Mermaid Personas

[Mermaid Saphira]

What is your mermaid's background story? Feel free to share, here, the story of your mermaid!

[New York Mermaid]

Lanai is a strong minded and independent Mermaid Princess, who’s determined to do things for herself (very stubborn asother mers would say) She proved this to her overbearing father, by swimming off on the day of her arranged marriage. On her adventures of exploration, she befriends whales and dolphins and other marine life long her way, some of which were in need of rescue from nets or were injured by human interference. Around the pods many know her as “Guardian of the Cetaceans”. Her curiosity always leads her to the surface to observe children as they play, she would once in a while interact with the kids who swam in the shallow waters. And also learned there are humans out there who care for her whale/dolphin friends enough to help them, when she can’t. Her fondness of humans also relates to one in particular, a male who works in animal rescue and saved the life of Lanai's whale friend, she watches this human as he goes to the beach and sits by the waters edge every night, without fail.

I actually have a darker version of Lanai.. a lost sister, twin actually.
i want call her Kaida (which was the name of my florida gar), she was lost in the kelp forests one day while play chasing with a seal into the forest. Lost and alone she was eventually found and taken in by a lone transient orca who lost her calf, she was raised to learn the ways of the pod following, hunting and socializing with the pods. She's become more of a warrior mermaid than a gentle kind. She's seen what humans have done to her adopted family and other orcas, losing some members of her pod because of loud sounds which came from boats, hurting their ears. And those she calls the hunters who follow in boats and take orcas for food. She however has a moment where she strays from the pod because her curiosity can get the best of her. which she ends up getting into much trouble.

[Mermaid Saphira]

^ I love your mermaid's background story! <3

[New York Mermaid]

thank you, so whats aquas story :)

[Mermaid Saphira]

I'm currently working on it! But It'll b up soon :)

[koiboi]

My merman is sort of like a fairy godfather, in many asian cultures Koi are considered magical and often grant wishes depending on the story. I like to think that my mermaid is like that

[Mermaid Saphira]

Aqua is a curious little mermaid, often intriuged by land dwellers. Abandoned at sea when an oil pollution ruined her kingdom, Aqua was adopted by a friendly group of bottle nose dolphins. Often refered to as shy and adventrous, Aqua enjoys spending her time searching for unusual items from the human world with her dolphin pals and exploring ship wrecks. Her curiousity usually gets her into sticky situations, but she always finds her way out. She dreams of one day stopping Japanese dolphin slaughter and meeting a land dweller for the first time. Aqua can also shapeshift and control water :)

[New York Mermaid]

@Koiboi I love koi so much they are such magical creatures I currently own 3 of them, 2 are butterfly koi. thats a great Background, considering people do consider merfolks to posess magical powers

@ Aqua I love your story as well, she wants to help save those that have saved her.

I used the animals rescue cause its something i do in real life, I also want to share how to help save our ocean animals and talk about the hazards of driftnets.

[Mermaid Sirena]

Well I sort of have two stories as Sirena is really two very different characters. There is the Disney version who loves to come on land and meet people, learn all about humans and their strange world. She loves to read though it's nye impossible under the waves, she can only read on land so she spends a lot of time out of the water.

The other (which is the original and core idea) is based around the darker side of mermaids often forgotten in the mythology. She is a temptress and will steal your heart only to smash it against the rocks on the shore. She will lure you in with the sweetest of smiles, for those who get to close, she will sweetly drown you.

Needless to say I have only ever been able to portray Disneyfied Sirena. ^_^

[Mermaid Lorelei]

I don't have much of a backstory set up yet, but mer merself is a cartographer. :P

[Alveric]

@ Sirena. How does one tell which you are? (Just in case we ever meet in person)

Alveric2

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

And shouldn't it be a "mersona" instead of a "mermaid persona"?

Koiboi, I like the story about the koi who leap all the way up the waterfall and are transformed into dragons for their courage and persistance.

Alveric/Sirena, I agree, I think we need warning coloration or something for when Dark MermaidSirena makes an appearance.

[Mermaid Sirena]

Lol ^_^ She would never actually hurt anyone, just that sort of vibe. And you would know, I've been working on assembling the costume parts though many wont go on sale until after halloween.

[Aradia]

I'm very similar to you Sirena with the dark mermaid personality and a lot of my tails are designed to look a lot darker than my pod's. The one i'm wearing at the moment is made up of snake skin like scales but sadly dark colours don't seem to appeal to kiddies as much as I would like so I think I need an alternate tail for the bouncy disney Aradia :P

[Artisankatie]

Volitania (named after the volitans part of the lionfish's name with a temper to match) is not a huge fan of children. Or critters. Or anybody, really (excluding the human she is smitten by). She'd never hurt anything, and can tolerate all of the above for a certain time before she gets impatient and splashes them before swimming away. She loves to torment human teenage boys (the ones who are too cool to believe in magic) and delights in enchanting smaller children, though her delight comes more from her vanity than making kids happy - but that said, she is glad she can make people happy.

[Lotus]

My back story is simple, and it's the one I've had since I was little- I'm a mermaid fished out of the ocean and stuck in an aquarium. A spectacle. Not sure how I feel about it.

[Princess Kae-Leah]

I'm a gentle mermaid princess who is friends with every creature in the ocean and doesn't understand why humans keep killing her friends and eating them!

[happyguava]

I try to go for 'ridiculous and silly'. I can't really pull off the whole "beautiful" aspect of the mermaid myth, so I went the other way and decided Nerissa is fairly unconcerned by her attractiveness to humans, and therefore is happy to look completely silly.

I like to think that Nerissa was quite scared of humans and found them intimidating, until she started to meet human children, because they're just like her. She is also a huge fan of music, and loves nothing more than a singalong session!

[Mermaid Saphira]

^ Great stories mers :)
I must say Nikki, even though your's is short it has a story all its own

[MermanJesse]

My story as written on my Facebook page.

"Legends abound of a mystical creature frolicking in the crystal clear waters of the many Floridian spring-fed water ways. A creature once said to have been pure myth. Described as being half man, half fish. Where humans have legs, Jesse has a merman tail with scales as gold as rays from the sun, and more vibrant a sunflowers beautiful petals.

Merman Jesse grew up in the natural springs of Florida, which is Heaven for anyone who loves the water as much as he. Despite stories to the contrary, he was presumed to be a myth until videos with confirmed sightings surfaced. Pun intended!"

[Mermaid Saphira]

^ I could picture every word! Beautiful :)

[Mermaasai]

~Nanyokie (aka mermaasai) and how she got her scar~
(This is my mersona.. or at least.. a smidgen of it, and since every one was asking how I got my scar.. here it is... just a warning: the story is a sad one, but Nanyokie lives on!)

Named after the red color of the breaking dawn, Nanyokie was born and raised just off the coast of east Africa, most specifically Kenya.
The waters there were safer for her small pod than other parts of Africa, though not by much.

The African merpeople were hunted almost to extinction by the continents human inhabitants, thanks to superstition, for their bones, scales, flesh, and hair..
Only by avoiding humanity and keeping their homes in the deeper waters of the Indian Ocean did her pod survive as long as it did.
Her pod consisted of her father and mother, a small sister named Enkaii and an elder brother named Malees, as well as a few uncles and aunts and their children.

Nanyokie was a curious young mermaid though, and as you can imagine, the shores of Africa couldn't be ignored for ever.
One day, while her family was busy going about their day to day meanderings she managed to slip away unnoticed.

She found the shore of Mombasa and reveled in its underwater volcanic rock caves and soft white shores.
Nanyokie laughed, watching children play in the surf from behind a coral outcropping, and caught the dorsals of dolphins in a great game of tag.

While exploring a partially submerged cave, the tides began to turn, and unbeknown to Nanyokie, she became trapped in a pool within the cave.
When she realized she was trapped within the cave, she laughed and decided to wait out the tide with a the few other fish that had been the same misfortune.
But it became late and she became hungry and impatient, as well as worried that her family might miss her and be upset at her for leaving them for so long.

Just as she was pondering whether or not to drag her tail across the sharp, black glass rocks that lined the bottom of the cave between her pool and the open ocean, she heard the sound of men approaching.
Frightened she dove into the water, hiding as closely to the bottom as possible, even kicking the sand up around her to settle on her body and camouflage her at the bottom of the pool.

Men entered the cave, holding flashlights and carrying various scuba gear.
The laughed and joked as they walked through the cave, ignoring the pool and moving deeper into the black maw.

Nanyokie just watched with large eyes, both worried and fascinated.
Fortunately no one took notice of her as they went spelunking deeper into the cave and their sounds dwindled off.

Time passed and the tide began to turn, finally filling the caves floor enough for Nanyokie to scootch over it with out damaging her tail or hands.

Reaching the mouth of the cave she dove into the surf.
Surfacing a few yards away from the mouth of the cave she scanned the horizon and saw boats, at least six of them, pulling in what she thought was their days catch.
As she drew closer she heard shouting and saw them jabbing their long spears into reddened water in between their boats and nets.
Nanyokie worried what friend of hers may have been destined to die at the hands of these men but as she drew closer, horror took her over.

There, tangled lifelessly in the nets of the fishermen, was her elder brother Malees.

Forgetting herself, the men, the boats, the netting... she swam furiously to her brother.
Screaming she tore into the nets with her teeth and nails.
She didn't hear the men as they shouted gleefully at each other about their luck and pointed into the water at her frantic form.
She didn't see them pulling nets around her, nor the man in an opposite boat lifting a spear above his shoulder.
All she saw was red.
Red and her brothers pallid face.

Nanyokie scrabbled at the body, pulling the nets from it and twisting it from their unforgiving grasp.
The men tried to pull the netting up to ensure their catch but she managed to pull him and herself away from the tangled mess.

Then pain rippled through her tail. There was a sharp yank and her body was dragged a foot to her left.

Nanyokie screamed out in anguish, the weight of the spear protruding from her tail dragging her down at first, but then once the rope attached to its end became taut she was being slowly dragged toward a boat.

Again she screamed, and dropped her brothers arms, letting him drift to the ocean floor as she scratched furiously at the rope and spear.
She grabbed a length of the rope and began to gnaw, using everything she had to keep herself as far below the surface as possible. The blood from her brother and now her tail was sufficiently masking her from another well aimed spear, though the possibility of a lucky thrust was not far off.

Her carnivorous teeth did the job, the rope ripping to shreds in her mouth and she felt the weight of the spear in her tail weighing her down.

She dove then, as deeply as she could, using her hands to swim rather than her tail. She caught up with Malees' lifeless form and grabbed his hand.
It was cold.
She pulled herself into his chest, and held his arms around her shoulders as they sank into the darkness both below them and in her unconsciousness.

When Nanyokie finally gained consciousness, she fought to keep her eyes closed.
But glittering light and pain won her over, and she let herself observe her situation.

She was resting on the beach of a small cove, the water was warm and there was light trickling through the thick foliage above her. Her brother was no where to be seen.
There was tight, foul smelling seaweed wrapped around her tail, The spear was removed and even though it was painful, it wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it would be..
She tried to move her tail and nearly blacked out in agony, muffling a cry in her hand, because at that moment she realized there was some one watching her from a perch to her left..
She wasn't alone...

[Aradia]

Mermaasai, that is a fantastic story! I'd be very interested to hear some more of it. I love the African influence in it :D

[Gem Stone]

I haven't quite had my name changed yet, but my mermaid persona is Gem Stone (or just Gem). I recently found this out and here's her story.

-Gem was named after what she loved. She always loved shiny rocks, sparkly rocks, colored rocks, especially gem stones. She always searched the ocean floor for the shiniest shells and rocks and objects. She has a collection of them hidden in a secret cavern so no one will steal her shiny things. But Gem has a dark side. If you steal her shiny things or threaten her ocean family, she won't hesitate to hurt or even drown you. Normally though, Gem is very helpful and is often seen making deals with sailors to help them get back to their families safely. Gem is easily enticed by diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and other similar rocks no matter how small they are. Gem enjoys talking wih the children on land or at the beach because she finds children easier to get along with. Adults tend to want to dissect and analyze anything and everything, whereas children will listen to what you say and try to learn. Children are also the adults of tommorrow, so Gem likes to try to get them to understand what their trash and pollution are doing to her home. Gem can also be easily scared. Loud noises and large, tangled nets will cause her to shoot straight down to the bottom. Gem enjoys playing with the dolphins and other playful sea creatures, but she is cautious around sharks. Gem prefers to be in springs and rivers instead of the wide ocean, but she often travels everywhere. She enjoys meeting new people so long as they are nice. A rude person will often find themselves flipped over when around her! Gem tends to play practical jokes on people who are rude or snippy or unbelievers. Gem is a BIG storyteller, but most of her stories are at least based on the truth. Sometimes. No matter what she does though, she will always be on the lookout for a new shiny thing to add to her collection.

Recently, however, her home went up in flames and almost burnt her to a crisp as well. She lost all of her collection and has started a new one but she is no longer very trusting of the humans. The playful mermaid she was has been buried deeper under a layer of distrust and fear. She is a bit darker than she used to be. Even though she has this distrust, if anyone makes an effort to show her they won't do any harm, she might choose to open up a little. But now she wanders without a home, and is slowly starting to like a new life where she can go where she wants and not be tied down to any specific place. Her jewel collection, however, has been reduced to what she can carry in her sparkly rainbow pouch she keeps with her. She still has her under sea secret cavern, but she goes there less frequently, preferring the slightly shallower waters to the deep open sea.

[Mermaid Jewel]

My mer persona is still being refined but I decided to stick to mythology. It'll take some research, revamping, and possibly a new name but for now, it's basically I'm an immortal being who lived in the oldest times of the world. For kids, it'd be more of a princess aspect but I love the persona of a warrior princess of the mers. I can be nice when I want to or be cruel but I'm always willing to share stories, art, and help people with that kind of things :)

[Mermaid Saphira]

^ I love mythology :)

[Prince Calypso]

calypso was once an assassin prince. beautiful as he was deadly, ruthless as he was caring. as happens with most young mermaids he fell in love with a mortal boy who broke his heart and betrayed him. calypso swore to never allow his heart to be wounded again but he couldn't heartless, it wasn't in him to be cruel. he began to look after young boys and girls who had fallen for the same gender. he cared greatly for boys who portrayed feminine beauty for he saw himself in them and swore that all gay, bi, lesbian and transgender youth would be protected when on the sea. calypso is all about being yourself and never letting anyone control you. i consider him the gay mermaid lady gaga just a bit toned down lol

[Princess Kae-Leah]

@Prince Calypso, what about us asexual folks? Are we protected too?

[Prince Calypso]

sure sweety.

[Mermaid Luna]

@Mermaid Sirena: So, we should totally meet Dark!Sirena sometime soon. =) I'd love to see how you portray that character, and maybe Luna will even get a little sinister with her. >.>

As for my backstory, I haven't come up with it yet. Guess I'll have to work on it, hehe.

[ScheherazOdd]

I've got three different mersonas lurking in the depths of my brain; Lady Hydra, Madame Dugong, and Mistress Leptonyx. I'm hoping to eventually create tails/looks for all three characters, but I'm working on Hydra first since she's the simplest.

Lady Hydra look is your standard mermaid; scaly tail, flowing hair, webbed hands, ect. I'm wanting to add glue-on claws and false pointy teeth, and right now I'm working on a design for prosthetic gills that would go on my chest. In my mind Hydra is the 'youngest' of the three, or at least the most childlike. She's impulsive, temperamental, mischievous, kind of a brat, and gets in a lot of fights.

Madame Dugong is what I would call a "monk of the sea". I'm wanting to do a very smooth-textured white tail with a paddle-shaped fluke and add a white swimming cap. Dugong would be this very serene, mellow, observer sort just drifting through the sea looking for enlightenment.

Mistress Leptonyx would be modeled after a leopard seal, and I have only the vaguest ideas about how I might accomplish this. Since I was a kid leopard seals have scared the daylights out of me and I think it would be interesting to use this in performing. To embody what scares me, become my own monster, that sort of thing. Leptonyx is savage and bestial, bloodthirsty, fiendish. Even Hydra wouldn't take her on.

[Mermaid Sirena]

Well Dark Sirena requires some props I haven't had the extra money to purchase yet. I'm hoping to work at Theater Bizarre this year which would give me a wonderful excuse to finish assembling the costume ;) There will be a few surprise props I haven't seen anyone else use yet that's for sure.

[MermaidAubrin]

She is curios about the under water world and land she wants to explore but something about the perfect beautiful water frightens her. She has been hurt many time so she it timid and shy sometimes but always means well

[Princess Kae-Leah]

Finished My Official Mer-Sona:
Princess Kae-Leah is a gentle, compassionate, sensitive, and loving mermaid princess with a shimmery and shiny fishtail from the cool waters of the North Pacific Ocean. She is friends with each and every creature under the sea, and she subsists on a vegetarian diet made up of seaweed and kelp. The fact that leg-walkers are constantly killing her friends and stealing their food makes her very upset indeed, and she dreams of the day when humankind would stop treating her ocean home as a food bank and a sewer. She has a large collection of beautiful pearl necklaces and headdresses made for her by her oyster friends, but she is most commonly sighted wearing a floral lei given to her by the Prince of the South Pacific which matches her tail over a simple pink or lavender bra top.

What do you guys think?

[Mermaid Jewel]

I mentioned this on my Facebook page but I finally figured out my Mer-Sona...or I guess Mer-Sonas.

Mermaid Jewel is a mermaid with a mythological spin. She's the typical runaway mermaid princess with a dream to explore, and she either was from or can trace back to the mermaids and sirens of the old days of Greek and such mythology. While still having some of those times, she's a pretty modern mermaid and enjoys talking to all ages, not just kids or adults. Thrilled by the evolution of art, she encourages creativity and imagination and wants to preserve the merits of art for the future. She also likes telling mythology stories and legends and has a few stories of her own from those times (which I've yet to write).

Theofaneia is the same idea but more extreme in the mythological spin. I haven't decided if she's an immortal mermaid from that time period but all the ideas are way more centered around events for older kids and adults or faires and such and not really for kids' birthday parties. She's a fearless warrior but fiercely caring and wants to make sure what she believes is right is known. I'm super excited about this persona because of the accessories and backstories I get to make! The tops and accessories that I've kinda designed/planned are both like armor and altered versions of Celtic-inspired dresses and I'm figuring out more. I haven't figured out Theofaneia nearly as much but I'm excited to see where it goes

[Mermaid Annariea]

do you have to already have a tail to have a mersona?
i hope not haha, but heres mine. i havent thought of an awesome mer-name yet, but thats alright i suppose (: ive been thinking about annariea (ah-NAHR-ee-ah, not anna-ree-ah), but im not sure yet lol. anyways, the way i view it, its set in like... the 17th or 18th century, i suppose. around when pirates of the caribbean is supposed to be set in.

Annariea's mother, Vanya, was a mermaid, and her father, Russell Blackheart, was a pirate. One of the few pirates, in fact, who were relatively non-violent. Speaking with humans was forbidden in her mother's pod, let alone having children with them, and so, her mother was forced to place annariea in the care of her father. Before disappearing back into the depths, Vanya made Blackheart swear that their daughter wouldn't be told of her mer-heritage, because mermaid-human hybrids weren't allowed, and it was a crime punishable by death.
So, Annariea grew up with her father for a while on his ship, but was eventually taken in by her father's former first mate, McKaillyn, who decided to remain on land because of his own children. Not knowing about her true heritage, she always had a strong pull to the sea, and would often sneak out to swim in the clear waters surrounding the Caribbean island where she lived with her father's friend and his daughter and son.
Finally, she could hardly stand it any longer. After years of being given short, simple, and rather uninformative answers about her mother, she begged to be told of the woman who birthed her, and was reluctantly told a bit more.
"A woman of the sea, she was," McKaillyn had told her, "No one but Blackheart truly knows where she came from."
Two days later, she climbed aboard a ship of merchants and began her travels, jumping from ship to ship and crew to crew until, after much searching, she eventually came across her father's ship. Annariea managed to convince him to seek out her mother and tell her of her heritage. She was shocked upon hearing that she was half mermaid, as she had been told that such things couldn't exist, that it simply wasn't possible.
For months, she scoured the seas with her father, looking for her mother, and finally, they found her off the coast of an island that was unable to be found unless spotted first by magical eyes. Annariea had been the one to notice it, given her heritage.
Vanya was irate, but calmed a bit. A new monarchy had taken over her pod, and they were much more compassionate than the king and queen before. Annariea was introduced, and was taught how to develop her tail, which could be controlled at her will, unlike full-blooded mermaids who had to wait until their tails were fully dry for legs to form, or some who couldn't form legs at all. Being half human, she is unable to breathe underwater, since she wasn't born with gills, but she is remarkably good at holding her breath, and can stay underwater for much longer than the average human.
Stubborn, far too curious for her own good, and always looking for an adventure, Annariea is independant and easily excitable, and very much enjoys the company of others. She has a tendency to act before thinking, and speaks her mind without a care. She cares about others, though, and usually isn't harsh. She refuses to follow by others' rules, though, and prefers to make her own decisions, whether others approve or not. She is sometimes forgetful, and often states the obvious, but always means well, and is a friendly and loving girl. Her craving for adventure is rivaled only by her love for the sea, and the two often go side by side, whether she goes pirating with her father or searches the ocean depths.

anyways. there it is. what do you guys think? (:
i feel like it was way too long xD

[New York Mermaid]

Your Mersona is what your Mermaid ormerman is allabout, their your creation and how you live as this mersona each day. Short or long its awesome.

[Mermaid Saphira]

I came up with a darker side of Aqua, Saphira. I am still working on the story but here is an over view. Saphira is an alluring siren , she dwells in the depths of the dark waters. Unlike Aqua, Saphira is lethal and mysterious. Unknown to humans, her voice will make someone do whatever she wants them to. Sailors tend to be drawn to her mystifying voice. She too can shape shift.

[Merman Chris]

Interesting topic. We don't do stories at all....we are what we are. Our personas are our real selves.

[Mermaid Saphira]

^ I <3 this warrior mermaid trend!!

[Mermaid Ashleigh]

my story is being inspired by my mermaid role model Raina and coming out of my clam into the human world!

[Mermaid Saphira]

^ Thats so sweet <3

[Ayla of Duluth]

I like to keep my mersona fairly simple, that way it's s
easier to keep track of the story and maybe weave in a few details.

Whenever I appear as mermaid Ayla, (my new name, saying goodbye to WaterWolf soon) I'm always with a pirate "assistant." I put together a story that would suit my personality. I don't do good with kids, so I'd rather not communicate with them.

Anyways, I would be on the beach, wrapped in fishnet. My pirate assistant would take the role as my capturer, and he's basically just showing me off. Like all men do. =,,= I wouldn't talk, I highly doubt mermaids would speak English. If they did I feel like it would be in some weird accent or dialect that humans wouldn't be able to understand. This way, I can show my tail off and get the attention I want, without having to deal with kids bombarding me with questions. I'd simply leave that up to the pirate. And having the pirate around ensures I always have an assistant for whatever I may need.

Long story short, I took inspiration from twig. Was caught by a pirate, I don't speak human, and ye pirate doubles as an asassistant.