Merfolk are among the best known and yet the least understood of the aquatic ancestries. Folklore is filled with stories of merfolk: legends of beautiful merfolk falling in love with humans or ship crews saved from storms by friendly bands of the creatures. Among land dwellers, merfolk are almost-legendary figures of impossible beauty and magic. In reality, merfolk are secretive and prone to intense xenophobia. They value their privacy and are more likely to react to surfacers with aggression than with friendship or passion. Merfolk communities guard their territories ruthlessly. They may warn away ships and travelers who seem non threatening or genuinely lost, but if trespassers appear hostile, merfolk attack first.
Physical Description: From the waist up, a merfolk’s body resembles that of a human, though their features and build are usually more elven in appearance; members of other ancestries sometimes experience feelings of desire due to the attractiveness of a merfolk’s upper body. A merfolk’s lower body, however, consists of a scaled tail and fins similar to that of a giant fish.
The hair and scales of merfolk can come in a wide range of colors and hues. Their skin can be deep, warm shades of brown, lighter shades of tan and gold, or very pale tones of peach and white. Merfolk scales are iridescent and grow in many colors, most commonly the green and blue shades of the sea. Like many fish, merfolk have darker scales on their backs and lighter ones on their undersides, which helps mask their presence from creatures below them in the water. Despite the potential variety in the ancestry’s appearance, merfolk in shared habitats tend to boast similar pigmentation.
Merfolk live a similar lifespan to humans, reaching adulthood around 20, with middle age at 35 and old age around 53. The most venerable of this ancestry live into their 70s.
They are sexual dimorphic, with the average height of males nearly seven feet and females a couple inches shorter. Their body mass is similar, making most females weigh slightly less than males.
Society: The merfolk ancestry is highly xenophobic; they generally shelter themselves in hidden communities, fiercely protecting the territory they hold from outsiders. Merfolk are especially distrusting of surface ancestries, and go to great lengths to conceal their presence from those that live primarily on land. As a result, most merfolk settlements remain unknown to those on the surface and encounters between merfolk and surface dwellers are uncommon. It is partially due to the infrequent sightings of merfolk that their presence is sometimes considered an ill omen by sailors.
Merfolk xenophobia extends below the waves as well. Though merfolk will keep aquatic animals for the purposes of companionship, they generally isolate themselves from other aquatic ancestries. The sole exception to this distrust are the fish-like aberrations known as alghollthus; many merfolk serve alghollthu masters, sometimes willingly.
Relations: Merfolk shun almost all other ancestries, particularly those who walk primarily on land. This makes for poor relations with all other ancestries.
Alignment and Religion: Extremely little is known about merfolk religion though many suspect they worship deities of the water, ocean, storms, or similar. They are believed unlikely to worship the same deities as those who dwell on land.
On Edinose, little is known, but many suspect that merfolk primarily worship an alternate version of the demi-goddess Audra, others believe Anboleyn, Daede, Egaldir, or Gaenos are the gods of the merfolk.
Adventurers: Merfolk are an insular and guarded ancestry. While they might work with non-merfolk on occasion, only rarely do they trust these allies fully. Merfolk who adventure on their own often do so because nothing is left for them in their homes.
On rare occasions, a merfolk community may exile a merfolk who has broken the trust of his neighbors. Exiled merfolk feel great shame and often lie about their origins to their fellow travelers. Some of these adventurers seek a way to regain the good grace of their community, such as by performing a great service, killing a ferocious predator, or finding a lost treasure to bring home with them.
Although many surfacer myths about merfolk are untrue, one bears out: most merfolk are genuinely gifted musicians. Merfolk might experiment with a harp or woodwind, particularly one discovered on a wrecked ship or stolen from a seaside community, but many merfolk are practiced singers. Merfolk voices naturally and lightly span ranges that would make human bards envious, and their songs travel far underwater or across the surface of the sea.
Names: Merfolk very rarely give their true names on the few instances of interaction between them and outsiders. Most merfolk who have prolonged interactions with other ancestries adopt a new name, often a one from an ancestry they commonly work with.