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??
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”
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.
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.
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.
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.
