What if merpeople and nagas/lamias were actually the same species, and their lower halves shifted from piscine to serpentine as needed?
>>43702550
Then they would be the same species and their lower halves would shift from piscine to serpentine as they would need them to.
I have no fucking clue what are you expecting us to say here, really.
>>43702550
A better question is, beyond the ability to have two kinds of environments they could live in, what benefit would something like this really confer?
If there's no long-term imperative for such an adaptation, it's not likely to stick around.
I guess what I'm asking is what kind of world would need to exist to spawn such a creature?
>>43702642
Snakes can swim so its doubly useless.
>>43702642
An environment that's characterized by a long (possibly game of thrones like) season of flooding and a long season of drought?
>>43702642
>>43702680
You are talking about a physically impossible half-mamal/half fish/reptile that can fucking shapeshift and you are talking about what evolutionary advantage would such feature have?
The answer is: you can't have your cake and eat it too: either evolution is a thing in your world, in which case you don't have naturally occuring shape-shifting mermaids/nagas, or it isn't a thing in your world, in which case the question is "how does it enrich my story" or "what kind of (usually symbolic) meaning does this creature have".
Not "which evolutionary niche would it fill".
>>43702745
It doesn't have to be exactly shapeshifting it's just growing fins on an already long and scaly lower body.
>>43702766
That changes everything!
Except no, it does not change anything. Look, either way of doing fantasy: speculative, playing around with actual scientific concepts, and completely symbolical, myth-like is fine, but if you try to combine the two, it always just ends up as an inconsistent mess, not to mention it tends to lead to some of the dumbest discussions in the universe.
If you want a mermaid, make a mermaid. If you want it change to a naga under certain conditions - do that. But let it be so because of some actual interesting story either behind such feature, or interesting story such feature leads towards.
Isn't that the original point of fantasy? Telling stories, strange stories that remind us of the old myths and fairytales?
>>43702550
>not having territorial wars between merfolk and the sea snake nagas
You're boring. This thread is boring.
>>43702912
The difference is one has poison and the other has no poison (maybe).
>>43702745
>fantasy, where all things are possible
>except rhyme and reason for shape-shifting
>that needs to remain nonsensical
>>43702994
Lamias might also have other snake-based abilities, like being able to constrict people or swallow their prey whole, which mermaids (usually) lack.
>>43702550
merpeople get hypnotic eyes and excellent muscle control
>>43703415
I thought snakes were the ones to get charmed.
![[C] Ocean Spray Mernaga - by thelxlbloodlxlprince -mermaid -naga.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/r59PyLv.jpg "[C] Ocean Spray Mernaga - by thelxlbloodlxlprince -mermaid -naga.jpg")
>>43702550
Here you go.
>>43702912
>sea snake nagas enslave the merfolk
>land nagas enslave the humans
>single trans-surface naga empire
>>43707817
My DM's homebrew D&D setting has that for Yuan-ti. They then got themselves fucked over by an ancient artefact and a really well-developed resistance. Was pretty messed up.
>>43702550
I wouldn't have it shift, so I'd have them have fairly similar body structures and be related subspecies
>>43708607
That's actually the snake race I had in mind when posting that. Expand on the artefact and resistance.
>>43703343
Depends on the mermaid
>>43702550
So, the lamia/nagas would, when exposed to (salt) water, extrude bone scaffolds and unfurl them into fins. You'd probably want the mermaid portion to have various effects to go with their bone spurs, either acting like a lionfish/scorpion fish, or possibly even able to detach the spurs like porcupines, with a thin web of flesh holding them loosely in place, and able to retract them into a sheath.
But that said, >>43702655 has a really good point, as does >>43702912
You should decide if you want to do this because you think mermaids are boring, or because you think lamia need to go into the ocean. Obviously, in the latter case, all they need is gills, and then you can have multi-pronged oceanic warfare, where the seas boil with the wrath of Neptune (and the seventeen kingdoms that flourish and war in the depths).
If Mermaids are boring, then give them mythologically or biologically appropriate powers - usually luring in those who are convenient, abilities to grant water breathing, abilities about storm manipulation (probably just for high rulers or whatnot) or even making the oceans turn to salt or cure diseases or even grant cursed immortality from consuming their flesh. There are a lot of powers mermaids could have.
tldr: >>43702793
>>43715016
>But that said, >>43702655 has a really good point, as does >>43702912
Honestly if you want to combine them you should just make them aquatic snakes
>>43712239
There is so much astronomically better art of abyssal mermaids out there; are you even trying?
>>43719468
That one was made specifically for /tg/ though
>>43712239
...that image was created by and/or for a vore fetishist, wasn't it?
Just make them both one species of eel like amphibians.
>>43719468
Why is it called a "mermaid" if it isn't fuckable?
Mermaids are supposed to be sexy, goddamnit. Mermaids are not supposed to be eldritch abominations.
>>43719510
No actually, it was made for a thread about the terrifying vore hell world at the bottom of the sea
>>43719535
>No actually, it was made for a thread about the terrifying vore hell world at the bottom of the sea
though
Forgot to put though at the end
>>43719502Still shit
>>43719510
What was your first clue?
Also how many species actually distend their stomachs like that to digest? All I can think of is snakes, but every fucking vore image posted around here has it. It grinds my autism something fierce.
>>43719535
"Dare you enter my magical realm?"
>>43719578
Fuck that shit, the ocean is terrifying.
>>43719645
True. There's enough real-world bizarre and horrifying shit in the deep oceans without turning it into Muh Magical Realm of Bizarre Fetish Shit, though.
>>43719645
Damn straight.
I'd go so far as to have inhabitants put up signs saying "Do not trust the mermaids" on beaches in fishing towns
>>43702680
Honestly a setting with this type of environment sounds amazing. Imagine a regular fantasy setting in which you end up in a desert that looks normal, but everything adapts to life underwater when the aquatic season comes. Like everything normal has hidden features that make it seem more otherworldly.
>>43719747
There's fucked up shit in every biome if you look deep enough. Nature will mess you up real quick if you're not careful.
The Ocean is just worse because we're not designed to be in it. The closest thing we get on land would be some of the shit that lives deep in lightless caves.
>>43719747
It was never a magical realm of bizarre fetish shit
It was a magical realm of bizarre horrific shit
>>43719976
in b4 "and that's my fetish"
Snakes are known as a symbol of life in numerous areas of the planet.
one of the foremost reasons for this is that snakes will always be found near sources of drinkable water.
I don't know where I am going with this other than blah blah river nagas.
>>43720041
Suddenly I want to write a stupid greentext story in which someone meets a river naga and says "naga please." She eats him. The end.
>>43720129
Do it
>>43720129
Why aren't you?
>>43720187
>>43720198
>day 313 in Adventure Land
>walk up to river
>snake-bodied woman swims out
>you smirk
"Naga please!"
>she gives you the stinkeye and then kills and eats you
>bad end
>because even monstergirls hate bad puns
>>43702642
>I guess what I'm asking is what kind of world would need to exist to spawn such a creature?
Millenia of evolution favoring only the cutest and sexiest traits to create the perfect balance between cute and sexy.
>>43719552
Multiple deep sea fish. Having a highly elastic stomach that allows them to swallow things bigger than themselves is actually a pretty common trait down there. Hence the joke about referring to the deep sea as "underwater vore hell".
>>43719525
Everything in the ocean gets freaky as shit the deeper you go. I doubt mermaids would be an exception.
Would you allow someone to play an androgynous merperson with the horns and eyes of a mountain goat, /tg/?
>>43722622
Yes
>>43712239
Hey, somebody posted a picture I made. Dunno why because it looks pretty bad (being able to draw is sadly a talent that I lack, which is too bad because I wish I could) and there are much better pictures of deep sea mermaids out there (including a few that somebody else drew for the same thread).
>>43719510
Not really. Being able to swallow things bigger than themselves just is one of the standard freaky deep sea fish abilities (along with glowing in the dark and looking like they swam out of H.P Lovecraft's nightmares), and thus pretty much mandatory to include when designing a mermaid based on freaky deep sea fish. Pic related.
>>43702550
In L5R, Mermaids are mutant Naga.
>HEY /tg/, HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT HOW SCURRRRY THE DEEP OCEAN IS?
Every fucking time.
I once played a sea snake lamia who used a magic gem to breathe underwater, and who fucking hated merfolk, and especially hated being mistaken for one. She even did time in her backstory for beating one up.
>>43724945
It's spoopy though
