The Erth Altr Chronicleum

Her name was apparently Isen. A princess. Daughter to the war-king Draqle, and his queen Clerdiile. They reigned over a mighty realm of merfolk known as Loquilaque.
Isen had a gift for singing and was said to have the most beautifully alluring voice in all of Loqkuilaque.  She was loved and adored by all in the kingdom, most of all unsurprisingly by her mother and father, the MerKing and Queen of Lokquilaque.

It was said that her singing could calm and command the other beasts of the sea.  In the courts and temples of Lokquilaque, rivalries and disputes had been cooled and simmered down to compromise,  and peace when a danger of conflict and war seemed possible.
Merfolk who were sick with disease and troubled in the mind and spirit had said to be stilled and brought to health and calm balances when spending time hearing Isen sing.

Above the ocean waves, and upon the land lay the human kingdom of Pathn’ier. It’s fishermen folk had always, since children, and for generations been warned to stay away from far out waters where it was said that a dark and unhuman realm lay below. A realm where if disturbed, would bring great terror and destruction upon their world.
Merfolk too, were aware of ancient prophecies that promised death and war should they not stay away from the waters where they drew shallow before rising lands. For upon the high ground lay a realm of threatening doom.
In some temples, a prophecies claimed that if these warnings were not heeded then great suffering, destruction and sorrow would play upon the peoples.

Being curious and not heeding the warnings of her peoples tales, the child princess of the Merfolk, Princess Isen, would increasingly sneak and stray away from her kingdom and unknowingly towards that of the man-kingdom Pathen’ia.

Over time, it is said that she eventually came upon men – Strange creatures, she would think – just watching their shapes and shadows from afar below the waves, where she was sure remained safe and unseen. These people, not wholly unlike her own – yet stood up in floating vessels, and with nets, would draw fish from the waters.

Princess Isen would, from afar study and observe, how time after time, these above-water people would drag the creatures from the ocean and use spears and blades to butcher the creatures of the sea. She would watch as they would toss remnants of carcasses back to the waters as they reddened thickly with blood. Though she could not understand them, her ears could hear them laughing, or engaging in song as they hauled, cut and butchered and Ipen was fearful. 

Saddened at seeing the lives of these creatures killed and claimed by these monsters, Isen learned that her singing could lure the fish away from the human boats to keep them from being caught.

But she couldn’t save them over time, and these above-water men were relentless.

Some years passed and some fishermen were becoming desperate due to repeatedly low yields in their nets, for they had fished for too much, for too long.
Ship crews would sail in search of better fishing grounds. Some crews who dared, found that as they sailed out further away from The Pathniean Coast to waters considered forbidden, they drew unknowlingly closer and closer upon the surface to the realm of the Lokquilaque, but there appeared to be greater bounty to be had.  But legends, suspicions and warnings in the old tales they had all grown up with and had passed on to them down the generations kept most others fearful and would turn away.
One crew decided to not turn away, and reasoned, that just for a few watchful hours, just spend time trying their luck in new waters beyond the outskirts of the Pathniean Coast.  They cast their nets, and it wasn’t long before they became filled.  After drawing their nets in and rejoicing at their haul, their nets were recast, and again and again.  The fishermen became greedy and more than the morning had passed until late in the afternoon.
Their nets cast and filled and filled.  As fate would have it Isen, the merPrincess, not knowing or expecting humans as none would ever come so close to her realm, was surprised and became desperate to try and help lure the fish and sea creatures away from the boats, but in doing so got caught up trapped in one of the nets and was drawn up to the boat.
The fishermen did not know or realising what manner of sea creature they had hauled in amongst the other fish and wrapped in the nets, the fishermen were quick to spear the Isen before dragging her on to deck.
Realising with great horror what they had actually done, with the dying mermaid mortally wounded and bleeding to death on their boat, the crew quickly threw everything they had back in to the ocean dropping the now dead princess, overboard as well.
Greatly fearing the tales of their parents and grandparents and of the consequences that were prophecised to befall them and their people, decided to never return home and make for lands far away.
Their boat however was never meant for long voyages was caught in a great storm, the crew never heard of or seen again.
The body of the MerPrincess was discovered and brought to the court of the MerKingdom. Her father and mother, King Draqle and Queen Clerdiile became inconsolable, the King plunged in to vengeful rage while the Queen would live in near isolation with sorrow.  So their Kingdom mourned and sought action.

The MerKing called upon his armies and promised his people war upon their neighbouring human realm.  With his sorcerers and priests called upon an ancient titan of the deep, so powerful and massive that waking it erupted volcanoes from lands far and away.

And so a great and terrible war was waged upon the land people with insurmountable death and destruction.  A vengeance war cast that sought no end.

… The human kingdom is brought to it’s knees during the devastating war brought to them by the avenging Merfolk.  The Mer-queen considers only one mercy at a price, demands the new born child of the human King and Queen, to adopt in to Merfolk servitude and live below the ocean with them.  She promises the human King and Queen that their daughter will be unharmed and kept alive, but they shall never see her, or she know of them ever again.  In return their kingdom shall be spared and no more death, destruction or suffering shall be put upon them.  Eventually, these terms were agreed upon, and for the sake of their own people the human King and Queen with tears in their eyes gave up their child to the Merfolk.

The child was taken far and deep below the waves to the Merfolk kingdom, kept alive by aquatic magic and merfolk sorcery, to be held as an eternal prisoner, regarded with resentment and bitterness, and as a trophy over their human foes.

….The priests of the Merkingdom later learn and inform their Queen that by taking the new born human daughter child of royal bloodline, their own dead princess child could be resurrected through the human child used as a vessel by magic and potion – but only when the human child reaches the same age of years as when their own child was killed can the ritual be performed.  This would be to the age of twelve years old.

During these twelve years the child grows in captivity.  She was held largely in seclusion in the coral towers.  Her purpose was to be sacrificed at the matching age of their daughter, to bring her back to life.  Not knowing any human language, and not being able to properly articulate that of the Merfolk, her only development of expression became that of vocal tune and song which had no recognisable vocabulary, but carried the melodies and harmonies that toiled in her heart and soul.  The raw and unfiltetered beauty of her unplaceable song drew and held the attention of the Merfolk who would happen upon her solitude, including the MerQueen herself.

At first she would order her silence, her resentment scorning her melodious expressions, but the girl could not help but persist when she felt able to without being restrained by order of the Queen Clerdiile.  Eventually, at times when the MerQueen would approach the girl’s chamber she would hesitate to scald her, and would wait in secret by the outside of her door and listen as her song reminded her of her own daughters gift for beautiful singing.  She could not help but be brought to tears. 

 Unexpectedly King Draqle and Queen Clerdiile begin to feel love towards the child, and through this love, learn a sense of forgiveness towards her natural mother and father.  The MerQueen even confesses to her King of slowly realizing a guilt from the pain and suffering they had both put upon the childs parents by taking their baby away from them, relating upon them her own suffering of losing a child.  Eventually they come to agree that even though they may be able to bring their own lost daughter Isen back, they could not condemn another innocent life in order to do so.

And so after twelve years of having the human female child, raised and live with and amongst them, secretly they bring the daughter of the human king and queen back to the surface and shore and return her to her birthright kingdom Pathn’ier for her to be found. 

They placed upon her finger a ring of the Merfolk in evidence of where she had come from, and who she was, before they kissed her goodbye. 

Though she never learned to speak, and only ever became learned in the ways of the Merfolk kingdom of Lokquilaque, she was found by men and immediately brought to the Pathn’iean kingdom court. 

Her parents however, since the great war after all the devastation and suffering, finally could not take the loss of their child and were so stricken by grief after three years, both could not live with themselves at what they had done, giving up their own child in sacrifice for their kingdom, shared poison and were dead.
In the years that followed, Pathn’ier had fallen in to fractured chaos and disarray.  What had happened before, during and after the war became retold with suspicion and accusations amongst it’s people – nobility and commoner alike. 

The royal family that had been left, were cast out in to obscurity as noble families in the power vacuum left open by the perished king and queen competed, conspired and in some cases murdered for supremacy.

Their daughter child had no one to return to.  The people eventually believed this young girl who did not know human society and had no relateable mannerisms who bore only a strange ring marked of merfolk was labelled as tainted to be either a cursed omen, or a trick sent by the Merfolk to inflict further darkness over their Kingdom. And so the girl was put to death.  Her body wrapped in seaweed and thrown into the waves outside the Merfolk kingdom, so her corpse would sink to the bottom for the MerKing and Queen to find as a message that their trickery had been discovered and not fallen for.

Her body was found, like their princess daughter Isen had been twelve years ago, and grieved the MerQueen and MerKing greatly with such sorrowful regret that they had  in fact sent their beloved human child to her death. 

This time, instead of anger and revenge towards the humankind, they felt sorry for them in their ignorance at what they had done, and agreed that their peoples should once again return to living away from one another, as once was.