#acquaintances would refer to another mer by the name of their spawning ground which at least denotes group
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I drew up this merfolk character based on a pajama shark while i was at work! decided to digitally line and color it when i got home, though i did use colored pencils to do the original drawing lol
anyway i call them samira but,, don't get me started on the complex mer naming lore that has been tumbling around my brain all week
#my art#merfolk#every month is mermay if you try#pajama shark mer#mer#but yeah samira lives in my monster and magic 'verse which has its own set of magic rules and people#so yeah merfolk in that world worship the old ones which are basically big old sea monster that are created by and linked with deep magic#and because the old ones are made of magic if they are named it impacts what they are#it's super super forbidden in mer culture to name or nickname an old one because it WILL change them (almost always for the worst)#actually cold ones are just old ones who have gone mad after being named and started killing merfolk#there's an entire cultural role of merfolk who essentially kill cold ones to protect the merfolk but in return they can never be in a pod#ANYWAY that's beside the point#the point is that mer culture has weird name vibes because of this whole thing#basically strangers Do Not Refer To Strangers and they'd just say like. 'this one. that one.'#acquaintances would refer to another mer by the name of their spawning ground which at least denotes group#after that you may get a 'call name' provided by a mer which can change#they basically just get to like. decide their name of the day#FINALLY the ultimate level of intimacy is someone bestowing a name upon another mer#this step is usually pre-agreed on because it is INCREDIBLY rude to name someone who doesn't want you to name them#it's all to do with the old ones. like a 'you know me well enough that i will not be changed by whatever name you give me.'#'or if i am change it would be for the better'#this is some long ass rambles for a simple picture but YEAH#samira's name is a given name - given by their partner santino
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