Fiction:The Firmament/Merkan

"Their heads look like those of piranhas, their bodies are filled with fins and webs, a long tail drags behind them as they walk, and their eyes... blank. Completely and utterly blank. It sends me shivers to even think about them for too long."

- Anonymous survivor of a merkan attack

Merkans are a monstrous species of fish-like beast-kin who plague the seas of Telamon, considered one of its most dangerous inhabitants.

Biology
Merkans are medium-sized, fish-like creatures. Their scales are known to have a great variety of colours, ranging from blue, red, green, purple, black and orange. They possess numerous fins which they use to swim with great efficiency, and they also have the ability to see in the dark, both in and out of water. They can spend extended periods of time out of water, but require regular exposure in order to not air-drown. Males and females are visibly indistinguishable from one other. The average merkan is 1.4 meters tall and has no known lifespan - many believe the creatures to be immortal.

History
None known where the merkans come from or when they first appeared; the elves of Eondrassana do not have records of such creatures, though the coastal cities of the nascent human nations quickly begun amassing tales of the creatures coming and taking people away, never to be seen again. In the modern era, the existence of the merkans is fact among educated circles, but very little is known about them.

Culture
Merkan culture is a mystery, for few have ever encountered them and lived. According to most well-learned scholars, they live deep within the ocean, making their lairs in cavernous stone cities where they preach their dark arts to one another. The merkan language is notorious for being impossible to translate; even when using magic to understand tongues, a merkan speaking comes off as hissing and hateful gibberish to those not of their race; many take this as a sign that the creatures are so cursed, their tongue itself is pure evil.

Religion
Merkans are the main worshippers of Uzgoroth, the demon lord of the seas. The creatures honour their deity through violent and bloody sacrifices, never of their own race but of others; their favorite prey are merfolk and humans.

Relations with other races
Villages and cities across the world have tales of merkans coming in the night and kidnapping people to take underwater, where they are sacrificed in the name of Uzgoroth. The merfolk are the race who they have the most contact with, with the two battling whenever they meet. No race, not even the most vile among the dwellers of the surface, has ever managed to engage the merkans diplomatically, as if the mere concept of dialog is anathema to the creatures.