Aycayías

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General Information:

• All Aycayías have a human upper half body and a fish lower half body.
  
• They can range anywhere from 4'0 ft long to 6'0ft long.
  
• Aycayías live in water, whether freshwater or saltwater.
  
• On average, they live up to 80 years.
  
• They have tiny sharp serrated teeth for eating fish and other aquatic creatures.

Myths:

• Land Dwellers- They are unable to live on land. They can hold their breathe and speak for up to only a couple hours, but they have to breathe through the gills on their neck to survive
  
• Kind Creatures- Aycayías are not sweet to other species. They are very superstitious about land walkers and trust only their own kind. If they can, they will lure other species into the water and attempt to drown them.
  
• Ariel the Mermaid- They are not just human and fins. All Aycayías must have a fish half to them that exists in water, such as a Betta or Clownfish

Origination

• While no Aycayía knows for certain the true origination of their species, many believe it had to do with a birth defect. Some human children were born with fused legs, and were banished by their people, thinking the fusion to be a bad omen. They were banished to the shore, forced to make a living. The children learned to swim with their legs and used them like fins to catch their meals. Slowly, it developed into scales and tails, the offspring slowly evolved over hundreds of years to better adapt to their environment.

Weaknesses

• Sunlight- The sun is very damaging to their scales. The longer they are in the sun, the more prone they becoming to drying out and dying. They need the water to keep them alive.

Having Children

• Aycayías can only breed with their own kind, no other human subspecies. They mate like fish.
  
• They will raise an infant for about two years, before it starts to develop into a child. Aycayía children are very similar to human children, only that they have fins, not legs.
  
• Adolescents reach puberty at about 13 years of age but generally will not have children til MANY years later.

Rituals

• Mating- Aycayías mate for life. There is no divorce in their world. Because of this, they will often spend years choosing their perfect mate before deciding to settle down and have children. In courting a female, the male will often puff out his fins to show off his coloration. He will then dance with her. They will hunt together to show each other that they are capable of caring for a family and being a good mate. Once they have decided to be together, the female will create a single egg, similar to fish. The male fertilizes it, and they both care for and guard the egg up to a period of two months. The infant will then hatch and grow over the next few years.

Enemies/Fears

• Werewolves- Weres enjoy snacking on Aycayías. Of all human subspecies, they will stay far away from the hungry beasts as much as possible. Aycayías are no match for Were's and once caught, there is essentially nothing anyone can do.