Mermaids
Mermaids are enchanting and mystical creatures seen little but heavily told in folklore across lands. They tend to be more shy and wary at first, though flattery preens at their arrogance and egos and they can easily be coaxed to the shore side to converse and flirt with landers. They are vain and narcissistic as all merfolk tend to be and will bask in areas they know will be seen just to receive flattering from onlookers. They are highly curious with sometimes childlike nativity about them. The strange and unknown nature can perk their attention be it a odd trinket in the water or a lander that stray close to their waters. Some have been know to take on characteristic of legs to blend in with human settlements and wear foliage and other oddities from their sea homes. Mermaid and Mermen tend to be highly romantic. There are many a sea tale which speaking of the mermaids and merman risking their lives for the safely of sailors out to sea.
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Appearance: Mermaids are the Archetypal Female Merfolk; a human woman from the hips to the head, and from the hips down, a fish. They come in a wide variety of colors, patterns, and origins, usually reflective of their home waters. They are naturally beautiful, though rarely terribly vain about it. They love to decorate their bodies with beautiful things they find in the waters: a pretty shell tied into the hair, kelp braided into a necklace or a bracelet, for example. Though unlike their Siren sisters, they do so to display something pretty they found, and not to make themselves lovelier.
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Personality: Mermaids are typically very generous personalities with a reverence for life in various ways. This does not necessarily force them into a saccharine sweet personality. While there is a degree of naivete and innocence that seems intrinsic to their social function, it is not a matter of being unintelligent, simply more as if they are so utterly focused and in love with their own world that the worlds of others are of magnificently little interest to them. So to many land-dwellers, they may seem ignorant or unknowing. However, ask where to find a particular variety of kelp, or where the schools of fish can be found and at what time of day, and they will often be able to answer without hesitation. The Maidens of the sea are happiest within it, and almost universally declare this fact. They seem free of many of the cares and worries of life that we might expect.
There are tales of Mermaids meeting a land-dweller and forsaking their life in the sea for the sake of love. This seems in line with their romantic natures. They are the breath and the life of Merfolk, and as myriad as their colors are their personalities, though they are typically always memorable. Their innocence and romantic nature lends them toward being easily manipulated, but caution is warned in that once discovered, they can be vengeful. With the above being said, a romantic nature is often drawn to tragedy. A reverence for life can be considered a reverence for the cycle of it, with an easy acceptance of death as simply part of the nature of things. The ultimate folly of man would be to mistake a mermaid for a weak-willed personality. They are fiercely independent and treasure their freedom dearly. It is upon their personal standard that the common system of merit and ability granting status rather than birthright has permeated the Merfolk. It is upon their ideals of freedom that much of merfolk society has been built.
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Strengths Mermaids are so at one with the ocean, that they have an almost preternatural sense of the watery world around them. They can tell where they are, what's around them, upcoming changes in weather, when the tides move, even the time of day simply for being in the water and being that aware of it. When sunning on rocks or on land, they are not as well aware and oriented. Mermaids are capable of healing minor injuries of both themselves and others. They must be in contact with the water in order to accomplish this, and it is a spell like ability, needing at least 2 posts to cast. With practice this skill can be increased and expanded upon. A vocation in healing is a natural fit for a mermaid. Mermaids have the gift of long life and a perpetually youthful appearance. A mermaid can live up to 500 years.
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Weakness: Mermaids are innocent by nature and usually ignorant of deceptions by others as well as anything outside of their watery world. They are gullible and easily manipulated, particularly young mermaids. Older maids may put on the guise of innocence and use this to their advantage.
