The one thing that has always kinda annoyed me about Mermaids and Mermen, is that in a lot of media they’re always portrayed as humans with fish tails. And that's it. I’m not saying its bad or anything but its so basic and uncreative.
Merpeople have the potential to be far more diverse than humans ever could. You could have one mermaid from one part of the ocean and another mermaid from another part and have them look vastly different. Like if you were to bring a group of humans from different countries and continents they would all look completely different. The same concept applies to Merpeople, except Merpeople have much more potential for diversity than humans.
Like Merpeople who live in the shallows or coral reefs would have shorter but very colourful tails, and the tails could be in lots of different shapes, not just the traditional mermaid tail. Like clownfish shaped tails, ones that look like Dory, or whatever type of fish that live in those places. The tails would be bright orange, or yellow, or red, and covered in stripes or dots and every other bright 80s type pattern you can think of. Tropical Merpeople would have typically tanned or darker skin due to being in the sun all the time maybe have bright unnatural coloured eyes like neon green or bright pink. They might look more human looking than others. Maybe more filled out and cubby because of the abundance of food available to them, especially if there are humans nearby who give them food.
They look almost completely different to say, Merpeople who live in the twilight zone or the midnight zone. Merpeople who lived in the twilight zone would have very pale snow white or light grey skin because of the little sunlight they get and have very dark hair and ghostly pale eyes. They could have sharper canines than the Tropical Merpeople because they need it to tear into their meals. They might even be on the thinner and leaner side because food is not as plentiful in the twilight zone. They wouldn't have much in the way of patterns on their tails since they hunt by camouflaging and stealth. But maybe they would have dark purple or dark grey iridescent tails and webbed fingers with claws.
Then Merpeople in the midnight zone, the dark place of the ocean with all the scary fish in it. You could have some real fun with this. They could have ghostly grey almost transparent skin that is so delicate to the touch. And their hair is a shimmery whiteish, silver colour to help them attract prey. Maybe these Merpeople have completely sharp teeth like sharks since the food in the midnight zone might require sharp teeth to get into. Their eyes could be really bright to attract food and their tails would be really long and transparent like an eel. And these Merpeople would be like really thin because of the little food in the midnight zone. but the best part is that these Merpeople have bioluminescence. Their whole bodies would be glowing and maybe even have bioluminescence in their hair, like imagine swimming around down there and you turn around and there is one of them completely beautiful and glowing and you end up being killed and eaten but you kind of okay with it cause the Merperson was so otherworldly and beautiful and scary all at the same time.
There could also be Merpeople living in the Arctic. They would have pale grey-blue skin, and really long tails and long really pale coloured hair or really dark hair. Their tails could have a leopard seal or killer whale pattern on it. Arctic Merpeople could be cold-blooded so they are always cold to the touch, and maybe these Merpeople cant really survive in warm waters so they always have to stay in cold temperatures.
There could even be nomadic Merpeople who are a lot larger than normal Merpeople who are kinda stocky and have really long big tails shaped like whale ones. And they travel in big groups and are kinda like travelling merchants.
Then there could be Merpeople who live in lakes and big ponds inland who are much more ‘Disney Mermaid’ looking since they lived in close contact with humans for so long, due to some inter-species fuckery going on a lot of humanness been sprinkled in with the Merpeople DNA which makes the Inland Merpeople look like normal humans with tails on rather then what ocean Merpeople look like.
Look I just have a lot of feelings about Merpeople and the amount of potential they have and I just wanted to share them with everyone and hopefully find people who agree with me.
