At once hauntingly beautiful and dangerously fey, the merfolk swim the depths of the world's oceans and are only rarely seen by land-dwellers.
Appearance[]
Merfolk are roughly humanoid in size and appearance, possessing a humanlike head, arms, and torso, with parallel gill slits across their ribs. Starting at hip-level, however, their body shifts to a tail like a fish, save with the fins arranged like those of a dolphin or whale. This fish tail is covered in shimmering scales of many possible colors and patterns, reflecting the species of fish with which they share their waters. Their ears are long and flared like the fins of a fish, and colored similar to the fins on their tails. Their bodies are graceful but toned and muscular, and those who grapple with a merfolk may find that they are surprisingly strong.
Neither sex wears clothing of any sort, though they may wear accessories made from colorful seashells, coral, or pretty stones. The skin on their human half ranges in complection from fair to swarthy, and their hair, worn long, comes in many colors ranging from blue to green to brown to black, with red and blonde occurring only rarely.
Habitat and Ecology[]
Merfolk life in all parts of the ocean, ranging from the shallows to the moderate depths. They have been known to build elaborate undersea kingdoms on the ocean floor, rarely coming to the surface, but when they do it is generally to sun themselves on rocks in obscure parts of the ocean. In addition to gills, they have primitive lungs that allow them to survive outside of the water for hours at a time, but as they are typically virtually helpless on land they do not generally travel far from the ocean.
In rare cases, however, merfolk have been known to both fall in love with and attract the affections of land-dwelling sailors, though the two species are typically not cross-fertile. Their song has been long-renowned amongst sailors, and those who hear it by chance have been known to waste away in their attempts to hear it again.