Nu Vibez and Roleplay Guide Magazine - June 2015 | Page 96

Mermaids. Our fascination with them has gone on for centuries. What draws us to these creatures? A recent resurgence within the Second Life (SL) community has drawn even more people to the tales of the Mermaid, and with that, the Siren. But just what is a mermaid? Or a siren for that matter. The answer is far older than one might think. The first stories found about these creatures comes from Assyria in 1000 B.C. The goddess Atargatis, feeling guilt over the accidental death she caused of her human lover, turned herself into a mermaid. Other legends stem from the Greeks, where Alexander the Great’s sister Thessalonike was supposedly turned into a mermaid after death. She would riddle ships, and if the answer pleased her, she would grant calm seas. If displeased, she would bring storms and doom upon the ship and it’s crew. But how did we arrive at where we are today? Authors, tradesmen, artists and the like all have their own ideas on what a mermaid should and should not be. But they all have come together to create the mermaid that many find a calling to now. What is this idea you ask? Well first let me state this. Sirens and Mermaids are NOT the same thing. Though current ideas find them close cousins of sorts. Mermaids normally are thought to have the head, arms and upper torso of a beautiful human female. The lower portion of their bodies is that of a lovely fish tail. This is the general consensus of most ideas of what mermaids are today. There are many variations on this core concept, though. Varieties are know to have webbed fingers in their human looking hands, others have lovely fins, be them dorsal, hips, arms or other logical places. Yet other mermaids have pointed or even webbed or fin-like ears. There is a huge variety and uniqueness one can see in such creatures. One general rule of thumb though, Mermaids tend to have human skin tones on their human torsos, at least for the most part. Sirens, when they first were spoken of by the Greeks, actually looked more akin to what we would call Harpies today. They were, however, water dwellers, which may be why our cultures have slowly morphed them into what they are today. Most people think of sirens as highly seductive creatures, some looking akin to mermaids, while others are brightly colored versions of them, both skin and tail. This seductiveness is used by them to obtain their meals, most frequently, the foolish sailor that is wooed by their advances or their songs. Now this is where the lines between sirens and mermaids tend to blur for some people. The gift of song is often attributed to both. The siren’s song is more than just lovely notes, it is a lure for those that would fall prey to it. Sirens sing for their suppers, Mermaids s