Sirens

I hope this is the right place to post this and hope this idea hasn't been mentioned before (I did a quick search)... but anyways this is an idea I came up with a little while ago:

Sirens (just the name I've been using for now, might change it though)
Species: Can be just about any kind of predator on Felarya though most commonly attributed to Mermaids and Nagas.
Location: Various
Size: Various

Siren is a term used on large predators whom use a beautiful woman (or in some rare cases men) kept in their mouths to lure prey to their dooms. These "bait-women" come from a variety of backgrounds, some actually raised from childhood by a predator, others come as volunteers and some are forced into it (on threat of being devoured).

Seduction - The "bait woman" uses her sex appeal to lure the prey into the mouth (The fact that she is in the preds mouth also usually helps convince the prey that it is safe). Once the prey enters she will push it down the throat of her Siren mistress.
In some cases the Siren may use some sort of magic (details uknown) to make her "bait" immune to her stomach acids and swallow both the bait and the prey together once the prey enters the mouth, vomitting up the "bait" once digestion finishes.

In return for her services, the "bait" will recieve protection from the Siren.

"Baits" nearly always keep there jobs for life either due to dedication to their Siren or because if they try to escape they will most certainly be eaten. In many cases a "Bait" will be succeeded by her own daughter, often these children will be fathered by a male prey of the Siren.

And Lo! From the depths of Anime-Junkie's mind an ancient idea was awakened and there was much rejoicing. (At least by me).

Anyway, I like your idea. However, I'm not sure that it would really be attributed to mermaids and nagas that much. It would be too hard for them to keep tabs on both prey and bait at once. It only takes one escaped bait to make the local humans realise that there is a siren baiting predator around. Sure, there might be some who do it, but I think that it's more likely a dridder would attempt to do this. By spinning a thin (but strong) transparent thread they could literally keep a line on their bait. In addition, they could then have a silk net drop down on the prey, meaning that they wouldn't be able to get to close to the bait.
Also, predators who use their natural illusion magic should be included here.



Anyway, on to my ancient idea...

Actually I am still typing it'll up. It'll come, I swear.

^Yeah, the dridder idea would make sense... I guess it never came to mind because Dridders aren't exactly my favorite preds (I chose mermaids and nagas mainly because they're my favorites I guess, LOL... I would have put Giantesses too but I think the wiki said they were very uncommon)
As for escaped bait warning others... yeah it creates a pretty big problem. It probably would be reasonable to assume though that the "forced into the job" category is pretty uncommon (due to unreliability) and the volunteer/raised as bait from childhood methods would be more common as in these cases the bait would have less reason to try and escape. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if it was a human who came up with the idea in the first place in order to same themselves from getting eaten.

Unfortunately when I first read though this I was very tired. Because of this I didn't quite absorb all of that was being said. In particular, I missed these parts:

Kawaiinaprey wrote:

(The fact that she is in the preds mouth also usually helps convince the prey that it is safe). Once the prey enters she will push it down the throat of her Siren mistress.

This is just too far-fetched. No prey species will willingly get into a predators mouth.

Kawaiinaprey wrote:

In some cases the Siren may use some sort of magic (details uknown) to make her "bait" immune to her stomach acids and swallow both the bait and the prey together once the prey enters the mouth, vomitting up the "bait" once digestion finishes.

Well, not every predator has magic (obviously) and those that do probably wouldn't go to the trouble of this. Not to mention that all it would take is a moment of forgetfulness for the spell to fail. In addition, seeing the others dying inside the stomach would be a traumatising experience.
Lastly, people inside a stomach still need air even if theya re immune to stomach acids. Unless the predator in question was gulping down air they bait would die anyway.

I've been doing some thinking on this and came up with a few more ideas...

The first known Sirens were Mermaids who would have their "bait" sit on rocks at sea and sing to lure ships in and when they got close enough the Mermaid would attack the ship and eat it's passengers.
This was also done closer to shore to lure prey into the water (through sex appeal as apposed to singing though)

Some predators will use their bait in a fake dammsel-in-distress ploy, hoping that a noble man might give up his life to save the woman's
To improve the effectiveness of this technique, the Siren will use a child as the bait as one is more likely to give up their own life to save a child than for an adult.

Some "bait" will sedate the prey after seducing them (using drugs or magic)

@Anime-Junkie
Yeah, I suppose that it might be a little far-fetched... and would probably only work on the most sexually desperate of men. I guess the actual lure into the mouth method might be best restricted to those whom can use illusionary magic or something.

I guess most of the time seduction would occur outside the mouth

Wow, someone else was thinking along the same lines as I... to a point. My thoughts on the subject are as follows (As found on page 2 of "My Idea" thread, though I'm sure they won't be very popular XP ):

Siren

Siren is a term that has become identified with the flow of magic through sound and those that practice it.
In years gone by, a Siren was identified as bird-women that lured mariners into shipwrecks with their enchanting voices. These bird-women described by the sea farers may have been Harpies since magic through singing appears to be innate to some, but the term Siren became increasingly synonymous with mermaids because of the occurance of these famous events near the sea. Recent discoveries have shown that a member of any species can channel magic through sound with sufficient training and a wide enough vocal range. It was proposed, with much resistance from traditionalists, that the definition of Siren should describe magic flow through sound and expand to include all those that practice it, being added as a title.

(There, I'm ready for the backlash.)

I'm not sure if this would work as a whole species, or even a subspecies, due to reasons like those that AJ listed.

Perhaps this would better developed as a pair of characters?

I don't know I like the idea of sirens or at least from gt500x's idea of it. Though I wouldn't put anything past a mermaid to think of using "bait" to lure out more potential prey out closer to the ocean.

My idea for Sirens were mostly meant for mermaids as I would imagine a creature that is able to communicate by "singing" underwater should be able to lure prey by singing above water. Then after reading gt500's idea about introducing magic into the equation... well that threw out that idea as "almost" every species is able to use magic as well as speak. I guess I must have been reading "The Oddesy" a little much just now

I wonder if Lea would help Crisis by doing this if she asked? Not that Crisis would need any help.

Here's an example of adding Siren as a title copied from one of my character bios...


Name: Harriet
Species: Demon Harpy
Titles: *Siren
Chrono/Bio Age: 110 / 26
Sex: Female
Height: 108 ft (32.9)
Feather color: Red feathers with black markings
Skin complexion: Slightly red
Hair color: Dark red
Eye color: Green

(I think it could also be done this way...)


Name: Harriet
Species: Demon Harpy
Chrono/Bio Age: 110 / 26
Sex: Female
Height: 108 ft (32.9)
Feather color: Red feathers with black markings
Skin complexion: Slightly red
Hair color: Dark red
Eye color: Green
Other characteristics: Siren

------

(However, I'm not sure it sounds good for male characters that focus magic through sound.)

My bios are here ... http://gt500x.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3aqaf8

I'm guessing Sirens would mostly be found near Siren Sands.

Well, particularly I'm in favour of the idea of sirens are a Harpy sub-race or subspecies specialized to lure and seduce their preys using their voice and birdsong - and they would kill their enemies using ultrassonic voice, for example.