Merfolk

Within the Sea of Thieves live the last remaining merfolk in the world. The mer are mostly humanoid
but instead of legs they have a long, scale-covered tail. Their skin is a light blue-green colour and they
have large golden eyes that look like pools of water. Their hair is non-existent, instead they have fin
like ridges over the top of their head. Their hands are clawed, with webs between the fingers to aid in
swimming. The teeth in the mouths of the merfolk are fanged, perhaps to give a better grip on the fish
that they eat. The merpeople have simple clothing, contrary to popular belief that the mer have no
clothes. There is mostly small vests or ripped shirts, perhaps taken from drowned sailors and some
have barnacles growing on them. It seems most popularly held beliefs about merfolk are inaccurate.
One of the more popular myths is that the mer are all female, reproducing through some form of
parthenogenesis. Considering the abundance of mermen in the Sea of Thieves, this is proven to be
untrue. Another widely accepted belief is that merfolk could speak the tongues of man. This is untrue.
The merfolk speak in a kind of keening noise, called their ‘song’. The merfolk once cooperated with
the Ancients, the original inhabitants of the Sea of Thieves who made enchanted earrings form pearls
that allowed them to comprehend the song of the merfolk. The merfolk brought them treasures from
the seabed in return for help with the problems they faced. The most obvious example was the
chaining of Old Mother, the mother of all krakens. Old Mother would sleep for centuries and then
would awake to gorge herself on merfolk before returning to her slumbers. The Ancients forged
magical chains that couldn’t be broken and locks that couldn’t be picked and chained Old Mother to
an island that became known as Kraken’s Fall. The next time Old Mother woke up, she couldn’t
move, and she roared for decades until finally starving to death. One day, the Ancients left the Sea of
Thieves without warning. Undersea jewels began to go unclaimed form the meeting places, the song
of the mer went unanswered. Puzzled and confused, the merfolk sent their strongest swimmers to
search for them. Those that returned spoke sadly of a choking fog and poisonous waters (The Devil’s
Shroud). The merfolk scattered the enchanted pearls through the meeting places in the hope that
maybe one day, someone would put them on and explain what had happened. The merfolk kept going,
and eventually they got on without the Ancients, and went on with their lives uninterrupted. Then one
day, almost a millennium later, some of the merfolk reported seeing a ship on the waters above them
once more. Filled with joy, the merfolk swarmed to all the ancient meeting places in the hope of
seeing the new arrivals to the Sea of Thieves there, think them to be the descendants of the Ancients
and as such will remember them. They were disappointed however and waited until they realised no
one was coming. They didn’t realise that their race had passed into legend, with the only mentions of
them being in old sailor’s tales and scientists saying that what sailors saw were dugongs. Confused
and saddened by their apparent ignoring, they kept watch from a distance as Ramsey the Pirate Lord
sailed the seas above them. Eventually, more and more ships arrived in the Sea of Thieves, and two of
the mer decided they had waited long enough. They swam up out of the water near a pirate ship and
the captain, an unscrupulous man called Douglas. Soon afterwards Ramsey and his crew, looking for
magic to harness, discovered the location of one of the ancient meeting places from an old lady in a
tavern. Not knowing what it was, he and one of his crew, a girl named Mercia swam through a
submerged passage to emerge in a hallway surrounded with eternal flames from the original
Promethean legend. The air was filled with the keening song of the mer but none of them recognised
the sound until Mercia found a pair of pearl earrings on a shelf and felt compelled to put them on.
Suddenly she found she could understand the keening song of the merfolk which were rapidly
approaching. She then translated the song to Ramsey as saying;

“Ten thousand moons of silence and unanswered call,

A grief consuming kinship’s sacred fire.
 A sadness at the parting and at the statue’s fall,
To tender understanding all desire.
In loving heart will be remembered fulsome feasts,
When two were one above and so below,
Returned with slash and snap of jaw as wounded beasts,
A pain forgotten, freshly come to know.
Song turns in darkest memory to times of play,
The flames reborn to banish longest night.
Through passages of harmony we make our way,
So ancient wrong may soon be put to right.”
This song is saying that the Ancients have been gone for a long time (ten thousand moons/ 833 years)
and the merfolk were very sad to see them go (a grief consuming kinship’s sacred fire and a sadness at
the parting and at the statue’s fall). The fallen statue mentioned seems to have some unknown bearing
on the Ancients leaving. The merfolk wanted an explanation (to tender understanding all desire) and
fondly remember the times of old (in loving heart will be remembered fulsome feasts, when two were
one above and so below). Then they talk about how they were hurt (returned with slash and snap of
jaw as wounded beasts a pain forgotten, freshly come to know) hinting at a less cordial past with the
Ancients, reinforced by paintings of mer holding skulls. The mer wonder why they are being
attacked/captured when they have had such good times with the Ancients (Song turns in darkest
memory to times of play). They then talk about the eternal flames being reignited at last (the flames
reborn to banish longest night) and how they are on their way to set things right (through passages of
harmony we make our way, so ancient wrong may soon be put to right). Ramsey then went and
rescued the two captured mer from Douglas and his crew, collapsing a cave upon him and burning his
ships. In return, the mer released the chains from Old Mother (at the same time, accidentally waking
the last kraken child of Old Mother) which Ramsey forged into non break into-able chests. The mer
also sang of the curses that the Ancients put on some trinkets, which gave Ramsey the idea of cursing
some of the chests. Once the skeletal remains of Old Mother had been unchained and the chains given
to Ramsey, the mer began to sing again. Mercia translated the song, which said:

“The bonds of old agreement have been raised on high,

And though we swim from shadow of our debt.
Our hearts sing at reunion with a joyful cry,
Your kin we shall continue to abet”

Mercia was unable to discern their meaning but what they were saying is now that Old Mother’s
Chains have been given to Ramsey (The bonds of old agreement have been raised on high) they have
repaid their debt to him for rescuing the two mer from Douglas (and though we swim from shadow of
our debt). However, they are so happy to see humans return to the Sea of Thieves (our hearts sing at
reunion with a joyful cry) that they will help pirates whenever they can (your kin we shall continue to
abet). The first chance they have of doing this is when the Kraken that was woken by Old Mother’s
unchaining attacked Golden Sands outpost. When ships were destroyed by the mighty tentacles of the
 kraken, the merfolk swam to the pirates in the water and towed them back to land. They even saved
Ramsey himself from drowning after he was tossed in the water by his traitorous crewmate Rathbone.
They did attempt to warn the pirates on Golden Sands of the approaching kraken but Mercia either
didn’t hear or didn’t understand what they were trying to say. To this day the merfolk still help pirates
who have fallen overboard or been accidentally/purposely left behind on an island by their crewmates.
No longer do they drag the pirates through the water to their ships. They use magic now. They swim
to the surface and wave a trident in the air. The trident is wrapped with a deep-sea weed that glows a
pale green colour and, when above water, gives off a cloud of green smoke. This acts as a beacon for
a pirate to swim toward so he can be taken back to his ship. When a pirate reaches the mer they touch
him with the trident and the magical weed transports them back to their ship. It is unknown as to how
they found out about the properties of this weed as no one has found any more earrings to be able to
understand them if they decided to tell anyone. Maybe someday, another set of pearl earrings will be
found and there will be more communication with the merfolk. However, while the merfolk are
friendly now, they weren’t quite so long ago. Across the lands within the Sea of Thieves are painting
of the merfolk, some with them holding strings of skulls, hinting at a time when merfolk and humans
fought each other. This was previously referenced in the song of the merfolk in saying a pain
forgotten, freshly come to know. Obviously, it happened a long time ago if the merfolk could forget it.
Considering they didn’t forget the Ancients for more than 800 years, it must have been a very, very
long time ago. As such, the merfolk should be safe enough to interact with. However, there are
rumours that the merfolk are what is left of sailors that drowned at sea, suffering from the Curse of the
Drowned. These rumours may be little more than idle scuttlebutt, but they say that the merfolk we
know today are only the first stage. Eventually, they will turn into wild, evil creatures that attack
pirates like the sirens of old. These people also think that the cursed mermaid statues are in fact the
mermaids undergoing the transformation from good to evil and depending on how far the
transformation has progressed is how hard the statues are to destroy and the higher the value of the
gem contained in the statue. The gem is said by the same people to contain the soul of the sailor
affected by the curse. This, according to them, would explain why the gems are so sought after by the
Order of Souls. We of the Order only wants items of mystical significance whereas the Gold Hoarders
and the Merchant Alliance want the gem solely for its monetary value. While there is a certain logic to
this, let’s not forget that the statues are cursed, and we of the Order may only be wanting to study the
curse that affected it. There are also rumours of a vast sunken ship, full of all the treasures the
mermaids have stolen from sinking ships over the years. This ship is said to be guarded by vicious
mermaids of the second stage of the Curse of the Drowned, armed with tridents. Whether or not this is
true is yet to be determined. In the meantime, the merfolk are here to help, to rescue stranded sailors
and take them back to their ship. As the old saying goes, don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Until
more is known about these remarkable creatures, things are likely to stay the way they are.

Venator Animarum, Master of the Order