Mermaids

**"Mermaids"** are the title given to monsters that emerge from the waters of a Lake, being located in The Great Lake area of the Backstreets in District 21. They are made up of former humans that were consumed and parasitized by "Whales", transforming them into Mermaids.

## Whale of the Porous Hand

The Whale of the Porous Hand is found in the Blue Whirling Lake of Murk and Fish-Reek. When the Whale places its hand on the side of a ship, its Mermaids come out of the pores on the hand, attached by chains that connect back down towards their origin. They have an appearance similar to krill, with giant black eyes and an abyssal blue colour. The Soldiers are even larger, with 6 arms instead of two and an extra set of eyes.

### Fighting Style

These mermaids both have a skillset primarily based on Pride and Gloom Sin Affinities and Slash and Pierce damage types, as well as the Status Effect . Both variants have Gloom skills that inflict  and Pride skills that makes  more punishing. They also have a single no-Affinity Guard skill that gives the attacker  while shielded.

The Soldier variant additionally inflict some  on top of the aforementioned , along with having a single Gloom skill (Shrieking Waves) that triggers  on hit.

Mermaids that emerged from the Whale of the Porous Hand are all connected to the Whale and through it to each other. Thus, when one Mermaid is defeated, all other Mermaids in battle suffer 10 HP damage, and are applied 2  next turn.

### Types of Mermaids

```
Elite

```

## Whale of the Thousand Strands

The Whale of the Thousand Strands is found lurking in a ship in an unnamed grey lake. Even after the waves of this lake end, the mermaids of this whale are still present, with the victims hanging in the air from tendrils connected to the whale. The mermaids are quadrupedal creatures with a gaping maw that looks similar to that of a leech.

### Fighting Style

Much like the mermaids fought prior, the Whale of the Thousand Strands Mermaids rely on primarily Gloom skills that manipulate SP. In this case, their first two Gloom skills deal SP damage directly, and their third Gloom skill deals bonus damage to targets with low SP. They also possess a Gluttony skill that is a combination of all of the above skills, in addition to providing healing based on damage dealt.

## The Pallid Whale

The Pallid Whale originating from the Outskirts was one of the Five Calamities and was the target of Ahab and The Pequod. It also functions as the setting of the dungeon Into the Dark. The mermaids created by this whale are known to retain their original skills, making them feared by most sailors. There appear to be two kinds of Pallid Mermaids however.

The first of these are the more traditional looking mermaids. They have a long fishy tail, 5 eyes, and a large vertical slit mouth running down the length of their head. These are known as Pallid Mermaids.

The second of these are people who retain their original appearance, but with pallid membranes covering their flesh and equipment. These are the feared mermaids that retain their combat prowess known as Pallidified Things.

### Fighting Style

All Mermaids of the Pallid Whale share a pair of mechanics. The first relates to the faction-wide status effect known as , which transitions into . The related passive Crashing Filth states that upon reaching 10% Max HP, they will inflict 20 SP damage and 1 Pallid Noise on their next strike, and then self-destruct. Their other mechanic is that the mermaids become explicitly more powerful the more of them that stand on the team. Passively, they gain offense and defense level for each surviving Pallid character, and each of them have skills with additional effects that scale on the number of Pallid characters on the field.

The mermaids known as Pallid Mermaids feature 3 skills each, all of which are negative coin skills. Their first skill is a 2 coin blunt skill that inflicts either Sinking or Count. Their second skill is a 1 coin pierce skill that inflicts Sinking and Count, in addition to Pallid Noise. For the Entwined variant, these skills additionally heal itself and the Pallid ally with the least SP if the target has Sinking. The third skill for all 3 is a 2 coin Lust skill that heals by damage dealt and copies one of the target's buffs (Limited to: , , , and ). Additionally, this third skill provides an additional effect depending on the number of surviving Pallidified allies, or in the case of the Entwined mermaid, healing them.

### Types of Mermaids

```
Elite

```

## Pallidified Things

The mermaids known as Pallidified Things replicate the skills of the original victims, and can be divided between the Pallidified Twinhook Pirates and the Pallidified LCCB. However all of their skills are negative coin skills instead of positive coin skills, and they draw on the same pair of mechanics as the Pallid Mermaids mentioned earlier.

The Pirate and Hook things possess 4 skills each, which draw on the Agile and Tough Twinhooks respectively for their additional effects. Like the origin Twinhooks, they have a pair of Lust Bleed skills that are 1 and 2 coins. However, the Pirate things additionally inflict Pallid Noise and SP damage, while the Hook things rely on the same debuffs and protection as the Tough Twinhooks Pirate. They each possess a 2 coin Wrath skill reminiscent of their origin's Wrath skills, with additional Pallid Noise. Finally, they both have a Guard skill that inflicts Pallid Noise when hit. Upon killing an enemy, they will apply buffs to all Pallid allies, with the Pirate granting Poise while the Hook provides Protection and Defense Level Up.

The Shield and Club possess 3 offensive skills each, with the Shield having an additional defensive skill. Unlike the Twinhooks, the LCCB have not been fought prior, and thus have no origin kit to base things on. Their kits are also drastically different, with the Shield offering Gluttony skills that revolve around Tremor and giving allies Protection while the Club uses Pride skills and dispenses a plethora of offensive and defensive debuffs while granting allies Damage Up. The only trait they share aside from buffing allies is that they inflict Pallid Noise, possess increased defensive/offensive level depending on surviving allies, and gain Fragile/Attack Power Down when allies perish.

## Trivia

* Mermaids were first shown off at the Tokyo Game Show 2023.
* The Whale of the Porous Hand Soldier Mermaids are the first enemy to have .