Selkies
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"Oh, they're pretty enough... until you see what's below the 腰部. Then they're just comical. 否 wonder they like to keep their tails under the water. Their kind sure can appreciate good music, though."
—River, traveling bard
Writer Credit
| The Observer |
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法典
名称: 海豹精 (p. 海豹精)
Sexes: 男性与女性 (20% 男性, 80% 女性)
Height: Ranges 来自 之间 5 ft. and 6 ft. on average, with females standing slightly taller than males. If they could stand, that is.
Weight: Despite their proportions, 海豹精 are kind of 轻型. They may weigh as much as 75% of what might be expected of a 人类 of similar build and stature.
Skin: Generally pale owing to their environment. Their seal half can be anything 来自 black to gray, brown and white.
Hair: Fundamentally 人类-like. Gold is most common, but bleached brown, gray and white also exist.
Eyes: 海豹精 have 人类-like eyes, with brown, gold, or blue colors most common.
Ears: 海豹精 have humanlike ears.
Lifespan: About 50 years.
Maturity: 18 years.
描述
海豹精, like many aquatic 种族, inhabit the seas and oceans of 萨瓦拉, keeping mostly to chill and frigid waters. They can be largely described as seal-mermaids — 人类 joined at the 腰部 to fat, blubbery seal tails. While practical in the context of their natural habitat, the chubby seal tails give them a comical 外貌 when out of water and on the ice — deceptively disarming for what they're capable of.
Owing to their physiology, 海豹精 cannot stand; the most they can do is push their 头部 and torso off the ground with their arms when out of water. They are, though, on average five to six 足部 long 来自 头部 to tail; a 海豹精's 人类 half tends to be quite conventionally attractive by 人类 standards, but their seal tails are fat and blubbery even as it grants them considerable speed in water. A number of them are aware and self-conscious of this fact, and will hide their tails under the water's surface or otherwise out of sight when meeting 其他 peoples. However, when amongst their own, they will lounge about in full view atop beaches, ice floes, and the like without a care. Despite their ungainly 外貌 when out of water, 海豹精 are able to move over ice and to a lesser extent land with surprising speed, wriggling their seal halves like snakes and bouncing over smooth surfaces.
Like the seals they resemble, 海豹精 are not truly aquatic and cannot breathe water like merpeople or 希奥卡纳族 do; although they can hold their breath for hours at a time, they must return to the surface for air periodically or drown. They do not use their 手部 for swimming, keeping them tucked close to the body in an aquadynamic fashion while moving through the water in a wriggling fashion; instead, they rely on their tails to propel them, and their nature renders them impervious to the cold and pressure of the frigid oceans they call home.
History
As with merfolk, 海豹精 have occasionally interacted with seafaring or coastal peoples of land-dwelling 种族, appearing to ships and on beaches. Since they typically do not compete for similar territory or resources with landed peoples, 互动 have been historically friendly. The same cannot be said of relations with aquatic peoples — they have clashed with merfolk on and off over territory and the hunting and fishing that comes with it. Due to merfolk organization and strategy, they typically lose, but conflicts tend to flare up every so often nevertheless. 海豹精 keep out of the way of 希奥卡纳族 except when they heavily outnumber the latter, acknowledging the shark-peoples' superior 力量 and ferocity 战斗中.
海豹精 themselves have little record of their history, and what little there is takes place in the form of oral traditions handed down 来自 mothers to daughters. Actual historical data comes 来自 其他 peoples who have interacted with them — the most extensive knowledge of them comes 来自 a 贝尔哈兰 functionary named Gaius Autumnstar, an elven civil servant who upon finding an injured 海豹精 washed up on the beach took her in, kept her in a tank of seawater and nursed her to 生命值 over the course of a year. It is through the conversations with and anatomical examinations of his aquatic 同伴 that much of the information in this 法典 is derived, concluding with his returning her to the ocean. It is likely that modern-day stories of the menfolk of land-dwelling 种族 kidnapping these seal-women to be their wives by stealing their animal halves originate 来自 Autumnstar's records — the discovery, the captivity, and the final release or escape of the 海豹精 back where she belongs.
Due to the solitary nature of 海豹精 men, the vast majority of 互动 with 海豹精 have been with their womenfolk, giving rise to the impression that they are a monosexed people. This misunderstanding persists in several parts of the world, especially in places where they are more legend than reality. 海豹精 singing on beaches have been the stuff of legends since even before the 贝尔哈兰 empire, although they have to be approached with caution; if they feel threatened, 海豹精 are able to weaponise their voices in ear-splitting shrieks. On land, such vocalisations are sufficient to buffet would-be attackers and even knock them off their 足部, but underwater is where their voices are most terrible; the concussive force generated by a 海豹精 shriek, projected and concentrated in a liquid medium, is able to pulverise threats to their person.
Society and Culture
女性 海豹精 gather in 群体 known as herds, which may range 来自 two to several dozen individuals. A herd of 海豹精 will typically claim a swathe of territory to live, forage and hunt in, only moving when circumstances prove unfavorable or when migrating to breeding sites to meet up with their menfolk. The herd is led by a matriarch, who is certainly related by blood to the vast majority, 如果不是 all of the herd's members. Customs, rituals and taboos can vary widely 来自 herd to herd; there is 否 singular racial identity that has formed due to the scattered nature of herds. Herd identity is kept together via oral traditions passed down 来自 matriarch to her heir in song and verse.
Although 海豹精 are omnivorous and have been observed harvesting kelp and 其他 sea plants for food, meat and fish are necessary to sustain their lifestyle in frigid waters. Plant material is more often used for the weaving of nets, ropes and 其他 tools; 海豹精 are experts in shaping bone as spears and harpoons, which work just as well underwater as they do above. Hunting is carried out in packs of half a dozen or more, employing 群体 tactics to isolate quarry 来自 shoals and herds and flush them out towards others who will make the kill. Some 海豹精 have been observed performing basic farming and aquaculture with ocean plants and fish and shrimp raised in netted caves, but their lack of greater organization means that few herds will ever be able to make use of any knowledge gained, and they will be unlikely to ever rise to the sophistication and technological standards of merfolk.
When not feeling threatened, 海豹精 are curious and gregarious; if a land-dweller is not overtly threatening or hostile, they will oftentimes gather around and approach in the safety of numbers before attempting to make 对话. Many 海豹精 can speak a little 贝尔哈兰 and like to talk a lot; social play and 互动 make up a lot of their recreational time. They can come across as easygoing and frivolous, charmed by the simplest gifts of cheap, shiny baubles. So long as the land-dweller keeps a respectful and amiable demeanour, they are likely to remain peaceful. A gift of food or useful material can be traded for directions, recent sightings, or 其他 information; they do not like 金属, though, as seawater corrodes it easily. 海豹精 have been observed cooperating with 约顿巨人 whaling parties, serving as scouts and harassing the massive quarry towards the 冰霜 giants and their ice rafts in exchange for a portion of the kill.
Reproduction
As with many inhabitants of the frozen north, 海豹精 繁殖 in the summer when the air is marginally warmer and food more plentiful. 海豹精 tend to mate either on land or on ice, and depending on where they choose to 繁殖, have different mating strategies. 海豹精 who choose to 繁殖 on land generally consist of one 男性 and a harem of females; the womenfolk gather in large aggregations upon islands and the males, who have arrived earlier, are able to mate with them as well as defend them 来自 rivals. 海豹精 who choose to 繁殖 over water and ice, though, are less likely to form harems of females; the instability of ice leads to breeding sites changing each year and males being unable to predict where females will stay during the breeding season. In such cases, pair-breeding for the duration of the season may occur.
男性 海豹精 establish territories during this time, claiming for themselves stretches of land, ice and ocean containing resources that attract their womenfolk, such as shade, tide pools or access to water. While attempting to attract females with song and courtship displays, they will also chase off rival males and potential dangers to their womenfolk. Once breeding season is over, 海豹精 men and women part ways; the former live solitary existences outside of breeding season, while the latter form communal 群体 as large as the locale hunting and fishing will support.
海豹精 怀孕 last about a year such that the pups are born during the next spring or summer; females with newborns do not 头部 to the breeding grounds, but instead stay to nurse their young. 海豹精 milk is even richer than 半人马 milk; it is extremely thick and high in nutrients that pups need to grow and put on weight in order to survive cold temperatures. In the past, 海豹精 milk, cheese and butter were delicacies in coastal 贝尔哈兰 cities, another ostentatious foodstuff for the rich to flaunt their wealth with. Whether this milk was freely given, traded for, or coerced 来自 the seal-people has been lost to time. 男性 海豹精 will stay with their mothers for about a decade before leaving to their largely solitary existence, while a 女性 will join her mother's community.
法典 获取
Only one of the conditions below must be met to unlock the 海豹精 法典 entry:
- Encountering the Glacial Rift Selkies / Seal-tailed Women for the first time
其他 Information
Transformatives
否 such 变形物品 exist yet
角色
Opal
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Selkie Huntress Selkie Songstress
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