Mer

Mer
The Mer are an aquatic-mammalian people endemic to Sastaya. As mammals, Mer are not fish and do not have gills or other means of breathing underwater. Instead, they must periodically (between one and three hours, depending on subrace) come to the surface to breathe.

As the only aquatic civilisation, they long enjoyed widespread dominion of the seas. Their explorers were able to identify the coastlines of other landmasses (including Tol) long before the Faun made their crossing. They have had irregular (and usually fleeting) contact with the landbound races of Tol resulting in widespread inclusion of Mer in their stories and mythologies.

Appearance
They have a humanoid upper half, and aquatic lower half that forms into an elongated tail used to propel them through the water. This takes a number of different forms depending on the subrace.

History
As with all the peoples of Sastaya, the Mer are descendents of the Yedmer, one of the Four Great Races.

The journey from what is now Qarabar was a very long seaborne voyage, fraught with dangers from the sea. Despite this, a great many Yedmer felt a sense of loss when they made landfall and began to settle Sastaya, having developed a deep fondness and respect for the ocean that had carried them for so many long years. A yearning to return saw many of the Yedmer return to the sea, where they shaped by it as much as the lands if Sastaya themselves were. In time, they had become so different from their origins that they no longer had the ability to walk on land, and within themselves had diverged into numerous subraces occupying different

Ignean Ocean War
Perhaps the most significant conflict in their history, the Ignean Ocean War cast a dark shadow on an entire generation of Faun and Mer alike. It is named for the Ignean Ocean - the Mer name for the Bara'al Sea. It was an all encompassing total war that ultimately resulted in the summoning of terrible mealstroms that block all sea passage between Sastaya and Qarabar. The war ended with no winners, and the formation of two hyper-blocks and tentative peace.

Society
The Mer Combine is ostensibly the highest body of the Mer. It's ruling council is made up of the ten Mer Principalities:

River Selkin - Phocan

Brackwater Selkin - Phocan

Nummoa - Phocan Kataw - Oricians Yacura - Inians Picoy - Inians Oannes - Inians Uiara - Inians

Finool - Tricheans

Pangol - Tricheans

They build their cities in vast cave complexes hidden by the seas and excavated over many generations, such as Olous of the

Conflict is resolved in colloseum battles between chosen champions.

Culture
t

Religion
t

Subraces
There are four major Subraces of Mer, as well as the rarer giant Mer.

Phocans
Phocans are are seal-like Mer, considered the most adaptable of the Mer. Though living mostly around the northern portion of the Eporic Shelf, they have a significant presence in some of the rivers and lakes of Sastaya, as well as small communities in the kelp forests of the Tricheans and the coral atolls of the Inians. In spite of the wider history of strife between Faun and Mer, many Phocans - particularly the River Selkin - trade with nearby Faun, maintaining closer relations than is seen anywhere else.

They are pastoral aquafarmers, raising and shepherding vast shoals of fish.

Inians
Inians are the dolphin-like Mer making their home amongst coral reefs, generally in the southern seas of Sastaya. Though most live in the waters to the east of the Mayoon Plateau, their kind also colonised the undersea volcanic islands and atoll reefs further out into the Ignean Ocean (known in Tol as the Bara'al Sea). It was the Inians who designed and built the golden-sailed subsurface Sealships, a design which would later be copied and adapted by the Faun to build their own ships capable of crossing open ocean.

They are the most populous of all Mer, and the most widespread.

Inian Mer make extensive use of subsurface sailing ships; long catamarans with submerged hulls connected to masts that host huge silver sails. The sails are made from sea silk, cured and tightly woven to make thin but incredibly strong sails.

Oricians
These orca-like Mer possess a striking black on white colouration along their lower halves, extending to a less degree along their humanoid upper half. They live much further north than any other Mer, in the sub-arctic seas around ice sheets. Though like other carnivorous Mer they tend shoals of fish, Oricians maintain a long held tradition of hunting, a practice decried as barbaric by other Mer; this includes the Coronation Ritual, where a newly crowned Grand Prince will lead a hunting party to kill a Rorquan (the Giant Mer), consuming it's body in a grand cannibalistic feast.

Whilst it would be inaccurate to describe them as warmongers, they have nonetheless never shyed away from battle, gladly taking up arms to assert themsevles. The long term effect of this is that there is now only a single Orician Principality, the other Orician Princes having been conquered. This is why the Orician Prince claims the title "Grand Prince of the Oricians".

Tricheans
Tricheans are manatee-like Mer. The only true vegetarians of the Mer, Tricheans generally live around the waters in the southern portion of the Eporic Shelf, where they tend vast kelp forests that make up a large portion of their diet. They are highly distrustful (and perhaps fearful) of terrestrial races, principly the Faun, whome they give a wide birth.

There are two Trichean Principalities, however there was once a third, inhabiting the Thaea Swamp; a series of small bogs connected by creeks. The Tricheans here, known as the Inuang, were wiped out by the Faun in their bid to claim and then drain the swamp to create precious arable land.

Giant Mer / Rorquans
The 'Giants of the Sea', these whale-like Mer are many times larger than the rest of their kind. In contrast to the other Mer who build cities around coastlines, Rourquans inhabit the endless depths of the Bara'al Sea, rarely interacting with the smaller Mer. Though intelligent, they eschew sedentary civilisation, instead living migratory lives as nomads.