Mariners

Mariners or Marinas are the warriors of Poseidon, god of the sea, who wear the scales. The Generals are the seven strongest warriors of Poseidon, and command of his army, generally devoting their time to the protection of the 7 pillars that sustain the seven seas above the Underwater Sanctuary. Their power is said to be at least equal to the Gold Saints of Athena.

Pre-war
The almighty god Zeus suddenly disappeared to "a place beyond the sky", entrusting the land of Earth to his daughter Athena. Learning of Zeus' disappearance, Poseidon began preparing to take the position of "lord of the land" from Athena. From the seven seas, Poseidon gathered his army, powerful warriors that were later named "mariners". While creating his undersea kingdom, Poseidon dreamed constantly of taking all of Earth, and created the first series of powerful, living armors, the scales (possibly modeled after the divine kamui).

The first holy war
Poseidon began invading the land ruled by Athena, and the warriors of the surface could do nothing to face the mariners "awesome power". While the terrible war happened, the god of the underworld, Hades, watched from the shadows. The mariners' scales, made of orichalcum, could repel all the weapons used by the surface warriors, and no defensive gear could hold back the mariners' own attacks. For that reason, the warriors of land couldn't face Poseidon's army, and the war became one-sided.

Poseidon built a gigantic fortress-temple known as Atlantis, right above the Atlantic Ocean, and used it as the foothold of the invasion. Upon its completion, the attacks to the surface were intensified. Poseidon's sea fortress was also called "the Continental Temple", due to its enormity, and Atlantis' defenses were all but impenetrable. It's said that even tens of thousands of soldiers wouldn't make a difference, if one were to attack it. The temple remained in human myth as the "continent" of Atlantis.

Many of the well known surface warriors were defeated during Poseidon's fierce attack, and a group of youths (all boys) appeared on the battlefield to replace them. Because of Athena's hatred of weapons, the youths fought only with their own bodies, and were severely injured or killed on every encounter with the mariners. Saddened by this, Athena gave them the protection of the cloths, and those who wore them were then known as saints, the "sacred warriors".

The cloths worn by saints were forged by the alchemists of Mu under Athena's instructions, out of orichalcum, gammanium and stardust sand. Because of the materials, a certain amount of damage done to the cloths could be repaired by the armors themselves, and the "cloth boxes" used to store the cloths acted as preservers for the life contained on each armor, hastening the effects of their natural regenerative ability. The shining 88 constellations of the night sky showed up by Athena's wish, and were the design plans for the saints' cloths. It seems that, because of this, a saint cannot wear a cloth that is not representative of their own protective constellation.

With the birth of the saints, Athena tried to persuade Poseidon to give up on his ambition to take the surface world from her, but the request was ignored. With the direct attacks not as effective as before, Poseidon entrenched himself and his mariners inside of Atlantis, and began causing devastating floods and earthquakes on Earth, ending many lives. Angered by that attitude, Athena sent eight saints to the fortress-temple. At the end of an intense fight, Atlantis was sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

Post-war
With Poseidon's defeat, Athena sealed his spirit in the Arctic region. To keep an eye on Poseidon's spirit, a few Saints went to the Arctic and made a settlement there, founding the country called Bluegrad. Those saints eventually became the Blue Warriors.

Additional information (to be edited)
The generals' fighting strength is said to be on par with the Gold Saints if not above them, but their Scales, supposed to equal the endurance of a Gold Cloth, have proven to be more fragile. This can be caused by the fact that Poseidon's army has awakened too early because of Kanon's plot and hasn't be able to show it's full power. This is somewhat hinted by the Official Encyclopedia and could also explain how the Saints managed to contain Poseidon's unlimited might, but there isn't a clear confirmation. They represent some famous sea monsters of the myth and the Scales are shaped on them. They are all manipulated by Kanon that plans to use their strength to decimate the Saints to rise to world domination, so he make them believe that it's Poseidon's plan to purify the rotten humanity to found a new era of peace. Although being Saint's enemies, they are proven to be honorous heroes capable to die for their cause. Marina Generals has been the first strong enemies the Saints had to fight in history, during the Myth Era and Clothes has been created to oppose the power of the Scales, expecially the 7 Scales of the Generals. It's easy to guess that the whole Gold Saints order has been created taking inspiration from the 7 Generals, just like the 12 Gold Cloths shaped to oppose the 7 Scales. The 7 Generals have a symbol like the zodiac symbol of the Gold Saints sculped at the top of the Zodiac Temples. Those symbols can be noted sculpted on the 7 Pillars that are protected by the Generals with the same effort as the Zodiac Temples of Sanctuary. Although the Generals don't fear even the power of the Gold Saints as shown by Siren Sorrento that easily handles the might of Taurus Aldebaran in the manga and Dubhe Alpha Siegfried in the anime, they are defeated by the Bronze Saint rising their Seventh Sense to the extreme extent and aided by the true power of the Clothes reborn with the golden blood and granted an endurance close to the Gold Clothes. A similar bonus on the defensive side has been at Gold Saints' advantage during 12 Temples battles, when Bronze Saints often burned their Cosmo above that of the Gold Saints but the mighty endurance of the Gold Clothes saved their wearers from an almost certain defeat in some cases (this is for example clearly stated by Milo at the end of his fight against Hyoga). The Bronze Saints took advantage of the same factor to being able to have the upper hand against the powerful Generals.

Marinas Generals (Omega Era)

 * Siren Sorrento (Omega)

Other Marinas (Classic Era)

 * Mermaid Thetis

Marinas Generals (1986 manga)
Sorted in the same order as they enter battle:
 * Sea Horse Baian
 * Scylla Io
 * Chrysaor Krishna
 * Limnade Caça
 * Kraken Isaak
 * Siren Sorrento
 * Sea Dragon Kanon

Marinas Generals (Lost Canvas)

 * Sea Dragon Unity