#im not quite a selkie expert yet i would say lol theres a lot more abt the folklore i wanna read into

[llumimoon]

I WOULD LOVE TO MAKE SELKIE AUS but i don't know a lot about selkies and their folklore, and how they work, and i dont wanna mess it up :( How does one go about making a selkie au, oh Great Seal Master?? /gen

tbh my biggest advice is just have fun with it !! there are a lot of different iterations of selkie lore, its pretty fun to pick and choose which things you want to adapt!

really the core of it is just the seal skin coat! selkies are born with a seal skin that they can wear to turn into a seal, it is an extension of themselves and is a part of them them in ways you can't quite put into words or explain to a human.

being separated from their skin is literally like missing a part of themselves, and this can be depicted in many different ways like a persistent sickness, lack of voice or strength, a deep longing, etc.

a lot of the stories and folklore surrounding selkies is about people falling in love with their human form and stealing their seal skin to trap them on land and marry them. these end in many different ways, which is where a lot of the variation in the lore comes into play! sometimes the selkie finds their skin and runs away leaving behind even their kids, sometimes the selkie is trapped forever sometimes they literally die of sadness being separated from the sea

it doesn't necessarily have to always be romantic, selkies in folklore tend to fall into the swan maiden trope of men forcing a mythical woman into marriage, but i personally think its a lot funner to think about unorthodox scenarios. like someone accidentally taking the skin, or an overprotective parent locking it away, or even a selkie naturally falling in love with a human.

like i said there's a lot of different iterations, stuff like summoning w/ seven tears or selkies returning to the sea every seven years, the person owning the coat being able to control the selkie to a certain extent, hurting the coat hurts the selkie, returning the coat can be a marriage proposal, etc.

it can get overwhelming with all the different versions but as long as you stay true to the inital seal skin concept and dual nature of a selkie (they are known to be both friendly and helpful but also dangerous and vengeful- much like the sea that they come from) than you've got a good selkie story on your hands!