Homebrew Mershark Species Details

Mersharks, are a oceanic race of half shark half humanoid people. They have their own language, their own culture, and like their distant relatives, the merfolk, they farm and heard animals. Unlike the merfolk, they prefer to farm larger animals. This may include pods of dolphins, grey whales, or massive bait balls. They are know to heard them like shepherds, and to even train certain dolphins, seals, and sea lions to help in the same way that humans and other land races will train dogs. They will also hunt for wild animals if it is required.

Unlike the merfolk, the mersharks are born far away from any tribe in a costal mangrove. Here the mother will stay just off the waters drop off, guarding the mangrove from any potential predators. After around three years the Young mershark will leave the mangrove in search of adult mersharks (the mother would have left by this time). Some young never find any other mersharks, and live out their lives as solitary predators, others find a school, or tribe, that could take them in.

Tribes are run by an individual called a grandmother, a mershark that can no longer give birth, and is related to most of the tribe. She will oversee the hunting and teaching within the tribe.

Mersharks also have a very strange religion. They believe that many animals are spiritual. This includes animals like blue whales, Orcas, and luscas. They believe that there are two animals that rule over the oceans and that they are in constant battle with one another. These two animals are known as the Apex Lusca, and the Black Demon. The Apex lusca takes the shape very similar to the average lusca, with a hammerhead shark body, and the arms and tentacles of a giant squid where the tail fin should be. The major difference is that the average lusca is around twelve feet long, the Apex Lusca is said to be anywhere from sixty to one hundred fern in length. It is said that this is the being that keeps the oceans how they are today. It is said that without the Apex Lusca, the ecosystem would be brought into chaos. It is also said that the Apex Lusca's lust for flesh is constant, and will consume anything in its territory.

The Black Demon is said to be a great white shark, completely black in color, with blood red eyes. It is said that after a Black Demon dies, in under a year, a pregnant great white shark will give birth to a four foot Black Demon pup. The shark seems to grow half the mass of everything it eats, spawning legends of black sharks over eighty feet in length. They say that if the Black Demon gets too large, than it will kill and eat the Apex Lusca, and destroy the ecosystem. To stop this, if a tribe of mersharks believes that the Black Demon has been born again, than they will send a hunting party out to slay the beast. Some of these are allegedly successful, but many of the hunting parties are never seen again.

Many mersharks are druids, and all mersharks can wildshape from birth into small aquatic animals, but the mersharks that are durids have a slightly different experience than any other race. Because the mersharks have been druids for so long, wildshaping is natural to them, but because they have almost never had to transform into a land animal, things can be confusing. They will almost never get the land animals that they want, but usually stay in the size range of their desired land animal. They also can't change into any flying animal. Luckily for them, to combat this, they have the ability to transform into an aquatic animal twice the amount of times as a normal druid.

Mershark Traits

Your dexterity score increases by 2. Amphibious, you can breathe both air and water.