Table of Contents

Parent Pages: Rules : Races

Fish Folk

Fish Folk are a race of deep-dwelling fish people with two arms and legs, as well as a number of fins. The fins at the end of their arms are adapted to serve as clumsy hands. Their eyes are large and quite widely spaced; they have poor depth perception. They all have iridescent silver scales covering their body.

They have a hive mind of a sort; all Fish Folk are telepathically linked, forming an immensely intelligent collective consciousness known as “Mother.” At one time she controlled all Fish Folk directly, but she has since retreated into their subconscious minds, giving occasional warnings of danger or general advice. She aids all of them in combat situations.

They have large cities on the ocean floor.

While capable of speaking surface languages with some difficulty (they lack a human-like tongue), their natural language is a complex sign language based on fin movements.

Fish Folk do not normally wear clothing, but have been known to wear armor when they're not in the water.

History

“Mother” used to directly control all of her “children,” the Fish Folk, treating each individual much like a Human treats their appendages.

One day, a few generations back, she had a conversation with a Human priest regarding the nature of free will. The priest asked if the Fish Folk were capable of acting on their own and she didn't actually know. She ended the conversation and decided to find out.

Soon after, she let go of her “children” and withdrew herself to an unconscious level within each individual.

The result was disastrous; the Fish Folk were stricken with fear at the loss of the close connection to each other and were barely able to function at all. However, they were able to act on their own. “Mother” was entirely overcome with grief from the fact that she'd spent her entire life enslaving her “children” without a second thought.

Fish Folk society collapsed overnight, as they had no language with which to communicate. They made do with simple gestures that eventually evolved into a full-blown sign language. They're still working to regain much of their lost culture. Most of their cities are relics of this by-gone age, filled with wonders they can no longer duplicate, such as volcanically forged steel.

The first generation after the release were shell-shocked and frightened, but their children were better suited to thinking for themselves.

Since their release, the Fish Folk rarely come to the surface anymore.

Life Cycle

Fish Folk lay thousands of eggs at a time, but normally only a handful reach adulthood. Their young resemble ordinary fish with the tail fin twisted ninety degrees, but are extremely agile and intelligent compared to common fish. At age ten they start to metamorphose into their adult form.

This process starts with their tail splitting in half, followed by the two largest side fins extending out to become arms. Eventually, their spine curves and grows more flexible, as their posture changes to become more humanoid. They lose quite a bit of swimming speed in the process, but gain the ability to manipulate tools easily.

Religion

Most Fish Folk worship “Mother.” The “priests” are actually psionicists that have been taught how to harness their latent psionic abilities.

Some of the more recent generations are beginning to look elsewhere for gods as they grow more independent.

Back to top
CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
chimeric.de = chi`s home Valid CSS Driven by DokuWiki do yourself a favour and use a real browser - get firefox!! Recent changes RSS feed Valid XHTML 1.0