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Description
SO I havent done enough mermay for someone with a mermaid society in one of their favorite projects. I'm sorta kinda stealing the ideal of using mermay to flesh out lore from TheZodiacLord (got read his mermay stuff, its dope, or just his stuff in general man)

Origin is one of my more through projects, others have waaay more writing but none have as much world-building as Origin.

Mermaid origins and stuff
Within the world of Elis, there are a shitton of different species, most of whom possess some type of magical ability. Htiera is the goddess of the ocean and self identity. She is also closely associated with the currently unnamed moon god who she's romantically involved with. Almost all mermaids can trace their lineage back to some point when Htiera interacted with their ancestor. She creates new familial lines in mermaids by taking pity on someone from the land and turning them into a mermaid. most mermaids have the ability to manipulate either air or water, but ti's entirely possible for them to have control over earth or fire, it's just a) rare and b) considered a curse for fire, not as useful for earth.
Mermaids and Mermen have three society structures, Pods, Collections and Loners.
Loners is a bit obvious so I'll do them first, they are either outcasts from other groups or live alone by choice. regardless, they can be nomadic or sedentary but in any case they tend to stick close to Collections as if anything bad happens, they are likely to protect any Loners nearby.
Collections tend to be large (generally under a couple thousand, not less than 100) groups of Mer who live in one select area. They often set up around large coral reefs and cave areas. They like to trade with land dwelling neighbors so they also are generally around the coast or continents. All Collections have a Lord or Lady who watches after all that are under them and reports back to the high king/queen of the area. Royalty often rule over an entire sea, however, the Great Sea (which is literally like half the planet) is separated in to 6 kingdoms. Mer tend to not be very picky about borders as long as you aren't building close to one, however, they do get into bloody fights, sometimes war, over any treasure found near a border. Mermaids are incredibly attracted to treasure and tend to hoard it, it doesn't even have much of a monetary value to them, except gold. Gold is used by many oviparous (egg-laying) species in Elis as a folk-medicine to help eggs hatch healthy. No one is entirely sure whether or not it actually helps but it doesn't HURT so why the hell not. Collection Mer tend to be very docile and civil, they often appear similar to tropical fish but not always, they can breathe above water and will not die if dried out, most can form legs after awhile of being beached, but some, mainly Eel types, can move their tails like a snake and thus don't need legs to move on land. They used a tar like substance called 'binding paste' to hold structures together. It has to be heated in the sun, and cools with in about an hour. Most clothing is made from waterproof kelp fabric, sometimes furs but Mer don't like to be overly covered so not unless they really need the warmth. Collections are usually very spread out and tend to have small floating docks somewhere above them as a place to trade with the surface.
Pods are made up of almost exclusively Mammalian Mer, meaning live births. Pods are almost always on the move and rarely have a set place of residence. They travel in circuits about their favorite seas and will almost always drop what their doing and head back to their "home" when a Mer gets pregnant. Pod Mer always have a brooding place, it's often very obvious, like actual signs and shit, that a Pod has claimed a certain space for their young to be born. The pod will usually hang out there until the mother is recovered enough to carry the baby and swim (also totally forgot, egg laying mer can switch sexes like clown fish, pod mer can't). Pod's income is shared fairly based on age and need, it's earned primarily through hunting. Pod Mer are mostly carnivorous and generally similar to dolphins, whales or sharks, they provide more than half of the fresh meat for Collections as travelling pods will often hunt more than they need to sell to food vendors in them. When a child reaches adulthood in their pod, they can either find a mate with in the pod, or if there are no other unrelated Mer their age, they may wader off to find one elsewhere. They may join their mate's pod or convince their mate to come back to their own, the repeating circuits they do make it easy to track down your pod after leaving. Many young mer who are looking for a mate will take up temporary residence in a popular Collection, it's a common enough idea that other single mer will more than likely stop in as well. Pod mer also don't wear much (if any) clothing and tend to have more de-saturated color palettes.

wOW that was a lot, not about the actual picture.....
The pink and blue one is Seelia, a mermaid living in a Collection off the coast of Me'Anmory (ill link the map in a bit) and the other is an Eel type. Normally she wouldn't be in a Collection but she was adopted by a Mer in the Collection so they consider her alright, Eel types don't get along with other mer most the time, especially one Kingdom but I'll get at that later. Basically, Eels aren't in anyway related to Htiera like the others, they're an aquatic subspecies of Naga/Nagini (which already are semi aquatic btw) who Mer generally have a pretty rock relationship with. Naga are very territorial and many tribes have a bad habit of chasing off Mer from space that normally belongs to them. Which sounds like it doesn't make sense but Nagas like to lay eggs in saltwater so they run Collections out of their spots and temporarily take over for breeding season.

Description
SO I havent done enough mermay for someone with a mermaid society in one of their favorite projects. I'm sorta kinda stealing the ideal of using mermay to flesh out lore from TheZodiacLord (got read his mermay stuff, its dope, or just his stuff in general man)

Origin is one of my more through projects, others have waaay more writing but none have as much world-building as Origin.

Mermaid origins and stuff
Within the world of Elis, there are a shitton of different species, most of whom possess some type of magical ability. Htiera is the goddess of the ocean and self identity. She is also closely associated with the currently unnamed moon god who she's romantically involved with. Almost all mermaids can trace their lineage back to some point when Htiera interacted with their ancestor. She creates new familial lines in mermaids by taking pity on someone from the land and turning them into a mermaid. most mermaids have the ability to manipulate either air or water, but ti's entirely possible for them to have control over earth or fire, it's just a) rare and b) considered a curse for fire, not as useful for earth.
Mermaids and Mermen have three society structures, Pods, Collections and Loners.
Loners is a bit obvious so I'll do them first, they are either outcasts from other groups or live alone by choice. regardless, they can be nomadic or sedentary but in any case they tend to stick close to Collections as if anything bad happens, they are likely to protect any Loners nearby.
Collections tend to be large (generally under a couple thousand, not less than 100) groups of Mer who live in one select area. They often set up around large coral reefs and cave areas. They like to trade with land dwelling neighbors so they also are generally around the coast or continents. All Collections have a Lord or Lady who watches after all that are under them and reports back to the high king/queen of the area. Royalty often rule over an entire sea, however, the Great Sea (which is literally like half the planet) is separated in to 6 kingdoms. Mer tend to not be very picky about borders as long as you aren't building close to one, however, they do get into bloody fights, sometimes war, over any treasure found near a border. Mermaids are incredibly attracted to treasure and tend to hoard it, it doesn't even have much of a monetary value to them, except gold. Gold is used by many oviparous (egg-laying) species in Elis as a folk-medicine to help eggs hatch healthy. No one is entirely sure whether or not it actually helps but it doesn't HURT so why the hell not. Collection Mer tend to be very docile and civil, they often appear similar to tropical fish but not always, they can breathe above water and will not die if dried out, most can form legs after awhile of being beached, but some, mainly Eel types, can move their tails like a snake and thus don't need legs to move on land. They used a tar like substance called 'binding paste' to hold structures together. It has to be heated in the sun, and cools with in about an hour. Most clothing is made from waterproof kelp fabric, sometimes furs but Mer don't like to be overly covered so not unless they really need the warmth. Collections are usually very spread out and tend to have small floating docks somewhere above them as a place to trade with the surface.
Pods are made up of almost exclusively Mammalian Mer, meaning live births. Pods are almost always on the move and rarely have a set place of residence. They travel in circuits about their favorite seas and will almost always drop what their doing and head back to their "home" when a Mer gets pregnant. Pod Mer always have a brooding place, it's often very obvious, like actual signs and shit, that a Pod has claimed a certain space for their young to be born. The pod will usually hang out there until the mother is recovered enough to carry the baby and swim (also totally forgot, egg laying mer can switch sexes like clown fish, pod mer can't). Pod's income is shared fairly based on age and need, it's earned primarily through hunting. Pod Mer are mostly carnivorous and generally similar to dolphins, whales or sharks, they provide more than half of the fresh meat for Collections as travelling pods will often hunt more than they need to sell to food vendors in them. When a child reaches adulthood in their pod, they can either find a mate with in the pod, or if there are no other unrelated Mer their age, they may wader off to find one elsewhere. They may join their mate's pod or convince their mate to come back to their own, the repeating circuits they do make it easy to track down your pod after leaving. Many young mer who are looking for a mate will take up temporary residence in a popular Collection, it's a common enough idea that other single mer will more than likely stop in as well. Pod mer also don't wear much (if any) clothing and tend to have more de-saturated color palettes.

wOW that was a lot, not about the actual picture.....
The pink and blue one is Seelia, a mermaid living in a Collection off the coast of Me'Anmory (ill link the map in a bit) and the other is an Eel type. Normally she wouldn't be in a Collection but she was adopted by a Mer in the Collection so they consider her alright, Eel types don't get along with other mer most the time, especially one Kingdom but I'll get at that later. Basically, Eels aren't in anyway related to Htiera like the others, they're an aquatic subspecies of Naga/Nagini (which already are semi aquatic btw) who Mer generally have a pretty rock relationship with. Naga are very territorial and many tribes have a bad habit of chasing off Mer from space that normally belongs to them. Which sounds like it doesn't make sense but Nagas like to lay eggs in saltwater so they run Collections out of their spots and temporarily take over for breeding season.