| This article is about the peaceful sea race. For the vicious winged monsters, see siren. |
Merpeople are a race of intelligent underwater humanoids in the Great Sea. Males are called mermen or tritons, while females are known as mermaids (Skellige jargon: havfrue).
Characteristics
Physical description
Merpeople are a race resembling a half-human (male or female) with fins and a fish's tail in appearance. The females are similar to nymphs and are very beautiful.[1] So beautiful in fact that their graces are a subject of many sailor songs.[2] They are described as having flowing celadon-green hair, light green nipples, and long fishtails covered in scales.[1] The scales have alchemical properties and can be used as ingredients by mages.[3]
They are able to breathe air but can stay above water only for short periods of time because the sun hurts their skin.[1]
Merpeople are often confused for siren/nixa; a vicious monster.[N 1] A notable difference though is that sirens have large, bat-like wings while merpeople are far more peaceful and always wingless.[4]
Mental traits
The race appears to wield mysterious power and rule the undersea world—even the vodyanoy respect them. They can summon the dreaded krakens if the need arises.[1]
What's more, should a merperson find themself in trouble far from the deep sea, they would utilize an amulet which, combined with their song, leads nixae-sirens towards them.[5]
History
They're an old race, known to inhabit the Great Sea since well before the First Landing of Nordlings in the 8th century.[6] Although peaceful, they haven't always been friendly to humans,[1] having fought with them at least once during the numerous race wars.[7]
Culture
Merpeople, like nereids and sea witches who live with them, use a euphonious version of the Elder Speech, which puts a great emphasis on melodiousness and intonation.[1] It's said to be related to the dialect used by dryads of Brokilon.[8]
They train dolphins[1] and sharks as mounts in a manner similar to how surface-dwellers train horses.[8] Tritons are alluded to have good relations with hippocampi as well.[9]
Notable merpeople
Footnotes
- ↑ In Polish, "syrena" (siren) can mean both "mermaid" and "siren". It was later clarified in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Artbook, in particular, the Polish version, that the game's sirens are actually nixae and often get mistaken for peaceful sirens (i. e. merpeople).
