So, before I go on, some context is needed. I’ve had this character for a while who happens to be a mermaid. Her name’s Nessie. She started out as this character I made for a DnD campaign where she’s a storm sorcerer. However, I’ve grown more attached to this character, and I’ve been thinking of writing a story for her outside of DnD. Obviously, there’ll be a lot of changes, and I’ll have to adjust her backstory and everything into a new world. But, before I can really do all of that, I have to think of an actual story for her that isn’t based on my group’s campaign. In case it’s needed, here’s the backstory I came up with for her initially (note that I just threw something together at the last minute, hence why it is very cliche): Nessie started out in a merfolk colony. Due to her being born during a huge storm, she not only is a storm sorcerer, but she also has an eel tail instead of a fish tail (the pun was 100% intended). Anyway, since magic is rare in the world that my DM made coupled with the fact that she can’t transform her tail into legs like other merfolk, she’s kinda seen as a chosen one of sorts. She and her family are proud of her new status since it comes with privileges. Yet, as time went on, Nessie gradually grew resentful as she found herself having only so many freedoms. Yes, she could roam the castle grounds, but she couldn’t leave unless given permission. Yes, she could use her abilities to join a battle against invading sahuagin, but she couldn’t interfere in battle against the kuo-toa. When she spoke of these concerns with her close relatives, they continued to urge her to continue carrying out the queen’s orders. Eventually, she finally had enough when her parents were asked if she could marry into the royal family so that she was more obligated to follow orders and to possibly pass her powers down to future members of the royal family. She spoke to her family one last time, trying to convince them to not agree to the marriage. If they agreed to her terms, she would have stayed and bared it. When they didn’t budge in their decision to allow it, Nessie packed up her things and left one night. So, now she’s in her early-thirties, and she’s moderately happy with her life as a pirate. However, she sometimes thinks about whether or not she should have left. At least then her family would be willing to speak to her whether they were really just using her or not. Now, she has no family and no home to return to. I’ve been juggling some ideas in my head, but those ideas are mainly about Nessie’s circumstances prior to the beginning of the story. I was thinking that some time after either being banished from or willingly leaving her merfolk colony, she now resides in some sea caves near a port town. After seeing her magic in the form of her defeating a monster who had been attacking their sailors for some time by then, they offer her gold and jewels in order for her to stay and protect their town from any other threats, which she greatly appreciates. Then, some time after, the town is attacked by pirates. They might also steal a portion of Nessie’s treasure horde (maybe even something of significance to her). From there, Nessie plots her vengeance? Overall, what story do you think I could write for this character? As always, if you have any further questions, feel free to ask them.
This is something you might find helpful as I'm not sure how familiar you are with mermaid lore. A lot of story talk about how, if a mermaid goes onto land and dries out, their tail will transform into a pair of legs. This would allow for stories both at sea and on land and also present a danger for Nessie, namely not getting splashed with sea water on land. There are also two schools of thought here. One being that if a mermaid, with legs, is splashed with sea water she transforms. According to others even fresh water can cause the transformation. Really depends on what you want to do with it.
That was definitely something I had to consider when first making her. The idea I came up with in the end was to just give her a strong, serpentine tail that can function in and out of water, granted it does make her a little slower on land even with the layer of mucus. I was thinking about bringing this idea into an actual story for Nessie, but I'm still open to her tail turning into legs if she's dry enough if it fits into the setting. The setting that I still have yet to figure out.
I would think that unless you are in a port town near an ocean, the chances of being splashed accidentally with salt water are not tremendously high. If this is the only way she can be revealed, requiring salt water to trigger her transformation would probably ensure her safety the majority of the time. Really, if you're in the middle of Michigan for example, where is someone going to get salt water from? It's a bit different if you're in New York or Baltimore and there is a port and ocean access right there.
A werewolf just need to push out some hair and move bones around, but dissolving skin, merging two separate limbs into one and changing the entire bone structure quickly would require so much magic energy that I would ask myself why she didn't just turn into a dragon. One solution would be that she's cursed by someone else and the transformation is slow and painful. Maybe sitting in a cave for weeks in agony while the lump of slime dissolves bone into calcium and changes shape. Having an evil wizard as the enemy would take advantage of the magic already in the story and use it to make better fantasy. Otherwise the transformation might come off as a crutch for storytelling, if magic is only used when convenient as an explanation.
It actually doesn't take nearly as much as one might think if you want to discuss biology, no bone rearrangement would be required at all. The skin on the inner part of the legs dissolves and they fuse together, but maintain separate leg bones, then another layer grows over top of that from the waist down creating a tail. While painful it's not slow either unless the writer decides to make it that way. I also doubt that many would view it as a crutch for story telling, but rather a means to access more possibilities for story rather than restricting everything to the sea and coastline. You have werewolves who increase mass quickly, grow a lot of hair, rearrange bones and restructure the shape of the body and no one cries crutch for those stories. It's really more about providing a reasonable explanation for something so the reader is willing to suspend their disbelief of something and go with the story.
Here's what it suggests to me, but this is my own personal obsession and everything suggests this kind of symbolism to me. Use it if it appeals and if you want to write this kind of stuff, otherwise just blow it off. Your story might not delve into the inner psychological dimensions of people. Symbolically/psychologically, a mermaid seems to represent a person who's warm and accessible on the surface (on the surface world, when she has her legs), but underneath is cold-blooded, inhuman, and not available romantically or sexually (her legs are merged together). In the same way a werewolf is a good metaphor for a person revealing the inner beast, the instinctual animal drives that lurk just under the human skin so to speak.
@Cdn Writer Maybe the type of water needed would depend on where the merfolk was born and which environment they've adapted to the most. Like, if they've spent the majority of their life in freshwater, then they would be need freshwater to trigger the transformation. Saltwater, on the other hand, would just make them sick or whatever happens to freshwater creatures when they're submerged in saltwater. @LazyBear Since this is mainly about possibilities for storylines, although I was actually hoping to stay near or in the sea for the most part, it would be interesting if some wizard cursed her to have human legs and to be unable to transform back. @Antaus Agreed. The process is mainly a valid explanation for why the transformation occurs or even doesn't occur in Nessie's case. Your process does seem simple enough to be a bit of a hindrance, but not to the point where it might be unreasonable.
I have been trying to read up more on mermaid symbolism to hopefully get some ideas generating. To some degree, I think this would apply to Nessie. I imagine her as far from the kindest of people. Right now, all she really cares about is treasure and getting paid. To involve this symbolism, maybe she's willing to manipulate people into thinking she's kind or "warm", as you say. Then, you're lured in like a "siren song", she'll keep using you until you're not very useful anymore. Then, she'll discard you. Actually, this could have been the reason she was banished from her merfolk colony. On top of that, before being kicked out, she was cursed to be unable to transform her tail into a pair of human legs. Well, that is, if that was a significant aspect of her colony.
That's good, that didn't occur to me, but it fits in well. Another aspect to think about is that mermaids were fantasies of sailors at sea too long, without access to females, and it's thought sometimes they saw dolphins alongside the ship and thought they had vaguely female forms. Maybe she's the kind of woman that men tend to project their own fantasies onto, seeing a warmth and humanity and accessibility that isn't really even there, just an illusion she creates that serves her purposes well? Substituting sex and shallow attraction for real connection and love. Or maybe deep inside she really does want to be fully human but just is incapable, so she uses her alluring aspects to reel men in. And maybe she has a beautiful singing voice. This one just hit me—maybe she's a fisher of men? Dangles her bait and draws them in, sets her hook, and then puts them on her stringer. Of course this was already suggested when you said she "lures them in". I don't know if you intended all this, or maybe you just have a knack for the symbolic?
@Xoic I've been interested in the symbolism of various mythological creatures for awhile now, especially merfolk since they're one of my favorites. There's just something about them using their siren songs to lure in sailors before drowning and possibly eating them that's always been fascinating to me. I think I'll go for that interpretation since I'm tired of the stories where the mermaid wants to be a human to be with a man, and her not having development beyond that. Maybe this whole luring people in for their valuables is her own form of piracy or "fishing", as you said. Like, I'm not trying to make it seem as though being a gold-digger or whatever is necessarily a good thing. But, at the same time, something to keep in mind while I'm making this character is that she's not entirely a good person, and that's intentional. But yes, I'm definitely giving her a nice singing voice after this. @Room with a view Ah yes, another person who appreciates fine culture.
