Description

Legend of the merfolk goes far back, even in the Human Age historical records. Pirates and fisherman claimed many sightings of the half man, half fish being they would catch glimpses of in the waters. Living with the Water Elves, Merfolk have long ago established their presence and cities in the seas. Mermaids that have broke free from their cultures typically move into fresh water areas like lakes, where they can encounter more surface dwellers. They are not able to successfully move on land, so they are stuck watching and listening from afar usually. Recent developments in the capital city however have made underwater channels that lead directly into Tandora, allowing easier access for the water dwelling races.

Structured Section

This section provides the rules, stats, and general requirements for playing this race.
Everything in this section IS required for your character when you register.

Unique Quirks

Lower Torso: Aquatic-style tail at belly button and down.
Tail can be unique but must have 1 fin. It can be shark, dolphin, koi, classic mermaid, etc.

Upper Torso: Human in form, but no color limitations like humans. So hair, eyes, skin, etc. can be any color/style. Sometimes patches of scale will be located on the upper torso, as well as extra fin pieces on joints.

Language

Merfolk, Water Elf, Human (learned from pirates)

Age Ratio

(HY indicates physical appearance, AY is how long they have lived.)

1 HY : 3 AY
Immortal: HY ceases at about 60.

Pregnancy

To Procreate, Partner Must Be:
Any living races who's mating isn't race-specific. Age of maturity is considered 54 AY.
The "act" takes place in water, and at the "peak" moment the vital necessities to become pregnant spread through the water to join and fertilize. The eggs then attach to the nest where they will grow and hatch.

On a d100 roll (pregnancy):
60-100 Unsuccessful
50-59 One Child
20-49 Twins
1-19 Triplets

Gender (d2 roll):
1 = Female
2 = Male

Child’s race:
If parents are same race, the child will be that race.

If parents are each a different (but full blooded) race, the child will be half of each race.

If one or both parents are a half-race, the GM will have each parent roll d2 to determine which half from each parent they’ll be.

Rules/Restrictions

Death/Battle: Mortal in battle, normal death applies.

Movement: Unable to move outside of the water without assistance in the form of being carried, or magical transport. Crawling with one's arms is near impossible due to the dead weight of the lower torso.

Strengths/Weaknesses

(Required)

Specialty: Influence
(Doubled stat at registration.)

Specialty: Underwater
(Dodge ability doubles under water, and all stats increase by 5.)

Specialty: MP
(15 extra MP at registration.)

Weakness: Vigor
(Halved stat at registration.)

Weakness: Above Water
(Agility becomes 0 for mobility; no ability to move or dodge. For ranged attacks, Agility will just be cut in half.)

Weakness: Heat Intolerance
(5 extra damage taken from attacks when outside of water.)

Physical Qualities

(Required. SP can be invested to improve the qualities similar to stats: 3 SP will increase a Quality by 1. For more idea of what each Quality does, see this Chart.)
0=Disabled, 1=Below Average, 2=Average
3=Above Average, 4=Exceptional, 5=Godly

Movement Running: 0 Flying: 2 (Limited flight when leaping out of water) Swimming: 5

Senses Smell: 1 Hearing: 5 Sight: 3

Appeal Intimidation: 1 Charisma: 4 Timidity: 5

Race Skills

As you level, you will gain skill points (sp) to spend on various things, including skills.
Invest your SP accordingly below if you desire to raise or acquire something listed.

Improve a Quality

To improve one of the qualities above, spend 3 SP, and increase the chosen quality by 1.

Improve an Attribute

To improve one of the attributes below, spend 5 SP, and increase the chosen stat by 1.

Attributes

Vigor
Agility
Influence
Aptitude

Additional Senses

Costs 1 SP to unlock an extra sense and requires a minimum of 4 points in a Physical Quality above to unlock any the following:

Underwater Vision (Sight): No penalty for seeing under water.

Disability (0 in Sight, Smell, Hearing, Speech, or Mobility): If one of your vital senses is disabled, you can improve another by 1 point.

General Skills

Type/Cost: Rolls: Requirements: Description:

Type/Cost: Rolls: Requirements: Description:

Reference Material

The following information is NOT required for your character.
It is here for a guide on ideas of how to play your race and how NPC characters generally act.

Cultural Preferences

Around Varlonan, these are the typical aspects of this race's lifestyle preferences.

Weapons: Tridents are the primary weapon underwater since they can also be used to capture food. On surface they are not quite as useful, but tradition typically holds strong.

Armor: None. Their pride and sometimes lack of knowledge on surfacers customs leads them to often battle without protection.

Currency: Trade, Pearls

Diet: Omnivore. Typically water plants and fish. They use squid ink, and certain clays to season some food.

Attire: As a proud species, they typically keep themselves dressed only with necessities or adjust to local "proper" customs when travelling. Females use decorative items such as shells or sea plants and flowers to cover up the surfacers idea of "improper" areas. Underwater they find no need to do this unless it is to show off collections of items (shark teeth are popular with the males as a sign of strength when taking on a shark.)

Environment: Underwater.

Homeland: Pavitantis

Relationships

Partners: Merfolk the majority of the time will partner with their own kind. It is much easier this way, as surfacers often cannot perform or understand the ways of the merfolk. The mating ritual between merman and mermaid is a dance in the water, with tender touches and words to reach the moment instead of the body to body ritual most surfacers portray. When pairing with anyone however, it takes a lot of patience and work, but can be rewarding to each with the exchange of knowledge and experiencing new things.

Friends: A sign of friendship in the underwater world is the exchange of a prized possession. By giving each other this token, it shows trust and a desire to give happiness to the other person. Once friends, many ventures will be shared together as the vast oceans and lakes are explored much like the quests on the surface.

Foe: When merfolk consider you an enemy, the gesture of a tail flick is shown. The varied underwater cities and societies mean that just like the surface world, there are many who do not get along. Usually disputes are over territory or the rights to a treasure discovered.

Children: While eggs, communities of adults will work with each other to assign different "baby sitters" to guard the eggs from predators. Once hatched, the primary parents take over once more. The infants hatch from the eggs the same size as a human child and can swim (though awkwardly) moments after they free themselves. They will then stick side by side with one of the parents until hold enough to start venturing further and further away. As they get old enough to begin safely being separated, training on how to find food and necessities begins. Each life is treasured as vital by the merfolk and they do not kill needlessly, so children only have to fear natural predators like whales and sharks.

Territory: Underwater is the place where the merfolk rule. They share their territory with Water Elves, but rarely run into them unless it is for doing trading. The Water Elves have an easier time getting onto land, so the merfolk resent them and rarely welcome them into their cities.

History

Generations ago, when Varlonan w as still fairly young, there was a race of humanoids called the Symbion. Symbion had the ability to compel any creature they chose to approach them and complete a merge, in the early days every kind of animal imaginable was chosen. Myths and legends tie the Symbion to almost every human hybrid appearing race, but most races vehemently deny this lineage. Only one can be tied back for certain, and that race is the Merfolk. The island the Symbion inhabited was lost to the oceans in a violent tremor, and all of the Symbion who had permanently merged with a land based animal drowned. The ones who were too young to have already decided on what creature to merge with compelled the local marine life to come to them, which allowed them to make a new life underwater in the ruins of their destroyed cities, now in a variety of beautiful new forms.

The Symbion hid from the rest of the races that were coming into the world as much as they possibly could, and for generations they simply addressed each other by name and no longer addressed their people by a common name, and the Symbion race finally faded into history as another extinct race. As newer, younger descendents started to interact more with other races, they were renamed by outsiders to be “Merfolk,” and the name stuck from then on. Merfolk males are fierce and highly competitive, often killing sharks, giant squid and other monsters of the deep in order to curry favor with the lady of their choice, but rarely get involved in wars with other races. The males who do get involved in the seaborn wars between two nations or races are highly coveted for their ability to kill large numbers aboard the ship while slipping back into the water to regroup, and drown, any victims.