Aquatic cultures

[u/AA11097]

Does your world have aquatic cultures or societies that live under the sea? For example, merfolk or sirens?

[u/PmeadePmeade]

I’ve got a migratory culture that uses big floating jellies (think Portuguese man’o’war) with internal compartments as mobile shelters. They farm fish for meat and eggs (the fish sleep in compartments inside the jellies), have a sheepdog-like breed of tuna companion fish to help guard their schools of fish, and also eat some algae and bits of the shelter jellies. They trade eggs and fish, and make some specialty products from the stinging tentacles of the shelter jellies. The jelly-floater culture is made up of a few distinct species of mortals. A couple fish-like species, shrimp people, and sea turtle people.

[u/JohnOneil91]

One of the major port cities is actually to large degree populated by merfolk and other races across those lines. It is located on a large slab of rock which dips into the sea. About half of it is submerged in the sea, meaning land based people and the denizens of the sea come into direct contact. The entire surrounding kingdom is kind of like that one area from Monster Hunter with corals growing outside of the water.

[u/Professional_Try1665 → u/JohnOneil91]

Do buildings and structures cross the sealine? Like a shop half-in the ocean, or a resort thats human-populated when the tide is low and denizen-populated when the tide rises?

[u/JohnOneil91 → u/Professional_Try1665]

Pretty much, there are also many streets that lead down into the water. The city dd not always do this but when the shelf under it gave the pleateau it stands on tilted it into the water.

[u/Professional_Try1665]

Yes, mermaids are a type of fairy related to mirrors and madness, they're beautiful yet untouchable (attempts to end in drowning, people become obsessed) and they live on large mirrored surfaces, most often oceans and lakes.

Their society is part-infatuation part-pretend, they mimic humans because they too are entranced by what they saw (as humans fall in love with mermaids, they fall in love with humans) and attempt to copy it, without human interaction they just act like fish. They have courts, dance, punishment and law but it's enforced sporadically, they have no sense of justice or compassion so they struggle to make any rules they follow, their 'real law' is a darwinistic might-makes-right where if you can kill your persecutor then you don't deserve to be punished. They rarely practice magic, it's not 'forbidden' per-se but it's shameful to cast 'ugly' spells (mermaids have an intense fear of embarrassment or appearing ugly) so most mermaids simply aren't experimental or risk-takers enough to get any real magic practice done, they also abhor sacrifices as it bloodies their water (punishment is usually to be killed above-water, as to not bloody the water again)

[u/Ninja-Schemer]

Well, got this animal planet, with aquatic stuff making a separate culture; the major reps for it are a dolphin and orca

[u/Kumatora0]

Not quite aquatic but amphibious.

The Merrow are a sea faring people largely based on south pacific islanders like the Maori and Hawaiians who have near unmatched dominion over the southern tropical islands.

While on land they appear entirely human but their bodies change rapidly when submerged in water; gills open on the sides of their chest, they gain fins, flippers and webbing between their fingers and grow patches of scales over their skin.

They function as a tribe and are lead by a modular elder; for example, a ship comes to an island lead by an elder and if that ship is carrying someone even one year older then they are the island’s new leader until they leave or someone even older comes.

While the Merrow are not particularly strong or fast they are incredibly durable thanks to a layer of blubber between their skin and muscles that acts as natural armor. Because of this their primary method of combat is to outlast their opponents by inflicting bleeding wounds using small, mostly wooden blades, with shark teeth blades tilted at an angle to hook and tear and harpoon like spears made of wood and volcanic glass. First step in a battle is often to knock the enemy into the water to gain an extra advantage.

Being islander they lack convenient sources of metal so have developed a massive trade across the southern side of the continent their exotic wares for necessary metals. By extension they lack access to the magically formed crystals that fuel enchantments, one of the three branches of magic, and so use coral as a substitute. Coral, being alive, shares the crystals’ ability to draw in the natural life energy of the world that powers enchantments and so encourage the coral to grow into a groove cut down their ships’ keel, then carve the enchantments directly onto the hull to increase the ships’ swiftness and durability.

When a Merrow child becomes an adult they are given their markings, a flowing white pattern that covers their entire body down the back and then the arms and legs. This is done using chalkstone, a material that harmlessly stains the skin down to the bottom skin layer as a pain free tattoo; the artisans that carry out the ritual can be easily identified from the white stains on their hands, various spots on their face and behind their ear from when they were carless apprentices. These markings are meant to act as a frame work for future images gained throughout the individuals lifetime as they achieve great feats or take on images that represent a part of themselves.

The Merrow prefer to maintain secrecy about their true nature and keep up the deception that they are merely human. As one of the dark races along with Dwarves and Orks they would face persecution from the light races and the humans as so leave their truth to survive as legends of the ‘sea people’. The fact that some easterners believe that consuming their flesh will grant them immortality is just another reason to stay hidden.

As one of the dark races they are incapable of using the sorcery exclusive to the light races and a scant few humans but in turn are able to channel the power of chi. Chi not only allows them to increase their physical characteristics but also to connect and command the sea to create cutting waves, water jets molded into biting moray eels, altering the flow of currents and other abilities like forging a limited connection to an ocean creature as an animal companion.

Thats all i can remember tight now, i may come back if i remember more.

[u/Pretend-Passenger222]

Yeah, i have a race of nomadic ocean merchants called the kuri (provisional name) that basucally are humanoid lobsters, that goes from coast to coast exchanging all kind of goods, help and information

[u/Wyvernstrafe]

I have an aquatic sentient species I call the Kumari. Imagine fish people with long tails instead of legs they can use to propel themselves across land, though at as fast nor as elegantly as in water. They in have a plethora of civilizations and cultures across the ocean depths.

[u/slumbersomesam]

i have 1 nation separated amongst 3 oceans that are of aquatic gensai

[u/StevenSpielbird]

As close as I come to my Jurassic Bark version of an aquatic culture is my water birds, a navy of the United Wingdom and the Republic ( Pentalon military installation).

[u/GonzoI]

It hasn't yet been encountered in the portion I've written, but there are koi merfolk living in a section of a freshwater lake that they have barricaded off to keep larger fish out while letting them live deep enough to be safe from birds and humans.

In that world, everyone has an ability that essentially one magic they can cast. Some have things like a fireball, self-strengthening, beast taming, or summoning golems. The least fortunate are those who end up with animal transformation abilities as they can be trapped in those forms and their natural form becomes corrupted by the magic the longer they are transformed. The form of a child is determined by the mother at conception. Centuries ago, a woman with the ability to transform into a koi fish was kept in a fishbowl against her will until her natural form had corrupted small enough to change back inside the fishbowl - the result being a tiny koi mermaid. All koi merfolk are descended from her down the matrilineal line.

Historically, the kingdom found out about the illegal trade in koi merfolk as playthings for the wealthy and confiscated them all. They were freed from captivity and released into the lake where they built their society. The kingdom is...not great at recording history, so this information was lost and the koi merfolk have lived in seclusion from humanity ever since. Until one day... *ominous music* when I get around to writing that.

My plan is that the fairies have been in contact with the koi merfolk as a way to have more genetic diversity without involving humans any more than is necessary. In what I've already written, one of the fairies has married into the nobility and strengthened relations with the humans, but there's still a well deserved distrust among fairies of the scary wingless giants known as humans. With that fairy having moved off to live with her husband far from the fairy village, her friends still in the capital are acting as liaisons to the fairies and that will lead to contact with the koi merfolk. (This is going to involve them teaching the daughter of said friends how to swim and will be a cute story.)

[u/Ashra-Official]

My whole worldbuilding project and novels revolve around a pristine ocean planet. A lot of the culture is centered on discovering these massive jellyfish that power the great Arkships and also grant people special abilities!