Merfolk

Merfolk have turned up in folklore and myth all over the world for centuries. Every sea-faring country has their merfolk stories and while many of those stories are pure fantasy, humanoid fish people do exist in all the major bodies of water. The reality of merfolk is they are more kin to whales and dolphins than fish. They have close enough contact with the cultures that identify them that they often reflect those cultures. Merfolk are considered skinchangers as some families have the ability to transform between human and aquatic forms. Much like lycanthropy in human society, merfolk use stories of these families as horror stories and nightmare material. These families are also more closely related to humans, as they can interbreed when in human form.

• North America
  • West Coast - Most coastal North American merfolk travel in pods of 12-40 individuals which act much like independent states or provinces. They convene on a calender of tides and moon cycles to discuss laws, rules and other political issues before spreading out again. The pods off of California favor glamor and glitz, often decorating themselves with jewelry, piercings and tattoos. Farther North, the Oregon and Washington State pods lean toward the hippie culture and one even tried a vegan diet. They had to give it up pretty quickly; seaweed isn’t high enough in nutrients to maintain the fat they need for the colder Northern waters.
  • East Coast - One of the Northern pods has a strangely frog-like appearance and is closely tied to the village of Innsmouth. Generally, the Northern pods are more political and structured.
  • Great Lakes - Pods in the lower Great Lakes are environmental terrorists, acting aggressively towards coastal sources of pollution and human interference. They have lost the ability to live in Lake Erie and are determined to keep from losing any of the other lakes. The Lake Superior pods are older and maintain a tradition of stalking the shipping lines. They capsize ships (both large and small) and drag the crew down deep, giving the lake the reputation of never giving up her dead. [Dex] I’m on good terms with many of the Great Lakes pods.
  • Mississippi River
  • Everglades and Louisiana swamps -
  • Northern Canada and Alaska - Far Northern pods tend toward larger bodies and higher concentrations of blubber due to the colder waters. They often grow shaggy pelts similar to seals and sea lions as well.
• South America
  • Caribbean Islands
  • Amazon basin
  • Panama Canal
  • Buenos Aires
  • Chile
• Great Britain and Ireland
  • English Channel
  • Coastal villages
  • Scottish Lochs
  • Irish coasts
• Scandinavia
  • Fjords
  • Rivers (Viking)
• Europe
  • Venice
  • Greek islands and shoreline
• Northern Africa
  • Nile River
• Coastal Africa
  • Coasts
• Asia
  • Japanese Islands
  • Korean coasts
  • Chinese coasts
  • Indonesia
• Australia
  • Coastal cities
  • Coral reefs
• Atlantic Ocean - Atlantic pods have a proud history of capsizing slave ships and rescuing African slaves, returning them to their homelands when possible. They tend to be smaller than their Pacific cousins, but still remain larger than coastal or inland merfolk. Many of them bear markings similar to orcas and other black-and-white dolphin-kin.
• Indian Ocean
• Arctic Ocean

Related Ethnicities

• Dagonian
• Selkie
• Whalefolk