Eastern Pod

The **Eastern Pod** (Chinese: 東方莢) is a pod of Eastern mermaids and formerly mermen located in the East China Sea near the mainland of China. Unfortunately, the entire Eastern Pod was wiped out by the Water Dragon's cold fire, that turned permanently its mermaid members into humanbeings. Despite its destruction, Weilan and her grandmother are the only mermaids that had escaped unharmed and are still part of the Eastern Pod.

The Eastern Pod most likely speaks Chinese lanquage as their native language fluently.

## Description

Like all pods, the Eastern Pod had a Mermaid Council that governed the pod and a Mermaid School where hatchling learned how to use their powers properly and utilize their magic with Chinese kung-fu style and use Moon Rings. The Eastern Pod knows certain moves known only to Eastern mermaids, such as "Turn the Tide", a defensive move to deflect magic and a spell to transfer knowledge. Weilan's Grandmother was mentioned to have been on the Mermaid Council in the Eastern Pod before it was destroyed by the Water Dragon Nerissa.

### Rules

Despite every pod have it own set of rules, the ones in the Eastern Pod were the following:

* It is forbidden to reveal themselves, to associate with or to fall in love with land people. (it is unknown if this extended to other non-human beings)
* It is forbidden to cast the Legs Spell, whether by the Full Moon or by using a moonstone.
* It is forbidden to swim too close the shore or where they could be seen.
* When a merman hatchling was born, a newborn was to be given up to foster human families on land with the use of a forbidden Legs Spell. (presumably abolished)

If a member broke one of the rules in the Eastern Pod, their Mermaid Council would strictly punish the mermaid by permanently banishing her, and she would be forced to live without her pod. Despite this, a Mermaid Council had the power to lift a merperson's banishment, welcoming them again.

## History

Since ancient times, a pod of dozens of Eastern mermen and mermaids was found living in the waters of the East China Sea. Eastern merpeople also became resistant to Snow Rash due to their aquatic habitats. In the Eastern Pod, mermen and mermaids are taught the Turn the Tide spell when they are hatchlings. Eastern mermaids used their Moon Rings to shape clumps of seaweed to look like land people and made them dance on top of the water. Eastern merpeople also became skilled with Chinese kung-fu styles and used them for their spell-casting.

Due to the entire merkind race being magically gifted with extraordinary magical abilities and the capacity of amplifying them hundreds of times by Moon Pools since ancient times, the mermaids across the seas, including the Eastern Pod, honor the Full Moon in a ceremony since then. Only mermaids who graduate Mermaid School in their respective pods, given a Moon Ring, and are initiated in their pod can join their pod in the sea and attend the ceremony.

Eons later, during the Shang Dynasty, the Chinese Mermaid was a member of the Eastern Pod and fell in love with a land boy. When another pod heard of this, they punished the mermaid and her entire pod by turning the land boy into a Water Dragon. The Chinese mermaid used the Jiao Long Bracelet to undo the spell on her lover and return him to his human form. Despite these events, the Eastern Pod was eventually restored.

Approximately two thousand years later during the 11th Century, an army of Eastern mermaids, along with four other mermaids from the other four oceans, drew on the powers of the oceans and locked the Trident away in the Trident Cave with one of the kinder merman's help. From then on, all mermen were to be abandoned by their mothers when they were born to be raised on land in human foster families as the Legs Spell easily makes it possible.

Centuries later, in the late 1990s, the Eastern Pod found itself under attack by the rebel mermaid, Aurora. A powerful Northern mermaid named Nerissa came to their rescue and fought alongside them for years. Eventually, the battle with the Eastern Pod turned against Aurora and Nerissa went to face her alone. During the battle, Aurora overpowered her and turned Nerissa into a Water Dragon. She forced her to destroy the entire Eastern Pod by stripping its members' tails and magical powers with its cold fire, turning them permanently into human beings, despite the Eastern Pod's efforts to fight the dragon. Later, its surviving members, including a hatchling named Weilan and her elderly grandmother, were forced to flee to the mainland of China, and eventually the pod split, when all of their efforts to restore their lost tailed true selves and magical powers proved to be utterly futile.

After the defeat of the Water Dragon in July, 2014, Weilan decided to go back to China to restart the Eastern Pod and Ondina decided to go with her. It is unknown if she succeeded in rebuilding the pod, and if mermen were allowed to rejoin the pod.

## Known Members

* Chinese Mermaid † (formerly)
* Weilan
* Weilan's Grandmother
* Dozens of unnamed mermen and mermaids (formerly)

### Hatchlings

* Dozens of unnamed hatchlings (formerly)

## Trivia

* Due to not being largely active in the sea due to their banishment, Eastern mermen presumably made it out unharmed and survived the theft of magic and subsequent disbandment of the Eastern Pod.
* Though unconfirmed, some fans speculate that once Nerissa was returned to her original self, the Eastern pod may have regained their magic. As Weilan expressed interest in restarting the Eastern Pod after Nerissa was returned to normal, it may be implied that the spell on afflicted merpeople may be undone when the specific Water Dragon that attacked them is reverted.
* The Eastern Pod gets its name from the East, one of the four cardinal points of the globe, where the Moon and the Sun is known to rise up.