Denizens and true tamers of the seas, the merfolk in their many forms have accomplished the colonization of vast territories the humans could only dream of, including what is known as the edge of the world. While strictly speaking, there is an overarching monarchy that the merfolk defer to, the truth is that there are many types of merfolk, separated by extremely different geographies and species, and they each have their own society and government, with varying amounts of respect or concern for the main monarchy. There are two major types of merfolk: mammalian and scaled. While the two subsets vehemently consider themselves different from the other, all merfolk share a few characteristics. The obvious one is the tail. Though some species have extra features and others do not, all possess the half-human, half-aquatic animal physique that the merfolk are known for, though they are all capable of taking on legs for some period of time. They are all sentient and share a common tongue with the humans. A little-known fact is that they also all have a greater female population than male, hence the tendency to simply label them ubiquitously as "mermaids," which is a term only suitable for the women of each species. The few males of the species are typically not expected to work. This is not to say that mermaids adhere to any sort of patriarchy, however, as the males are largely treated as breeders in most species, to be coddled and protected but not respected. That, however, is where the similarities end between the two subsets, and the foolish human who dares suggest that the two are the same had best beware of the serious repercussions to come.