Pure merians: are there any definitive looks?

Here's Amaranta's current description. She's supposed to be a pureblood Merian.

She is a noble merian and a young, inexperienced, but determined person.
Standing at a height of six feet, her posture is regal and disciplined, masking
her inexperience. Smooth and sleek skin of ultramarine covers her athletic,
somewhat muscular body, with hard fish-like scales decorating her shoulders,
herback, and other joints. Her face resembles nobility, with high cheekbones
taking away some of the youthfulness of her visage. Her sea-green eyes matches
her hair, which more closely resembles braided seaweed, formed in tight 'corn
rows' on her head that leads back into a loose mid-back length ponytail. Long
fin-like protrusions on either side of her head arch out several inches, just
above her earholes, giving her face an almost elfen appearance. However, her
dark blue lips and flattened 'nose' help her stay true to her merian heritage.
Two torches hang from the left side of her sword-belt, showing obvious signs of
recent usage. A phial of celestial holy water is looped onto the right side from
a small chain. She is wearing a canvas backpack, 2 scabbards of blackened steel,
a red hooded cloak, a steel suit of angelic fieldplate, a turquoise rosebud
ring, a clear ring, an etched garnet ring, a sapphire ring of waves, and a
diamond icewall ring.

So far, she has:

Blue skin (Darker blue secondary colors, for lips, nipples, and such)
Fins
Hair (clumped together in a sort of dreadlock fashion resembling seaweed)
No ears, but earholes
Gills


I'm wondering a few things.

1. Do Merians give birth to live young or do they lay eggs? Laying eggs would eliminate the need for breasts as she wouldn't need to nurse live young. Since Merians are aquatic in nature and not entirely mammal-like, laying eggs would make sense.

2. Do Merians have tails? Tails would help with balance on land and aid in motion in the water. Almost every aquatic being has a tail.

3. Is there anything that I'm missing out or messing up on in my description?

No hair. No tails (at least, not the long swaying types).

I'm not sure corn rows are Lusternian...if they are, they shouldn't be in quotes anyways, I guess.

I would say live births and no tails. Merians, to me, always seemed basically human-like, except more blue-themed, more mage-oriented, less bulky (this is not considering merian lords). There doesn't seem to be as strong a "race culture" for Merians as there is for, say, Lamira in Imperian

My primary recommendation? Lose the hair.



Every instance I've seen infers that hair is a trait that came from interbreeding, and hence not a trait of a pure merian.

On the flip side, the game works against people who don't want to have hair by ALWAYS assuming that you have it.

If you get scalped, the scalp will have hair. etc.

That and virtually every merian I have EVER seen does have hair. So if you do keep the hair, I don't think anyone will use it against you in a claim you're not pure.

So if you can handle the disruption of immersion for the instances in which the game will say you have hair when you don't, go for it. Otherwise, fudge it.

1. Every shard in Lusternia bares distinctly mammalian traits, so I would always assume live birth. If you wanted true confirmation, you might have to ask Terentia ICly.

2. Never seen a merian with a tail, nor seen any reference to indicate that they grow them.

Could always just some sort of seaweed-like growth on her head, and not hair, like how every Trill grows feathers on their head, not hair.

EDIT: Updated it a bit.

She is a noble merian and a young, inexperienced, but determined person.
Standing at a height of six feet, her posture is regal and disciplined, masking
her inexperience. Smooth and sleek skin of ultramarine covers her athletic,
somewhat muscular body, with hard fish-like scales decorating her shoulders, her
back, and other joints. Her face resembles nobility, with high cheekbones taking
away some of the youthfulness of her visage. The hue of her sea-green eyes
matches strange kelp-like growths on her head that resemble hair, leading back
into a loose mid-back length ponytail. Long fin-like protrusions on either side
of her head arch out several inches, just above her earholes, giving her face an
almost elfen appearance. However, her dark blue lips and flattened nose help her
stay true to her merian heritage. Two torches hang from the left side of her
sword-belt, showing obvious signs of recent usage. A phial of celestial holy
water is looped onto the right side, dangling from a small chain. She is wearing
a canvas backpack, 2 scabbards of blackened steel, a red hooded cloak, a winged
greathelm of the elysian, a steel suit of angelic fieldplate, a turquoise
rosebud ring, a clear ring, an etched garnet ring, a sapphire ring of waves, and
a diamond icewall ring.

Well, if you make it clear that the growth on the head is separate (and not biologically related to you), that could be interesting. But if you're trying to say that the merian actually has seaweed from growing inside his/her skull...

Well Merians can have fins and scales and other similar protrusions. Don't see how a mop of seaweed on the head (or even maybe on other parts of the body, like the elbows or shoulders) can be bad.

Because seaweed is a plant, and fins/scales are natural parts of marine animals, is what Salvation is getting at.

Merians do not have hair - at least, pureblooded ones do not. If you wish to see some interesting merian descriptions, or a good description of a pureblooded merian, you should check out Marani Veloske's description. Fantastically done. Often pureblooded merian will have crests and fins that can look akin to hair, though I would imagine the more ornate and pureblooded types will grow them in various shades of gold, blue, etc.

That said, merians are not big people. Variously, they're shorter than the average human - I'd say, if I had to guess, they would hang around 5', 5'3 for a tall-y.

Variations such as hair, scaleless skin, etc are traits of breeding with either viscanti, human or possibly illithoid. Not necessarily pureblooded human/viscanti/illithoid, but those that contain that essence and therefore the ability to breed across races. If you're going for a pureblooded merian, it might even be something he/she would be disgusted with - "oh, that poor child. Look at that stubble near his fins - sweet Japhiel, their mother should shave them. How disgusting, showing signs of poor breeding."

Edit/post script:

Without touching the topic of if Merians give live birth or not, I will, however, openly refute the belief that all mortal races bare distinctly mammalian traits. This does occur often because most races are splintered from Star Gods, or those most likely to be 'mammalian' in nature, versus Primal Gods, who more oftan than not appear to be cold-blooded in nature - see Keph, a giant insect, and Dracnoris, a reptile. It's well known by now that Kephera are cold-blooded and are hatched from eggs! It would not be far-fetched to assume that Dracnari may likewise lay eggs - or that they do not, like some reptiles, carry the eggs within a pouch/womb and give 'live' birth, after the eggs hatch. Merians might be more mammalian, like whales/dolphins, and give live birth underwater. Or like fish, and lay eggs. Find out on your own!

You're free to describe yourself however you wish... 95% of the descriptions in Lusternia are hardly anything even remotely relating to 'canon' information. However, as you asked if it was ok, I was just pointing out that, due to the information known, no, hair is not fine. And seaweed actually growing -from- the body makes zero sense.

Well, I'm at a loss.

I don't think 'earholes' is really correct, at least in a mechanical sense, because warriors can hack ears off anyone, which would be difficult if you just had a hole.

Merian Lords/Ladies are a lot taller - around six to seven feet. Since Amaranta is training in Rituals and ready to take Sacraments, she'll be one soon enough.

I suppose that I could change her from a pure merian, giving her just a bit of human blood in her. Maybe her great great great grandmother mated with a human, but it's been an entirely Merian bloodline beyond that. That'd give her the heritage necessary to have smooth skin that's scaled in some places, limited crests/fins, and hair-like growths, but still retain 90% of the Merian look.

And what about tails? Would pure Merians have tails?



See, I kinda disagree here. Do you really want 6 foot tall Furrikin with three pairs of wings and bright pink/purple secondary hair with glowing rainbow eyes?

I've never really thought of merians having tails, really - and yes, Merian Lords can be slightly taller, though I suspect their size increase is more relative to a muscle mass than height.

As to the human blood - you're welcome to play it however you wish to! I'm just clearing up and clarifying some misconceptions/uncertainties I've seen going about. Though I will reiterate, for a purist merian, hair would probably be disgusting/makes them pitiable/a lesser creature, really. All things you just need to consider as you're making your character come to life!

Post script: Also, remember humans have only been in Lusternia since the Coming of Estarra. That makes it only 213 years since the earliest possible conception. Just something to keep in mind!

Well, great-great-great-grandmother is about 4 generations. Giving about 30 years between each generation, that's only 120 years of heritage.

After taking a quick glance at the picture of the Aquamancer on the race page of the main website, I'm going to say that I don't think merians have tails. They have webbed digits on both feet and hands, a tail seems excessive and unnecessary - it would end up being more of a burden than a help, so evolution would have removed it. Or, in this instance, it would have been an unnecessary part and burden upon Dynara's creation. Or something.

I would think a merian with some kind of growth on them that is seaweed like could be considered diseased- like sporozoan lesions, or some kind of parasite. Merians with tails might be considered akin to prehistoric, sort of reversing the evolution of the race. ( ETA-- I got ninja'd and beat posting that conclusion)


I'm still giggling too much about Eventru encouraging you to go out and procreate to find out if you have live births or eggs to be of much use though. My main question is how can someone just looking at you tell that you are inexperienced and determined? I would think that would be the conclusion of talking to you, not looking at you.

But that Merian also has smooth skin! So it could be a half-blood.

I'm not one to know how a pure-blood merian should look like but when I think merian I think:

Edit:

She is a noble merian and a young, but visibly determined person. Standing at a
height of six feet, her posture is regal and disciplined. Sleek ultramarine
scales cover her athletic, somewhat muscular body, with small finned ridges
decorating her shoulders and elbows. Her face is slightly angular, with dark
blue lips, sea-green eyes and a flattened nose ridge. Fins on either side of her
head arch out several inches, surrounding the holes of her ears. There is no
hair on her head, instead, two long crest-like fins extend to her shoulders,
becoming small ridges at their end. Two torches hang from the left side of her
sword-belt, showing obvious signs of recent usage. A phial of celestial holy
water is looped onto the right side, dangling from a small chain. She is wearing
a canvas backpack, 2 scabbards of blackened steel, a red hooded cloak, a steel
suit of angelic fieldplate, a turquoise rosebud ring, a clear ring, an etched
garnet ring, a sapphire ring of waves, and a diamond icewall ring.

There we go. Does that better convey a pure merian image?