Meremaids

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Random Important Facts


Maidens are ladies, Moores are gentlemen


Meremaids are very good at climbing- (because the continent/enviroment they originated from had large coral structures as part of the landscape that meremaids were accustomed to climbing) So this transfers over to being very good at climbing on/up buildings, using fire escapes, etc...



A meremaid’s scale, once detached from the body, shows the holder in its reflection the thing they love the most. Scales can be taken off a meremaid, when they’re in fin form, only by the maiden or moore themselves. The gift of a scale is considered valuable and the giving of one is an act of respect. But, the scales do not work for meremaids, and so the gift is intended towards any other race. The scale is a gift of their specie’s pureness.

ADDITION:

The depth of any and all grottos is faaaaaaar too deep for any human (and most likely, any other mystic creature) to reach. This is what makes the meremaids so uniquie in their being, because they can dive so far and still breath, be okay with the temperature, handle the water pressure, and so on.


When a female meremaid is pregnant, eventually they lose the ability to change back anf forth from meremaid to human. They remain in their human form while pregnant and during birth- they have too. They also must be in human form to mate. This inability to change while pregnant is a huge disadvantage because being stuck in human form conflicts with their ability to dive underwater very far and swim fast.


Meremaids are a very proud race. They pride themselves on their speed and agileness and often believe themselves to be superior to other creatures, humans included. (This superior feeling was more 'serious pride' in the olden days. In modern times its more like: "We hate your species" and not "We think we're better than you") Also, not all meremaids partake in this pride over other beings, such as humans. Some more than others. But just as a general statement, the race of meremaids is a prideful one.


Tattoos. Ok. This is a thing that started in their ancestry, the original coven. Remember reading that the meremaid body is unnaturally liquified, and that exposure to air is near fatal because of that fact? Well. In the old times meremaids would get tattoos on their bodies to prove or display their stregnth and/or tolerance of pain. Exposure to the open air- this in the old days was done with needles and drill-like devices and stuff- is absolutely excruciating, and, if done for a long enough time or over a big enough area, it could kill you. The same thing applies to the meremaids of today. It's excruciating and fatal, can be looked at as a sign of foolishness, ungratefullness for the power of a meremaids body, and disreguard for the race of meremaids. To the ones getting them, the tattoos symbolize stregnth and tolerance and possibly defiance depending on the motives of the person. The tattoos were controversial and not done publically because the act was looked down upon. To do that to your body is like disrespect to the species because you're willing to 'test' it's limits. Because getting such a thing done to them is outwardly more painful that normal customers, meremaids can't just walk into tattoo parlors. They'd cause a scene wit the ordeal of getting one engraved in the skin. They are either done by meremaid tattoo parlor owners themselves (back room in store, or are done in the back of alleys or in houses of friends- just anywhere out of the public eye. So there you go. Tattoos.


Meremaids come of age in the eyes of the species at age 20

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The Anatomy Of

The most powerful part of the body is the lungs. They have the ability to separate molecules, and therefore breathe underwater. This is why smoke affects them so. The more the meremaids train their lungs (through leg exercise and deep diving) the more resistance they have to long term damage done by fire or smoke.

The fins of a meremaid are extremely beautiful to the sight and feel like liquid silk to the touch. All meremaid fins are similar to each other varying only slightly in color (and of course size with age). The fins are described as this: beautiful reflective scales that cover the body from the belly button down. (the transition area on the body between flesh and scales is about at the belly button, and it is a gradual, almost melting into one another look) The scales are shiny and iridescent, giving the illusion of changing color in the sunlight. Most of the time, scales appear a dense green, onyx grey, deep purple, or murky indigo blue.

The hair of meremaids grows twice as fast as any other species, specifically humans. Their hair is always shiny and rich making it silky (and sometimes heavy depending on the volume/amount/length of hair) to the touch. Their hair never tangles (whoa! cool! I want that!). When a meremaid’s hair becomes dry, course, choppy, snarly, or tangled, it means that they’re sick. The health of their hair is the first symptom noticeable when a meremaid gets sick. Meremaids can get sick just like humans can. Moving on to other forms of hair (pictures random image of nose hair…) Moores do not grow facial hair, nor does the hair on their head grow as long as maidens. But it does grow faster than other species, it just ‘stops’ growing at an average length, whereas female hair usually does not have a limit and will continue to grow. The longest length for a guy would probably have the hair go down to the middle of the back, but long hair is NOT common among moores.

The internal parts of a meremaid’s body are unnaturally liquidized- very wet, watery, and dense. This makes the exposure of open skin to air extremely excruciating and dangerous, making any form of surgery basically impossible due to the traumatic injuries of the skin it would cause. But the open air doesn’t have a big effect on everyday wounds like scratches or small punctures- more like a big area of skin uncovered. (FOR EXAMPLE, surgery or tattoos or skinning the skin off your knee skateboarding or getting bitten by a shark… you get the idea.)

Because of the strange liquidation of their bodies, their body temperature is very unique. Just like in the lungs, the cells in their bodies can separate molecules, adjusting them as well as adapting TO them. This makes them able to handle, or become oblivious to, extreme temperatures. Meremaid’s bodies take on the temperature of the air/water around them. So if they are miles under the dark, cold ocean, they wouldn’t be cold because their own body temperature is at the same degree. Same effect in the heat, although it is more strenuous on the body to keep up with high temperatures as opposed to low ones (this is because of the hydration need, but you wouldn’t notice fatigue like this unless it was extreme heat temperatures).

All meremaids can drink unthinkable amounts of water at a time (but they don’t need to). Their body is 90% water pretty much! So, it takes them a while to dehydrate (but once they do the situation becomes very serious).

The color of their eyes change with their emotion. Yet, each meremaid has their own signature and unique color scheme. For one meremaid, purple might mean anger, while in another meremaid it means sadness. The individuality of the color pallet is a completely random trademark quality. Sometimes (not all the time, this trait was of the original meremaid race and disappeared in some hereditary family lines) The color pallet is coordinated with the individual’s fin color. So if a meremaid’s scales are purple, then their ‘default/most of the time’ eye color might be purple. Yet, like I said, a lot of the time the colors do not match. Like river water flows downstream, the colors flow through the eye, changing from one to the next (I’m trying to describe how one color flows/changes/melts into the next with a visual image for your mind’s eye). And, although you wouldn’t know unless the meremaid is bleeding, the blood ATTEMPTS to change color with the eye, but to little effect. Usually (not that you would be able to see) the blood just ends up darkening or lightening, not getting any further than a dark brown or light orange. Quite a pathetic attempt to change color... ANYWAYS: The blood is also less transparent than human blood. For yar information!


ADDITION:


Ok, this part's kinda weird but it's true. There are no fat meremaids. Period. It just doesn't happen. And it's not a biased thing like, Oh, you can't be fat or your shunned. Or, Oh, she's a loner in te world because she's not muscle like us. No, it's not like that. Meremaids are BUILT a certain way. Their bodies are eternally frozen in a healthy physique and it's just the way their bodies develope. Arms are muscular, legs are in perfect running condition. Their bodies are built lean- never lanky or frail and never overweight in the way that they lose shape. Guys and girls have healthy looking abs to muscular abs, like packs. Lol. So yeah. The meremaid race is highly associated with agility, speed, and health. From a young age they work to get stronger and faster and that's just in their blood. Its how they are. It's not a life-style they 'must' have or be looked down upon. It's how they ARE. It's how they're MADE. And so there are no fat meremaids. Big boned or broad shoulders is not what i mean by the way, they're possible in meremaids. I mean muscle leanness. All meremaids are lean like this. Healthy, strong. It's like, they couldn't become out of shape even if they wanted to. They're just built that way.

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Death


In the original coven, the meremaid’s ancient history, when a meremaid dies, their body is buried upon the shore of an underwater grotto. A grotto, for those who can’t picture it, is like a cave underwater. So there’s a little ‘dome’ of rock or coral or earth that holds air like a bubble, and you swim under it to enter the cave, finding a shore. It is tradition that when a meremaid dies, their body is buried on the shore of their burial grounds (a specific grotto). In correlation to this, when a meremaid ties in the modern world, the meremaid society that usually lived by him/her or knew of his/her existence, will solemnly take the body and bring it out to the sea where a group of meremaids deliver their dead to the underwater grotto to be buried. They do this as a sign of respect for the dead and as a remembrance of their ancient heritage. Another reason they don’t just ‘leave the body’ to the modern customs of burial is so that their race- being a mystic creature- is acknowledged. (of course only creatures would see this happening. Humans would believe that the casket or urn actually has the person in it. That casket is empty, my friend!)

Birth and Pregnancies


In the ancient coven, humans were looked down upon as inferior beings and were slaves. In modern time, meremaids obviously don’t try to inflict that old belief upon humans, lol. That feeling of superiority is not completely gone- many meremaids find this in the way of having relationships with humans and therefore the modern world- but the majority of the meremaids today have gotten over that. Therefore, relationships between meremaid and human occur often, and there is no problem with them. But, with the two different species mating, it brings up the issue of half-meremaids, which is only assumed to be an issue. The genetic make-up of a meremaid is so far advanced compared to a human that when combined via reproduction, things go one way or the other. The main ‘whole-package’ of being a meremaid OR the ‘whole-package’ of being a human. The meremaid gene is dominant and so, more often than not, when a meremaid and human mate, the resulting offspring is a meremaid.
There are, though, a few traits that may be different every time, or mixed. But these genes don’t alter the outcome of a meremaid or human. This is getting confusing to say, but basically what I mean is: by mating with each other, there’s no way you’re going to get a human kid with only a few meremaid traits, or a super-meremaid because he was born without a weakness because he’s part human. You get my picture? You’re either a meremaid, or you’re not. But small things can differ. For example, the gestation period of a meremaid is two weeks. But, this gene may be expressed or not expressed. So a meremaid kid could be born in 2 weeks, or 9 months. Either way, they’re still a meremaid. You’ll see this in my characters somehow. ..

Meremaids grow very fast through infancy and toddler-hood. About twice as fast as humans grow. Growing ‘slows down’ and becomes normal speed once the meremaid reaches adolescence.

Meremaids originally were born in fin-form. Although because of the many years of evolution and introduction to human genetics, babies made from 1meremaid parent and 1human, usually take to the human gene meaning that all meremaid infants are born in human form. It will take them until their child-stage of life to grasp the control of turning into fins and becoming full meremaids. Childhood is when that begins. [/font]

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Weakness


Because of the liquidation and constant prescene of water in the lives of the meremaids, fire and smoke are its adjacent weaknesses. Smoke MUUUUCH more than fire. And i will dive now into explaining more deeply...

Original species (their ancestors) lived in mideval times where electricity was not. So they didn't have to worry about that kind of energy. For them, the intensity of the heat and dryness of fire was enough to momentarily weaken them. So you wouldn't see meremaids directly touching it. Meremaids used candles incased inside foggy glass spheres for light, so they wouldn't be getting close to it. In those days, enemy creatures could easily use a large bondifre or torches as weapons against them. Its like Superman and Kyrptonite when it comes to fire. They come close to/in contact with it, and they momentarily weaken. Crippling-like. Immobilizes them.

Smoke is another thing entirely. Smoke and fire affect the mermaids in different ways. The intensity of fire is what makes the meremaids 'freeze up' when around it. It shoo's away the liquid in their veins becasue it can't stand the intensity. Blood not flowing properly in veins = bad = death if nothing is done to get away from te fire. Once the meremaid steps away from fire, they're fine. Blood flows back in and they're as good as new. Smoke has a longer-lasting affect.

Since the lungs are the main/key part of the meremaid, something that hits them is the hardest blow. Smoke gets into the lungs and can permanently damage them or contract lasting injuries. Smoke is a much more serious weakness to them, as you can tell.

Now that was the weaknesses of the orignial meremaids. Years of evolution has passed to make them more suitable to living in the enviroment. Obviously, they can't fall over if they encounter a flame without being noticed. Lol. So their weaknesses have been 'diluted' some, or become less intense and vivid. Fire is hardly much of a weakness anymore. For it to have the same affects on meremaids as it did on their ancestors, there must be a large amount of it. Ex: buring building, it would weaken them to get to close to it. Bonfire: eh. They'd live. Cigarette lighter: they're fine.

Smoke, in the modern day world, is EVERYWHERE! With the car exhausts and the factories... it would be a mess if they were as weakened by it as before. The meremaids over the years have built up a better tolerance to smoke so they can handle the normal amount of it that everyday humans do. Anything more than norm and it becomes just as serious of a problem as before. Ex: burning building again, a fire...

TIP: i can kind of picture a scene like this. Anybody who wants to particularly tick off a meremaid or show hate/disrespect for them, smoking is one way. I have this scene in my head where a meremaid and another creature are sitting at a table and the creature takes out a cigarrette and smokes right in his face. Sarah, maybe this could be an opening scene to the killing? A bar conversation gets heated and ends up into a stalk/fight in the streets. [/font]