Asrai
The asrai are fresh water faeries who live in villages built in streams and lakes. They are amphibious, but are more comfortable out of direct sunlight. Asrai have blue skin with shimmering scales, webbed hands and feet, and black hair.
Rather than originating from folklore, the asrai may have been invented by the Scottish poet Robert Williams Buchanan.
In Buchanan's poetry, the asrai are pale, gentle beings, older than humanity, who fear light and live beneath a lake. Buchanan's poem "The Changeling" features a male asrai who inhabits a human body, becoming a changeling in search of an immortal soul.
Ruth Tongue attributed stories of the asrai to Cheshire, Shropshire, and the Welsh Border. In her collected work, the asrai are timid and shy, very beautiful, and have webbed feet and green hair. They live for hundreds of years and come up to the surface of the water once each century to bathe in the moonlight. They are long-lived, only aging when exposed to moonlight. - Wikipedia
In Mythology and Folklore:
The asrai is a type of aquatic fairy in English folklore and literature. They are usually depicted as female, live in lakes and are similar to the mermaid and nixie.Rather than originating from folklore, the asrai may have been invented by the Scottish poet Robert Williams Buchanan.
In Buchanan's poetry, the asrai are pale, gentle beings, older than humanity, who fear light and live beneath a lake. Buchanan's poem "The Changeling" features a male asrai who inhabits a human body, becoming a changeling in search of an immortal soul.
Ruth Tongue attributed stories of the asrai to Cheshire, Shropshire, and the Welsh Border. In her collected work, the asrai are timid and shy, very beautiful, and have webbed feet and green hair. They live for hundreds of years and come up to the surface of the water once each century to bathe in the moonlight. They are long-lived, only aging when exposed to moonlight. - Wikipedia
From The Books:
Tiny glowing fish darted among bioluminescent seaweed in a rainbow of pastel colors, and laughing children splashed while their parents sat and gossiped. These people weren’t dwarves. From their shimmering blue-scaled skin, long black hair, and webbed feet, I recognized them from my faerie book. They had to be asrai, the faeries who lived in ponds and creeks.***
Kylian relented and opened the door. I expected a dwarf and was surprised to see a delicate girl about four feet tall with pale blue skin and shining black hair in a braid down her back. From her coloring and the shimmering scales scattered on her cheeks and hands, I recognized her as another asrai.