The villains are still being tricky with me. So we're gonna redo the Mermaids!
First of all, the culture. True Mermaids have colorful skin and fins for hair and gills. Guardians who venture down use a glamor in old magic to alter one's appearance to deal with the water. In the past the merpoeple were valuable allies. They had the best medicine in the form of the Sacred Tears. You could grow limbs back, they were so good. But one day Queen Elodie discovered her husband was murdered and most of their stock was gone. No one above knew who did it and it infuriated the Queen. Upon doing her own investigation she found New Magic users could become shapeshifters. Now paranoid, she destroyed Terraspheres and banned New Magic. Even more so, no one was allowed to leave the sea. And anyone who ventured into their lands under the water were to be killed on sight. Elodie has no heirs and has become so paranoid of shapeshifters she seldom lets anyone close to her. She found some kinship in her beloved beast Scypith. He was her strongest guardian for the water realm and became the son she never had. As time went on, Elodie knew Old Magic was becoming too demanding on her people. So she commissioned her alchemists to create a new kind of magic of their own with he Sacred Tears. When injected into crystals and mounted onto their tridents, a single stab can suck the blood out of their enemies under water. The more blood captured the stronger the trident is. And once the patrol is done for the day, they return the bloodied tears to the reservoir where it's purified back into being the healing Sacred Tears they knew. Above they heard of the Rot and it seemed their Sacred Tears was a good way to combat it.... But Queen Elodie was still distrusting of "Two Legs" and feared they'd kill her people just so they can steal their Sacred tears for their own. As an isolationist kingdom, the problems above were none of their concern.
Tigerlily (Formerly Coral) was a budding alchemist in the mermaid order. But Like so many of her peers all mermaids must learn to fight. As soon as they mastered their training they were allowed to go into the field they desire. For Tigerlily she could manage enough, but it was clear to many she was out of her element. Her brother Kelp for instance was one of the best in the cadets, he wanted to go into the royal aquatic guard when he was complete with his training. He like the queen was insistent that any two legs above were no good and would want nothing more than to kill them. So it was best to kill them first.
Mounted on their loyal sea stallions, Kompas and Riptide, the two siblings where on patrol. An earthquake separated them and left Tigerlily's fin getting trapped under rocks. That was when she encountered Thyme in a mermaid glamour. Tigerlily's instincts immediately made her draw her trident. But Thyme didn't draw her weapon, she knew Tigerlily was stuck and she needed help. Defeated, Tigerlily braced for the worse, but to her shock she was indeed freed by this two legged stranger. This started to make Tigerlily question the beliefs she had bee fed since childhood.