185
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How would merfolk society dispose of their dead? And would disposing of the bodies in the ocean have any negative effect on marine life?
Blue Hole
In the waters near your island, there is a place where no merfolk dares swim. It is an underwater sinkhole. Legend says that at the bottom dwells the god of death. Any merfolk who attempts ...
- 20.2k
91
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How could medieval ships protect themselves from giant mermaids?
Employ mermaid escorts.
They are smart.
They like stuff we have because they accept it in payment from ships crossing their territory.
Presumably they can deal with criminals of their own kind.
...
- 305k
76
votes
What would an out-of-water submarine (for water-breathing mer-people) look like?
I'm sorry to disappoint you but they wouldn't look like anything special.
Unlike crafts designed to operate underwater, these supermarines (yes, that is indeed what they are called, I will have my +1,...
- 9,732
70
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How would merfolk society dispose of their dead? And would disposing of the bodies in the ocean have any negative effect on marine life?
Sky Burial (or rather the undersea equivalent)
Certain cultures in south Asia have a practice which is termed sky burial. Basically, the dead bodies are taken to a remote location (normally high on ...
- 2,636
46
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Where Would a Mermaid's Blowhole Go?
Why would a mermaid have a blowhole? A blowhole is a cetacean's nose, where as mermaids are generally depicted as having human-like facial features including a nose. Remember that you don't need to ...
- 5,730
45
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What would a medieval war against an aquatic race look like?
A mercenary war.
You are not going to win this fight human to merfolk. But as you mentioned the merfolk are not a unified people. There are warring tribes. You also have technology that they don't ...
- 5,042
36
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What could an aquatic civilization use to write on/with?
Quipu is an option. This was the Andean "writing" system, which consisted of colored string with coded knot patterns. Supposedly Hawaiians and Chinese also experimented with similar schemes. That ...
- 3,268
36
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How would merfolk society dispose of their dead? And would disposing of the bodies in the ocean have any negative effect on marine life?
Wouldn't sinking the bodies in waters around the island have negative effects on local marine life?
Quite the contrary. While dead organisms release potentially toxic amounts of nitrites and ...
- 511
33
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What would a medieval war against an aquatic race look like?
When I was a kid I remember there were two types of amateur apnea fishermen:
those who knew how to catch an octopus out of his lair using an harpoon
those who had no clue how to use an harpoon, and ...
- 296k
33
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Could merfolk cook without air by using electrical heating?
Consider Not Cooking
For starters, electricity and water are not a great combination. Your merfolk are as likely to cook themselves as anything else.
Beyond that, ask yourself if they need to cook at ...
- 101k
31
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What would a medieval war against an aquatic race look like?
If you can live with the drag, hang long lines from the bow of the ship having sharp barbs. The merfolk would need to deal with them before cutting through the hull or be cut up.
Mount short blades (...
- 128k
30
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What kind of weapons would still be effective under water?
Basically everything that you thrust.
The issue with underwater combat is, as you mention yourself, the drag. Thus every weapon that relies on swinging or other movement in order to abuse its weight ...
- 12.1k
30
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Would merfolk gain any real advantage from mounts (and beasts of burden)?
Yes, they would.
I can affirm this because mounts follow the general yet extremely potent principle of specialization : A specialized entity -person, machine or animal- will always perform better than ...
- 7,517
29
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How would WW2-level navy deal with my "merfolk"?
The warriors, armed with various bladed weapons,
...are going to get absolutely wrecked by modern military firepower. Hell, they'd get wrecked by civilian firepower.
are accompanied by a specially ...
- 78.4k
28
votes
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Anatomically reasonable respiratory system for human-derived merfolk
So, it's really hard to breathe water. The biggest problem is not where the gills are on your body but instead how gills might exist at all. The fundamental limit you'll run into when designing ...
- 12.2k
28
votes
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Why would a language lack gendered given names?
Many languages don't have gendered names. The Red Indians didn't 'Sitting Bull'. Polynesians have only a few and they're only gendered because some famous person had them in the past.
So basically any ...
- 27.1k
27
votes
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A drinks party underwater?
Edible water bottles!
Scientists have invented spherical water bottles made out of agar (which comes from the sea) that can be bit into and swallowed (you can find them here) and learn how to make ...
- 4,454
26
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What would a medieval war against an aquatic race look like?
There are a bunch of options, each with benefits and drawbacks. And don't forget that the merfolk are smart too. So here's a few things to chew on:
1: Just plate the hulls with metal. It doesn't ...
- 4,568
26
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How would merfolk society dispose of their dead? And would disposing of the bodies in the ocean have any negative effect on marine life?
Why dispose of them? Life under the sea is difficult. Acquiring enough nutrients to survive is always done at great difficulty. It's not like they can plant their food like humans do. They must ...
- 369
23
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How would merfolk society dispose of their dead? And would disposing of the bodies in the ocean have any negative effect on marine life?
Crypt.
source
On the island is an ancient building which the merfolk now use as a crypt. It was not built by the humans who live there now, nor was it built by the merfolk; its builders are long ...
- 305k
23
votes
Fantasy Macro Economics: What would Merfolk trade for?
Let me list a few ideas:
Metal products. It is very unlikely that there would be many merfolk willing to spend prolonged periods of time outside of water just to craft metal objects. Metal products ...
- 3,649
22
votes
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How would a merfolks spaceship take off?
When we were first getting into space, we started with very fast, high-flying aircraft. Look at the X series of rocket-powered aircraft used by NASA to test all sorts of things related to space travel....
- 9,629
21
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Would anti-personnel mines be useful in mermaid warfare?
Mines would be much more useful against mermaids.
As OP notes, the incompressibility of water makes explosives more deadly underwater. The shock wave kills at some distance; this is the principle ...
- 305k
20
votes
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How to set phaser to kill the mermaids?
Trying to use directed energy weapons under miles of seawater won't work. The water will absorb them, boil, and be replenished from the vast supply of surrounding water.
Nuclear depth charges, which ...
- 25.6k
20
votes
What would an out-of-water submarine (for water-breathing mer-people) look like?
A water-filled tank would be both heavy and fragile.
Heavy : if you put it on wheels, it would require roads to be built first. I imagine that building roads on earth is as difficult for merpeople ...
- 301
20
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Why might it be desirable to engineer aquatic humans?
1. Science/because we can
The main reason we haven't already tried that in real life is moral. It is considered wrong to alter the human DNA. Remove that moral bias and there is no reason why ...
- 1,465
20
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A drinks party underwater?
Look at those who already to it for a living: sea mammals!
Being mammals they need to drink milk from their mother after being born, and they can't rely on artificial means.
Therefore their mothers ...
- 296k
19
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What could an aquatic civilization use to write on/with?
Cuneiform
Cuneiform impressions on hydraulic cement using a fish-bone stylus.
The cement is made by mining (on the continental shelf) portlandite and keeping it inside a waterproof membrane. Heat ...
- 85.7k
19
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What would a medieval war against an aquatic race look like?
It will hardly be a fair fight, until the right genius's ideas are put into practice. So, without further ado, we present the War in the Deeps:
Our medieval navy will first have to adopt a novel ...
- 40.9k
18
votes
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How do merfolk develop agriculture
Agriculture
Do these guys eat some sort of seaweed? Have them plant seaweed in designated locations, just like we do in fields. Due to certain conditions (maybe a warmer current in the area?) I'm ...
- 34.7k
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