#this is fantasy lol

[hotpotatopotat]

This might be an odd question coming straight from my biology nerd side, but have you thought on the taxonomy/biology of the mers?

Are all mer species related to each other, or are they closer to the species they resemble? Are the different mers even different species? Are they all one species with multiple subspecies? Are they branched off of a human ancestor, explaining their compatibility with humans? Are all types of mers are compatible with humans? Are all types of mers compatible with one another? Do mer/human pairings all result in more mers?

Feel completely free to ignore these questions and just answer whatever biology stuff you want if you have any.

Again, I'm just a biology nerd and always curious, especially animal and fantasy biology. 😅

Hello fellow taxonomy/biology nerd, let me take a crack at it. Also this is fantasy so go easy on me XD In my head, while not completely fleshed out mind you, there are two lines of thought here. One of divergent evolution, where there is a common ancestor, and two is convergent evolution, in which case two animals might develop similar traits, but are very distantly related, or not very related at all. True Mers and humans essentially started to diversify at the same time, branching off from a Mer-like ancestor while maintaining simularities to eachother. Bakumer and Deku, for example, is divergent evolution. However, only certain mers can produce young with humans, and only certain Mer can breed with eachother. Just as the word "Fish" describes and organism with gills, fins, scales, pretty much phenotypical characteristics, "Mer" is an extremely broad term to refer to these phenotypical traits (semi-aquatic, human/fish/seal/shrimp thing). So Kiriseal is an example of convergent evolution, in which he is a completely different organism, but just so happens to look like a "Human-like Mer". He cannot breed with humans. Same with Shoto Shrimp - Shrimp mer and Bakumer couldn't produce young. The only reason Bakumer and Deku Human could produce young is probably more of a hybridization because the genus is close enough. Think of horses and donkeys making a mule. They're different species, but they produce offspring. Of course, you know the consequences of such hybrids, and Bakumer's offspring are not free from those consequences. Hope this makes any sense.

[miggylol]

Surprise! Tumblr just got turned into an epic fantasy RPG, just like [your favorite appropriate media franchise]. And the Tumblr RPG's plot needs to have all of its characters covered, in roles both large and small.

That means that you are assigned to a stereotypical RPG role inside our new fantasy world. Spin this wheel to find out what you are now doing for a living.

[ur-daily-inspiration]

[monstermonger]

I'm convinced mama dragons carry their babies around in their mouth for protection, like how crocodiles do...

[daily-spooky]

[artmagicly]

Art by Julia Zhuravleva

[runmienn]

Them🧎

A humble offering to Jayvik nation

[mostly-funnytwittertweets]

[catchymemes]

[cottagecorebunny]

LMAO YOU CAN GET YOURS HERE

[venusmage]

Birth of a revenant.

[jq37]

I still find it funny that one of the questions of The Last Stand exam was translating "Pedo Mellon a Minno" to "Speak friend and enter", something virtually impossible to do without outside knowledge of Lord of the Rings. Brennan was like, "I am entirely confident one of my nerd ass friends (Siobhan) will have this locked and loaded." And he was right.

[metaphoricallyrose]

Jr year baby!

[ur-daily-inspiration]

[monstermonger]

i love when i look into a window and find a cat there... | minizine ♡

[daily-spooky]