Saproxylic
New Member
Hello! Newbie here, greetings!
I haven't been seriously writing for a good while, because life happens, but since I have been bedridden for a few days, I picked up a mental exercise of creating a fictional species of merpeople that would seem somewhat believable to me. The whole blob of text got kinda large, and as my head is fuzzy with fever, i kinda failed to shorten it,I will try a shorter version, but there are more details in the large blob
What I would like you to help me with is mostly asking questions about the said species and things related to it, so I can cover previously overlooked aspects, or pointing out possible issues that need to be adressed.
TLDR:
There is no significant magic involved.
This species is a placental mammal with all the consequences.
Resembles a seal with human like arms, hands, shoulders and some humanoid facial features.
Omnivore, but most of the calories come from fish, shellfish and other marine animals.
Nomadic, travels around the ocean following a circular current, one cycle takes a year.
Breeds in a synchronized manner, so all pups are born at the same time and geographically the same place every year.
They have a language, which is basically a hand based sign language, but they do vocalize to express emotional state or emphasis.
They make basic stone age tools, but don't know fire, however as they are nomadic, they don't accumulate a lot of belongings.
They have a male to female ratio close to 1 : 3
They live in pods of 70-90 somewhat related individuals.
They mate for life and have a polygynous family model, a male forming a family with a full set of sisters (2-4 usually).
The long and painful bit: if you really enjoy reading half baked mashup of facts
Placental mammals. They have lungs, breathe air and need to surface to breathe.
The bottom part looks like that of a Phocidae seal, the top part is more or less humanoid, but of more toddler like proportions, short chubby arms, lots of subcutaneous fat but the head isn’t as oversized as toddlers. Hands are relatively large compared to arm lenght, long fleshy fingers, opposable thumbs but instead of flat nails, short stubby dog like claws. Necks are pretty chubby as well. They have a bit of a muzzle going on instead of human protruding nose so nostrils are somewhat forward pointed, and they can close them when diving, but lips are pretty human looking. Eyes are visually similar to human eyes, and have third eyelid like some marine mammals and very long stiff eyelashes and some long hairs for eyebrows they use as sensory whiskers. They have modiefied tear glands that excrete the excess salt they consume through diet and drinking sea water. Their tail part is covered in short fur, the arms, belly and face are bare, the head, back of the neck and between shoulderblades has pretty long, rough hair. Urinary, anal and genital openings are located ventraly the same place where they would be on a seal. Male bits in the rest state retract inside the body. They have carnivore type incisors and canines, but strong chunky molars with sharp edges
They are opportunistic omnivores, main part of their diet is fish, crabs and shellfish, which explains their carnivore teeth. They will however eat certain types of seaweed like bladderwrack, ulvas and other nutritios ones, and when ashore they will eat eggs and baby birds that nest on the shore if they find any and land plants that they find palatable (though it’s a rare occasion)
They are nomadic and follow warm circular currents in the ocean, taking a year to complete a circle. For about three months in winter they take residence in warm coral atolls and tropical islands near equator, as the weather gets warmer they migrate towards pole reaching the furthest point in mid summer and heading back as the weather turns to fall side.
The pregnancy is about eleven months long, so the mating will occour around the middle of the time they are settled in the atoll and the young are born soon after arriving at the atoll. The pups are born reasonably developed physically and will grow very fast during the first three months of their life gaining a lot of blubber and swimming skills from the diet of very rich milk females secrete in their mammary glands. There will usually be just one pup in the litter, and females have two nipples.
They have intelligence compared to that of humans, but are far behind technology-wise. They are not using human type of speach, they can make a wide variety of noises using their vocal cords, but they use audiable noises only as expressions of emotions, not as words with defined meanings. For complex comunication they use a sign language using their hands similar to ones used by the deaf community.
Merfolk travel in clans of 70-90 people. The ratio or males to females is roughly 1:3 in this species. This leads to a polygynous family model. A merman after reaching complete sexual and social maturity (20-25 years of age) will leave his clan and join another one where he will be looking for mates. The Merfolk mate for life, and traditionally a merman will chose a desirable family with the eldest daughter who is sexually and socially of the right age (roughly 17-18 years old usually) and get wed to that family, meaning that he will become a husband not only to the eldest daughter but, once her younger sisters reach maturity, also to all of them.
Each merfolk female will usually give birth to 3-4 pups in her lifetime, each of them about 3 years apart (they will continue to breastfeed for about two years, that prevents them from getting pregnant earlier), as pregnancies are hard on them.
Thy will give birth once they reach the atoll, labor is easier than that of a human because of different pelvic structure, but harder than for seals as the babies have large heads and wide shoulders. The pups have some basic swimming reflexes as soon as they are born, but their hand use is comparable to a human infant. In the first three months they gain body size, weight and swimming ability really fast, so after the merfolk leave the atoll to go on their annual migration they are able to keep up with the clan with relatively little assistance, but their cognitive abilities an hand use is still very limited, they do recognize family members and do not venture away from them and express various emotions vocally, but are usually unable to sign coherently, although they might be trying to imitate adults signing (in a way human babies babble).
From here on their cognitive and motor skill development will progress a lot like that of a human. Coherent use of separate words comes at the age of one, speech with correct grammar and full sentences at three, at the age of about five or six they start to pick up most of the useful adult survival skills like basics of toolmaking and other crafts, huntin of smaller prey, gathering food and materials. The females usually hit puberty at around 14 years of age, males a bit later.
Females come in heat only once a year, usually at the time the clan resides at the atoll, however the first few times coming in heat is irregular and happens at other parts of yearly cycle. A female is considered to be of an age suitable for marriage and childbearing only when she comes in heat during the correct mating season. A baby concieved outside of the mating season would be born while the clan is in transit an therefore woul be highly unlikely to survive, therefore mating outside the atoll is considered a taboo.
They have only crude stone age technology, making tools out of flint, clamshells and bone, and are skilled in knots and braiding. Net making is especially developed as they are both used to hunt and to make all kinds of bags and packs that allow to transport what little belongings they have. They also keep their hair braided or bunned and use their hairdos to store small objects that have to be accessable fast like a knife, awl, comb and such.
I haven't been seriously writing for a good while, because life happens, but since I have been bedridden for a few days, I picked up a mental exercise of creating a fictional species of merpeople that would seem somewhat believable to me. The whole blob of text got kinda large, and as my head is fuzzy with fever, i kinda failed to shorten it,I will try a shorter version, but there are more details in the large blob
What I would like you to help me with is mostly asking questions about the said species and things related to it, so I can cover previously overlooked aspects, or pointing out possible issues that need to be adressed.
TLDR:
There is no significant magic involved.
This species is a placental mammal with all the consequences.
Resembles a seal with human like arms, hands, shoulders and some humanoid facial features.
Omnivore, but most of the calories come from fish, shellfish and other marine animals.
Nomadic, travels around the ocean following a circular current, one cycle takes a year.
Breeds in a synchronized manner, so all pups are born at the same time and geographically the same place every year.
They have a language, which is basically a hand based sign language, but they do vocalize to express emotional state or emphasis.
They make basic stone age tools, but don't know fire, however as they are nomadic, they don't accumulate a lot of belongings.
They have a male to female ratio close to 1 : 3
They live in pods of 70-90 somewhat related individuals.
They mate for life and have a polygynous family model, a male forming a family with a full set of sisters (2-4 usually).
The long and painful bit: if you really enjoy reading half baked mashup of facts
Placental mammals. They have lungs, breathe air and need to surface to breathe.
The bottom part looks like that of a Phocidae seal, the top part is more or less humanoid, but of more toddler like proportions, short chubby arms, lots of subcutaneous fat but the head isn’t as oversized as toddlers. Hands are relatively large compared to arm lenght, long fleshy fingers, opposable thumbs but instead of flat nails, short stubby dog like claws. Necks are pretty chubby as well. They have a bit of a muzzle going on instead of human protruding nose so nostrils are somewhat forward pointed, and they can close them when diving, but lips are pretty human looking. Eyes are visually similar to human eyes, and have third eyelid like some marine mammals and very long stiff eyelashes and some long hairs for eyebrows they use as sensory whiskers. They have modiefied tear glands that excrete the excess salt they consume through diet and drinking sea water. Their tail part is covered in short fur, the arms, belly and face are bare, the head, back of the neck and between shoulderblades has pretty long, rough hair. Urinary, anal and genital openings are located ventraly the same place where they would be on a seal. Male bits in the rest state retract inside the body. They have carnivore type incisors and canines, but strong chunky molars with sharp edges
They are opportunistic omnivores, main part of their diet is fish, crabs and shellfish, which explains their carnivore teeth. They will however eat certain types of seaweed like bladderwrack, ulvas and other nutritios ones, and when ashore they will eat eggs and baby birds that nest on the shore if they find any and land plants that they find palatable (though it’s a rare occasion)
They are nomadic and follow warm circular currents in the ocean, taking a year to complete a circle. For about three months in winter they take residence in warm coral atolls and tropical islands near equator, as the weather gets warmer they migrate towards pole reaching the furthest point in mid summer and heading back as the weather turns to fall side.
The pregnancy is about eleven months long, so the mating will occour around the middle of the time they are settled in the atoll and the young are born soon after arriving at the atoll. The pups are born reasonably developed physically and will grow very fast during the first three months of their life gaining a lot of blubber and swimming skills from the diet of very rich milk females secrete in their mammary glands. There will usually be just one pup in the litter, and females have two nipples.
They have intelligence compared to that of humans, but are far behind technology-wise. They are not using human type of speach, they can make a wide variety of noises using their vocal cords, but they use audiable noises only as expressions of emotions, not as words with defined meanings. For complex comunication they use a sign language using their hands similar to ones used by the deaf community.
Merfolk travel in clans of 70-90 people. The ratio or males to females is roughly 1:3 in this species. This leads to a polygynous family model. A merman after reaching complete sexual and social maturity (20-25 years of age) will leave his clan and join another one where he will be looking for mates. The Merfolk mate for life, and traditionally a merman will chose a desirable family with the eldest daughter who is sexually and socially of the right age (roughly 17-18 years old usually) and get wed to that family, meaning that he will become a husband not only to the eldest daughter but, once her younger sisters reach maturity, also to all of them.
Each merfolk female will usually give birth to 3-4 pups in her lifetime, each of them about 3 years apart (they will continue to breastfeed for about two years, that prevents them from getting pregnant earlier), as pregnancies are hard on them.
Thy will give birth once they reach the atoll, labor is easier than that of a human because of different pelvic structure, but harder than for seals as the babies have large heads and wide shoulders. The pups have some basic swimming reflexes as soon as they are born, but their hand use is comparable to a human infant. In the first three months they gain body size, weight and swimming ability really fast, so after the merfolk leave the atoll to go on their annual migration they are able to keep up with the clan with relatively little assistance, but their cognitive abilities an hand use is still very limited, they do recognize family members and do not venture away from them and express various emotions vocally, but are usually unable to sign coherently, although they might be trying to imitate adults signing (in a way human babies babble).
From here on their cognitive and motor skill development will progress a lot like that of a human. Coherent use of separate words comes at the age of one, speech with correct grammar and full sentences at three, at the age of about five or six they start to pick up most of the useful adult survival skills like basics of toolmaking and other crafts, huntin of smaller prey, gathering food and materials. The females usually hit puberty at around 14 years of age, males a bit later.
Females come in heat only once a year, usually at the time the clan resides at the atoll, however the first few times coming in heat is irregular and happens at other parts of yearly cycle. A female is considered to be of an age suitable for marriage and childbearing only when she comes in heat during the correct mating season. A baby concieved outside of the mating season would be born while the clan is in transit an therefore woul be highly unlikely to survive, therefore mating outside the atoll is considered a taboo.
They have only crude stone age technology, making tools out of flint, clamshells and bone, and are skilled in knots and braiding. Net making is especially developed as they are both used to hunt and to make all kinds of bags and packs that allow to transport what little belongings they have. They also keep their hair braided or bunned and use their hairdos to store small objects that have to be accessable fast like a knife, awl, comb and such.
Sage
Auror
. Anyways, I see that you have gone in great detail on their physiology, but have you thought about their culture/cultures yet? 
Dreamer
Maester
