Marinymph
“Y’know, I always thought the ‘nymph’ part of the name was supposed to refer to some scantily-clad pretty strumpet from the sea with fish fins. Used to dream of running into one as a young lad. Thought she would take me for husband and lead me down to an underwater castle where we’d spend our lives. Well, I got my wish years later. Suffice it to say, it’s real face was hardly as enchanting as I imagined.”- Jeromy Caspian Walsh , navigator.
Sailors tell tales of gigantic mollusks which roam the warm seas around Preomona and Brandjordan. Slow-moving regal herbivores that roam the seabed, be it around coral atolls or at depths of the worlds oceans, feeding mostly on the kelp and seaweed forests. They resemble giant snails or slugs, but their shell is not made up of one continuous bony structure, but rather several fragmented bone-like horns or growths that jut towards the sky like ghostly cathedrals or macabre parapets.
One would think such a massive creature would quickly clear out all the vegetation in a given area, leaving it barren, but nature has gifted them with supplementary forms of energy generation. While born ghostly white, they can absorb the plants they eat, and deploy them onto the surface of their skin, often giving it a green, yellow, or blue tint as they age.
While they are gentle giants, and have few natural predators due to their size and armor, when in pain or frightened they have a unique defense mechanism. The spires on their back can vibrate and tremble, and a high-pitched whine can be heard, similar to a crystal being struck with a metal rod. The reverberations irritate and injure the soul, the very essence of a creature. Humans standing too close might suffer from the powerful noise generated, becoming dazzled and stunned, in which eardrums can be popped and even result in convulsions. This will greatly irritate even large-sized predators, but is very energetically unfavorable for the Marinymph in question, and is only a temporary reprieve, to be used in emergencies. For more minor threats, their size makes more than capable of generating giant waves with their movement, or slapping obstacles aside.
They are personalized, for the most part, as gentle, wise guardians that carry ecosystems with them. Bulls can get aggressive during mating season, but otherwise they are placid and calm. Most of the damage they cause is accidental on account of their large and unwieldy form. Seabirds will often gather around when Marynymphs get to shallow waters, feeding on irritating barnacle and algae growths, as well as the fish that gather underwater to feed on treats that have landed on the Marinymph’s spires.
An old sailor legend details the unlikely journey of Piotyr Iskranton (known as ‘Pi’), an Engelian who was attracted to strange, white growths he saw on the beach one day, thinking they were some odd cliffs. The ground started to shudder and move beneath him, and before he knew it, he was miles from coast. For four hundred and eighty three days he survived on the marinymphs back, breaking off small pieces of bone to use as spears and make fishing equipment, and feeding on the birds, fish, and mollusks that accompanied the creature. He would wave frantically at the very rare ships he would come across, but the creature’s speed, and the dangerous waves it’s large body would create made intervention impossible. Finally, it stopped at a dense, jungle coastline. He stepped off, in great relief, and begin to etch his tale into a series of stone tablets. Unfortunately, he was devoured by a snake a week later, and died
