Sealkin

Legend

“The Seal swam ashore, while shedding its skin it stood up, and the most stunning human female ever stood before them.”

Skjald Yell'a'Beard

 

Description

No one knows how Sealkin, this strange land and water hybrid, came to be, some legends claim the Sealkin were once divine beings who chose to linger between the void gardens, finding solace both in the embrace of the empty sea and the company of land-dwellers. Over time, they evolved into the hybrid beings known today, maintaining their mystical allure and enigmatic heritage.

Some divine beings have suggested that Sealkin are a creation of the astral swirl, a mysterious magical phenomenon that occurs every seven years. This event, caused divine beings and n-erectus to bond and give birth to Sealkin, creating Sealkin’s dual nature and unique ability to transform.

Both males and females can transform into incredibly attractive humans with unparalleled seductive abilities, both magical and natural. Every seventh year, on the thirteenth night, they can use the tides to move ashore, strip off their skins, and enjoy themselves as human beings. Some have employed this throughout time to be among landraces, while others have used it to lure augmented victims into their water realm.

Skjald Ulrich

 

In their seal form, both genders are rather large, but when they shed their skins and take on human shape, they transform into slightly smaller people. They have a tendency to freckle, which resembles their spotted seal skin. Sealkins have a dual nature: they may be pleasant and helpful to humans while still being harmful and spiteful.

Despite their enchanting nature, Sealkin are physically vulnerable, and rely on their wits and magical skills rather than strength. Sealkin are particularly vulnerable to those who manage to obtain the shed skins. The loss of their skin, renders them powerless and subservient to the skin’s possessor. Thus, they must follow the holder; hence, some have been held hostage as spouses and sired offspring with various races, the majority of whom are humans.

Their mixed-breed children are often somewhat webbed between fingers and toes, and they desire to help their sealkin parent restore their skin. These children lack the capacity to shed skin, although they like living or working near or on water. But, the captive sealkin normally avoids water because the agony of memories is too great.

They were keepers of ancient secrets and were believed to possess the power to manipulate water’s flow. Their hauntingly beautiful songs are rumored to hold the power of healing and transformation. Encounters with sealkin are rare blessings, and their influence on the flow of water became a source of wonder.

They are also called saelkie, seilkie, sejlki, selchies, selkie, selky, silkie, silkey, sylkie, and more.

Skjald El Mary

 

The transformation from seal to human is a sacred ritual. Every seventh year, on the thirteenth night, Sealkin gathers in secret coves to perform an ancient dance under the moonlight. This ceremony, known as “The Shedding,” is both a celebration and a renewal of their dual existence, symbolising their connection to the tides and the forces that shape their lives.

Sealkin spirituality is deeply intertwined with nature and the celestial Thursar. They revere the moon, which they call “Mother of Tides,” believing it grants them the power to transform. They also honour the sea, referring to it as the “Great Embrace,” a source of life and mystery. Their myths speak of the astral swirl as a divine touch, a gift that must be respected and cherished.

Sealkin are renowned for their enchanting music and dance. Their songs are said to hold magical properties, capable of calming storms and soothing troubled minds. Their art often depicts the fluidity of water, the phases of the moon, and the duality of their existence. Music and dance play crucial roles in their rituals, storytelling, and social bonding.

Skjald Sejrik

 

History

Dark Ages

Some divines think that the Sealkin race descended from now-dead Boriac or Vornir, as well as the archaic progenitor Erectus. Other divines and n-erectus have suggested that the Sealkin, or other races, were caught up in energy malfunctions when the world was created. It’s possible, especially given that divines died in both Void conflicts, while forming our world, during the first cataclysm, in the Vular War, and other instances. But, without a doubt, Sealkin originated during the Dark Ages, making them as old as any other. Despite their past, they have never multiplied like most other races.

Skjald Vinotis

 

First Age

Seven years after our world was created, the first sighting of a Sealkin shedding its skin and turning Human occurred. A group of Ljost Alfar scouts noticed a seal swim ashore, then shedding its skin to raise up, and stand nakid before them. Her beauty so stunning that the Ljost Alfars was mesmerised. Asked who and what she was, she replied that she was ‘Moonswan’, a kin embraced by water and sealed in new skin.

This they interpreted as her being a human, who voluntarily had sought death in the ocean, and had changed doing so. Thus came a legend of them being some sort of Arisen. Not much are known of them during the first age, but after some ljost and drakk alfars turned vampire. Some sealkin was seen visiting those, or laying at shores talking with them. Some say it was to discuss existence as dual beings, others that it was merely vampires tricking the art of seduction out of Sealkin.

Skjald Valgrif

 

Second Age

As they mostly lived in water, remote from land races, their early stories are sparse. Not even in the 1st Cataclysm, is there much to say as they stayed neutral. But their seven year cyclus, did slowly grow into another legend of how to call them.

Skjald Sigurd

 

Should a mortal…  wish a sealkin man…

A rite to follow… at high tide… at the shore…

From gleaming eyes… shed seven tears…

In the deep blue… Sealkin come true.

Skjald Kazumix

 

In 702, as the six hundred and sixty six enhanced tide came, a event happened in Moklidalu, on the long and narrow Kolsay Island, between East Fjella and Ljostari. Were Kranuth, a young farmer from the village of Mokli walking at the shore, found a sealskin in the sand. Finding it pretty, he picked it up and headed home. Then he noticed the beautiful Sealkin woman Kópikoni, dancing naked on the seashore. Eventually he stopped peeking, and sneaked away.

Later, as Kranuth couldent stop thinking about the dancer, he hid the skin and went back. Returning to the shore, Kópikoni was still there, as she had lost her seal hide. Thus, wildly in love with the beauty, he made her stay with him and bear him several children. She was often seen gazing longingly at the ocean.

One day, their daughter noticed where Kranuth kept the seal skin and told her mother. Kópikoni retrieved her skin, returned to the sea, and once more was united with her first husband of her own kind. Often, the children would witness a large seal approach them and “greet” them plaintively, and as Kópikoni held no grudge towards Kranuth, both Sealkin kept revisiting her family on land every seventh year.

Skjald El Mary

 

Third Age

They kept their distance to the Wanderers, and had nothing to do with The Bullheaded God. But as Vular kept pushing to learn their lore they slowly became entangled. But it was not on friendly terms, and stories began to circle, of Sealkin luring islanders into the sea at midsummer, the lovelorn humans never returning to dry land.

It was thought that the killing of a Sealkin would result in misfortune for the perpetrator. Thus, even during hard times, the people of the shores seldom killed seals to make use of their skin and blubber, as there was a risk of killing Sealkin. Yet it happened at times…

Thus, in 1281, Erni Wickmar, one of the crofters who brought his sheep to graze upon a small group of holms in the Orpenola Bay. During the summer, on his way home from the grazing sheep, Erni killed a seal–which was a Sealkin. That night, while eating a good seal steak, all seven of Erni’s sheep disappeared, however, the other crofters, did not lose their sheep. Imagine that, munching a Sealkin, my god I need ale now!

Skjald Yell’a’Beard

 

In 1561, Ursilla of Orkay, unhappy with her life as a fisherman widow, was walking to the sea to carry out what’s told in the old folklore, “Let the sea embrace you, make you akin and seal you with new skin.” There she saw a male sealkin shedding its skin and then dance on the beach. Approaching the very handsome Sealkin, who displayed their great seductive powers over her. She became pregnant, and began to visit the shore every morning, shedding seven longing tears into the sea.

She kept doing so with her daughter in hand, and after seven years, her lover came ashore again. The Sealkin, noticing the girls webbed hands, stayed until their daughter was grown, then returned with Ursilla to sea. Their daughter, known as the ‘Shettla mermaid’, married a human, but their descendants had webbing between their fingers and toes made of horny material, which they clipped away intermittently.

 

In the year 1855, Jón Gundsson the Scholar, came across the dancing and celebrating of Sealkin within a cave by the ocean. The cave entrance was lined with the sealskins of the dancing, and as soon as the Sealkin noticed Jón, they rushed to don their skins and dive back into the ocean. However, Jón was able to grab the smallest of the skins, sliding it underneath his clothes. The owner of the skin tried to retrieve her skin from Jón, but he took hold of her and brought her to his home to be his wife.

Jón and the Sealkin were together for two years, producing two children, a boy and a girl, but the Sealkin harboured no love for Jón. During this time, the former Sealkin woman’s Sealkin husband swam along the shore by the couple’s home. Preparing to come in and rescue her, but luckily for Jón, she found her skin and ran to the shore, never to be seen again.

Skjald Vinotis

 

In 1918, a elderly merchant camped on a beach. During the late evening he noticed a seal crawl ashore, shed its skin and a beautiful female danced into the campfire. As ge vecame instqntly bewitched, he jumped up and ran to grab her skin, then approached her to demand obedience. In the struggle for the skin, she almost managed to get it on, when they fell–into the fire. Both his clothes and her skin caught on. So she, half transformed, had to rip the skin off, it tore and her head stayed seal meanwhile the body was burn-scarred. Furious with anger and pain, she kicked him back into the fire and he died burning.

Thus, despite her sealhead, she became unable to return, and became known as ‘Selkulla’.

Skjald Sejrik

 

Fourth Age

Even the Deep Blue Tsunami didn’t alter the tides, nor did it created sealkin arisen, so true humans they are not, or they are immune. A cure some scolars has pursued, at times using unwilling sealkin, who perished during the research.

Then in 12, at the 1800th tide, a group of resting sealkin in Se Vekarries were ambushed and their skins taken by fishermen from Surop Apap. The stealing of the skins caused a surge in seawater, and the fishermen fled. One fisherman, Herpan Merk, slipped, and was abandoned. The sealkin lamented the loss of their skin without which they could not return to their home.

One sealkin was particularly distressed since he was now separated from his wife; however, his mother Gogia struck a bargain with the abandoned seaman, offering to carrying him back to Surop Apap, on condition the skin would be returned. Gogia ended up marrying Herpan, and stayed ashore.

In 712, at the 1900 tide, Frijo Nansi passed by the sea and heard sounds coming out of a cave. He found a pile of discarded sealskins nearby, retrieved one of them and went home. Pondering the skins, he returned to the cave and found a weeping young woman—the owner of the sealskin he took home. Fridjo brought the woman to his house; they married and had four children. One day, while the Fridjo was away fishing, she finally found her sealskin, said goodbye to her children, and departed for the sea. Later that evening, Fridjo walked to the shore, kept walking outward, and drowned.

In 845, at the 1919th tide, Potjuur Kurgan is one of the few humans who didn’t steal a skin and gain a wife; instead, the fisherman caught a seal and, retriving the net, set it loose again with a gentle “goodbye, pretty one.” To which it replied a thank you, shed its skin, and climed aboard. It was indeed Sealkin who fell in love due to the kindness, and they married. Some years later, against his wife’s wishes, he set sail dangerously late in the year and was trapped, battling a terrible storm, unable to return home. His wife shifted to her Sealkin form and saved him, even though this meant she could never return to her human body and hence her love and land home again.

Skjald Ulrich

 

During the time of the 1st Alliance Sealkin began to retract from land. Slowly but steady lowering their numbers, we now think they knew anout the future to come. So when The Great Invasion struck it was few who had to flee, and even fewer who fought. We gave heard rumors though, that they did quite a lot of scouting for the High King.

Skjald Sigurd