Mermaid

* Pure-breed
* Half-breed

"*Cling to your soul, Grace, as mermaids are given to take the rest, to the bone.*"
— Regina Antebellum
The **mermaid** is a sentient, aquatic beast affiliated to the water native to the regions of Greece within the Aegean Sea. They are known for their relation to the Siren species and historically were seen as agents to them.

## Description

### Physical appearance

"*Such beauty. Surely you are one of God's own creations and not a descendant of those dark creatures who found no refuge on the Ark.*"
— Elijah Walker to Savannah regarding the species
Mermaids are genetically amphibious beings, a hybrid of an aquatic being with human-like features. In this sub-species of the merpeople, they are typically seen as having the general appearance of a human with scaled skin. From the waist down, they are comprised of a long, shimmering scaly fish-like tail. Further undermining their conventional beauty in their animalistic, predatory nature, mermaids hid sharp, fang-like teeth in their mouths.

Their long and powerful tails make them extremely fast swimmers, adept at hunting prey, giving them the capability to leap out the water at great heights, similar to a dolphin. Their tails are covered in a scaly translucent membrane which floats around them like tendrils in the water and is shed when they gain legs. Mermaids also have piercing gold eyes, that glisten in the water due to the tapetum lucidum, allowing them to see clearly in dark and murky waters.

Pure-breed mermaids are known for their beastly, animalistic appearances that contrast harshly to that of mermaids of a half-breed nature, who possess more humane appearances. Pure-breed mermaids have paler skin and scales, of light silvers and varying blue-tinged hues, similar to the water. Whereas half-breed mermaids possess far more varying shades of skin tones, typically possessing scales of golden, flesh-toned shades, though this could be in accordance with warmer-watered mermaids compared to those found in deeper, colder regions of the ocean.

Mermaids have various physiological traits that encompass the many enhanced abilities they possess, including high bone density that gives for their exceptional strength and endurance to high levels of harm and force compared to that of average humanoid beings. Mermaids also have incredibly complex internal structures that allow them to endure the harshest of underwater environments, including enormous water pressures and temperatures that they face in the regions of the sea in which they habituate.

### Powers and abilities

"*In their natural state in the water, they see you as prey. Their instinct is to kill.*"
— Morwenna warning Saoirse about their predatory nature

* **Amphibious transformation**: Mermaids are capable of taking on an ordinary human appearance through a quick metamorphosis that allows them to visit land for varying amounts of time. During this process, the mermaid will shed the membrane of her tail and will decrease in length. A mermaid will undergo this metamorphosis again when returning to waters of a natural geographical origin.
* **Aquatic habitation**: Mermaids are able to survive and adapt to any underwater environment they encounter due to their complex internal structures, including high water pressures and extreme water temperatures. Mermaids are known to habituate in some of the deepest zones of the ocean, between the mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones which range between depths of 200 and 4,000 metres below the surface.
	+ **Terrestrial habitation**: Mermaids are also capable of surviving and adapting to terrestrial environments on land. The length of time spent on land varies from pure-breed to pure-breed, though it is known that by each time the mermaid returns to land, the longer and more suited to the environment they become. Mermaids of a half-breed nature are able to remain at land or sea for as long as they desire, due to their natural biology and physiology being catered to suit both habitats.

* **Enhanced strength**: Mermaids are noticeably physically much stronger than humans, and many other creatures. They are considered one of, if not the most physically powerful aquatic humanoid inhabitant, which is in part due to the bones and tissues of a mermaid being incredibly dense, though, like any living species, the levels of strength may vary from each mermaid to mermaid. As a teenager, Maisie was capable of overpowering a large adult male, as well as a maturing werewolf. She was also capable of punching and indenting a steel wall without experiencing any recoiling pain.
* **Enhanced speed**: In water, a mermaid's powerful and streamlined tail allows them to propel through the roughest waters with incredible speed, grace, and agility with minimal restrictions to water resistance. They are noted as being five times faster than a sailfish, the fastest animal in the water. Their speed is also comparable in their human forms on land, as some half-breed mermaids proved to show the immense speed that varied according to their physical structure and ability.
* **Enhanced agility**: Mermaids are naturally agile creatures, due to their long tails that allow them great moves of flexibility and speed within the water.
* **Enhanced senses**: Similar to other aquatic mammals such as sea lions, whales and dolphins, mermaids have superior enhanced senses to that of average beings, such as their ability to hear sounds far off the ultrasonic frequency. Mermaids also have enhanced sensory systems comparable to sharks, including smell, hearing and sight. Below the water, mermaids can hear sounds with frequencies ranging from 10 hertz to 150,000 hertz, frequencies that exceed audibility for humans on both ends of the scale. Mermaids are also able to see clearly in the darkest of waters, due to the tapetum lucidum that is located behind the retina. This allows mermaids to see far more clearly in dim light than that of a human.
* **Underwater protection**: An ability popular in nautical folklore, a mermaid can also grant a gift of temporary underwater protection onto a human by kissing them. For the duration they remain under the water, they can breathe as they do on land, though they are not immune to the dangers of the sea, such as water pressure and temperatures. When they return to the surface, the enchantment breaks.

### Weaknesses

* **Dehydration**: Pure-breed mermaids are unable to survive on land for extended periods of time. After prolonged deprivation of water, they will begin to asphyxiate, and their skin will become extremely dry and irritated. After an extensive period of dehydration, their body will begin to shut down. Although this does not apply to mermaids of a half-breed nature due to their biological abilities catered to survive both at land and sea, contact with fire or powerful sources of heat can provoke similar results of asphyxiation and broken, irritated skin.
* **Mortality**: Since the mermaid species are living, mortal creatures, despite having high levels of endurance and longevity, they are still capable of death by conventional means, such as starvation, blood loss, dehydration, etc.
* **Water pollution**: Mermaids are prone to various infections and illnesses that come from pollutants within the ocean, that has even been seen to cause infertility in some cases.

## Etymology

The word **mermaid** is a compound of the Old English mere, meaning *sea*, and *maid*, as in a girl or young woman. The equivalent term in Old English was *merewif*. They are conventionally depicted as beautiful with long flowing hair, though were feared in traditional folklore for being perilous creatures.