#(( also think it would be funny if meravi also got the abyssal gigantism

[royalreef]

@biteyourcrush​ inquired: 🐶 Feesh time....... for Ravi.............. Muses as Merfolk - NOT Accepting

(( I think Aaravi would be a hybrid of an Abyssal merfolk and a Pacific-Migratory merfolk!

The thing to remember about merfolk and their various species is that I’m basing them off of the various species of human. That is — when there was more than one species with the genus Homo, there have been multiple occasions where those species successfully interbred, and those hybrids were also able to have kids of their own. This is the braided stream concept of evolution, of multiple closely related species being able to add to each other’s gene pools successfully, to the point that there are people today who still have some fraction of Neanderthal or Denisovan in their DNA to act as genetic fossils of that trade. So, when different species of merfolk get together, the resulting hybrids are much like their parents beyond the genetic quirks. Most extant species of merfolk actually do have some traces in their respective gene pools of this mixing, because if you put any two populations close together you will get kids out of it, but their phenotypes fully reflect what’s standard of their species. Time goes on, the kids look more and more like one species because it’s not a perfect and even split between the two, and at the end they’re usually fairly indistinguishable from the more standard mer.

That said, any Abyssal hybrids in the modern day within the Merkingdom are... taboo. 

The exact politics isn’t the same for every hybrid — it very much depends on who the parents are. If they’re both essentially just your average person but different species, then usually it’s not a big deal. It varies based on location to location and culture to culture, but overall, the closer match in lifestyles and positions within society means the greater the chances that a hybrid won’t be an issue.

The issue comes in with Abyssals. Abyssal merfolk started out mostly restrained to a few locations, but not every abyssal was in a position of power and most were still laypeople. But, as the Modern Merkingdom formed, there came a bias towards Abyssals and especially those from those initial populations, and they got placed into more and more powerful positions, and the new royals ( who were Abyssals to begin with, solely because that was just the species of that initial family who started it first ) began inbreeding and having issues associated with it, and pulling from the outside Abyssal population, which pulled them up in power, who began inbreeding again, and so on and so forth. Eventually you get to the issue today, where being an Abyssal is synonymous with the Low Royals, and Abyssals in the wider population is unheard of, similarly reinforced by how heavily the Crown prefers to be seen as the only Abyssals in existence. Therefore, by Merkingdom standards, Abyssal genetics should not be out in the wider population. Either the hybrid was from a marriage between a Middle Royal and a Low Royal, in which case they would have a title, or, if they lack a title, they’re a bastard and a stain on a Low Royal’s bloodline.

In terms of Merkingdom law... It’s an unwritten rule that bastards should not ever occur. They can severely mess up a royal’s inheritance, and it’s seen as dragging a commoner into a position which they are entirely unfit to have. If a bastard is born, but they’re claimed at birth and brought into the title, then there’s still an issue, because it can be seen as a betrayal to the marriage to their intended partner to continue their royal line and thus proof that they aren’t taking their commitment and their duties seriously. To know that a royal has a bastard is a point of blackmail that can be used to extreme effect, even capable of labelling a royal a traitor.

Unfortunately, royals also like to sleep around, and sleeping around with commonfolk is still common, particularly since it’s seen as a no-strings-attached bit of fun, whereas sleeping with another royal means they cannot avoid the inherent politics of the matter. If a royal discovers they’ve contributed to the creation of a bastard in some way, then they are almost guarenteed to try and destroy them. The easier they can dispose of them without anyone knowing, the better, and this makes any bastard meeting their royal parent a major risk. Particularly so, because in effort to cover up the existence of a bastard, the royal will often have the associated family killed or destroyed in one way or another to get rid of witnesses.

In terms of Pacific-Migratory merfolk, on the other hand, they are... fairly ordinary. They were one of the species that existed in the Pre-Modern Merkingdom, and for that, they were already fairly used to the Merkingdom and the Merkingdom to them. Quite a few were grandfathered in and even occupy positions up to being a Middle Royal with fairly little note, but most are fairly ordinary and still tend to the same routes and patterns that they always have. They often tend to shoals of fish livestock that they tend to as they follow those routes, or form thriving trade systems, and are heavily associated with leviathan hunts, as they’re often those best-suited to managing them.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t exactly make having an obvious bastard in their mix any easier. In a way, it’s seen akin to harboring a fugitive, and while there are communities that will work to hide them, there are also communities that are afraid that, by having them around, they’re also in danger. They’re potential witnesses and accomplices, and for that, the royal who sired them would very much want the community destroyed as well. While turning in a bastard doesn’t exactly go well, it’s also sometimes still seen as the better option.

On a biological slant — hybrids come in two varieties. Much like hitting the randomize button in character creation, you get the hybrids that look mostly like one species but a little weird, and you also get the hybrids that look bizarre and are very obviously hybrids. Facial proportions often look odd, as do fins and coloration, and they might be the worse version of what either parents are adapted to do.

In this case : another merfolk would be able to immediately tell that Aaravi has the body of a migratory species of some kind, but her tail isn’t shaped right to reach those higher speeds, as well as heavier plating and scaling to weight her down and produce drag. Fins are too small to be an Abyssal’s and pointed, but they’re also not fused and frilly in a way that no migratory species has. She has the teeth of an Abyssal, but her face is too thin to have the same skeletal and muscular reinforcement Abyssals do to make full use of their teeth. It’s covered up by her fins, but she has four gill slits like a Pacific Migratory and with extra inner lining like an Abyssal, but one gill slit is sealed and improperly formed which makes it unusable. She’s also a VERY obvious red, connected to Abyssals, but the Pacific-Migratory genes both dilute the color down to a nearly metallic sheen, as well as give her markings that Abyssals lack, such as countershading and unique patterns on her tail. She has bioluminescence on her face, shoulders, fins, and tail, but far less than a true Abyssal would.

There’s also other things she’d get from a Low Royal lineage, but it’s not the type of trait that you can see, unfortunately.