@bestconqueror inquired: 🐶 If I may- Muses as Merfolk - NOT Accepting
(( I think Dahlia would work best as an Arctic merfolk! When the Merkingdom turned their eyes upon conquering the oceans and the various other merfolk located within, there were two major “holdouts” that put up a longer fight than the others : the various governments around the Arctic and the Mediterranean Sea. I’ve already talked about the Mediterranean, and how the Merkingdom used the geography of that location to keep them locked off from any potential help, but the Arctic is nearly the opposite. Namely, in that it’s already very well-connected to the other oceans, making it impossible to really trap off. It’s also, as you may be aware, very cold up at the North Pole. It has unique challenges presented in ice floes and sheer depth alone, and while the Abyssals themselves are good at handling water at near-freezing temperatures, most of those sent in to enact the Merkingdom’s will were not Abyssals. Even for the migratory merfolk who would visit the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans here and there pointedly visited during the summer months, and this was a multi-year-long campaign.
Similarly there was the issues of the Arctics themselves. While the Mediterranean Sea got closed off and the Merkingdom could work directly with and forcibly sway the hands of those in charge, leading to more infighting and more disagreements amongst each other — it’s much harder to do that when your own people can hardly venture far inside and are much less protected by an entourage. In fact, there were many more cases of various groups within the Arctic banding together to try and throw off the Merkingdom, since they couldn’t encourage instability and mistrust in the same way. Because of being still able to contact other merfolk, food and supply lines remained intact for most of the Merkingdom’s campaign, and extended the fight even moreso.
Even when the Merkingdom did conquer the Arctic territories ( done so mostly by making more risky moves with technology that they possessed that others did not ), they did not exactly take it lying down. To this day, there’s much more cultural resentment against the Merkingdom than anywhere else within their borders. Folk tradition often recounts tales of how they beat or outlasted the Merkingdom within the war, those who cut a blow against the Merkingdom are oft treated as heroes, and common sayings make it clear how much they still detest the Merkingdom and consider themselves forced under their thumb.
The Merkingdom’s response to this lingering rebellious sentiment is far from kind either. Getting caught doing any of these things means harsh punishment, alongside stricter punishments all-around that usually extend to unrelated parties too. Food shortages are put in place, they’re purposefully kept as far away from positions of power as possible, much-needed resources are hard to obtain, and more recur again and again to try and break their spirits. This all makes a very convenient chance for the connected religious branch of the Merkingdom throne to come in, offering food and shelter and necessities, and placing them under the watch of the Crown with additional pressure to make them give up other cultural and religious practices.
In addition, the structure of Royals within the Merkingdom often leads to further instability. Middle Royals are encouraged to effectively go to war with each other, fighting other Middle Royals for the chance to improve their positions within the Merkingdom through greater territory and reach, and it’s no secret that the Merkingdom wants rebellious intent within the Arctic stomped out for good. They incentivize Middle Royals to fight over dominion of the areas within, especially gifting portions of territory to other outside royals to further muddy and destroy extant Arctic cultures within, usually resulting in a populace ruled over by those who weren’t even born inside of the Arctic.
On the biological slant, Arctic Merfolk are the second-largest species of merfolk ( only behind Abyssals ). They have extremely reduced outer scaling, though they keep an internal series of bones under the skin to act as armor, and their fused fins have also shrunk to minimize exposed surface area. They’re the singular merfolk species closest to being warmblooded, though they aren’t true warmblooded animals. Internal genetic tinkering like this has made them lose the darker pigmentation inside their mouths, making them the only mer species to do so. Teeth are much like most other merfolk, but are shorter and sharper, adapted for cutting and slicing meat.
They are also the specific merfolk group to have very good history with taming pods of orca.
Most scars merfolk leave on other merfolk are... nasty. Clean cuts are rare, even when using bladed weapons, and use of claws and teeth are similarly common, combining with their natural tankiness to leave very jagged scars. While the Merkingdom’s dominant culture highly praises scars on the face as being the mark of the warrior, and highly condemns scars on the tail as the mark of a coward, it doesn’t apply in the same way to every culture. Regardless, to the point that any merfolk is covered in scars, the idea of scars on the tail being the mark of a coward gets much overshadowed by the general thought of them being a brawler.
