Nøkken

Nøkken are creatures of water and music. Talented musicians playing usually the violin or the flute, Nøkken vary in temperament. Some are malevolent, using their enchanting music to draw people into lakes and rivers to be drowned and possibly consumed. Others are benevolent, using their music and magic to heal and soothe.

### Abilities-

Nøkken abilities do vary based on age and relative talent, but all Nøkken have a predisposition towards music and an inherent control over water. Able to breathe in water as easily as they can air, Nøkken can swim almost before they can walk, and can out-swim nearly every other creature. They can, if so needed, relinquish their physical form, but doing so carries the risk of being unable to return.

Nøkken can use music as a form of magic and as long as the music plays, their magic remains unbroken. Nøkken are nearly unlimited in what they can do with magic while there is music, but without music, most Nøkken are limited to water-based abilities.

### Appearance-

Nøkken tend towards having blue, green, or grey eyes and more often than not, long hair that is usually brown, black, or blonde, though there has been the occasional red-head. Lithe, slender beings, Nøkken range in height from five and a half to six feet, but there have been Nøkken who fall outside that perimeter.

### Culture-

Nøkken culture is a strange thing for people to understand. Being immortal, Nøkken do not believe in an afterlife, instead choosing to think that once dead, the souls of their people return to the water and disperse. For that reason among many others, water is important to Nøkken, and the religious among them view it as sacred. However sacred and important water is, though, the Nøkken do not actually have a centralized religion of any sort.

Nøkken have a strange dichotomy in their culture wherein they are either intensely solitary, or very family-based. Some Nøkken prefer to live on their own, inhabiting a small body of water and defending their territory rigorously. Others prefer familial or community contact and will live with other Nøkken beneath the water, in caves they carve out to make rough cities. It is rare to happen, but some Nøkken have been known to switch their preference from one to the other and in doing so, either accept and are accepted by the community, or begin to shun them. It is exceedingly rare for a Nøkken to be cast out, and usually only happens when said Nøkken has done something unforgivable by the community's standards.

### Language-

The Nøkken do have their own tongue, a musical language that sounds more like a babbling brook, but most speak the Common Tongue wherever any non-Nøkken beings might hear. There are two distinct dialects in the Nøkken tongue- River and Lake, though to anyone unfamiliar with the language, they sound the same.

### Mortality-

Nøkken are immortal, but not invincible. They can fall to poison or injury as much the same as any mortal creature, they are just much harder to hurt.

### Regions-

Nøkken are typically found in the Mist Woods, can be found nearly anywhere. That being said, all Nøkken live near, or sometimes *in*, water and require a fresh, unpolluted source of water to live. If anything should happen to the Nøkken's water, they become ill and can quickly succumb and die.

### Trivia-

* Nøkken blood is distasteful to Vampires, but not inherently harmful. It merely tastes...watered down.
* Nøkken can master any instrument, but most prefer classical, non-electric instruments as those don't have a habit of shorting out due to exposure to water.
* Once a Nøkken has a taste for flesh, they rarely look for other food sources, but the practice of eating people is falling out of favour with time.
* Nøkken cannot drown, though they can asphyxiate through other means.