Selachi (Shark-Mermaids)

Size- Can very from 20 feet long to up to 100 feet long
Apperance: Basic mermaid body, except their tail fins are vertical vice horizontal, a large triangular dorsal fin centered on the back, with a second, smaller one about halfway between the torso and the fin. Typical coloration on the tail is a darker grey up top, fading to a light grey underside, however shades of blue or green have been spotted.
Diet: Fish primeraly. Larger species seem to be less picky though.

Habitat: Seems to prefer the open seas, smaller Selachi have been seen in shallow water, and even rumored to be seen in the deeper rivers.

Notable habits: Smaller ones can be fairly sociable, while the larger ones are solitary, preferring deeper waters. Normally peaceful, they don't take well to being provoked, and an attack on one is considered an attack on the group. Not that much is known about the larger ones though. They don't really care about events that occur on land, until it becomes a threat to the seas.

They get along well enough with other species of mermaids, though they are wary around larger mermaids.

NOTE: May add some more as I think of it.

sounds like a nice variation of species...

So the bigger ones at 100 feet...do they eat humans just like most other felaryan species? XP

It's primarly fish, but at that size, you take what you can get.

makes sense

I swear this must be the fourth or even fifth incarnation of shark-mermaids suggested for Felarya. Seriously. @_@

Seriously? I didn't see any when I checked...

Flare wrote:

Seriously? I didn't see any when I checked...

These things were alwais hidden with absurd nomenclature, I can't blame you XD

Maybe, this could be the winning try, who knows

You do know if this becomes canon there is a need for a Jaws-style Felarya fanfic.

Well, I'll wait for Karbo's reaction, and for any changes/reccomendations too.

Well, this would make for an interesting sub race. And you know, I can't help but feel I heard this before.

Becasue I ran it by you when I first thought it up?

For reference, one of the previous incarnations:

Moonlight-pendent wrote:

Sharkgirls

length: 70-80ft long
Shark mermaid half, two sets of teeth. Normal set of teeth in the front that are most often seen when they're not hunting and then behind those are layers of razor sharp teeth used for ripping and tearing.

Sharkgirls are vicious and voracious predators of Felaryas oceans. They're most known for their feeding frenzy's, they gather in packs of 3-4 members then stalk human ships, people near the water and on rare occasions they are known to feed like real sharks on the more docile mermaids and other water dwellers. Once they start feeding though it's near impossible to stop, they have a one track mind when it comes to feeding.
Another thing to note is they often can even catch harpys mid air, small or large. they wait under the water until they see one passing above, their eyesight is excellent. When the harpy is about to pass over them they swim up at high speeds, lantch themselves out of the water and either swallow the prey whole right then if it's a human sized one or if it's a larger one they latch on and drag it into the water with them where the rest of her pack helps keep it down.

Personality wise they are withdrawn from any other speices beside their own, not out of haterd but if they get hungry then their newfound friend would often just be eaten in a most painful manner. With each other how ever is a whole other story, they're loud, hyperactive and playful, sometimes they get alittle out of hand though and often break out in small qwarls, resulting in scars, unlike with other speices the smell of their own kinds blood doesn't send them into a feeding frenzy as it would with other creatures.

Another odd ability is that they can live in MUCH colder climites then most other mermaids and many are said to live far north in the colder part of the sea, no one knows exactly how but they just decide not to find out and avoid the areas the shark girls are in.

/Fish/ wrote:

I've seen a few incarnations of sharkmaids, or the half-human, half-shark taurs. Here's my rendition of these fearsome hunter's ancestor:

Megalomaid- based off of Megalodon.
Species: Procarcharodon Sapien
Size: 275-350'
Habitat: Ancient oceans/ Akaptor Desert
Danger Level: Very High

The ancestor of modern sharkmaids and their cousins, the now (probably) extinct megalomaid was a taurian predator large enough to single-handedly take on the biggest prey of the ancient oceans. Absolutely enormous, these sharkmaid ancestors resembled anthropomorphic sharks just as much as they look like today’s counterparts- there is very little distinction between their human torso and their grey shark hide. Their whole body is covered in rough shark skin; their faces are somewhat distorted into a snout. Their eyes are huge black globes, seemingly animalistic in nature, hiding their intelligence. Their sentience was outweighed, however, by their raw primal instinct to kill and feed. They have long fin blades on their forearms that help with swiftly killing prey. Their fingers end in wicked claws, used for grasping. However, their most terrifying aspect is their mouth- their jaws can swing apart at nearly a 180 degree angle, allowing even greater biting potential- with their multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth, insatiable appetite and unbridled ferocity, these were the apex predators in a long epoch of Felarya’s nautical history.

From fish to giant mermaids, these hunted anything they could catch. It didn’t matter to them if it was a fellow megalomaid- they saw everything as potential food. As such, they were lone hunters and produced asexually. They would even hunt furies, the harpy ancestors, rising out of the water like an erupting tower and clamping down on their flying prey with deadly accuracy.

Some say that there is at least one living in Felarya’s oceans in the present and is blamed for a number of unexplainable attacks, especially those in which ships have been torn asunder or immense shadows being seen beneath the water just before the attack. Most of these attacks are definitely works of modern-day sharkmaids, however, and not their awesome ancestor. Most.

There is a theory that leviathan mermaids were nearly hunted to extinction by these great predators in the past, which would help explain their near-legendary rarity at the present. Others disagree, saying that despite their size, megalomaids would still have a very difficult time taking one down, especially since they were lone hunters.

The only way you’re going to meet this blast from the past is if you touch a part of the Akaptor Desert that was once part of an ancient ocean, but then you’d have to worry more about drowning than being a speck of food for these terrifying behemoths. Alternately, you could follow the fishermen's tales and search the oceans for this cryptic carnivore. Who knows- maybe the biggest fish in the sea isn't the most dangerous, but the second largest is.

---------

Seriously, sharkmaids are extremely underrated predators, and I imagine that their ancestors were exponentially dangerous.

As you can see, I really do like this idea, and even created an ancient ancestor for them. An absolute shame they aren't currently recognized as a race.

I think this is is a nice idea that can give interesting designs ^_^
but maybe they lack a little something that make them special ?

Well, I had a few ideas that I was holding back on...such as them being the protectors of Merfolk cities.

Flare wrote:

Becasue I ran it by you when I first thought it up?

Ah! Silly me.

if memory serves me correctly all if not most species of sharks have sixth sense also there scales are like chain mail and also a variation in size is going to be needed because of all the species of shark

yeah, they seem like a warrior race of mermaids, which makes them being the defenders of the mer-people appropriate. However you can create an entire history, and bio of a race/character, but if it doesn't have that certain "Flare" (sorry for the pun) then it wont work out too well. I think the "something special" that Karbo mentioned has to be a bit more subtle than something like the defenders of all mer-people.

Which is why I was planning on having them more like a nomadic group.

ｓｏ　ｙｏｕ　ｍｅａｎ　ｔｈｅｙ　ｈａｖｅ　ａ　ｔｅｎｄａｎｃｙ　ｔｏ　ｒｏａｍ　ａｒｏｕｎｄ　ａｎｄ　ｄｏ　ｊｕｓｔｉｃｅ　ｏｒ　ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ？

Ｗｈａｔ　ｂｅｎｅｆｉｔｓ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ｔｈｅｙ　ｈａｖｅ　ｂｙ　ｂｅｉｎｇ　ｎｏｍａｄｉｃ？　　

(Just so you know...that text is VERY hard to read)

Who said it was justice they were after? They're looking after their own intrests. Following food sources, protecting their breeding grounds, etc.

makes sense.
(and just so you know, my computer went screwy, for some reason it changed the text)