Gillmen

Gillmen, or Merhumans, are the aquatic humans that could live and breathe underwater. Half human, half fish, they are not to be confused with Merpeople.

History
7000 years ago in Babylonian mythology, there was a god, Ea (who would later would be called Oannes by the Greeks), who was a water god. He was depicted as having the upper body of a man and the lower body of a fish. From the beginning of civilization as we know it, there have been Merfolk.

The idea of Merfolk could be based on these creatures from Greek and Babylonian mythology: Sirens and Tritons of the Greeks, and the fish gods, who were half human and half fish, from the Babylonians. The belief in Merfolk is not limited to a few countries, but there are tales from all over the world. For instance, in India there are the Apsara, beautiful water nymphs. The most well-known of the Merfolk are the Mermaids.

Mermaids are marine creatures with the head and upper body of a beautiful young maiden and with the lower body of a fish. They can be found in seas and lakes or lying on a rock and combing their hair with one hand while holding a mirror in the other. Mermaids sometimes foretell the future and are often accompanied by seals.

According to myth, they lure sailors by singing and with lovely music. They live in a kingdom on the bottom of the sea, and it is here they take their prisoners to. From this story, the fear amongst the sailor grew and they thought that seeing a mermaid would cause bad luck: it could predict death by drowning.

Gillmen Social Structure
The Merhuman, Gillmen kingdom is different from a Monarchic Government or Imperial Rule. There are no royal families. Each king is chosen by the previous king. After obtaining the people's consent, the next king is chosen. Every Merman is given a rank, they are strongly united, and they keep a mutual trust with this.

The ranks do not mean a social position but it is more used to give each one a job that suits them: those who gather food, those who protect their own from danger, those who create habitats, those who care's for the young. Out of these many jobs, raising the young is usually done by the males. Similarly, the females are raised by their own mothers.

In the case of males, their mimicking abilities is usually used to scale their strength level. It is important for those caring for the young to teach the young this Gil had cleared this ability beyond anyone else.

Gillmen Reproduction
The merman race have reproductive periods. The average time for Merman's to lay eggs is around the human age of 16 to 22. They bear eggs two times within one year averaging about 10 to 20 eggs. On average, a couple lays 60 to 120 eggs. But only 10% of these hatch and out of those, only 2 to 5 % of these survive. A few hundred years ago, the lake they used to live in was fresh water. But within the last 10 or so years, sea water had flowed in and caused the salt level to rise.