#acaesia lore

[silvershayde]

An Acaesian Encyclopaedia

Darena’s Seafarers: Sirelians (Aqua Sirens)

Second Instalment for Darena’s Seafarers! This is about Sirelians! The other Seafarers include: Merfolk, Melusines, and Nymphs/Nereids. Of the four treasures Darena handed out, the Sirelians were given the Bident.

Before I get into the nitty gritty, I wanna go over why I named them Sirelians rather than just Sirens. Everyone knows Sirens right? Well, first off the original version of Sirens were bird like, and many of you may already know that. So because both Sirelians and Sirens have the hypnotic voice that can sing a lullaby of doom, the names have had an overlap and they’ve been conflated with one another, which is why I put in brackets Aqua Siren next to their original name. Another name would be Darena’s Sirens since Zetune has her own Sirens; they treat each other like cousins even though they are in no way related. So yeah they are not Sirens since they cannot fly, are not bird-like and do not fall under Zetune’s domain of Caeli. (For the uninformed Caeli is wind/air.)

Anyway! They’re mostly found in the area within and surrounding Sirelia, which is found in the ocean east of Theia/Turnunda (sorry again my map needs updating, once it is I’ll link it in these posts) which would put it south west of Aquaria. Like Merfolk you can find Sirelians in fresh waters.

First off, yes they have two tails, and the tails blend with the upper body. And yes I know the two tail thing is a Melusine thing, but I have my reasons (I came up with Sirelians first and they were initially supposed to be like Selkies because, again, they aren’t technically Sirens. Calling Sirelians Sirens is a land dweller’s misguided label. Like how red pandas aren’t pandas.)

I will note before I move on that there is practically no gender dimorphism that you can see on a Sirelian no matter what upper body they’re rocking.

Second! Unlike Merfolk their tails are more colloquially fish-like. (I use colloquially because classification and fish are not friends so to hell with it.) Their tails can also either be smooth or have scales and if it exists as a fish there’s most likely a Sirelian variant of it. Their hands are webbed and have it on their ears too. They have gills and their nostrils are just to smell not to breathe.

The sclera of a Sirelian is black, and when in hunting mode or when the prey drive is triggered the pupil dilates a LOT. (The iris being bigger on the right is a drawing error but I’ve sat here for nearly three hours doing it)

Through their hypnotic voice and applying their manipulation of Aqua to shapeshifting, Sirelians can change the way they look. Whether it is changing the sclera of their eyes to white, changing the appearance of their teeth to make it less… uh… terrifying to hiding the webs in their hands, and the extra limbs on their arms. Similar to octopuses and cuttlefish they can change the colour of their bodies, but unlike them they can do it consciously rather than just being an environmental reaction.

The one thing they can’t change the image of is how their upper bodies meet their tails, and how many tails they have. This is why those are the only two reliable identifiers to distinguish Sirelians from Merfolk.

[astoryunderstarlight]

of a paradise lost

“Is it really so different?”

Blaze stood at Silver’s side, as he leaned over the balcony railing. Mahua flowers scented the air as they floated to the ground. Silver watched them fall with wide eyes as he gazed upon the reds and oranges the sunset painted upon the evening sky. He sighed against the railing, and Silver’s body fell lax against it.

“Very. Sometimes, well this entire time, I’ve found it hard to believe that this is what home used to look like, that Adarr would burn it all.”

Blaze glanced at him before watching the sunset. She peered down at her nation and she could still hear the muted buzz of the people; she could still see small specks of people lighting lamps to prepare for the coming night; she could still see… life. To think that someday all of it would burn…

“I’m assuming you know why he did it. Adarr may not like engaging with us, but he never hated us enough to burn his home away,” Blaze stated.

Silver looked back at Blaze in awe, “After everything I’ve told you, you defend him?! Adarr sets the entirety of Acaesia ablaze, but you claim he doesn’t hate us?! If he hadn’t gone on a rampage, I, and many others would have a home!”

Blaze leveled her gaze with Silver. “So you don’t know what happened. All you see is the aftermath,” Silver gripped the railing, turning towards the scenery before him, “listen Silver, Adarr’s presence is ever present in Acaesia, especially in Raju, we are a nation of fire after all. You won’t be able to convince the people to turn against Adarr, as to do so is to side with Mephiles. That is something I will not allow. But,” Blaze places her hand on Silver’s shoulder, forcing him to look at her, “I will help you. I will help you find what cause Adarr to do what you say he did, and I will help you put a stop to it before it happens. Understood?”

Silver gave Blaze a long look, his eyes glassy. He clenched his eyes shut, to open them with furrowed brows paired with a frown. “Understood. We’ll fix this.”

Both the cat and the hedgehog turned back to gaze at the scenery, the sun had long since set. The reds and oranges that had set the sky alight were now doused with the blues and purples of the night sky’s ocean of stars. The people had quietened with lamps keeping the night-owls company.

The monarch and the time traveller rested upon a balcony railing, softly watching the nation of fire slumber as they wait for a new dawn.

“Thank you.”

[silvershayde]

i return 👁️👁️

1. Since you mentioned inland freshwater dolphins, is there any significant physical/cultural difference between inland merfolk and oceanic ones? Is there a sort of physical difference on account of them maybe being used to different levels of salinity?

2. Following that, what's the general vibe between inland and oceanic merfolk? do they get along? is there some sort of rivalry? etc etc

3. Merfolk fashionnnn, I assume their clothes need to be adapted to underwater life? Any highlights about that?

4. Dietary requirements!! Like I guess merfolk by default would eat more seafood, but DO they specifically need to? how different are their dietary requirements from land peeps

5. Follow up to that, what is merfolk cuisine like? Do they cook?

6. This one might be a more general question for all the Seafarers, but how's their relationship towards Darena? Is it more worship-like, are they just chillin and Darena is just a Special Person™️ but otherwise not "above" the regular merfolk, etc?

7. because i thought of it just now. Do they have a writing system of any sort??

Hehe welcome back!

Imma first say that initially i wanted to add some visual stuff for this but because it’s late for me rn and I really wanna answer, I’ll add the visual stuff in either a reblog or in an expansion page for Merfolk.

Oceanic Merfolk Vs. River Merfolk

Yes there are very much cultural and physical differences. First off all inland/ freshwater/ river Merfolk all have dolphin tails. But! Their dorsal fins are significantly smaller than their ocean cousins across the board (look at any river dolphin’s dorsal fin and you’ll know what I mean) . They are also smaller and more flexible, but they are slower and their eyesight is not the best when underwater.

Because of the salinity issue, all Sea Mers could last a good bit in rivers and such, but River Mers cannot last out in the sea.

Reasons being that one, their kidneys aren’t strong enough for that, and two, they would starve since they wouldn’t be able to last out in the sea. Sea Mers stick together for protection first then for food, grouping for protection isn’t high on a River Mer’s priority list since they would be the apex predators of their habitats. Not to mention food comes much easier in the river than the sea. The only reason a Sea Mer would suffer in a river would be that the food available is not part of their normal diet.

I’ve kind of already mentioned a cultural difference above. Whilst both kinds share their hunting ways, River Mera don’t prioritise fighting for protection/ self defence as much. For a lack of better terms a Sea Mer would more likely be “aggressive” if found alone whilst a River Mer would more likely be “passive”. Even though I say passive there they aren’t as social as Sea Mers because it isn’t as vital to be.

I’d say because of the habitat differences they don’t really mix often (until recently because lore) but the current state of affairs is “that’s our cousin we see once in a decade and they’re cool”

Fashion

Okay, so, my vision. Uhh sidenote first! I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this at all but they are capable of shapeshifting since they are more in tune with Aqua so when they are walking on land they opt for very flowy clothing, nothing constricting. Think togas or himations or chitons (maybe even a yukata). When underwater they don’t try wear anything heavy and anything they do wear has to be form fitting, especially if they are hunters. Speed and agility is everything under the water. If they do ever wear anything flowy under water it’s because of formality and/or festival time.

Food

This comes back to the shapeshifting thing. With shapeshifting comes slight dietary changes. Like when in normal form they don’t have to cook anything, they can just eat as is, they just take the bones out and anything else they don’t like. For which food specifically they eat it all depends on the area they are in. They won’t touch sea cucumbers and hagfish though… usually. I guess the exception would be like how some people like to eat snails and some people don’t. It’s one of those.

Oh also! River lot are Carnivores, Ocean lot are Omnivores. River lot stick with all types of fish and crustaceans, ocean lot do the same but also have greens their kids declare they hate and their parents tell them its good for them. Example is kelp. They also like to eat clams and octopus is for fun occasions.

When shifted to go on land their tolerance for raw seafood decreases a little bit so some things they gotta at least smoke if not cook it all the way through. They are used to spices from the land and is seen by some mers as an “acquired taste”. One thing all Mers are not used to is consciously drinking water. Any Mer that goes on land forgets about drinking water and have to be reminded that it is something they need to remember to do.

Relation with Darena

The civilisations closest to a spirit can give them different names. In this case to the Seafarers, Darena is primordial, and they call her Thalassa. It’s not that they worship her, it’s more that even though each Seafarer has its own kingdom she rules over it all. Darena’s anger can lead to devastation not only to the land but to the sea itself. Not to mention each Seafarer represents a different aspect to Darena.

Merfolk -> Darena’s tranquility

Sirelians -> Darena’s charm

Melusines -> Darena’s turbulence

Nymphs/Nereids -> Darena’s curiosity

All Darena asks is to be respected and her water taken care of, and the Seafarers take that very seriously.

Writing System

When they visit coves and such they like to do rock art as a means of depicting stories and such. That doesn’t really work that well underwater so they carve their images out. I’m leaning towards Merfolk, and the rest of the Seafarers (with a slight exception to Nymphs) having a pictorial writing system.

[silvershayde]

An Acaesian Encyclopaedia

Darena’s Seafarers: Merfolk

Merfolk are 1 of 4 of Darena’s Seafarers. The other 3 being Sirelians (Sirens), Melusines, and, Nereids. Each group of Seafarers were given a treasure by Darena; Merfolk were given the Trident.

So Merfolk are mostly found in the area within and surrounding Aquaria, which is found in the ocean west of Kheli and South of Sicilya. Since Freshwater Dolphins exist you could find Merfolk inland.

(It has come to my attention that my map needs redoing but thats for another time)

The tails look more like cetacean tails. So *technically* they are more on the mammalian side. I’m still on the fence on whether they have gills or not or if they should just breathe through their noses so thats just up in the air. They sometimes have the sidefins cetaceans have but always have the backfin just in different sizes.

So they do have more of the standard design of mermaids and the like and I did say they are more cetacean/whale/orca/dolphin looking tail-wise, but they do not usually have the colouration of the cetaceans. They have much more colourful tails, usually with a gradient or… not. But I have established that it’s not a fish tail, so no scales here, at all! But they do appear reflective under the light and it looks like glitter. And it does so because I have creative liberties!

Uhhh thats all I got for now, hopefully I should get the Sirelians done next hehe

[silvershayde]

I am once again here to ask lore questions because I finally got the time to read the Sirelians sheet ✨

1. Repeat question from last time, what depths do these guys hang out? shapeshifting makes me think they are still used to shallower water with more light but i can see them going a little deeper than the twilight zone

2. How do they swim? I imagine having 2 tails would make for a unique swimming form

3. the shapeshifting thing + hypnotic voice in general makes me think,,,,, like they definitely ambush predators but considering their size, I wonder how big is their prey 🤔🤔🤔🤔

4. Does their shapeshifting thing have an effect on their physical health?

not very deep questions but i am rotating the Sirelians in my mind XD their design is EXACTLY to my taste when it comes to mers outuhdhdhdhss

Alrighty STRAP IN one of these questions has a bit of lore to it!!!

Okay so the majority are found in max the twilight zone, but a minority of them can head a lil bit into the midnight zone, like how sperm whales do. The ones down there though can usually give off their own light and are much much more aggressive, more on that later.

Okay so when swimming the tails kind of come together and only separate when they’re lounging around and chilling. It comes to them automatically like how giraffes can just walk after being born. (If a visual would be better lmk and ill sketch something up)

Okay so in the present time they follow a similar diet to most sharks including sharks, except Sirelians aren’t afraid to run fades against dolphins. They still hunt in packs/ engage in ✨social foraging✨ but theres quite a significant amount of Sirelians who would rather hunt alone like the way great whites do sometimes. The Sirelians who reach the Midnight Zone do also run fades with squid quite often too. They are ruthless hunters and when they hunt together it’s just a bad day for whatevers on the receiving end.

Continuous shapeshifting overtime can eventually make any of the Seafarers sick. Some of them find it easier than others to shift so it takes longer for some to get tired: in order from easiest to hardest to shift are Nymphs/Nereids, Melusines, Sirelians, then, Merfolk. It is easier for a Sirelian to shift the upper body to look less imposing than changing their tails to look like feet and making an extra tail too. Way back before Sirelia made treaties with other kingdoms anyone were caught on the receiving end of their hypnosis and wrath - not for funsies but there was always an increase in Sirelian attacks when food was scarce. Anything outside of food scarcity (against landwalkers) would be because they work alongside Zetune’s Sirens in upholding judgement by luring any transgressors towards the cliffside so they could fly in and pick people off. Doesn’t help that of the Seafarers, Sirelians are the fastest swimmers. They haven’t been doing that for a good couple centuries though like as a whole. Only Sirelians who uphold the weird beef they have with Merfolk or Sirelians out of the loop from being deep in the Midnight Zone and haven’t had food for too long still sometimes do this. Which is shitty but Koinoa is trying to deal with it.

💃🏾🕺🏾💃🏾🕺🏾 when you get those deeper questions I’m ready for them!!! And haha yeah I thought you’d like the way they’d look and knowing you I think you’d like the way the Melusines would look too heheee

[silvershayde]

(crash lands in ur inbox) merfolk lore 👀 i am here to bombard you with questions

1. I think the mammalian skin + tropical coloration is very neat, but is the coloration only gradients/simple solid divides (ala orcas), or is it possible for them to have patterning?

2. Is the coloration of their tail determined separately from the coloration of their upper body?

3. ARE there common upper body/tail "type" combos? ex. "hedgehogs tend to have more dolphin style tails etc."

4. Thinking about the glitter thing their skin have 🤔🤔🤔 I wonder if it's like. an evolutionary thing that makes them harder to spot underwater

5. Is the back fin size indicative of anything or is it just biological rng???

6. are they affected by pressure changes?? what depth zones do the merfolk usually hang out at?

YES QUESTIONS!!!!

Okay okay so!

I imagine them only having the gradient/ solid divided. The only time patterning would possibly occur is if they aren’t fully Merfolk (e.g. crossed with a Sirelian or maybe even a Melusine. Not the Nymphs/Nereids though but that’d make more sense once I post about them)

Yes, the colouration of the tail is independent from the body, like the classical mermaid design. Reason being is that it’s one of the visual identification markers that someone should focus on if they want to know if they are looking at a Mer or a Sirelian. So Sirelians would have tails that are coloured similarly to the upper body, not Merfolk.

Honestly I haven’t thought about common combos being a thing. I was just gonna go with what kinda vibe the character had lolol. For example I paired up Skylar’s with a dolphin because I wanted her to be fast underwater (for lore reasons).

I guess you could say it’d help them be harder to spot since the glitter thing only works when there’s light shining on the tail. So you’d only be able to see the shine relatively from above or if they are out of the water completely, never from below.

So I wanted to follow the whole dorsal fins are bigger on males thing but I also know I’m probably not gonna follow it that well. But there is genetic rng regardless of whether I follow that rule or not.

The max I’m running with is the Twilight Zone, no Mer would choose to live past that or try to dive past it, lest they succumb to the ocean pushing them down. This is also the reason why I’m still on the fence about the whole gills situation. Anyway, you’ll mostly find them out in open waters but sometimes you might find some colonies near coral reefs and the like.

Oh!!! Also I saw you asked about how sidefins would affect maneuverability and such in your tags and yes!! It does!!

The way I imagine it for Mers is similar to the spine thing Toothless has from httyd 2. In the movie those extra spine things helped with making tight turns and such. I imagine the pectoral fins that Merfolk have help in a similar fashion, and can additionally act as an emergency break. Though not having them doesn't mean they can't do those tight turns and emergency break and stuff, its just that its easier for those who have them to do so!

Heheee I like answering questions if you got anymore HIT ME with them!!!!!

[silvershayde]

Originally I had the Chaos Emeralds’s equivalent in Acaesia as Chasma Crystals (so Chaos -> Chasma) but I’m not even gonna lie in my head i still use the term Chaos so I’m taking that in stride and instead of Chasma, it is now Khaos.

Oh whilst writing the little thing between Vedos and Miqmis I managed to finalise where the spirits “originate” from. Think of a kind of underwater river but instead of water it’s Khaos energy. And in itself it’s very turbulent. When Acaesia was forming for each major change it spat out a spirit. The Khaos Crystals were made by Vedos so each spirit can have a better handle of it. They were made wayyyy after all the spirits appeared because Vedos was the last to wake.

I guess in this sense you could equate Vedos and his relation to Khaos energy to the way the Master Emerald works. Only difference is he handing over control of five of the Crystals to the other spirits.