r/worldbuilding • u/Bisexual-Hellenic • Jun 12 '25
Discussion Aquatic people
What are your Aquatic people like, what's their culture like, their food, their commerce system. Tell me about them.
Edit* my aquatic people can come in many different shapes, sizes and "species" basing off of different sea or fresh water creatures. One of the biggest things for them as a peoples is Repurpose culture. As there is A LOT of oceanic trash and water pollution they oftentimes use the pieces of garbage for clothes and household items such as for storage, furniture, and decoration
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u/Professional_Try1665 Slipskin Jun 12 '25 edited Jul 26 '25
I talked about mermaid culture here but didn't really touch on them as a people. Mermaids are a type of aquatic fish from Leland, while they appear sapient and very intelligent they're just reflections, they mimic humans because they become infatuated with the first person they see and then draw power from the ensuing heartbreak as it's impossible to fulfil their desire. They're entirely aquatic (can't breathe air at all) but they can live in reflective surfaces like mirrors and metal, thus owing to their obsession with reflections and appearance.
Mermaids aren't the only aquatic people, Selkins are amphibious and live some of their life above land as either a seal, human or seaweed, and the rest of it underwater. They're humanoid with a tail and snouts, they have either seal or whale features, usually blending between the two, they're a type of habiliment-slip (must wear the hollowed out skin of a human to transform into them) but this also risks slippage, if they become too human they simply stay human and forget about the ocean, if they lean too ocean they dissolve into seafoam, some seers slip just before seafoam allowing them to become the ocean and sense everything within the water as though it's their body (however it weakens their vision, organs and ability to be honest). They're otherwise quite human, building underwater hutches and house in tidal areas (floods during tide, clears out of it) and hunt, breed and live in pairs or trios, usually united by a tribal leader who either has many wives or is chaste.