selkies and scales worldbuilding + character info
under the cut you will find: general info on selkies and mermaids in this au, as well as some information on the currently revealed selkies/mermaids (... and also ranboo)
this ended up getting away from me, so a post about characters and their relations will be made later when it's not 4am (im dying to talk about the dynamics between characters here, but I need sleep unfortunately)
(also dw im. im getting to the requests ive got in my askbox, i just had to get this out of my brain while i work on those)
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Selkies
A general rundown about selkies for those who don't know what they are: Selkies are Scottish mythological creatures that can shift between a seal form and a human form.
When shifting to their human form, selkies shed their seal-skin, and must wear that same skin to return to being a seal. In stories they often have an urge to return to their seal form after some amount of time.
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In this AU many selkies choose to stay in their seal form and just... never leave the water. Other selkies may move between the two carefully, and even fewer choose to live life mostly on land. Those who live on land don't need to turn into seals, and can permanently live on land if they so wish, but they will still feel that itch to return to the sea. Other ocean-dwelling selkies will also be more wary of land-dwelling selkies.
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Selkies may take on a human partner, and their children will either be fully human or a selkie. If the birthing parent was a human the child will be human, and if they were a selkie- it depends on what form they are in when they give birth. If a selkie takes on a seal partner, the child will be a selkie regardless of the birthing parent.
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Wilbur is based on a harbour seal! His seal form is larger than his human form, around 7'5" (226cm) or so in length. Harbour seals are usually only around 6ft long, but Wilbur is TALL so he gets to be Extra Long.
He was seperated from the rest of his herd from when he was a kid, and was found washed up on the shore by the local lighthouse keeper, Phil. He took care of Wilbur and decided to raise him alongside his own son (Tommy). Wilbur made the decision to stay on land, having grown attached to the strange man and his son, and basically took the role as Tommy's older brother. As he grew older he began working as a fisherman (and that's how he met Sally!)
Wilbur doesn't return to his seal form often, and even less after meeting Sally. He wishes he was not split between the ocean and the land. Instead of wesring his sealskin on him, he wears a heavy coat which gives him some of the same comfort, without the weight of the ocean on his shoulders.
Mermaids
In the selkies and scales au, mermaids are creatures that mimic certain fish, and school with them. They protect the school, and in return gain protection via camouflage. It's rare for a mermaid to mimic a non/rarely-schooling fish, but they do exist! Mers inherit what species of fish they mimic, and as such, display traits that benefit the diet/lifestyle of that particular species.
Sally for example has sharp teeth that are meant for gripping and crunching shrimp shells, rather than cutting through flesh. Tubbo has webbed fingers as his lifestyle is more suited to foraging while stirring up the seabed. His ventral fins are stiffer and further up his body, which allows him to "perch" or kinda. float just above the ocean floor as he scavenges. His claws aren't quite as sharp as Sally's, so he makes use of a bone knife to crack open shellfish and stab food, as well as for self defence.
Many mer tend to keep weapons or tools similar to that in order to escape from nets or for aiding hunting and defense. Sally just happened to lose hers at an inopportune time :P!!
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Mermaids vary wildly in size, and is largely dependent on the size of the fish they mimic. There are two main scales (ha) of mermaid that determine the size of a mer in relation to their mimicked species, one that depends on the overall (average) length of a fish to determine overall length, while the other depends on the overall size of a fish to determine the size of the tail. Both Sally and Tubbo are on the smaller scale of their species, Sally is around 48cm long (1'7"), and Tubbo is around 25cm (10 inches) I spent too long debating whether or not scales could interbreed or not then decided its not important to this AU and I have an exam in a couple days so I'm leaving it for now ahskfhj
Mermaids can live out of the water for a while by breathing air, similar to fish with labyrinth organs! They still require to be moist. (thank u to bio anon for bringing up the idea in a seperate discussion abfjfbd)
It's like 3am so I will save talking about the concept flex-fluid lungs/gills (lungills..???) for later because I need to do more research and thinking, and well. I am also. not a biologist, so instead I will move onto...
Muirie (Selkie-Mermaids) sorry i dont have a name for them rn
(Merkies. Selmaids. I really don't know what to call them hsjsvfjfbfk)
AKA Ranboo! Thank you to anon for giving me the idea/inspiration for what to do with him!
Ranboo has a mermaid form and a human form! While he sheds his. f.... fish skin(?) he retains some of the scales on his face, arms, legs and back. He also still has strange colourful mermaid eyes, and as such he wears a mask and glasses to hide his fishy aspects.
His mer form is... a lot larger than his human form, magically his coat/skin is rather normal sized though. He is based on a black marlin, and his total length is around 4 1/2 m (a little under 15ft)! (He is not the biggest mer I have planned by far, but that scale is... a little skewed by one character so. Overall Ranboo is a big boy.)
Much like traditional selkies, Ranboo can also permanently live on land! He actually spent most of his childhood on land, and only moved to this seaside town recently, moving in with his half-sister Niki at her bakery! He meets Tommy first, then later Tubbo when he goes poking around the beach. Ranboo knows he is a mer-selkie, and is excited to experience more of his mermaid form, and later gets into shenanigans with the other two :]!!
Wait, more about selkies
In this AU selkies are not only seals! Other ocean dwelling creatures can also be selkies/selkie-adjacent creatures, but more often those who are, tend to be selkie-mermaids like Ranboo rather than true "selkies". I want to figure out another name for non-seal selkies but for now you get the point. Some examples of possible creatures are: sharks (sharkies? shjdhf), dolphins and whales.
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as mentioned earlier i will make a seperate post about characters and how they play into this au, but i hope this was entertaining also!
have this picture of wilbur and sally again as a thank you
if you have any questions about this, or about specific characters feel free to drop an ask!!
if you got here ! congrats and thank you for reading! or skimming. i respect that.