Merfolk
Mermaids and tritons (based on Blood-Dimmed Tides).
- Court: Seelie
- Birthrights: Sea-Dreamt: Merfolk gain the abilities of the sea-creatures they partially resemble (any with internal skeletons), including the ability to breathe underwater (or to hold their breath for extended periods). Thus a dolphin mer would have sonar, or a sea turtle mer an armored shell. Merfolk also gain an extra Physical, Mental, or Social trait appropriate to their sea-creature (a shark mer might have a "Brutal" trait, a dolphin "Graceful" or even "Clever," etc.), even if this takes them over their maximum. All merfolk are nobles and thus must purchase at least one level of the Background: Title. -- Ocean's Beauty: Merfolk are beautiful and seductive, and gain an additional appropriate Social trait (which may go over the trait limit), as well as a free retest in challenges related to their appearance. This Birthright is usable in human Seeming.
- Frailties: Fish Out of Water: Non-mammalian merfolk must spend a Mana trait for each hour that they wish to breathe air; a mer who runs out of Mana will suffocate. This is true even if the mer has a human Seeming. Merfolk "based on" mammals (whales, dolphins, etc.) do not have this problem, but they are unable to stay underwater for more than six hours at a time and must surface to breathe; if they run out of Mana, they cannot hold their breath underwater any longer than a human. -- Also, merfolk are out of touch with the surface world (including that of the Otherworlds), and are one trait down for comparison when initiating Social challenges against land-dwellers (excluding challenges related to their appearance). ("Land-dwellers" do not include other aquatic fae -- e.g., grindylow, selkies and ondines.)
- Immunity: Merfolk are alien even to other fae; land-dwellers have difficulties in knowing how to approach them. When defending against a Mental or Social challenge initiated by a land-dweller, merfolk need only risk (rather than spend outright) a Willpower trait to retest. (This immunity does not apply to challenges involving other aquatic fae, but does apply to Social challenges by the grindylow, mistrusted ancient enemies of the merfolk -- excluding challenges related to Intimidation.) -- Also, of course, merfolk are at best difficult to drown.
- Bans: Seeming does not stay active when mer is wet; [and one of player choice].
- Weakness: Cold Iron.
- Binding: merfolk bound in Cold Iron cannot use their powers or spend Mana, which can be very dangerous for merfolk trapped where they cannot breathe.
- Regaining Mana: Harvesting, Reverie, Ravaging.
- Preferred Disciplines: Animalism OR Presence, Protean, Thaumaturgy (Lure of Flame [Ice remix], Neptune's Might, Weather Control)
- Origin: Because the Gauntlet is thin in the deep places of the sea and the merfolk are out of touch with land-dwellers even in the Otherworlds, they are effectively all of Otherworldly origin, even those who grew up in the Earth's own oceans. Some may have lived near human dwellings, though, and had occasional encounters with them, but rarely enough to know much about them.
- Appearance: Many merfolk have the "classic" human upper body and long blue-green scaled fish-tail from the waste down, but others have different coloration or configuration or resemble other sea creatures; all are a blend of humanoid and fish or sea-mammal. While it is possible that a mer swimming in murky water might seem human from the parts showing, merfolk otherwise cannot pass as human without the Seeming Background, and in fact must pay double for their first level of it.
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