Where does Merfolk live?

Merfolk is typically encountered in Coastal, Underwater.

Merfolk

· · CR Unknown

As a medium humanoid (neutral), Merfolk carries CR 1/8. AC 11, 2 hit dice, 10-ft speed. Common in coastal and underwater environments. Speaks aquan and common. Notable trait: Amphibious — The merfolk can breathe air and water.. Sourced from Monster Manual (5e 2014).

Stat Block

Challenge Rating: Unknown
Type: —
Size: —
Alignment: —
Speed: —
Habitats: Coastal, Underwater
Sources: Monster Manual (5e 2014)

Ecology

Merfolk dwell in coastal shelves, kelp forests, and warm reef shallows, surfacing for air without effort thanks to dual breathing. Pods range from twenty to two hundred and organize around matriarchal song-keepers who hold communal memory. They farm sea-grass, herd schools of fish, and maintain underwater coral gardens passed down generations. Trade with surface settlements happens at agreed reefs marked with pearl-strung totems, and merfolk currency is fragments of wreck-glass smoothed by tide and ranked by color rather than precious metal.

Behaviour

Merfolk are communal to a degree that disorients land-dwellers. Decisions take hours of harmonized debate, and silence during discussion is considered rude. They mourn deeply and celebrate with month-long song cycles. Toward outsiders they default to wary courtesy, treating land races as guests with strange manners rather than enemies. They distrust fire, abhor harpoons, and keep meticulous accounts of which surface ships have been kind versus cruel — a ledger that crosses generations and shapes which sailors find help when wrecked.

Origin

Merfolk legend says their first ancestors were sea-spirits granted flesh by a drowned moon-goddess in exchange for the duty of remembering. Mortal scholars suspect they descend from an aquatic offshoot of an early elven branch, citing similarities in bone structure and certain shared linguistic roots. The merfolk themselves prefer the moon-goddess version and politely ignore the academics. Either way, their oldest songs map ocean currents that match no known surface chart.

Coastal Underwater