Siren

I’ve heard them more than once. A haunting song. The most beautiful you’ve ever heard whispering over the waves or between the river grass. It’s a dinner bell and you’re the main course…

- Captain Marlowe Driscoll, Captain of the Whitecap Witch

As long as there have been sailors, rivers, and the sea, there have been sirens. Enigmatic creatures, they’ve held a powerful presence in human myth for generations. At times, they were considered benevolent, while in others more dangerous. But still they held a prominent place in maps and tapestries to heraldry in both human, and Otherworld, cultures. To thayan Sunweavers they were the mirellath, for certain African cultures they were the kitapo, and in South American these myths were called the nirivilo. These such myths span the world.

But then Crossing’s Fall happened, and the world learned that sirens were more bloodthirsty and terrifying than anyone knew.

Myth Given Life

Physically, sirens resemble the myths as being humanoid creatures at home in the water, both male and female. But, they are far beyond the typical half-fish, half-woman mermaid. In fact, there are two types of sirens, freshwater and saltwater. They bear a strong resemblance to each other, with the major difference being the lower half of their body.

A siren’s lower half resembles either an African river snake if freshwater, or a shark if saltwater. River sirens display vibrant patterns along their tail with long gold or green stripes decorated with evenly spaced black diamonds. Their cousins, the sea sirens, have more muted tones with tails that are primarily a blue gray with long patterns of white diamonds that run from waist to tail fin.

Unlike their tails, their upper half is similar, if not identical, no matter if salt or freshwater. A siren’s upper body is human-like with a pale-white skin tone and a fox-shaped head with eyes as black as midnight or glowing cobalt blue. In their muzzle is a triple row of teeth, like what is found with a great white shark. Their arms end in webbed, human-like hands with retractable ebony claws.

But it’s their hair that is the most distinctive. Siren hair, and ‘fur’ for their fox-like face, only appear to be hair or fur. The truth is something else entirely. This hair is nothing of the kind. It’s actually a collection of fine, sea anemone-like tendrils. These long tendrils can be braided, shaped and manipulated like regular hair, but for the siren also provides a way sense motion and sound underwater besides their fox-like ears.

Saltwater Siren by CB Ash *

Alternate Names

• mermaids
• kelpies
• mirellath
• kitapo
• nirivilo

Lifespan

Unknown and up for debate, but Otherworld myths suggest 100 to 120 years

Average Weight

170 to 250 pounds ( 77.11 to 113.4 kg )

Average Length

8 to 14 feet ( 2.43 to 4.27 m ) from head to tail

This ‘hair’ starts off black while the ‘fur’ on their heads is either red, blue-bronze, or deep-blue. As the siren ages, the fur color grows lighter with a blue-gray shade and their hair becomes the deep green color of kelp. This last is what many historians now think prompted the myths of water kelpies and more.

Deadly Peas in a Pod

Sirens live in family groups called ‘pods’, with the females being more dominant and outnumbering males in large numbers. Males, because they are less common, take on the role of caregivers, looking after young siren litters and the needs of the pod. In return, it’s the females that hunt for food and protect the pod from threats when needed.

These pods can be quite sizable, with up to four males and fifteen females. Often, but not always, the male sirens are caring for up to five to seven young sirens. Their ages often range from newborn to young adult, with even the few week old sirens being fully capable of swimming.

Picky Eaters

The average siren is mostly carnivorous, with a diet that comprises fish and also land creatures that venture too close to the shore. Humans, thayan, and other Otherworld people are among a siren’s preferred diet, if possible. Sirens supplement this meat-based diet with underwater root vegetables and tubers.

But it’s also worth noting that sirens have an unusual protective instinct toward children. It’s not understood why, and so far, that protection seems to extend to when those children become older and closer to adulthood. This odd trait seems especially pronounced in river sirens who have been known to form symbiotic relationships with certain river communities. Ancestry, such as human, thayan, and so on, doesn’t seem to matter.

A key element there is the townsfolk providing offerings of chicken or other meats. In return, those river sirens protect, if not eat, intruders into those protected settlements. There have been many cases where a thieving merchant has become a siren’s meal after attempting to cheat a fishing town, then sailing away upriver.

Lethal Gift of Gab

The one element of mermaid, or siren, myth proven real was their songs. A siren’s mournful songs are their most haunting and enigmatic feature. Compared to the cries of banshees or whales but with a hypnotic quality, a siren’s melody can be heard both above and below water.

These songs are their primary hunting technique, but also how a pod communicates with each other. When hunting, a siren’s song is slow and alluring, stunning and hypnotizing their prey. Attracting them to come closer to the source of the music and into reach of a siren’s teeth and claws. Sailors across history on both Earth and Otherworld tell cautionary tales of a siren’s song and how a sailor must never listen.

But when a siren sings to their pod, the tune is far different. These songs are not hypnotic, with a greater range of musical variation. Still soft and melodic, they are more complicated with specific tunes some scholars believe may represent unique topics. Some of those are thought to be about territory, food, simple conversation, even concerning land dwellers that have been ‘adopted’ by one or more sirens as ‘protected’.

Predators and Prey

As lethal as they are, sirens have their own problems in the deeper waters, where sometimes the hunter becomes the hunted.

- Professor Alia Mavros, Author of “Myths of the Deep”

Sirens are lethal hunters, but at times they are also the hunted. But the creatures that hunt sirens differ between the freshwater and the saltwater variety. River sirens’ primary threat is so called ‘monster hunters’ and large reptiles. With reptiles, this is often crocodiles or alligators. These beasts seem to have some partial immunity to the siren’s song. Combined with their naturally armored hide, they are a genuine challenge for a siren pod.

The hunters are often mercenaries or big game hunters called on to clear out a problematic pod of sirens that are harassing a port or river town. Their work isn’t easy, as sirens are particularly clever in their tactics. Hunters attacking a pod often manage to kill one or two sirens, which results in the pod moving to a more remote area away from the threat.

Saltwater sirens face a different set of threats. It’s still true that they also face the problem of hunters. But there are greater threats to sirens in the deep ocean, such as orcas and kraken.

Killer whales, or orca, consider sirens to be a delicacy and will often look for siren pods when seals or penguins aren’t available. Unlike seals and penguins, however, sirens fight back. This leaves the orca able to make off with one siren for a meal. Kraken are a different story.

For unknown reasons, there is what seems to be an intense dislike between kraken and sirens. Many sailors have reported seeing a kraken attack a pod of sirens. Sometimes it’s satisfying the kraken’s hunger, but at other times it’s simply trying to destroy the pod. In return, some stories describe two siren pods working together to take down a ship-sized kraken. Some that study both species wonder if this is an ongoing territorial dispute, or something deeper and more mysterious at play between the two species.

Beneath the serene surface of rivers and the sea, light dances with shadow. There, sirens weave their songs, both alluring and dangerous. A reminder that the world’s hidden depths and mysteries extend far beyond the land to the depths of the sea.

- Professor Alia Mavros, Author of “Myths of the Deep”