as though it were a curious child raising an ant farm.
No taniwha is identical, and they tend to develop differently depending on their origins. While all of them made their homes in secluded regions of water, that was about the only overlap their environments have. For one example, taniwha from the ocean's abyssal depths tended to resemble their deep sea fish brethren, and have lights lining their body. Creatures from those environments tended to develop similarly to Bessie as well, gaining gravity and darkness based abilities in addition to the innate aptitude of water that all of their species share.
