An ocean based world that's filled with pirates, superpowered fisherman warriors, zany fish people, giant mermaids, and an ocean that is so eldritch and dangerous that mankind has absolutely no clue how it even functions. Humans live life on the many islands and rely heavily on fishing/ocean based economy to function as a society. As such, fishing is seen as serious business and has become a means of hunting not only fish but also killing especially powerful sea creatures known as "
Mizugami" to protect islands and mankind as a whole. However, on the flip side of this mission of hunting lies a troubled race of fish humanoids who have had their share of spats and squabbles with humans. Indeed, the Mizugami are infact a sentient and diverse race of merfolk that have lived in the seas for as long as man has lived on the lands.
The two races have hunted each other since the dawn of time, a constant squabble between who is predator and who is the prey. And it is only now that the turn of generations is showing that both races can co-exist with one another... however, this concept is very difficult for many to accept, as per the natural response.
To begin, just what
are Mizugami...?
Well, let's find out...
Mizugami are an aquatic based species of fish-like humanoids that lives throughout the world and has an ongoing conflict with humans via racism and predation. Their origins are widely unknown as history between Mizugami has dated back as far as it has with humans. However, a widely accepted legend among the humans tells of an immense sea monster
the size of an island that terrorized the world up until a powerful group of warrior fishermen brought the beast down and destroyed it's body. However, as the humans celebrated the monsters death, the anger and malice still remained strong in the monster that was dubbed "The Mizugami" (the water god). Legend has it that the building resentment and hatred for humanity would begin to give rise to a strange phenomenon that caused it's skewered body parts to shape themselves into the merfolk that would exact revenge on humans. These merfolk would later come to inhabit the world to this day and their innate spite for humans is infact an inherited trait given to them by their parent via a fucked up form of asexual reproduction/revival.
As stated above, all Mizugami have the apperance of merfolk, some being bipedal while others with a fish like lower body and so forth. As such, Mizugami hold diverse characteristics and traits from various marine life. While fish type Mizugami are common, there are others who resemble other aquatic marine life such as crabs, whales, squids, etc. Mizugami are astonishingly humanoid in their line of thinking and diversity in personality and demeanor. In fact, some will argue that Mizugami are essentially humans but, with a different physiology and habitat. However, not many accept this as truth and, due to the ongoing tension between the races, humans having depicted Mizugami as savage fish people who come up on land and devour innocent humans.
It should be noted that not all Mizugami are as vicious as humans depict them to be, and that for every handful that are feral and wild in nature, others are more civilized and have actually established villages, cities and societies for themselves. Mizugami are an edible race, but their high reproductive rates and resilient constitutions make them easy to rebound from having numbers decreased by predation from either humans or wild Mizugami. "Civilized" Mizugami are often restricted by law from eating one another though, this often times does not protect them from those who wish to break said law, regardless. Human and Mizugami relationships are shakey yet, complex, the former originally being a dominant species but, eventually having to compete with humans for various things. Humans see Mizugami as sea monsters that snatch up innocent humans to eat them, Mizugami see the humans as intolerable, and cowardly xenophobes who kill their kin for sport.
While racism runs strong from past generations, the modern times seems to have resulted in the races "cooling down" to each other and slowly growing a bit more acceptant to each other.
Abilities
- Enhanced Strength: An average Mizugami has ten times as much physical strength than that of a human and as such, they naturally hold an advantage over a normal human in unarmed combat. However, Mizugami only develop this skill after they have matured into their Gyojin phase. As a result, Ningyo phase Mizugami often make easy prey since they're not strong enough to fend off human and older mizugami predators.
- Water Breathing: A trait that allows Mizugami to breathe under water, most being able to do so through a set of gills on their bodies that functions in place of their windpipe when they're underwater. These gills close when they are on land.
- Species Traits: Mizugami are a diverse race teaming with many different species' and types out in the world's seas. As a result, some Mizugami may have an ability or trait that is unique to their race, such as a Shark Mizugami's rough skin and fast growing teeth.
Evolution
Mizugami possess a unique trait where their physiology evolves and reshapes itself as they age. Humans have attempted to understand why the Mizugami hold such an unusual ability but, some believe that it all has something to do with their environment; the oceans are an unpredictable and eldritch world so far seperated from land that humans can not even begin to comprehend just how things function below the waves. So perhaps this ability is a form
- Ningyo: Small, human sized Mizugami that begin this phase at infancy and later evolve into Gyojin when they reach middle age. Ningyo are perhaps the most abundant of the evolutionary classes and the kind humans have the most exposure to. Ningyo are considered a 'larval' form of the Mizugami evolutionary line and, as such, are seen as weak and inexperienced by more powerful Mizugami like the later two types. Ningyo are often hunted by both humans and Mizugami because their weakness makes them easy prey.
- Gyojin: Larger more imposing Mizugami that 'evolve' from Ningyo once they grow into their middle aged years and develop into "adults". Gyojin are well known for being the phase where a Mizugami realizes just how powerful it is compared to humans, this is due to a cornucopia of abilities and traits both increase alongside that of new ones being introduced to them as their body continues to grow and develop. Gyojin become stronger, faster, smarter and some may develop supernatural abilities. Gyojin are distinguishable between Ningyo for their larger sizes (normal height ranging from 8 - 15ft) and their more 'beastly' appearances as they grow more fish-like when they reach this phase.
- Wadatsumi: The largest known form of Mizugami that comes into existence when a Gyojin develops into, what is known as, a Mizugami's elder form. Wadatsumi class Mizugami are perhaps the most feared and powerful form of Mizugami that can ever exist. Wadatsumi are the largest form of Mizugami, some of the smallest variety being known to be around 20-100ft in size while legends speak of Wadatsumi getting as big as a single island or "big enough to swallow seven whales in one gulp".
Classifications
There are several classifications Mizugami fall under, most holding totally different biology than the widely seen normal types that mankind knows about.
- Shinkaigyo: These Mizugami are known to only exist deep beneath the ocean where darkness reigns supreme and environmental conditions are so extreme that not a single human knows just what exists at these depths. However, while humans hold little knowledge of this place, Mizugami thrive and flourish here as "Shinkaigyo", Mizugami that hold physiologies similar to those of deep-sea fish and marine life. Shinkaigyo are a complete and total enigma to the human race, the only known documented cases of their existence was through corpses that washed ashore from the deep...
- Kodaigyo: Mizugami who received their name through their traits being that of fish and marine life that went extinct. Kodaigyo tend to be much larger than normal Mizugami and are even longer lived than them by several centuries.
- Shinwatekina-gyo: Mizugami that are 'mythical' in nature and are distinguishable from normal Mizugami through their resemblance to "mythological" sea creatures.
- Maboroshi-gyo: Perhaps the most fear class next to Wadastumis, these Mizugami are spectral in nature and most hold an undead physiology that makes them functionally immortal and nigh impossible to kill. No one knows where Maborosh-gyo come from, but many theorize that they are the spirits of Mizugami that bore incredible hatred or negative emotions during their mortal lives.
= More to come... =
An unfinished setting alt created by the
Circle_of_Jermod.
