Sirens

Angels of the Ocean

It is not uncommon to sail around the oceans and seas of Totania and hear something that would feel out of place: the beautiful singing voices of Heaven. One would not be remiss for believing it to be simply a chorus of Nereids, or a school of strange fish, but they would pay dearly for this mistaken assumption. They would become the next victims of a minority groupf Merfolk, known as Sirens.

Molpe by Jarhed

The Seafaring Singers

Sirens are humanoid in the sense that their upper halves mostly resemble Humans, but in many other ways, one would not be mistaken for considering them to resemble beastmen like Korvians or Teleosts. Like Merfolk, Sirens have the tails of fish and the upper bodies of humans, however this is where their similarities end.

Voice

They can not only speak clearly in the ocean, but their vocal chords are designed in a way that the ocean carries their voices over great distances.
Their voices, too, carry the magic of the Angel of Music, Amadio. They can charm anyone with their speech when done right, and more importantly with their songs. This charm can help them convince anyone to do anything, but its most potent power is the ability to lure people towards the source. This is often used to lure sailors off of their ships and into the water to drown, or otherwise to crash their ships into something.
It is said that sirens have the voice of an angel, and they do. But their power is often used for purposes that many would consider the opposite of angelic.

Wings

Sirens also have wings on their backs. When they are in the water, these are able to retract down to their backs. They are shaped in a way that they can help the Sirens swim faster while retracted, and when they are out, they can hold up the entire weight of a Siren.

Isolation and Exile

Most Sirens live in exile from civilization, inhabiting their own settlements deep beneath the sea or on rocks and small islands around the ocean. It is considered too dangerous, in most underwater cities, for a Siren to live there, as their voices are the subject of superstition. Of course, Nereids and merfolk cannot drown, so Siren voices are not as dangerous as they are to surface dwellers.
Sirens are also allowed on land, in most nations at least. They cannot lure people to drown if they are living on land, and they can survive on land thanks to their angelic origins. They cannot walk, but they can slide across the ground and fly.

Molpe: The First Siren

The legend goes that all Sirens are descended from a woman named Molpe. Molpe was the nephilim daughter of a mermaid named Calliope and the Angel of Music, Amadio, servant of the Goddess Ninatta.
It is said that Amadio visited the ocean on a journey to spread music to the corners of the world where it did not often reach.
There, he met Calliope, who loved his songs more than any other resident of the sea. She tried to convince Amadio to stay, but he had to return to Heaven. However, he did spend some time there, bestowing her with a gift to show of their time together. The Nephilim child known as Molpe.
Molpe carried many of her father's traits. The gold of his skin manifested in her scales, the wings of an angel sprouted from her back, and she loved music just as Amadio had.
Her voice was said to be that of an angel, and all went to hear it. With this, it is said that she lured many suitors to her bed, and had many children. These children would take on the same traits as her, and together they would be the very first sirens.
But she was scorned by the surface. Sailors would destroy the habitats she lived in with her family, and hunt her children for their beauty and their songs.
There is disagreement on the nature of what happened. Was it Molpe that led the Sirens to exile, killing sailors in revenge, or did her death result in this? No unified story exists, but whatever the case, Molpe was the first of the sirens, and the reason for the isolation most still live in, seeking vengeance against all sailors that cross their waters.

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Some Sirens study the Bardic Arts to increase the potency of their music, or simply to become better musicians, as a majority of Sirens not only have musical abilities, but also have a deep passion for music. One can find Sirens primarily in the Bardic Village of Ealla or at the Bard College of Lebalos.

Amadio by Jarhed

Siren Songs

The Music of the Sirens is said to be greater than anything that mortals can make. Some deny this, and evidence proves that quality of art cannot be judged by such metrics. Still, in terms of its effect, few mortals can make music that evokes such feelings as those songs sung by Sirens.
They have been given the name "Siren Songs" which has, then, gone on to mean any music with a particularly beautiful sounds.
One of the most famous Siren Songs (that actually originates from the Sirens themselves) is known as Below the Decks (Join Us), with another well known song being Enchanted Company. To write the lyrics to either here would be dangerous, as a Siren Song can, often, imbue magic into even the lyrics. For the sake of safety, the lyrics will be omitted.

Diet

Some Sirens, it is said, are cannibals. The rumor has spread that all are, and that they make sailors crash so that they can eat them. This is true for some, though not all, Sirens. Others eat the same as all other Merfolk: fish they find in the sea or plants that grow on the ocean floor. It is only a small group of them that have taken to cannibalism.