Mer

Mer are a race of anthroid fishes of varying morphologies. So far, several variations of the species have been identified.
== Types of Mer ==
=== Freshwater Mer ===
Mermaids living in freshwater are often more amenable to the other races and exchanges between the two aren't unheard of. Coastal settlements with dried kelp or seagrass industries will more often than not have contact with mermaids. The term freshwater is synonymous to "city dweller" in popular lingo. 
=== Water Hags ===
Main article: Water Hags
Mer that are able to swim up rivers from the sea to freshwater lakes, either to live or to reproduce and sometimes adopt crocodile-esque ambushes in order to feed. Benevolent Hags are thought to reside in peaceful lakes or rivers. If a person goes missing near such lakes or rivers, he or she may have been taken by the hag. To obtain the person's release, local elders will brew beer as a propitiatory offering, and ask the hag to return the person alive. Those seeking the person's release are not supposed to cry or shed tears. If the mer releases the person, he or she will become a traditional healer, with knowledge of herbs, medicinal plants, and cures. Why hags kidnap people for this purpose is unknown.
=== Pelagic Boneshroud Sirens ===
Boneshroud causes merfolk to be cut off from their peers, turning them into sirens. The sheer number of sirens and their warlike nature caused tem to become a distinct faction from mer. They lack the distinctive siren call ability however. 
=== Cnidar mer ===
Mermaids with jellyfish tails that zap enemies
=== Observed other types of mer ===
* Human above the waist, fish below
* A fish with a human head and arm
* Unlike classical depictions of mermaids some are anatomically identical to land-bound humans, differing only in their ability to breathe and live underwater. They can interbreed with land humans, and the children of such unions have the ability to live underwater.
* Some have been described as monstrous in size, up to 610 m.
* Freshwater mermaid creatures with two fish tails, or with the lower body of a serpent.
* Green hair, slight webbing between fingers of a white and delicate film
* Descendants of mermaids and other races have scaly skin and "membrane between fingers and toes". But after some "years in succession" they will almost inevitably return to the sea, their "natural instincts" irresistibly overcoming any love-bond they may have formed with their terrestrial family. To prevent acting on the impulse, the magic red cap that covers them on land must be kept well concealed, as it allows the transformation from one form to another. Some can shed their skin into seals or into the other races of their parents.
== Reproduction ==
Magical hybridization into Mer from an anthropomorph and a fish isn't unheard of, the first known case of an artificially created mermaid happened when a human unintentionally killed its mate. Ashamed, she jumped into a lake and took the form of a fish, but the waters would not conceal her beauty. Thereafter, she took the form of a mermaid human above the waist, fish below. The pond where this took place is now a known area where mermaids spawn, and is ferociously protected by its inhabitants.
== Civilization ==
=== Agriculture ===
Mer harvest seaweed for food and clothes, herd fish into schools for food and clothes (scales), Sunfish are their equivalents of prey animals, that they hunt, use as pack animals (like oxen) due to their calm and friendly attitude. They train swordfishes as hunting dogs. They regularly hold contests for pufferfish art and color changing, they also harvest puffer fish toxins for recreational drug use.
=== Settlements ===
Mer live in waters no deeper than 2000 meters. When passing the midnight zone ,they navigate using echolocation. However they prefer to build their cities in depths between 500 and 800 meters. They create hermits and ectrics to protect their underwater kingdoms, and are aided by the benevolent and protective ogre-crabs.
==== Mermaid treasuries ====
Mermaids will hire sailors to heist one another's treasures. They protect them with their crustacean slave guards.
==== Mer trade statues ====
Used to store valuables, which are then transferred to the surface via a courier. The courier uses a beacon, when activated, the cargo crates float to the surface from the statue.
==== Merfolk statues ====
Main article: Merfolk statues
The statues are used to convert individuals into mer or crustacean anthroids.
==== Mermaid shrines ====
Where tridents are made. 
== Technology ==
=== Red cap ===
The red cap is a special hat which enables Mer to dive deep beneath the waves. If they lose this cap, it is said that they will lose their power to return beneath the water. In reality Mer use magic red hats to survive on land, supposedly some kind of inverse diving helmet.
=== Suits and landships ===
They build hermetic crustacean inspired landships and crafts when traveling on land. They sometimes replace the legs of their vehicles for tracks. Their land suits are similarly sealed, and the water can be partially re-oxygenated using gas porous materials. 
=== Mer earrings ===
Pearl earrings that translate mer language and render immune to Siren calls.
=== Water edge rooms ===
Underwater meeting places for Mer to talk and trade. 
=== Servant statue ===
These statues are captured invaders that are to be transformed into ectrics or other creatures that serve the Mer. The process is powered by a gemstone, which if harvested stops the transformation. The creature that leaves the statue is a bottom dweller creature. 
== Culture ==
=== Music ===
Mer music is known to be heard coming from the farthest depths of the ocean, yet the sound travels floatingly across the surface. Mer dance to the music, whether ashore on the strand or upon the wave, which is a way of detecting spies, most carry plugs to prevent this.
=== Sailor Cage ===
Mer capture the souls of drowned sailors and lock them in lobster pot-like objects under the sea.
=== Sea silk ===
These aquatic people spin a type of raw silk called sea silk, the rare fabric woven from byssus filaments, water sheep, or water silkworm.
=== Genesis ===
Mer philosophers postulated that anthropomorphs came from an aquatic animal species. because land dwelling anthropomorphs begin life with a prolonged infancy, and could not have survived otherwise.
=== Mer and the other races ===
Depictions of entities with the tails of fish, but the upper bodies of anthropomorphs beings appear in cosmopolitan artwork from many of the other races. These figures are usually mermen, but mermaids do occasionally appear. Such figures are used in coastal cultures in art as protective figures, monumental sculptures and in small, protective figurines. In areas where Mer coexist with Other races, there is often an understanding, a taboo against eating certain fish in a wider region, due to belief that Mer assume a fish-form, this is false, but the Mer tend to keep this myth to avoid overfishing from the other races. In other race cultures it isn't rare to see mermaids associated with lust.
Mer, when relations are peaceful trade with fishers for cooked and dried foods as imported goods. The food is either eaten on the surface, or kept in crates in dried storerooms. Some boil their foods deep in seafloor heat vents, but the lack of light makes this difficult. Mer also trade pearls and gems with surface dwellers, the invaders exchange their technology in return, mostly to fight kraken and the boneshrouds effects.
Saving a mer causes it to save its rescuer from the waters, they will call out to their rescuer if beached. Mer use hooked lines and glass helmets to save their beached comrades. This is not necessarily a pure hearted endeavor, as the one that must rescue the other hears an endless whine in its ears until its task is complete. For example, there was once a war that ended in siren queens sending mers to help overboard sailors as the price for their defeat, as well as jeweled statues made from the dried remains of one of their number, as tribute to the victors.
Mer often battle with other subaqueous civilizations, Mer once raided crustacean anthroids, who sought vengeance on them. Their champion was a lobster anthroid, who dies of its wounds. The Mer ever since use the infants of these anthroids as their slaves and guardians, namely the hermits, ectrics and ogre crabs. 
=== Weather ===
Bad weather is a foreign concept to Mer (especially city dwellers) because there is very little change in their everyday environment due to weather. for this they are terrified of storms and only the bravest venture to the surface. This is less true of freshwater Mer who are accustomed to it. Nonetheless, they will forewarn other race sailors, swimmers and coastal towns of storms (leading to the unfortunate belief that they are its cause). Mer are not universally seen as such, some communities view them with suspicion, casting blame for poor fishing harvests and bad luck in general. This enmity is also reflected in Mer culture, especially those living near inhabited coastlines.
It is not uncommon for the other races to find corpses of Mer on beaches, what they do with them isn't identical, some will bury them ,some will weigh them with stones and cast them out to sea, some will eat them.
== Society ==
Mer society is as diverse as their land dwelling counterparts, several different societies have been observed
* One underwater society follows a form of primitive communism where concepts like money and clothing do not exist.
* Some are farming communities, with agriculture, animal husbandry, tool usage similar to feudal societies on land.
* Mer cities are often deeper under the waves, but their farms are most often in the warmer coastal areas.
=== Religion ===
The Mer worship a water god king figure known as the Murmaider.
The story of the Murmaider is that following a raid on crustacean anthroids, the crustaceans send a champion to avenge them. The murmaiders drank the blood of their victims. Following the last murmaider' victory over the crustacean, it retreated to the depths of a sea cave. The sea gods (a deep sea creature) bore witness to the crime, and a prophet (bleeding lips) beckoned the murmaider to its sunken ship, giving it many gifts, such as swimming through matter, poison teeth, tentacles, a deadly variant of a siren call, black eyes and tears. The prophet spokes the language of sharks, the language of magic in mer culture. The prophets' gifts are to make the murmaider a god, but warns of the vengeance of the older gods. Accepting the gift, the water god sits atop a bloodied coral throne, with a crown of its murdered foes and minions stretched for leagues, all bowing to submit. The eventual battle of the water god and the deep ocean gods is coming, but when is unknown. Ever since, the water god raises its minions from the eggs of its defeated foes, among which ectrics, hermits and ogre crabs.
== Physiology ==
Mermaids are incapable of producing souls upon death, unless through intercourse with an anthropomorph that produces sufficient gratitude, but this is exceedingly rare, and little researched by either parties.
Due to their physique Mermaids are often confused with drowned zombies and ghosts, who use a tactic of pretending to be drowning or calling out to people to drown them in turn.
Category:Mer
Category:Chimera
Category:Sea Life
Category:Pages with red links
Category:Other Races