Water mythicals : mermaids/mermen

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Mermaids/mermen :

A mermaid/merman is an aquatic creature with the head an torso of a human and a fish-like tail. The gender neutral plural is merfolk or merpeople. Much like sirens, mermaids would sometimes sing to sailors and enchant tem, distracting them from their work and causing them to walk off the deck or cause shipwrecks. They are also said to take them down to their underwater kingdoms, it is said that they forget that humans cannot breathe underwater, while others say they drown men out of spite.

Notes :
- mer is french for sea
- old english equivalent of mermaid is merewif, meaning water-witch
- because merfolk thrive in salt-water conditions, they would rarely be found in a freshwater lake or stream. Rather lagoons are much more frequented by these beauties. It is important to recognize the key difference between lakes and lagoons.
- they have the ability to transform into human beings and live in dry land for a period of time.
- they are found enticing men into marriage. Mermaids are soulless creatures who disappear forever when they die, however, a mermaid can receive a human soul through marriage and/or producing a child with a human. If a mermaid receives a soil, she will live on after the death of her body. Unfortunately these marriages usually end in great tragedy for one or both of the pair.
- they can foretell the future and grant supernatural powers to human beings, but generally have to be bribed or forced into doing so.

There are other kinds of mermaids and mermen such as :
- sharkmaid/sharkman
-dolphinmaid/dolphinman
-whalemaid/whaleman

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