Mer History
In an age long past, long before the Larsan Folly and before the advent of air travel, sailing upon the oceans was the primary means of travel between continents. Wooden vessels; from nimble sloops to mighty galleons bristling with cannon ruled the waves in the name of mortal kind. As the naval strength of various nations increased, so to did the power and influence of the pirate clans. The clans were organizations of thieves, murderers, and brigands, loosely united in mutual struggle against those they preyed upon, and those who would hunt them down. But the clans warred with each other, as well; and in the waters east of Ivalice, it came to pass that several great fleets of buccaneer ships gathered, to do battle and determine which would plunder the rich shipping lanes there and which would settle on the bottom of the ocean. The fighting was fierce and bloody. No quarter was asked nor given, and the ocean ran red with the blood of sailors slain by cannon fire, sword, and sharks. By the time it was finished few ships had survived, and the dead outnumbered the living. There were so many slain that the Doom Ship was unable to carry them all to the afterlife, nor have them on board to serve before the mast. Rather than leave their spirits to roam the ocean in a cursed existence, a bargain was struck; they would cheat death. They would live. The ocean does not give up what it takes, however, and so the pirates were transformed. Above the waist they remained as they were; human, animal-kin, and even a handful of elven persuasion. Their legs, however, they sacrificed, fused together as fish tails. So was born the race of the Mer.
In those beginning times life became a desperate struggle to survive for the fledgeling race. Though they could breath both air and water they could expect no help from their former land-dwelling brethren, nor did they seek it. Into the depths they plunged, and they skulked about on the ocean floor. At first they knew hunger and fear. They did not know how to avoid or fight the sharks and other hungry creatures inhabiting the depths, nor did they know how to catch fish to eat or which kinds of sea weed or easily caught creatures were safe to dine upon and which were poisonous. The things they brought with them from the surface did not survive the test of time either; metal weapons and tools rusted and tarnished while wood and cloth rotted away.
Necessity eventually forced them to learn other means to survive in their new world. They learned to fashion tools from coral, whale bone, stone, and other materials commonly found underwater. They learned how to fight sharks, as well as which types of fish were good to eat and how to catch them. They slowly mapped out the ocean around them, but always, they returned to their starting point; to the sight of the battle, where they continued to live in the hulls of their ships, and then their parents and their grandparent's old vessels. They clung to the old hulks while the sea slowly reclaimed them, doing what they could to preserve the wood and keep the corals away. Out of these old ships and with the occasional addition of new ones, brought down either by storm or battle they built their first city; they named it Karathel. Though the immediate necessity of survival forced them to reconcile their differences, they never forgot their origins as pirates. To this day Mer remain organized into great familial clans, each with their own territories, holdings, and traditions.
It should be noted that skulls hold a particular significance to the Mer, as a hold-over from their pirate origins; they feature prominently in their art and jewelry, and even tattooes (using squid ink). When prominent Mer die, their skulls are often enshrined in a reliquary, built in the center of Karathel. The skull is otherwise viewed as a symbol of both protection and intimidation, for oneself and one's foes, respectively.
As time wore on, down through the centuries, the Mer settled into their place deep beneath the waves. They spread out across the ocean floor, though Karathel remained the only true city. They even discovered tunnels beneath the narrowest part of Ivalice, allowing them to travel to the oceans to the west of the landmass. Yet some of them began to yearn to see land once more. They remembered the tales of their ancestors; of wood furniture, golden jewelry and fine clothing, of wine and merriment beneath the sun. In an outlying village, near the edge of the continental shelf, a young warrior felt just such a yearning. He abandoned his apprenticeship with his father and travelled deep into the oceans, down into the black depths, looking for an answer to his question. He found no answer; instead he found Davey Jones, come to ferry him to the afterlife after he ventured too deep. But the Doom Ship had come in error, for he was not dead. His ensuing adventures are celebrated in Mer history, and largely for their end result, known as the Pilgrim's Bargain. Mer would once again be able to set foot on land; they would trade their fish tails for legs once more, and carry the sea with them as a trinket, unique in form to each individual Mer. Yet while they ventured forth on land once more, they learned that though the alure of land based life was strong, the pull of the sea was far stronger; and should they lose their trinket, they would be forever unable to return to the waters and must walk the land as outcast.
Life for the Mer remained so, until the days of the Larsan Folly. Being largely without magecite and safely concealed under water, the Mer were largely spared the catastrophy that ravaged the land dwelling races. For them, the Folly even proved to be a blessing, and a windfall. As the floating island of Bhujerba plummeted into the sea, it brought into the Mer's grasp the richest magicite mine in all of Ivalice. It did not take them long to realize what they had just received; and it became so important that they built a second great city out of the ruins after evicting the surviving members of the previous occupants, who would become the Selkies. They renamed their new city Saravale. This began a new era of trade for the Mer. While the other races of Ivalice struggled to survive, now it was the Mer's turn to flourish. They traded Magicite at high prices, earning themselves metal tools and weapons, treated to survive under the water, as well as gold and silver, jewels, the finest of wines (in water-tight flasks of course), colorful inks to use in their tattooes, and other riches.
Today the Mer are a well known race to those living in port cities and costal towns. Mer traders from Saravale are known and often welcomed; and many are willing to both grumble about the prices of their magicite, and also pay such prices in trade for the rich ores they offer. Other Mer, remembering their heritage, are known as brigands every bit as bloodthirsty as their ancestors; a wise sailor keeps an eye on the oceans, lest its warriors sink their ship and introduce them to Davey Jones.
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