Okay, so this is a merman AU if you can't tell by the title. Me and my friend worked super hard on the backstory and I think it turned out good. She worked so hard on the details and I thank her for that :3 Some things might get a little complicated and I do need to clear a few things up, but I hope you enjoy the actual story!
Mermaids' tails: Each tail is different, like a snowflake. Depending on the ocean the mermaid/man comes from, the color changes due to the environment over time. Ex: Mermaids from the Southern Ocean all have a base color of green on their tail, but depending where they are in the ocean, the green fades into other colors. Mermaids from the Atlantic Ocean have a base color of red, Pacific mermaids have an orange base, Arctic mermaids have an ice blue base, and finally, mermaids from the Indian Ocean have a dark blue tail base.
Accents: Around every mermaids tail is an outline that is either gold, silver, or bronze. Gold stands for the leader of that specific ocean. Ex: Simon Blackquill's outline of his tail is gold, (being the leader of the Atlantic Ocean) but his descendants also have gold around the tail. Silver, the newest outline, stands for military. A leader's descendant can have a gold and silver outline, for being a military leader, but once they become leader, they can no longer be in the military, loosing the silver part of the outline. Finally, bronze, is for everybody else pretty much. If someone married into the military or leader, then their tail would change into silver or gold, but it can not change back into silver or bronze.
Interaction: Mermaids barely ever go to the surface. They have interacted with humans before, but have never had any problems. As for mermaid-mermaid interaction, it changed several years ago, which you will find out in the story. That's pretty much all for interaction.
Well, those are the details so nobody gets confused. I know I got confused XD. But I hope you enjoy the AU. Also, this has nothing to do with the little mermaid, but there is a prince :3.