The warm, shallow seas that surround the northern islands of the South, Silarn, Roc and Fanil, echo with the beautiful song of the Siren race. Children of the Goddess Dellimentai, the Deity of Lust, Sex and Pleasure, the Sirens are a beautiful species of aquatic creatures. They emerge from the water to seduce and procreate, taking on a humanoid form, before returning to the waves once more. Some are relatively peaceful, but most are predatory creatures that drag prospective mates under the waters to their dooms, a death that many go to willingly.
Physical Description: A Siren's physical appearance varies depending upon the medium she is currently occupying. Underwater they possess fish-like tails and their skins are covered in a soft, colourful layer of scales that protects them from temperature and pressure changes in the depths. Above the water their tails turn to legs, the scales fading somewhat to just decorative areas on their skin. In either medium they have distinctly Mermish traits, such as waving, fin like hair and delicately webbed fingers. However as much as they have in common they are different as well. The Sirens are almost purely carnivorous, feeding upon fish and other ocean life as well as land based species they can lure into the waves. Though not outwardly aggressive, they will still kill and feed upon other humanoid life on Tal'Vorn if they can. This aspect of their nature isn't one that was born to them by Dellimentai but seems to have arrived from somewhere else entirely. In addition nearly all Sirens are accomplished singers and orators, most of them using this to wind Sound magic in with their songs to lure unsuspecting travellers. All Sirens give birth to more female Sirens, regardless of the species that they propagated with to become pregnant in the first place. The gestation period for the Children of Dellimentai is extremely brief, rarely extending past two months before a small, tadpole like child is produced and then looked after in large cr�ches.
Personality: Though predatory, Sirens still operate under a fairly standard hierarchy of nobility to peasantry, especially within their twin cities. Some Sirens hunt and sing for food, others trade or produce goods for sale and trade and others simply rule over large swathes of water through hereditary rights handed down the generations. They are highly sexually aggressive, fully prepared to seduce a chosen mate. Most play the quick game of mate, kill and eat, though some Sirens are actually more peaceful and there are stories of some even settling down on land with prospective mates, though these are few and far between. A Siren can receive promotion of her social standing through the seduction of males and production of a high number of strong children. This engenders a spirit of competition in the ranks and also leads to several Sirens taking more and more risks to acquire notable mates.
Religion: Dellimentai is not a Goddess of violence and so the Sirens do not revere her as such, treating their predatory nature as a purely social structure as opposed to a religious one. Instead Dellimentai is honoured as the mother of their species and feted on feast days as well as prayed to before the Sirens undergo difficult or challenging seductions. Indeed the time Dellimentai's name is most often called out, as if in prayer, is during a Siren's sexual climax.
Relations: The Sirens have a mixed relationship with most of the species they encounter. Several of them have been wandering in the East for a number of years now, careful to avoid being discovered and labelled as anything other than especially promiscuous Mermen and have avoided causing any major incidents. However in the South the Sirens often seduce individuals from the various species surrounding them, finding Ancient DragonLords to be a risky but potentially worthwhile target in particular.
Territory: The waters typically inhabited by the Sirens are warm, shallow and riddled with brightly coloured reefs and coral beds. Their twin cities of Scylla and Charybdis are carved from massive coral beds that meet with rock faces in the sides of the islands of Roc and Silarin respectively. These two cities switch from water filled passageways to damp corridors to dry, sandy rooms without any real kind of barrier, Sirens simply hauling themselves out of the water as the change comes upon them and then continuing about their business in the dry. Roc is primarily mangrove forest, with some low lying grassland, which makes it ideal for the Sirens. Treehouses are constructed and rope ladders give the aquatic race somewhere to go to be dry and to relax out of the water. Silarin on the other hand is relatively dry, though just as warm as Roc. Here the Sirens plant and harvest what crops they do eat, making some grains into a strange form of heavier than water alcohol which they can drink underwater, typically used on feast days and religious celebrations. The island is also home to several willing tribes of Nemar and Ancient DragonLords who co-habit with the Sirens, especially Nemar capable of travelling under water and the Blue breed of the Children of Shaltar.
Language: The Sirens have a superb grasp of Common, Draconic, Nemish, Conflarian and High Tongue, all the better for seducing their typical mates. They have an excellent ear for language, picking up new vocabularies quickly and easily.
Names: Siren names vary completely based upon the mother and, typically, the species of origin.
A whispered word and a telling look are all the tools you'll ever need.
Siren mother advising her child
Hush now, the darkness will rise from the deep, and carry you down to sleep.
Siren singing to a dying victim
© Joshua Binks (Paladin), Christopher Riley (Carnage) and Vanessa Vaughan (Andanin) 2002 -