#askmermaid

The water's a little chilly...

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Lore Masterpost

This is a real problem that they have to watch out for!

In fact, sirenes, cecaelia, and other Aquarian peoples have been hate-crimed by Terrians who drag them out of the water and stick them to frozen surfaces. This can (and has) led to serious injury.

Other times it's simply an accident. Young Aquarians who venture on land may not know better, and get themselves stuck to things in cold weather. I imagine this is a lesson every Aquarian learns early on...but some of them learn it the hard way.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

(Translated by Google Translator)

What happens if a mermaid is born with a defect that prevents her from swimming? In other words, her tail doesn't work. I'm asking because I started reading "Swimming Lessons for a Mermaid."

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Interesting question! It is known that if a mermaid's legs are damaged in her terrestrial form, then her tail will also be damaged in her aquatic form. But what if she was born with some kind of defect that prevented her from swimming altogether?

There are different possibilities:

1 ) Prosthetics and bionics. An artificial tail that slips on and off might give her better mobility.

2 ) Service animal. She might rely on an animal, like a seal or dolphin, to pull her around in the water.

3 ) Technology. If the mermaid lives in an industrial kingdom like Zareen Empire, she can use technology like a sea scooter to propel herself. Something like this:

All of these things apply to sirenes as well!

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Good question! The undine's transformation spell does a number on a child's developing brain, and this damage can present later in life as paranoia, emotional instability, memory loss, and impaired cognitive function.

Not all mermaids will have these issues, but a significant number of them do. It isn't as much of a problem when they're enthralled and forced to battle, but once they escape thralldom and try to integrate back into society, the issues become rather apparent. The years of soldiering just intensifies these effects by adding a fat helping of PTSD on top.

So, a child who escaped thralldom immediately would not have the PTSD, but might suffer some symptoms of mild brain damage and of course amnesia from the spell.

But under the care of loving parents, I think these children can grow up to be just fine. These are all issues that can be overcome with proper medical care and therapy.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

I think covering those scales with makeup would be difficult, but not totally impossible. Maybe with enough of that putty stuff movie crews use for special effects, they could pull it off.

They would also have to wear contacts, because the mermaid's curse turns their eyes a very specific, unnatural shade of blue, and the whites of their eyes get a slight blue tint to them as well.

As for their hair, dyes actually can't adhere to it because of its water-repellent properties. While normal human hair absorbs and holds on to water for a long time, mermaid hair only briefly absorbs it, then quickly repels it as soon as its squeezed. This is how mermaids are able to quickly transform back into their terrestrial forms when they leave the water, by just squeezing their hair to dry it.

If they want to color their hair, they have to do so with magic potions or spells. They can also put on a wig for a quick disguise.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

That's a great question! I imagine the tail would look damaged in some way, yes. Probably smaller, misshapen, missing a lot of scales and maybe a fin or two.

This mermaid would have trouble swimming in her aquatic form, just as she struggles to walk in her terrestrial form. Some kind of tail prosthetic or jet propulsion device could mitigate this.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Yep! It's possible for mermaids to also contract lycanthropy, and when they do, they have a unique beast form that looks crocodile-like.

I don't have art of this currently but it's something I've had on the list for a long time. It will be added to the main lycanthropy article. I don't have names for these aquatic beast forms or a final design yet, just some very rough concepts so far.

Aquatic werewolves are particularly dangerous because water does not slow them down at all--in fact, they swim even faster than they run! This is not the case for terrestrial werewolves, who aren't very graceful swimmers.

Like other Aquarian creatures, aquatic werewolves dehydrate quickly. They tend to seek bodies of water as soon as they transform, hiding in creeks, ponds, even sewers and swimming pools to ambush their prey.

Aquarian peoples are mostly safe from terrestrial werewolves in the water, but aquatic werewolves remain a serious threat.

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Questions/Comments?

This might happen on occasion, but not nearly as often as, say, people mistaking satyrs for fauns and vice versa.

The differences between mermaids and sirenes are too large to really mistake them for eachother. Maybe a very uneducated person who doesn't get out much could confuse them, but not the majority of people.

When Terrians see mermaids, they usually see them in their terrestrial forms, meaning they have legs at the time. Everyone knows sirenes don't have legs, so that's out the window.

Terrians could confuse them for sirenes in their Aquatic forms, but these species still look quite different so it wouldn't be common.

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Questions/Comments?