Nymphlopedia
Entry 19: Swamp Nymphs
"Hey Vince," said Sonata, "have you heard of the Song Swamp?" Isn't writing in anarchonic order fun?
She was lying on her back in a pool of muddy water, sloshing it around. Vince on the other hand was traversing with his trusty Squirrel Hook, going from tree branch to tree branch. Not out of the ground being hazardous to Humans or anything, he just hated getting wet. "What? Huh? No, it sounds nicer than this place already..."
Sonata shrugged. "Not really. I've been there a few times, most recently when I was 487. It seems chill, but it's really a bit of chaos, and-"
Out from the leaves, a Nymph popped out - and switched from her light skin tone to a saturated blue, baring all her teeth.
Vince screamed, fell in to the water, and the Swamp Nymph dove in after him.
Sonata rolled her eyes and sank below.
Vince managed to hold on his own good enough. Even he wasn't sure how, but he was able to fire from his iron bow pretty well even under water. Three arrows whisked through the water while he kicked himself away from her clawing hands, then one shot got her right in the side.
The Swamp Nymph didn't take too kindly to that, and Vince found himself getting pounded to the ground by the sheer force of the wetland's mud pushing him at the pondbed. Or... he didn't know what the exact term for that would be, and probably wouldn't if he couldn't fight the force. Also, it was deeper than he was tall.
"HEY!" Sonata shouted under water - she had to rush up to get air.
The Swamp Nymph may have pinned Vince down by sitting on his back, but she was still distracted long enough for him to whip out a nice Gills Potion and chug it. And a Flipper Potion.
"Leave him alone!" Sonata continued after surfacing. "He isn't food, you kick his ass and I'll kick your ass!"
But Vince already threw her off of him. He reached back for his bow, firing right for her eye, which was deflected by a pushed current of water. One that turned in to a wave, which once again threatened to pull Vince below. Thanks to his better water movement, he was able to fight against it... slightly. It still felt like an incredibly powerful force of wind pressing on him to pin him to the ground.
"I don't care." The Swamp Nymph said with a shrug.
"I'm not even here to talk to a Nymph! For once!" Vince shouted at her. "I'm getting material for-"
"Still. Don't really care. You step in here, Human or Nymph, you die. That's the rules of the Underground Swamp."
"We're above-ground!" Sonata shouted, splashing water and reaching around for her sword.
"Well I got cold so I moved to the surface to heat up. Same energy."
An arrow hit her in the arm. The swamp-manipulator looked up - Vince already hooked on to the tree. Now he was avoiding the ground. Playing a nice game of The Floor is Lava.
"It's still-" The Swamp Nymph began before she herself got pushed through the water.
And Sonata followed, both of them being pushed to the same tree.
Vince would have reacted if he knew how to in time, but vines reached from below and pinned him to the same tree as well.
That was when a group of other Swamp Nymphs came by, riding on the surface of the waters.
"Sorry about that." One of them said. "Outlaws, am I right?"
"Oh thank Pan I thought this was just a normal thing you did in this swamp." Said Sonata.
"Eh... kind of. We tend to ask question first. So, here's our first question: What's going on?"
Vince and Sonata exchanged glances.
Swamp Nymphs.
Toxic. Wet. Dark. The Swamp is not a place you would want to casually hang out, as much as its Nymphs want to trick people in to thinking otherwise.
Preferred Environment: Swamp.
Environment Threat Level: Moderate.
Environment Stats: Wet. Warm. Mundane. Common. Wetlands with water pools, and heavy vegetation. Infamous for their mosquitoes.
Other Names: Mud Nymphs, Lilypad Nymphs, "Wetland Nymphs" (this isn't technically accurate - see the Wetland Nymph entry).
Affinity: Water.
Color: Bright Cerulean.
Traditional Costume Weapon: Mud bits caked on the arms and legs, with thin vines or other plants sticking from them, in some cases full-on lillypads. Aids them in controlling mud, lillypads, other swamp plants, or the humidity in the air.
Vince's Comment: The less band-playing cousins of the Song Nymphs. So I just said that Song Nymphs drag you through the mud when they attack you. Well, these Nymphs and Satyrs are barely any different. Only they're even more direct. I'm scared of any mud now. And even more scared of the Jungle. And yes, they like hanging out in the Jungle too.
Sonata's Comment: Pan CURSE IT! I subscribe to ONE of their magazines and now the Internet thinks I have some "wet and messy" fetish or something just because they like living in the mud! No, I do NOT want to see- I don't even think I'm allowed to write that in this book! And that's saying a LOT!
Tania's Comment: Swamp Nymphs.
Nymphae Palus.
The Swamp in popular Human and Dwarven culture has been typically portrayed as an evil region with untrusty beasts. It is a natural biome just like most other, and the Nymphs that live here are not especially dangerous or remarkable. They are tuned to extra loose, wet, and fertile mud, riding with the sludge as if it is their form of water. Their fingers are suited to cut through any common swamp obstructions, solid or liquid, with ease.
Closing AN:
Currently I'm not too sure if I want the "outlaw" or that speaking member of the group that pinned Vince and Sonata to the tree to ask questions to be the "main" Swamp Nymph. I'm actually leaning on the former, it'd be a little more interesting I think. Well, they're obviously not going to be in the first two chapters of RTLD proper, so I've got time to decide.
Might shift this around since this is one of the VERY few Nymphs whose general "coloration" doesn't really fit the biome at ALL... I mean part of why I split the "Song Swamp" was so that I could still have the "blue music swamp-ish area" that I kinda thought up for RG but didn't actually use (Sonia's domain was in a regular swamp, but in Rebooted that will definitely change, speaking of Rebooted shit I really want to get 2-2 out by the 22nd and maybe even squeeze 3-1 before fucking 2022) while still having a normal swamp, so just filling this with cerulean plants would - I don't know I'm rambling about colors yet again. The whole "gag" of them talking about the previous chapter's setting wouldn't be as effective if this was moved much later on to the "dark" portion, but it wasn't that good of a gag to begin with.
"How does having random shit from the biomes help the Nymphs do more magic bending powers" well it technically doesn't, they gain power from the general "right conditions" of the biomes itself, and that magic is sort of within the plants, mud, and even water to some degree, so "bringing a little with them" kind of helps channel that? I don't know, I like the interpretation of the Dryad still having vines but not actually "wearing" them as clothes, enough that I'd actually want something like that for the Nymph Variants even though I'm normally big on "total nudity, all the time," and I even have "lore" on why the Dryads would be exceptions to this rule already but I still had the Nymph Variants be "in-between" where they have SOME accessories (including, gasp, a few with necklaces! ...I don't know if I actually published any yet and I'm too lazy to check, or if that's just the roughs of being over 40 entries ahead) but aren't nearly as dressed as the Dryad, who look like nuns compared to them. - I don't know I'm rambling about nudity yet again.
TLDR: This chapter is likely to be moved.
Anyway, fun fact, originally Terraria had a Swamp biome planned as an alternate for the Jungle back when the Jungle was smaller. I hope Terraria 2 or any other possible future project doesn't actually go with that and makes the Swamp an actual "counter-Jungle" with its own variation of Plantera and the Temple, or that will massively fuck up the lore I've got going on where I've now designated the Jungle as a "special" biome all because of the Dryad's preference in living there. Also fun fact the Swamp is the only one of the "scrapped planned bomes" Cenx talked about that's actually getting a natural Nymph Variant, Candyland isn't a Natural Biome (also the fact that it was planned was why I went for that as the Hallow's alt as you'll see over on Teasers, even though I like the idea of a mechanical biome instead, but I made that the Error, one of the ten-so-far made-up Evil Biomes) and Hercules-Hell I probably won't have in this at all except maybe as a one-time non-canon gag or something.