Merfolk

General

Merfolk always remain physically young and appealing. Keywords: Sea dwelling, rulers of the ocean, hunter-gatherers, are seen rarely by the rest of the races, can breath underwater, fishlike.

History

Nobody knows exactly how and when the merfolk came into existance. It could be that a human or sea dwelling creature mutated naturally but that option seems somewhat far fetched (considering merfolks need a mate to reproduce). Merfolks have always looked the way they do nowadays, as far as records go back. Unfortunatly not many ancient images of the merfolk exist so it is an unreliable fact at best. The numbers and sizes of merfolk groups are increasing however. The merfolks themselves believe that their deity has created them, not much unlike other races.

Ageing

Merfolk grow in similar rates with the elves, though they are not immortal. The oldest merfolk ever was about a thousand years old. It is quite unclear when a merfolk is considered baby, child, teenager, adolescent, adult or elderly. Most often the only guideline is a visual identification of approximate age, although this method is also quite unreliable because merfolks physique differs from other races.

Physical apearance

Merfolks are quite easy to indentify as members of their species. All merfolk have fins on their legs, arms, and sides of their heads. A merfolk is cold blooded like a fish and also sport gills and have difficulty breathing outside of the water. Some merfolk also have small patches of scales on their upper bodies, varying in color, where the female color scheme is somewhat lighter then the male.

The color of their near human upper body is usually a combination of regular skin color and the color of their scales (it is unknown weither the skin tone of merfolk varies in more tropical regions). Merfolks have ears pointed in the shape of fins. Merfolks also lack a nose and have small breathing slits instead of them. Their mouth is also somewhat wider than a human’s so that they can easier swallow their food whole.

Their eyes are also quite human except for a larger pupil and smaller iris. Merfolks also have a backfin and smaller fins on their lower arms, both used for maneuvering underwater. Merfolks also have advanced sensory capabilities under water such as better taste of water, sight and hearing.

Reproduction

Merfolks reproduce in the same method as humans do, witch puts them in the mammal category. They do not lay eggs, as their fish like physique would suggest. Merfolks are pregnant for about 5 months; this is strange because most slow aging races have longer pregnancies.

Habitat

As far as people know merfolks live under the watter surface. They mostely live in caverns located rather deep below the watter surface where the average temperature is lower and the risk of fishnets is far lower. They also have a single city like communal living place, witch suggest a level of sophistication far beyond regular animals. Their culture may not be as sophisticated as other cultures, but they do have their own religion and way of life.

Way of life

Merfolk childeren are not only raised by its parrents, but by the entire tribe. Every female merfolk is as a mother, and every male merfolk is as a father to the child. Sometimes this leads to confusion, because it becomes unclear who is the real father or mother of a specific child.

As a merfolk ages, they are given a sort of tutelage. This tutelage consists of all the necessary skills to live in the harsh aquatic environment. They learn to hunt, communicate in their language and a set of other usefull skills for survival. A merfolk is officially adult if she loses her virginity. This may sound strange to other cultures, but the merfolk see it as a sign that the now adult merfolk is responsible enough to conceive children of her own.

Culture

Merfolk culture isn’t exactly complicated. In the text above a few examples are given of merfolk culture, and only a few select important facts are listed here. Merfolk learn to hunt with both their claws and spears. These are manufactured with things found underwater and are a relative new development, as the first merfolk spear was found about 100 years ago. Apparently they have learnt from their brief encounters with the human race.

Januri, God of the sea and love is the goddess worshipped by the merfolk. Merfolk tend to be not overly religious, but they have their festivities and rituals in wich they offer seafruits and other gifts to their goddess.

Language

Merfolks have no written language, only a language that is a combination of verbal and non verbal components, not quite unlike trolls. They communicate trough sign language, movements and a small amount of clicking noises made with their tounge. This noise is typical for merfolks as it requires a long time to master the difrent tones and meanings of this seemingly simple sound. This has resulted in limited communication with other races.

Merfolks comunicate similar in day to day activities as land dwelling races do, their language is just far more difficult to master. Their language is adequate to express love, pain and other complex notions, and usually is combined with a lot of emotion and touching.

The difficulty in learning the merfolk language is in the many slight variations in pronunciations. If one would pronounce the same word slightly different the complete meaning of the word might change.