Nerissa

* Biography
* Threat Assessment
* Trivia and Notes
* Gallery

## Biography

### Nerissa: Once Upon A Time...

The young mermaid named Nerissa was born in an undersea kingdom, deep beneath the waves of the Cold Iron Sea, between the lands of Fryslân, Viss, and Lamien. Nerissa was the daughter of a god and a goddess who came from Earth, but since coming to the Homelands, the two had allowed themselves to take on more aquatic features and dedicated themselves more to the sea with every passing year.

Despite their devotion to the sea, Nerissa's parents believed it was important for their daughters to understand the world above the waves. So they allowed each of their seven daughters, once they reached the appropriate age, to ascend to the shores once a year to take human form for one day and one night.

Nerissa had been to the lands of Viss and Lamien. She found little wonder in either kingdom that interested her and was happy to return to the depths of the sea when her enchantment wore off, but when she and her sisters went to Fryslân the next year, Nerissa had a very different reaction. The kingdom was in the midst of a festival in honor of their young prince's birthday. Shy Nerissa was watching from a distance when a young and handsome boy noticed her and invited her to join.

Nervous, Nerissa walked away but the curious boy followed her to the cliffs overlooking the sea, where Nerissa began to sing with her enchanting voice. Captivated by her song, the boy had to approach and the two began to talk. Nerissa became smitten with the boy as the conversation progressed. When the boy mentioned it was his birthday, Nerissa realized he was the prince. She promptly apologized as she had nothing to give him, but offered him a kiss. The boy happily accepted, but that innocent kiss turned into much more.

The next morning, as the sun was rising, Nerissa got to her feet and ran to the cliffs, desperate to get into the water before her transformation reverted. The prince woke up and ran to stop her, but as he grabbed her hand and tried to pull her from the cliff's edge, both stumbled and fell into the sea. As Nerissa's legs disappeared, she saw the water turn bloody as the prince had hit his head on a rock in the tumble. Grabbing the prince, Nerissa swam to shore and laid with him till he came around.

Nearly a year later, Nerissa's parents discovered what Nerissa had done during the previous landwalk and furiously stripped Nerissa of the privilege. Nerissa could not imagine another year without seeing her prince and so she swam away from home. In exchange for a potion which could grant her legs, Nerissa sold her voice to the sea witch Melaina. The sea witch warned Nerissa that there would be an additional cost in that the legs given by this potion would be excruciating and wracked with constant pain unless Nerissa could get the prince to fall in love with her. The exchange was hardly ideal, but Nerissa did not care as it meant she could see her prince once more.

Upon taking the deal, Nerissa swam to the beach and took the potion. The alchemical transformation was taxing on her, causing her to pass out in the wet sand. When she awoke, Nerissa was taken in and clothed by a fisherman and his wife. As Nerissa could not speak and had some curious fascinations and reactions to things, they assumed she must have washed ashore from a shipwreck and hailed from a foreign land. Still, they gave Nerissa room and board in exchange for her assistance with chores.

At night, Nerissa would wander into town, searching for the prince. She could not get near the castle without being stopped by the guards. Though every step was torture, Nerissa would stroll through the town for hours in search of her prince until she was exhausted.

One night, Nerissa joined the fisherman and his wife at a town festival where Nerissa heard such delightful music that she had to dance — even though the pain was awful. She had such a wonderful time, that she drew many onlookers and was soon joined by the prince himself, who effortlessly slid onto the dance floor and joined her.

When the song had ended, Nerissa quickly grabbed the prince by the hand and whisked him away from the festivities. Somewhere private, Nerissa gave the prince a passionate kiss but he stopped her from going any further. He admitted she was beautiful and also strangely familiar, but could not recall if they had met before. Nerissa was confused but then recalled how he had hit his head. The prince asked for her name but when Nerissa tried to speak she was quickly reminded how she had lost her voice to the sea witch.

Realizing she was mute, the prince became sad. He explained to her that just over a year prior, he had hit his head and lost much of the memory of a beautiful maiden he had fallen so passionately for, but he could remember her enchanting voice as its sound still haunted his mind. Nerissa tried to explain she was that girl but the prince just didn't seem to understand.

The two spent the remainder of the night walking the beach. The prince realized he did not know Nerissa's name and decided to give her one. Since she was silent and beautiful, he looked to the environment for inspiration. Spotting some flowers nearby, he chose the name Dianthe as he plucked the flower and tucked it into her hair. Nerissa liked that name and happily accepted it. The prince then properly introduced himself to "Dianthe", giving his name as Charming.

After seeing the state of the fisherman's cabin, Charming decided he enjoyed Nerissa's company enough to find her a job on the royal payroll as a chambermaid. Nerissa rarely had to do any actual menial work, as the prince would constantly pull her from chores to join him as his companion for riding, hunting, sailing, dining, and even things such as bathing, dressing, and sleeping. The prince enjoyed the sound of his own voice and found Nerissa to be excellent company. As a mute, Nerissa could only listen so there was little reason to expect the strange foreign girl of selling any state secrets.

Nerissa made no secret of her affection for the prince. The prince was happy to allow her to express it, but the two's casual sexual relationship did little to ease Nerissa's magical discomfort. After she saw that Charming was comfortable enough around her to openly carouse with other women, Nerissa realized that the prince did not love her. If she was going to find a remedy for this curse, she would need to approach this differently than she had. Her situation was only more complicated as after a year as the prince's chambermaid, Nerissa overheard the prince's parents begin to pressure their son to get married.

After accompanying the prince on many travels to far courts to evaluate potential mates, Nerissa was having considerable luck sabotaging those dates, whether directly or indirectly such as by miming some of the traits of the dates she knew did little to appeal to Charming, usually getting a smirk or chuckle out of him. In private, Charming began to express a lack of interest in marrying and even suggested that he and Nerissa could run away together. Nerissa tried so hard to keep him focused on that idea, but his parents would constantly keep him focused on his duty to the kingdom.

At another birthday celebration for the prince, a strange woman came sauntering into court wearing a necklace which Nerissa recognized as the one the sea witch had used to collect Nerissa's voice. Sure enough, when the woman approached the prince with a predatory intent, she spoke with Nerissa's own enchanting voice.

Try as she did to sabotage this beguiler's chances with Charming, the woman used magic to counter each of Nerissa's attempts, all while calling attention to Nerissa's interruptions. Pressured by his parents, Charming had to dismiss Nerissa from the celebration, forcing her to watch from a distance as some witch used her voice to steal her prince from under her, potentially damning her to a life of absolute pain and heartbreak.

The next morning, Nerissa found the woman in Charming's chambers. While the prince was still unconscious, Nerissa stormed into the room, grabbed the woman from the bed, and dragged her into the adjoining dressing room. The woman shoved Nerissa off of her but Nerissa kept coming at her. To calm Nerissa down, the woman explained she knew who Nerissa was and had bought her voice from the sea witch. She further offered to give Nerissa the necklace, with its accompanying vocal enchantment, if Nerissa would fulfill three favors for her first.

Desperate to have her voice back, Nerissa agreed. After hearing the first task required of her, Nerissa allowed the woman to leave after agreeing to meet her in private at a later date. In addition to completing the first task asked of her, Nerissa also had to comfort the prince as he was confused and hurt as to why the woman with the mesmerizing voice had fled from him again.

After proving she had fulfilled the first task for the witch, Nerissa was given the second task. This one requiring drugging the prince's drink with a potion that would cloud his memories of the witch. Nerissa agreed to do this simply as it would make it easier for the prince to forget about this woman, which would only benefit Nerissa's cause.

Upon dosing the drink, the prince did soon forget about the witch other than her eyes and hair. This allowed Nerissa to return to her attempts at getting Charming to consider her as an option for his affection. Though a considerable amount of time passed before her next meeting with the witch, Nerissa continued to wait at their covert meeting place, awaiting her final assignment.

In that time, Charming's father informed his son of a princess hidden in the Magical Forest who was the true heir of a neighboring kingdom. Though Nerissa was asked to accompany Charming every day as he set out to search the forest for this princess, she had to decline in order to make her possible appointment with the witch. This caused a rift in their relationship, but it was a rift that Nerissa knew she could easily mend once she got her voice back.

Nerissa was away from the court, again waiting to see if the witch would show, when dwarves came to guide Charming to the princess. That evening, Nerissa met Snow White, fresh off her poisoned slumber. Nerissa wanted to hate Snow White so much, even though the princess made it difficult.

A few days before the wedding of Prince Charming and Snow White, the witch finally showed up. Using gestures, Nerissa asked the witch for her final task. The woman gave Nerissa a dagger and told her to wait until Charming and Snow White had gone to bed and then to kill Snow White.

Without questioning the instruction, Nerissa took the knife and returned to the castle. She planned to hide the knife in Snow White's bedchamber to limit the chance of the blade being discovered on her own person. However, when she entered the bedchamber she found Snow White embracing her own estranged sister. When Nerissa turned to leave, Snow White insisted she stay as Snow White wanted her opinion on her wedding gown selection, trusting the prince's closest companion would likely have some insight into the prince's preferences. This made the afternoon seem like an eternity.

Longer still was the evening, as Nerissa hid in the closet, clutching the knife, as she heard Charming and Snow White's late night activities. When the torture ceased, the silent Nerissa exited the closet and stood at the foot of the bed, dagger in hand. Nerissa put the knife to Snow's throat and prepared herself to make the cut. As she hesitated, a tear slipped from her eye and fell to her lip. The taste of saltwater reminded her of how much she had given up for the prince. Just standing there reminded her how much pain she had endured for this prince. But Nerissa refused to bring such pain to her prince or his bride.

Returning to the witch, Nerissa tossed the knife at her feet and walked away. The witch reminded her that she would forever be stuck with her cursed legs, but Nerissa did not look back.

Nerissa ended up joining the Little Resistance for a while where she grew close to Jack and Jill Horner. When the Sheeda broke the Resistance apart, Nerissa fled south with Jack to Toscane. While Jack lingered, Nerissa found the water there too warm and foreign to her and so she booked passage on the first ship heading North. She ended up in Londontown in Albion.

Without a voice, Nerissa had limited choices for work. Already miserable, she endured a lot of work that was unfulfilling. One night while perusing a shop of magical goods, while in search for a remedy to her chronic pain, Nerissa spotted the familiar seashell necklace. Unable to believe her luck, Nerissa quickly snatched it up and tried it on. For the first time in centuries, Nerissa heard her voice.

Tears ran down her face, first as she was overwhelmed by emotion; and again when she saw the price. Nerissa could not afford the cost, but also knew she could not live with coming this close to reclaiming her voice a second time. Without any alternative, Nerissa went to see the Crooked Man.

A deal was struck. Nerissa got her voice back, but she went to work for the Crooked Man. The work was miserable, but at least she got to dance.

When the Sheeda threatened even the Fables of Londontown, the Crooked Man moved his operations to Fabletown. Nerissa was transferred to Earth along with all the other of the Crooked Man's employees able to withstand the journey. Not all of Nerissa's friends survived the ordeal, not having the popularity associated with their tales to safely transition from a being of imaginative matter to actual substance.

Life in Fabletown was harsh for Nerissa, reaching its absolute worst a few years prior to the destruction of Fabletown in an intrinsic explosion. The Crooked Man and his conspirators had grown so nervous about their secrets being exposed to the Sheriff that all of the lower rung employees who could not be trusted were required to wear ribbons that were enchanted to prevent them from speaking any word of their employers' secrets, Nerissa included.

Having only come into this work to get her voice back, Nerissa did not like having such silence forced on her again. However, she could not simply remove the ribbon as the fabric had another nefarious enchantment. Any removing of the ribbon would immediately decapitate the wearer.

After Nerissa expressed dissatisfaction with the arrangement more than once, she was shocked when the Crooked Man's cronies forced her to watch one of her friends' ribbons forcibly removed. As was explained to Nerissa, her stature as the "Little Mermaid" made her more valuable than her friend but she was advised not to press her luck any further. She was then left to clean up the body and told to do so quickly as her friend was still expected for an appointment with a client and Nerissa would have to fulfill that in her stead using a glamour charm.

Glamoured up to magically appear like her friend, Nerissa decided to rile her date up. She got the Woodsman upset enough to strike her. Nerissa followed that up with a whole lot of shouting and screaming. The client's landlord alerted the sheriff, who quickly arrived and broke up the trouble, sending the Woodsman limping away. Though the sheriff could not do much to help her situation, Nerissa made sure to leave a glamoured impression that the wolf was not likely to forget over a conversation lasting as long as shared cigarette break. Nerissa drew his attention to her ribbon and left him with a kiss on the cheek, saying "You're not as bad as everyone says you are."

A couple hours later, Nerissa took her friend's corpse and left it on the doorstep of the Woodlands Building for the sheriff to find. But she used a glamour charm to conceal the corpse to look like Snow White. This concealed the identity of the corpse from coming back to the Crooked Man for a few days but did not take long for Bigby to find the charm on the remains during private examination and discover the corpse appeared to belong to the woman he had just spoken with earlier that night — but the sheriff's sharp senses told him that something else was afoul here as the body showed more severe decomposition than it should have for such a short time.

The sheriff began poking around the operations owned by the Crooked Man. When he was interrogating Georgie Porgie at the Pudding & Pie club, where Nerissa worked as a dancer, Nerissa made sure to stroll by the sheriff and let him catch her scent. Not only did that alarm the wolf, but he also noticed Nerissa's body language. When he gave her a soft interrogation over a shared cigarette, she drew his attention to her ribbon and again said "you're not as bad as everyone says you are." That only piqued his curiosity, forcing him to ask a lot of questions which she couldn't answer. As Nerissa was compelled to say "these lips are sealed," over and over again, it frustrated the sheriff to no end... which pushed the limits of his feral side.

As the wolf became more volatile and more threatening to the Crooked Man's operations, the heavy-hitter Bloody Mary was brought in to deter the wolf and also to investigate what brought the wolf upon them. Nerissa was soon sniffed out as the culprit and was put on Mary's hitlist — only to be saved from a grisly fate by the timely arrival of the Big Bad Wolf in his biggest, baddest form.

With a theoretically safe way to remove the ribbon discovered in the depths of the lore by Pinocchio, Nerissa was the one who was courageous enough to step forward at the trial of the Crooked Man and shed her ribbon to testify. With the testimony provided, the Crooked Man was found guilty and cast down the Witching Well. But that was not the end of it.

While tying up the loose ends, Bigby began to suspect Nerissa had not given him the full truth. Some aspects of the case were not lining up, but before he could pin anything on her, Fabletown went up in smoke.

When Nerissa came back from the beyond, she ended up on the shores of the Baltic Sea. She settled down with a Mundie and finally found love, relieving her of the pain in her legs. Nerissa finally felt whole and even more than whole with the birth of her daughter. But when her daughter was revealed at any early age to be able to shift between human and mermaid forms, Nerissa panicked. Concerned this was a breach of the Fabletown Compact that would put the wolf onto her again, she fled into the night as her husband and child were asleep.

Years later, on the lam, Nerissa's pain would return. Realizing she was no longer loved, she began to contemplate returning to the sea. She had heard that Fables who ended their own life in a fit of despair would never come back and she wondered if that is what it would take for her to finally be free of her pain. Every night, she would go out to the pier and look into the waves, waiting for a storm so savage to rile up the waters to a point that she knew her human legs could not possibly kick hard enough to allow her to change her mind.

In the depths of that despair, as she walked out to the pier one night to examine the waves, Nerissa found a familiar figure waiting for her at the end of the pier. The Woodsman was there. For a moment, Nerissa thought the wolf had sent her an executioner to make matters simpler, but as he began to speak it became clear that is not what he was here for. The sheriff had sent him to find her and bring her back to Fabletown.

Nerissa was skeptical, believing this to be a ruse to get her back so she could be put on trial. The Woodsman insisted that was not the case. The two argued for a spell until the Woodsman reminded her that the original Fabletown was gone and with it, so was the original Fabletown Compact. If she came back with him, she could sign the new compact and be granted a second chance. Nerissa liked that idea and agreed to accompany the Woodsman back.

While waiting for this new Fabletown to come to them, Nerissa felt the need to apologize to the Woodsman for the things she had said to him decades before. The cruel things she had said to spur him into hitting her when she was wearing the glamoured face of her murdered friend. She apologized that her actions had made the Woodsman a suspect in the murder case. The Woodsman had not realized that was Nerissa, having mostly been living in the bottom of a bottle during that point in his life. He thanked her for her confession and then wondered why she was telling him this before she signed the compact. Nerissa explained that she had to apologize to someone for all the pain and hurt she has caused and he seemed like just as good as any.

After signing the compact and finding work at the Perpetual Cabaret, Nerissa began to notice the Woodsman would frequently be in attendance for her shows whenever he was in town. After a couple years, he worked up the courage to ask her out for a cup of coffee and halfway through their first date, Nerissa realized her legs weren't hurting anymore. When she locked eyes with the Woodsman and asked him if he loved her, the guy turned as red as his flannel shirt.

The two began a relationship. Though it started slow, as Nerissa was slow to reciprocate Woody's affection, they quickly picked up steam when the Crooked Man came back and signed the compact and showed up to one of Nerissa's shows at the cabaret. Nerissa was shocked into fearful silence which left Woody with little choice than to camp outside her house with his axe always in arm's reach. After two nights, Nerissa insisted he come inside to protect her instead.

Bigby did get Woody back into the field eventually, but only after he promised that not a hair on Nerissa's head would be harmed. So now Nerissa remains under the protection of the Rozzers with usually one or two of them always just a stone's throw from her at all times while Bigby and his team do their best to find something else to put the Crooked Man away again.

On occasion, when the Rozzers are short-handed or they have reason to believe Nerissa is in more danger than usual, Nerissa will accompany Woody into the field or the two will leave Danny to go somewhere undisclosed until things settle.

So even though the pain in her legs is absent, Nerissa still lives on pins and needles.

## Threat Assessment

### Resources

* **Fable Physiology:** Though her parents were both daimons from Earth, Nerissa drank an alchemical concoction that stripped her of her divinity and made her a typical human Fable.
	+ ***Aquatic Affinity:*** Though Nerissa had herself alchemically forsaken her daimonic heritage, she still retained some residual magical affinity for water. She retained the ability to swim as well as the best humans, was never bothered by the sting of ice cold water, and though she could no longer breathe underwater she could still hold her breath for nearly an hour.
	+ ***Charisma:*** Nerissa remains her royal ability to captivate the attention of animals and humans alike. Specifically, for Nerissa, this ability displays itself with her mesmerizing singing ability. Though she can use her song to charm most men and women or calm enraged animals, her siren song is actually more effective with water-based creatures or persons with a deep connection to the sea.
	+ ***Enhanced Agility:*** Nerissa's magic-given legs, though initially cursed, were still magic and thus had highly resilient fibers and sinew which afforded Nerissa incredibly deft and fluid movement. Combined with her youth spent swimming and developing a highly toned upper body, Nerissa is an extremely graceful and dexterous individual. This becomes particularly noticeable in her dancing ability.
	+ ***Enhanced Resilience:*** Thanks to the release of a popular and well-reviewed Wacky Films motion picture concerned with her legend, Nerissa has risen to the ranks of the Fables so popular that their bodies are able to withstand significant punishment before dying. Nerissa is even more resilient than most, having been accustomed to living with a great deal of constant physical pain.
	+ ***Immortality:*** Nerissa is functionally immortal. She does not age or get sick from mundane illness, provided she maintains a diet and other healthy life practices.
	+ ***Resurrection:*** Should Nerissa die, she will return to life, so long as her legend remains circulated among Mundies. At her current popularity, Nerissa would likely return to life in a matter of days rather than months or years.

### Weaknesses

* **Dark Past:** Nerissa is still haunted by choices she made and things she did, even as far back as in the Homelands. She is filled with regret and can be made to feel so guilty as to functionally shut down, especially when confronted by one of those she has previously wronged.
* **Love:** Should she ceased to be truly loved (roughly defined as being the focus of at least one person's devotion), Nerissa's legs will be filled with excruciating pain. Though she has learned to compensate for this to a truly commendable degree, she will be somewhat distracted should this pain return. She will also walk with a slight limp when she's not focusing on concealing it.
* **Necklace:** Nerissa's voice is contained in an enchanted seashell necklace. She cannot speak or sing if the necklace is removed from her person.
* **Nemesis:** The Crooked Man likely holds a grudge against Nerissa and may seek to enact his vengeance upon her in the near future.

### Analytics

* **Physicality:** 4 — Expert / Enhanced
* **Occult:** 3 — Trained / Exceptional
* **Weaponry:** 2 — Basic / Typical
* **Expertise:** 3 — Trained / Exceptional
* **Range:** 4 — Expert / Enhanced
* **Strategy:** 5 — Master /Remarkable
	+ **TOTAL:** 47
	+ **RANKING:** Low Threat

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* She's friends with Bigby Wolf, Bo Peep, Red Riding Hood, and Jill Horner.
* She's enemies with Crooked Man, Georgie Porgie, Bloody Mary, and Melaina.
* Maura Lee Karupt is her employer.

### Notes

* Nerissa is a character from *The Wolf Among Us* video game.

## Links and References

* Appearances of Nerissa

1. ↑ NFX: Nerissa