Two prisioners of war: a man and Rathi, a mermaid.
The man translates what Rathi says:
-Ehh… she says that you should not feed her bread, yeah, she doesn’t like it… she says she will only eat beef… mutton maybe. Yes you must treat her with great care. They will pay a great ransom for her she says… you should also aply oil to her skin and she wants a… a warm bath… yeah she says you should fear her she’s… like a god? basically a god she says…
This unlikely pair was captured during the siege of Yebbi, a conflict that the orc twins Biso and Curaj will eventually take part of. A brief explanation of the conflict:
Yebbi is a rich port and agricultural city that pays tribute to the Banor So league since they were defeated a few years ago. They were also forbbiden from keeping any weapons or maintaining an army.
The population of Yebbi belongs to the same ethnicity as the infamous Volodiyan sea raiders from the eastern shore. (Basic map, subject to change)
The pirates are interested in using Yebbi as a base of operations in the southern region of the sea for trade and raiding, so they started arming and supporting a rebellion against the Banor So League. (Traditional hairstyle of these sea raiders).
The league started a siege that didn’t prove very succesful because of many reasons like:
-Yebbi has a port and overseas allies.
-The League doesn’t have a professional army so the average citizen soldier can’t hold the besiege all year long.
The league started recruiting mercenaries (including orcs like Biso and Curaj) to ravage the farmlands and fuel the acute social conflict inside of Yebbi (the average Yebbi citizen don’t like allying with pirates and just want the conflict to be over).
The pirates come from the Volodiya culture, which live alongside mermaids, the last (I think) sapient creature I will add to this project.
Mermaids substain themselves by many means, such as foraging, hunting small cetaceans and herding manatees in estuaries. All of these mermaid groups share a shamanic tradition. Theses mermaid shamans dive deeper than they usually do to induce nitrogen poisoning on themselves and enter an altered state of mind. They come from these dives with visions to guide the group. Volodiyan humans know of these shamans and respect them as oracles.
Rathi is one of these shamans. She no longer dives because she has developed arthritis but she is very respected and has a great reputation as an oracle. Rathi accompanied the Volodiyan party that went to Yebbi and was captured by the Banor So alongisde some Volodiyan warriors. The Banor So had a vague knowledge of mermaids, but had never seen one and correctly asumed Rathi would be a valuable hostage.
Little did they know how annoying she would be… (she actually can’t eat bread tho)
Mermaids normally use little if any clothing, since it would create drag underwater. Rathi usually dons seashell and gold jewelry, but it was stolen at her capture. The translating warrior’s hair was also cut once he was captured.
