Selkie

Physical Description

Newborn Selkies are identical in appearance to seals, but shed their skin later in life to take on a human appearance. In this form they are most often more slender than most humans of the same age and height. They have pale skin and dark hair and eyes, which both match their coloration as a seal. Selkies maintain the magical ability to change back and forth between their seal and human forms as long as they keep the seal skin they shed.

Society

Selkies live much shorter lives than other yokai or humanoids, and as such are prone to wanderlust and exploration. The sea's endless expanse calls to selkies, encouraging them to continue searching for new things to eat, touch, and collect. They do live in small communities, especally while raising their pups, but often break away at various points in their lives.

Relations With Others

On land they sometimes seem naive or childlike to the civilizations they are less familiar with, but this shouldn't be taken as a lack of wisdom or competence.

Naming Conventions

Selkies are named after a series of barks or sounds they make in seal form, but are difficult to spell or pronounce for other races. For this reason, selkie often adapt their names to somethign similar sounding in common or choose an entirely different name for themselves when speaking with other races. When choosing their own names, they traditionally pick something related to water or aquatic life.
Adapted Names: Aft, Elss, Gual, Hupp, Orn
Adopted Names: Coral, Reef, Seafoam, Storm