User:Sumin Heo/sandbox

Mermaid
a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa.

History
How far into humanity's past, our stories of mermaids reach is unknown — possibly since we first began finding creatures in the sea. Archaeologists have found accounts in Mesopotamian mythology of Oannes, a male fish-god from over five thousand years ago. One of the earliest mermaid legends appeared in Syria around 1000 BC when the goddess Atargatis dove into a lake to take the form of a fish.

As the gods there would not allow her to give up her great beauty, only her bottom half became a fish, and she kept her top half in human form. Archaeologists have found Atargatis' figure on ancient temples, statues and coins.

While the early Britons such as the celts have folktales of mermaids, no illustrations have been uncovered.

The earliest depiction of a mermaid in England can be found in Norman chapel in Durham Castle, built around 1078 by Saxon stonemasons. It is a strange carving, with the mermaid found alongside two leopards and several hunting scenes. Historians believe the mermaid symbolises the temptations of the soul.

Mermaid movies
"Little Mermaid" 2023, Live Action Movie

"Aquamarine" 2006,

== Types of mermaids ==

Extraterrestrials
A very rare type of mermaid; beings from another planet who simply resemble the legendary Earth creature--though they may use the same term for themselves. These are probably born and raised in mermaid form, not human form.

One set of these mermaids lived on the planet Neptune, and were ruled by a queen. Kristie's mother was probably one of these.

Human-Born
Also known as landwalkers or half-mermaids. The most frequent type; ordinary human girls transformed into mermaids by some magical object,spell or place, who transform as soon as they touch water and turn back when they dry off. Alexia and Hanna are even able to stand on their tails on the surface for a long time without gaining a human form. The moon also tends to affect them strangely, making them act strangely or even become monstrous. Many develop unusual powers, typically associated with water, along with their tails.

Hybrids
Mermaids descended from both humans (or other creatures) and mermaids. Most of these are born human, only gaining transformational abilities at a certain age, or upon receiving a magical object. They exhibit the same tendencies as human-born mermaids for transformations, abilities and so on.

Ocean-Born
Also known as naturals or full mermaids. These are the mermaids of legend and some are even immortal. They are born and raised in the sea and grow up in their mermaid form, similar to the extraterrestrial mermaids. Sometimes, when still babies, are abandoned or lost and grow up not knowing what they are. Some natural mermaids cannot become human and walk on land without magical aid. Maya is a good example of this, as is Ashley from The Fin Trials. Unlike most ocean-born mermaids, Seanna and Madison can stand on their tails on land for a short time.

Spirit-Mermaids
Spirit mermaids are evil mermaids which were possessed brought over to the spirit world somehow, who then decided to try to do the same to the rest of their species. They targeted Siara for unknown reasons