Siren

Melusine, the mother of sirens

Beneath the deepest depths of the ocean lays a siren, deep in slumber. Beautiful to some, terrifying to another. Her name is Melusine. Melusine is not like any other siren. Sirens are often the size of an average human, a little larger considering their beautiful tails, but Melusine is extremely, and I mean extremely, large. If wanted, she could crush the largest ship with just her hands.

Long ago, when she was still human, when she had a name that wasn’t Melusine, she was beautiful. Some compared her beauty to being godlike, and she took it to heart. Her constant bragging about being more ‘beautiful than the gods combined’ had finally reached the gods themselves.

Long story short, Melusine was the first human woman to be struck with the siren’s curse. Something that was irreversible, even with the help of a god. Her anger festered and brewed, and with nowhere to go, she went to the ocean. Some say Melusine is responsible for the horrors that are faced at sea. Tsunamis, hurricanes, storms - superstitious people blame this on Melusine’s anger for being cursed so long ago. But as time passed, Melusine’s name was slowly being forgotten. She was aware of this.

Her anger birthed new sirens. Not human women cursed with what she had been cursed with. But pure sirens, women who had never experienced what it was like to be human. The first three were her daughters: Calliope, Melpomene, and Terpsichore. Her muses. The ones she’d entrust with cursing more naive girls to join her. To share her anger.

As Melusine grew more bitter, she grew. Literally. The reason she’s so large is because of her bitterness and anger towards the gods **(coughs sol specifically coughs(*gonna need hope to give the okay on this though*))** for ever giving her this curse.

As Melusine grew older, she longed for rest. So she created more pure sirens, the leaders of each coast. (i fucking forgor i retconned this already smh) Their personalities widely differed, but she could finally rest and depend on them to change and shift the seas to their liking.

Melusine has been asleep for centuries. She would awaken from her slumber when she felt a deep pain in her heart, the same pain she felt when she was cursed. She never woke for the rest of her ‘daughters’ (women lured by the sirens mentioned before) but she woke for this. She had a new daughter, a daughter just like her.

**Sirens *(taken from the wiki, slight change at the end)***

-Sirens are female-bodied beings with the gift to sing. They take on a variety of forms, with birds and fish being the most common. They have seductive voices that they use to lure sailors and any others to their deaths. Any female they lure is turned into a siren. They are more animalistic than human but are still able to speak and form bonds with people. Most, if not all sirens, completely avoid forming bonds, especially if it isn’t with other sirens. The siren transformation is also extremely painful, and not all people live long enough to make it through the process.

**Deep-sea sirens**

-A subspecies of sirens. They are incredibly rare to find, and even rarer to make. Deep-sea sirens barely present as human, as the harsh conditions underwater shifted their bodies to better adapt under the sea. They come in various forms depending on the person, often presenting as other deep-sea creatures, but are monstrous in form. They are often smaller and frailer compared to their higher-zoned siren sisters, but because of this, they are much more agile and fast, hence why there are little to no documentation of them. Deep-sea sirens live to protect the body of their mother, having known no other purpose other than that. They often pass away because they neglect their own bodies to protect Melusine’s.

**Calliope**

* also known as the Mother of the Sea

* The eldest of the triplet daughters. The most assertive and wise of the triplets. She is responsible for all that goes on at sea. The flow of the waters, the storms, the creatures. She is rumoured to be the ones often creating treasures for curious travellers and pirates alike. Some religious pirates even pray to Calliope to find treasure.

**Melpomene**

* also known as the ‘Mother of the Deep Sea’
* The only deep-sea siren triplet. The middle sibling of the triplet daughters. She’s the only triplet entrusted by Melusine to make other deep-sea sirens. It is rumoured Melpomene hasn’t seen the light of the sun since Melusine’s slumber.

**Terpsichore**

* not known by any other names from humans, but newly-created sirens call her the ‘New Mother’ as she was the first lure in a woman to turn into a siren.
* The youngest of the triplets. She is what humans think of when they think siren. Her ability to shift between a bird-like form or a fish-like form is what birthed variations of the mythology of sirens, as well as her song.

Though there isn't a lot of sirens, as Melusine’s slumber continued, the triplets appointed four sirens with the gift of immortality, as they once have with Melusine, to become leaders of each coast of the seas surrounding the three regions. These sirens include:

Serenity

-The leader of sirens of the East Coast. Themed after Autumn, Serenity is dependable and organized but quick to irritation and stubbornness.

Namiko

-The leader of sirens of the North Coast. Themed after winter and cold seas, Namiko is analytical and reserved, though she is cold and pessimistic.

Nerida

-The leader of sirens of the West Coast. Themed after Spring, Nerida is curious and witty, but undecided and unfiltered.

Aerwyna

-The leader of sirens of the South Coast. Themed after summer and warm seas, Aerwyna is gentle and creative, but lacks control and is fueled by emotion.

The inspiration behind Melusine: