#merai

More dnd shenanigans!

Look at these mer-tail Christmas stockings @kibumunnie!

Ahahahaha I don’t think so

Where the ‘love’ is my obsessive love of worldbuilding, WOO, HERE WE GO~

The weather in Alicante is absolutely wonderful. See, my Idris (I am uncertain about the exact details of the canon Idris) is basically this long slice of land from Belgium’s coast to Italy’s. It's squeezed between France and Belgium at the northern coast, wiggles between Germany/Luxumberg and France in the middle, then curves west around Switzerland and finishes up between France and Italy/Monaco on the coast. Alicante, which is in the south, is just a few miles from the Mediterranean and has much the same climate as Monaco - warm dry summers, mild rainy winters, with the sea breeze to take the edge off the heat on summer evenings. It’s pretty freakin’ beautiful.

(Most of the original Shadowhunter families came from northern and western Europe, which is why they’re white, but golden skin like Jace’s is pretty common amongst Nephilim families that have been based in Idris for centuries. Some of it is tan, in those Nephilim who were raised in southern Idris, but a lot of it is Mediterranean or even Pankhaian blood.) 

Why does Idris allow Downworlders in its territory? As you guessed - it can’t keep them out. Alicante has the demon towers, and Idris’ borders are spelled to keep out mundanes and mundane technology, but no one has yet come up with an anti-Downworlder ward (or if any warlock has, they are weirdly enough not telling the Nephilim about it). Without magic, the only answer would be to physically patrol the borders, and there just aren’t enough Shadowhunters to make that feasible. So Downworlders are permitted in the country, but not in the capital city, which is only for the Nephilim.

The Idrian economy...hoy boy. Okay. I am not very confident of all the political/economic terms here, so bear with me. On the whole, most of the Nephilim’s wealth belongs to the upper castes, Shadowhunters and Merchant Adventurers and so on. The lower castes, especially in more rural areas, I guess you could call communist, or something like it, anyway, in that they tend to share what they have and all chip in to take care of village/town-wide duties. I would not call the earth-castes serfs or peasants, though; they are not living in dirt huts with no plumbing, or struggling to feed themselves and meet their tithes (in general).

I mean, the economy works like this: human governments tithe to the Clave to support the demon-hunting. Shadowhunters are paid for every demon they kill, on top of a basic living wage which is usually augmented by the wealth of that Shadowhunter’s family, which has been amassed over centuries. Nephilim-grown or -made produce is exported, carefully and secretly, into mundane countries or other Hidden Lands, where it is sold or traded for the things Idris can’t produce itself. This money trickles down to the artisans and earth-castes who produce the sold goods. 

The upper artisans, alchemists, and scholae usually have patrons among the Shadowhunter caste, or else subsist on municipal stipends, which are adjusted according to the quality of work being produced. 

All in all I think that makes it far more capitalist than communist?

AHH MY BEAUTIFUL MERAI CHILDREN OKAY LET’S DO THIS HERE ARE SOME OF MY MERAI HEADCANONS

All merai, with the exception of those found in the Baltic sea, are deaf. They communicate both through sign language and through trr-ahhaies (ah-HI-ess), which doesn’t translate very well but kind of means ‘water touch’ or ‘tangible language’. Basically you know how if you move your hand under water, it creates a ripple of force? Trr-ahhaies is a kind of percussive language ‘spoken’ with the whole body, that can be understood even by the blind because it’s felt/’heard’ with the skin. The ripples made by movements of the body have meaning and create the language. I hope I’m explaining htis well.

Male merai are like seahorses, and carry the babies in their eggs before they’re born. The proportion of male to female merai is approximately 1:6, so in most merai cultures the males stay home and look after the children and their wives are the hunters/warriors. 

Most merai cultures are polygynous, for obvious reasons. Typically three or four best friends or sisters will share a husband.

The merai found in the Mediterranean can trigger their own sex changes and do so at will. The process takes between three-six months to complete, and means that the Mediterranean merai population has a very fluid concept of gender and gender roles. 

Merai shamans are capable of weather-magic. Before the treaties with Pankhaia their spells - cast through song - often brought down the ships later written off as ‘lost at sea’.

Merai do not have hair. Ever. You’re thinking of selkies.

Some merai do have anenome-like tendrils/fronds growing from their heads, but these are toxic, DO NOT TOUCH THEM UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE.

Never fuck with the Celtic Sea merai under any circumstances, it will make Jaws look like a MLP episode and they will never find your body.

Or your ship.