Trailofstardust
Minstrel
I've got a personal project which is kind of a retelling of The Little Mermaid, set in a world based on the Bronze age mediterranean. In this setting there's a human kingdom based on ancient Phoenicia and Minoa, and a merfolk kingdom beneath the Ocean.
The human kingdom is wealthy and prosperous due to being a major center of trade, and the weather is nearly always perfect for ships to leave to and from the coast, but there's a catch: every year they have to provide tribute to the merfolk, vast amounts of wealth and food offerings cast into the middle of the ocean for their finned gods; failure to provide would yield retribution as the seas churn, sinking every ship that tries leaving the coast.
In this world, merfolk royalty have the power of manipulating the weather, and have used it to make themselves gods to the humans.
However, one day the mermaid princess Nerine befriends the human prince Abdhamon. Both are the overlooked child in their respective families; Nerine for being smaller than the rest of her siblings, Abdhamon for being less bold and brave than his.
The problem is, Nerine's parents oppose their relationship because they refuse to treat humans as their equals.
The merfolk look more similar to Abe Sapien or The Asset than Ariel, being completely covered in scales and have gills, which plays some part in their disgust at the idea of a romance with a human.
An interesting contrast with Disney's The Little Mermaid is that in this world, rather than fearing humans and things from land, the merpeople value human artifacts as commodities they are more than happy to receive, but have no respect for humans themselves.
Unlike most of her people, Nerine actually find humans interesting and not merely something to extract resources from, which makes for an interesting comparison with Ariel.
My idea is that the plot is kick-started when Nerine, who feels that she could only get acceptance in the human world, goes to the sea-witch-in this case her grandmother, an ancient hag who lives in the deep ocean-to become human and stay in the human world.
I've been trying to think of a way to end the story in a satisfying way, and one potential problem is the question of to what extent the status-quo needs to change. One idea I had is to explore the power imbalance in Nerine and Abdhamon's relationship since Nerine's family is essentially subjugating Abdhamon's people, but from the perspective of a bronze age society gods have a right to do that, which brings me to how to resolve power imbalance, or if it needs to be resolved at all to be commit to the theme enough.
I thought that the merfolk royal family could learn a lesson about not overlooking their smallest child, and start respecting humans more after the humans save her, but at the same time the story would still end with an imbalance of power. Even if the humans learn that their "gods" aren't truly divine, that doesn't change the power they hold over them.
The imbalance of power will still be in favor of the merfolk due to having access to magic while the human's don't. Therefore, humans and merfolk won't become equal, it would be more like learning to treat your dog better.
I would like to ask for input on my idea, and some suggestions on how to resolve the conflict in my story.
Finally, while I know the answer, I would like to ask whether the merfolk royals in my story are less sympathetic than Disney's Triton; while Triton's hatred of them is based on seemingly ungrounded fear, possibly caused by trauma, the source of Nerine's parents prejudice is ultimately a justification for subjugating them.
The human kingdom is wealthy and prosperous due to being a major center of trade, and the weather is nearly always perfect for ships to leave to and from the coast, but there's a catch: every year they have to provide tribute to the merfolk, vast amounts of wealth and food offerings cast into the middle of the ocean for their finned gods; failure to provide would yield retribution as the seas churn, sinking every ship that tries leaving the coast.
In this world, merfolk royalty have the power of manipulating the weather, and have used it to make themselves gods to the humans.
However, one day the mermaid princess Nerine befriends the human prince Abdhamon. Both are the overlooked child in their respective families; Nerine for being smaller than the rest of her siblings, Abdhamon for being less bold and brave than his.
The problem is, Nerine's parents oppose their relationship because they refuse to treat humans as their equals.
The merfolk look more similar to Abe Sapien or The Asset than Ariel, being completely covered in scales and have gills, which plays some part in their disgust at the idea of a romance with a human.
An interesting contrast with Disney's The Little Mermaid is that in this world, rather than fearing humans and things from land, the merpeople value human artifacts as commodities they are more than happy to receive, but have no respect for humans themselves.
Unlike most of her people, Nerine actually find humans interesting and not merely something to extract resources from, which makes for an interesting comparison with Ariel.
My idea is that the plot is kick-started when Nerine, who feels that she could only get acceptance in the human world, goes to the sea-witch-in this case her grandmother, an ancient hag who lives in the deep ocean-to become human and stay in the human world.
I've been trying to think of a way to end the story in a satisfying way, and one potential problem is the question of to what extent the status-quo needs to change. One idea I had is to explore the power imbalance in Nerine and Abdhamon's relationship since Nerine's family is essentially subjugating Abdhamon's people, but from the perspective of a bronze age society gods have a right to do that, which brings me to how to resolve power imbalance, or if it needs to be resolved at all to be commit to the theme enough.
I thought that the merfolk royal family could learn a lesson about not overlooking their smallest child, and start respecting humans more after the humans save her, but at the same time the story would still end with an imbalance of power. Even if the humans learn that their "gods" aren't truly divine, that doesn't change the power they hold over them.
The imbalance of power will still be in favor of the merfolk due to having access to magic while the human's don't. Therefore, humans and merfolk won't become equal, it would be more like learning to treat your dog better.
I would like to ask for input on my idea, and some suggestions on how to resolve the conflict in my story.
Finally, while I know the answer, I would like to ask whether the merfolk royals in my story are less sympathetic than Disney's Triton; while Triton's hatred of them is based on seemingly ungrounded fear, possibly caused by trauma, the source of Nerine's parents prejudice is ultimately a justification for subjugating them.
