The World of Meerlo

Meerlo is an aquatic world with some bits and pieces of land scattered around. This is the realm of the merfolk and of the sea birds.

When you think of mermaids and mermen, you think of people that are human at the top, but at the waist down, have a fish tail. You would also think that mermaids are soulless monsters that use their outer beauty to lure sailors to their death, or even cause stormy weather by singing. There's also the story of "The Little Mermaid" about a young mermaid who rescues a prince and yearns for a human soul, even if it mean enduring series of pain and suffering. Those are the tales and images many humans on Earth associate with the merfolk.

However, fish tail mermaids are not the only mermaids that exist out there. There are some Earth cultures that know that, but others cultures don't know that and unaware of the vast amount of different mermaids there are out there.

There are actually many different species of merfolk out there. There are mermaids who can split their tail into two fin-like legs when on land, there are mermaids that look like reptilian humanoids, and there are even mammalian mermaids such as the selkie, which are beings related to seals and sea lions instead of fish.

The world of Meerlo is mostly consisted of islands and archipelagos in a vast frontier of seas and oceans. One type of environment you'll never see on Meerlo are deserts and wastelands. There are a lot of fertile lands rich with plant and animal life, both on land and in the ocean. Climates range from sunny and tropical to cold and icy. Its quite an adventure when exploring Meerlo. You never know what kind of island or a cave you'll run into.

Races of Merfolk:

Nykken

Nykkens are a type of mermaid with an upper human-like half and have little side fins for ears, as well as a fish like tail that can become scaly legs when on land. Skin colors come in flesh tone, green, blue, or lavender (pinkish-white in albinos). Hair colors come in just about every color of the rainbow. The only hair colors not seen on Nykkens are shades of browns or blacks. Albinos are known to have white hair as well as cream colored scales and fins.

Nykkens are known to live in settlements near seas, lakes and rivers located in forests. Sometimes, they go by the nickname "forest mermaids" or "woodsland mermaids". Nykkens love music and many are trained to be musical warriors, manipulating the environment with their instruments or singing. They also love mead. It is considered a polite thing to Nykkens to give them mead, the sweeter, the better for them. Nykkens reserve black mead and midus mead for their guardian deities and high priests, thus not to be drank by normal Nykkens.

Lifespan: The oldest known Nykken is said to live up to be 9,090 years old.

Current Merfolk deity: Tiamat

Common classes: Song maidens, Minstrels, Cleric, High Priests, Sage, Runic Knight, Magic knight, Evoker, Ranger, Pictomancer, Magus, Arch-Magus, Grand Magus, Beastmaster

Merrow

The Merrow are an offshoot of the Nykken merfolk. They are rather unique, since the females tend to be more prettier and humanoid looking than males. Male merrows look more like anthropomorphic fish, than their female counterparts.

Like their Nykken relatives, Merrows have two fin like legs. However, unlike the Nykken, they have no side fins on their legs and the legs tend to look a little more jagged and rugged and not as smooth as Nykken fins.

Female merrows are experienced in the power of seduction and the powers of singing. Merrows are rather interested in foreign beings and try everything they could to have that foreign being wrapped around their finger. Male merrows are more experienced in necromancy and dark magic. It's rare to see a male merrow who is a healer. However, merrows can be rather useful travelling companions if you play your cards right. Just whatever you do, don't take off with the merrow's clothing or belongings, or you'll be very sorry.

Lifespan: 8,000 years old

Current Merfolk deity: Oannes

Common classes: Song maiden, Evoker, Necromancer, Magus, Arch-Magus, Grand Magus, Enchantress, Devil Shaman, Geomancer, Pictomancer

Ceasg

The Ceasg are another offshoot of the Nykken clan. Ceasgs have fin like legs that resemble the tails of a salmon, a trout, or a char. Even though Ceasgs can tolerate both saltwater and freshwater, they prefer the freshwater near mountainous regions, hence the nickname mountain mermaids.

Like their Nykken counterparts, Ceasgs love fine liquor. It is only being polite and courteous to give an offering of liquor to a Ceasg or Ceasg god to win favor with them. You'll be very thankful for doing that favor to a Ceasg.

Lifespan: 8,550 years

Current Ceasg deity: Adapa

Common classes: Cleric, High Priest, Bishop, Sage, Lancer, Sun Lancer, Lunar Lancer, Geomancer, Paladin, Alchemist, Runic Knight

Sea Naga

Sea nagas are a colorful type of serpentine mermaid that inhabits the warm, tropical waters of Meerlo. The skin tone and tails of sea nagas are usually blue, aqua, green, red, lavender or violet. Albino sea nagas always have white skin and scales, with sometimes the occasional cream yellow markings. Instead of hair, they have a huge snaky fishtail, complete with a fin or two on it.

Sea nagas are known to be poisonous. Sea nagas have retractable fangs to inject venom into their foe. Like the wood dragons, sea nagas can control how much venom to inject into their enemy, ranging from a mild sickness to a miserable death. So it's best not to get on the bad side of a sea naga.

Like their land counterparts in the world of Dierveld, sea nagas have a long, snake like tail and can move on land no problem. Unlike their land counterparts, sea nagas have a fish like fin on the end of their serpentine tail and a fish like dorsal fin on the backside of their tail.

Lifespan: The oldest known living sea naga is said to be 20,000 years old. Sea nagas have the longest lifespans of all merfolk clans.

Current Merfolk deity: Enki

Common classes: Illusionists, Enchantress, Magus, Arch Magus, Chemist, Evoker, Dark Knight, Grand Magus, Light Armor Knight

Selkie

The selkies are a very unique race of merfolk that inhabits Meerlo. The seal based selkies perfer the cooler, northern climates of Meerlo, while the sea lion based selkies prefer the warmer, southern climates.

But's that not all that makes the selkies so unique. Unlike most merfolk clans, selkies give live birth instead of laying eggs, since they are fully mammalian. And instead of a fish form, the selkies can transform into a being which has both a humanoid torso and head, as well fin like arms and the lower half of a seal.

Skin tones of a selkie are usually fleshtoned, dark tan, grey, black or white. Some even have spots and markings on their bodies, just like the seals of our world. They are the least colorful of merfork in Meerlo, due to them being associated with seals instead of fish, sea serpents and other marine life.

Selkies are probably the most calm and laid back of merfolk. They seem to take interest in foreign beings, and even been known to intermarry into foreign races. They're usually not aggressive unless threatened.

Lifespan: The longest lived Selkie is said to be 15,550 years old.

Current Merfolk deity: Sedna

Common classes: High priest, Bishop, Sage, Beastmaster, Paladin, Geomancer, Lancer, Sun Lancer, Runic Knight, Light Armor Knight, Ranger

Kappa

The kappa are a very unusual type of merfolk that dwells in lakes and rivers in the mountainous regions of Meerlo. They have the appearance of a reptilian humanoid with scaly skin with colors usually being green, yellow, blue or brown, webbed hands and feet, as well as a turtle like shell. The most noticeable thing about a kappa is an indentation of the top of their cranium that holds water, which is a source for their power and vitality. The cavity must always be full when a kappa is away from water. If it spills, that kappa would be paralyzed and unable to move, thus rendering it helpless. They are the second shortest of the merfolk races (only ebbies are shorter).

The kappa are a proud and ambitious race, though they are known to be rather arrogant and sometimes, even trouble makers. Some kappa can even do some malicious things, like drown unfortunate land creatures, gorge on them while their alive or even kidnapping other merfolk not of their race and even do some unsavory things to their captured prey.

However, not all of the kappa do evil things. Some are rather kind and polite and aid those who are stuck in dangerous situations. Most kappa are curious of other merfolk, as well as other beings not native to Meerlo. Once a foreign creature befriends a kappa, that kappa will be devoted to that creature, even going as far as giving up its life for its new friend.

Kappa are skilled at fighting and weapon play, but they usually are horrible magic users and have very little knowledge of magical abilities. Most kappa are fighters and warriors and seeing a magic using kappa is extremely rare.

Lifespan: The oldest living Kappa lived up to be 900 years old. Their lifespan is short, but not as short as an ebby's lifespan.

Current Merfolk deity: Hanzaki

Common classes: Berserker, Theif, Ninja, Kunoichi, Nightblade, Bandit, Dual blade knight, Ranger, Heavy Armor Knight, Samurai, Shogun

Cecaelia

The Cecaeliae are a rather unique type of merfolk. They are mostly humanoid looking beings that have either octopus, squid or cuttlefish tentacles for hair, fleshy fins for ears, sleek, shiny bodies free of scales, and have scaleless fins on their sides, as well as webbed hands and feet. They have same skin colors of octopus and squid and like octopus and squid, they can squeeze through tight spaces. Cecaelia can also spit ink out their mouths to blind their enemies.

The Cecaelia merfolk live in cavernous regions, so they can hide from enemy clans. Cecaelia love coral and pearls a lot, thus making some of the finest jewelry and magical relics out of those precious gems.

Cecaelia are the swiftest of merfolk, as well as being skilled at natural magic and summoning powerful beings to aid them in a sticky situation. However, Cacaeliae are deathly afraid of the siren clan as well as the Erinyes, which both races see the Cecaelia clan as a tasty, satisfying snack. They try the best they can to avoid sea bird clans.

Lifespan: The oldest living Cecaelia lived up to 2,000 years old.

Current Merfolk deity: Lusca

Common classes: Light armor knight, Magic Knight, Evoker, Geomancer, Beastmaster, Lancer, Magus, Arch-Magus, Grand Magus, Lunar Lancer, Ranger, Pictomancer, Samurai, Shogun

Ebby

Ebbies are merfolk with a humanoid upper half and have the lower half and antennae of a prawn. Ebbies are the shortest of all merfolk, though females usually have rather buxom figures. The tallest Ebby was 4'11 which isn't very tall by human standards, but tall by ebby standards.

Ebbies are often mocked and looked down upon by other merfolk, for they are shorter and far more vulnerable than most merfolk. Since ebbies aren't the most physically strong of merfolk, they are skilled at both offensive and defensive magic. It is rather rare to see an ebby that is of a non-magic using class, due to being physically weaker than other merfolk.

The thing ebbies fear more than foreign merfolk clans is creatures of the sea bird race. Sea bird clans love how sweet ebbies taste and would actually dive in and snatch an ebby out of the water. Yes, this world is a rather dangerous place for ebbies, so they try as hard as they can to fight back with magical abillities.

Lifespan: Ebbies live for at least 300 years. They have the shortest lifespan of all merfolk species.

Current Merfolk deity: Kanitaro

Common classes: Magus, Arch Magus, Grand Magus High Priest, Bishop, Sage, Evoker, Geomancer, Devil Shaman, Necromancer, Pictomancer

Race of sea bird folk:

Siren

Sirens are the descendants of either garudas, harpies or tengu, and their lamia witch spouses. They have human torso and limbs as well as their talon like hands and feet and their bird-like wings. Female sirens are more attractive than male sirens. Sirens are one of the very few bird folk species where the females are more bright colored and radiant than the males. The females have more humanoid facial features while the males look more avian.

Female sirens have much prettier singing voices than male sirens, but male sirens are more skilled at playing musical instruments than female sirens. Sirens and Nykkens get along perfectly, since both love music and fine liquor. Sirens also get along with Ceasgs and Merrows as well. Every other merfolk, alongside most sea creatures, they see as a food source, especially favoring the sweet taste of ebby meat.

The only race of merfolk that strikes fear in the hearts of sirens are the sea nagas. Sirens and sea nagas are known to fight each other fiercely. If the siren wins, the sirens drain the venom out of the sea naga and are rewarded with their tasty flesh and use their scaly hide to make leather. If the sea naga wins, the sea naga poisons the hapless siren, slowly killing it and eat the siren's flesh, as well as using its feathers to make fancy cloaks.

Though we have been told that Sirens distract sailing land dwellers with their songs and capsizing their boats, it's usually on accident and not on purpose. Sometimes, Sirens are known to save drowning land creatures and nurse them back to health. So sirens aren't as completely evil as we like to think they are.

Lifespan: The oldest known living siren is said to be 15,000 years old.

Current Sea Bird deity: Boann

Common classes: Song maiden, Minstrel, Evoker, Geomancer, Chemist, Alchemist, Scholar, Magus, Arch Magus, Grand Magus, Magic Knight

Erinyes

The Erinyes are the descendants of harpies or tengu banished from Dierveld for attempting to overthrow the Harpy gods or Tengu gods and/or selling their souls for power and forbidden have human torso and limbs, but their faces are bird-like (even with a beak), as well as their talon like hands, feet and wings. Their feathers are either dark bloody red or pitch black like night and their eyes are animal like and usually glow red or green.

The Erinyes are deadly birds of darkness. Their songs bring misfortune and ill luck to those who hear it. Their voices are said to bring creatures back from the dead, so they have their own undead familiars.

The only merfolk Erinyes don't attack or use for food are their undead merfolk familiars, the Rusalki. Every other merfolk, they see as food. Land creatures who sail the seas dread the songs that the Erinyes sings, knowing that their songs will drive their crew insane or worse yet, cause violent storms out at sea. Unlike the sirens, who accidentally sink ships with their voices, Erinyes do it on purpose. Sometimes, they are known to kidnap land dwellers who oppose them, and do unspeakably horrible things to them.

Lifespan: The oldest known living Erinyes is said to be 13,000 years old. But a lot of Badbs are known to be necromancers and can revive the dead whenever they feel like it.

Current Sea Bird deity: Morgana

Common classes: Necromancer, Devil Shaman, Ninja, Kunoichi, Night blade, Illusionist, Enchantress, Dark Knight, Berserker, Samurai, Shogun

Alkonost

The Alkonosts are a race of sea birds that are an offshoot of Sirens. Both males and female Alkonosts have metallic luster feathers ranging in bronze, copper, silver, gold, brass or platinum.

Like the Sirens and Erinyes, Alkonosts are known for their singing voices and are skilled at playing musical instruments. Unlike their Siren relatives, Alkonosts are known to live in cooler climates. Alkonosts prefer the company of Merrows, Ceasgs and Selkies out of the merfolk clan, and perfer the Lamiaks and Sjovaettir of the witch clans. The Alkonosts are one of the few clans in Meerlo that the Erinyes fear. Erinyes know to leave Alkonosts alone, due to Alkonosts being more powerful with their knowledge of holy magic and the abilities to banish the undead and demonic beings.

Lifespan: 15,566 years old

Current Seabird deity: Lorelei

Common classes: Cleric, Bishop, Paladin, Sage, High Priest, Song Maiden, Minstrel, Sun lancer, Illusionist, Evoker, Runic Knight

Humans in Meerlo:

When in Meerlo, you have two options: Sink or swim.

If you're an excellent swimmer and love the water, you'll more than likely survive in Meerlo. If you're horrible at swimming and get sea sick real easily, the likelihood for survival in Meerlo is very slim. So you better learn how to swim and love the water when in Meerlo, or you're not going to make it very far in life.

Most humans that live in Meerlo are mariners or vikings that usually live in house boats or house ships. Using boats and ships for transportation is mandatory in Meerlo, because every piece of land is either an island or a huge group of archipelagos. Islands come in many shapes and sizes, and there are no landlocked regions in Meerlo. Every isle continent and country is surrounded by vast valleys of water.

Some merfolk and sea bird clans get along with humans more than others. The merfolk most likely to be allies with humans are Nykkens, Selkies and Ebbies. Both the Kappa and the Sea Nagas are unpredictable towards humans, and Cecaelia are neutral with humans. Sirens have a bad reputation with some human clans, but most mean well to humans and other foreign clans. Erinyes, on the other hand, only get along with humans (and other non-Meerlo beings) that are deceitful, dishonest and wicked. Nice, heroic humans usually have to defend themselves against the Erinyes when coming across these cruel sea birds.

Erineys and unpredictable merfolk aren't the only things you should watch out for. There are also a lot of humans and foreign land beings that are vikings and bandits, which are infamously known to raid and plunder people's boat homes and towns on land, as well as loot from people that oppose them. The most infamous of all tribes of vikings are the all female viking tribe called the Ladgriths. The vikings of the Ladgrith tribe are quite ruthless and hostile, especially towards beings that are male. Though the Ladgriths get along with the Erinyes just fine and the Erinyes are more than happy to work as guards and templars for the Ladgriths, so no creature can take back his/her belongings the Ladgriths stolen. Erinyes males are the only species of male being the Ladgriths get along with.

So when in Meerlo, not only do you have to watch out for hostile sea creatures, but hostile viking tribes as well, whether they are human or not.

Minority races:

Minority non-human races that make their home in Meerlo are the witches of the Hrimthur, Sjovaettir and Lamia races, Storm and Ice dragonites from Dragnar and of course, the harpies and other bird men from Dierveld. It was said that s storm dragon god, known as Leviathan, resigned from being a dragon god in Dragnar and made Meerlo his new home world. His sea serpent descendants flourish in the oceans, lakes, rivers and streams of this world.

Creatures used to deserts and dry lands tend to avoid Meerlo, since they're used to dry and arid comment, and have no knowledge of the sea. The creatures running the other world exchange programs make sure that creatures from desert and other dry, arid regions don't get sent to Meerlo. Heck, banishing a desert creature into Meerlo is considered a cruel and unusual punishment to most deity leaders of many worlds.

Most merfolk clans get a long with Storm and Ice dragonites quite a bit. Some are even known to have hybrid children together, though the hybrid children have a longer lifespan than their mermaid parent, but they can't transform into a dragon and are usually shorter and not as physically mature as the pure bred children of either species.

Mostly, creatures with the knowledge of the ocean and are of the wind, water and ice element are known to live in Meerlo more than creatures of any other element, since they are more prepared for these kind of environments than any other creature of any other element. Because in a world like Meerlo, it's best rather to swim (or at least try to swim) than sink.