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 Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 3:19 pm
Sorry, don't buy that one, either. Things buried under the ocean floor have been unearthed by erosion and tectonic movements before. Not only that, but ancient human remains have been unearthed and found here on land without the intervention of modern man. Something of their civilization would have turned up by now.
Berz.
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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 4:34 pm
Hmm, yer probably right but, what if they have a way of sending their dead into the center of the earth or into lava pools so that they pretty much disappear? I know this is highly unlikely but I'm just thinking aloud. mrgreen
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Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 11:17 am
On this occasion, I think I'll take Berz's side. I still believe of their existence being possible, but that doesn't go to say they do exist. This is my point on everything we don't know about.
What I will side with Berz on relates to reality. She hasn't said anything on this yet obviously, as my post is directly below yours Hypno, but I'm sure she'd agree with me when I say that lava pools under the ocean just aren't possible. Lava has to be running for it to remain consistent. Pools of lava would eventually set and cool in all likelihood. That's why no "lava caves" as seen in so many RPGs don't occur in this world.
Despite the fact that you get chimney stacks spouting hot gas into the ocean from the depths, any volcanic activity is going to be much lower. If you consider merfolk trying to get rid of their dead by thrusting them into lava pools (if they existed - and under the ocean that's just...absurd), or even disintegrating them over these chimney stacks, you've got to think about the "how", and whether or not merfolk would even dwell that deep because in the black depths of the ocean, most creatures don't have eyes or if they do they're blind because they don't have any contact with light. Instead, they use other senses to get around.
When you got the lava pools idea, were you referring to the Disney adaptation of Atlantis. It's a damn good film, but unless there are pockets of caves in the ocean where civilisations MIGHT be conceivable, I fail to se any other possibilities of how they would dispose of the dead.
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Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 7:13 pm
If it were possible for merfolk to exist without detection, then I don't think it would be possible for them to keep their eyes, as they would have to live in parts of the ocean where there is no light whatsoever. Though this is rather irrelavent unless you believe that merfolk are exaclty half human and half see-creature and must have eyes rolleyes .
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 5:00 am
Although you could consider unexplored caverns in the ocean, couldn't you? There will be caves that we can't even get to because the openings are too small for us to physically fit through if you think about the size of oxygen tanks and the likes, and there is light deep enough in the ocean where we could not physically survive without some kind of submersible because there's too much pressure.
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 8:40 pm
One could consider such caverns, but I'm not sure how you would get anything resembling merfolk out of such a scenario without at least allowing for biological adaptation along the lines of evolution (which, to me, is a miracle unto itself, since when you look at the biology behind it, it really shouldn't happen, statistically). How would they, themselves, have gotten in there, otherwise?
One could, I suppose, surmise that a geological upheaval caused the formation of such a cavern after the merfolk were inside it. But that raises other questions. How would creatures who were previously designed to function in a world outside that cavern survive inside it? Why hasn't a subsequent geological upheaval either freed them or collapsed the cavern altogether? Why would all the merfolk be inside such a cavern at a single moment in time?
All of these questions could be wonderful story elements for a piece of fiction, but they don't bode well for the actual existence of merfolk.
Further, there is another problem to consider. If the merfolk are trapped in such a cave, where we can't see them, what sightings would have occurred that we would have gotten these legends about them?
Hmm... I'm getting a short story idea...
Berz.
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 8:06 am
The myth about the sirens perhaps? That's where one legend/myth comes from regarding possible sightings.
The Siren
Another one could be the Loreley/Rhine Maidens.
Loreley
Rhine Maidens
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 3:19 pm
Yer right Mel but, I suppose I should have explained myself better cuz I didn't literally mean pools of lava. I only remembered seeing lava flowing underwater in some documentary and that's where I got the idea but all I could think of saying was "lava pools". Silly me, eh? rolleyes
Anyways, I guess there are many things one fails to consider sometimes, huh?
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 8:09 am
If it was flowing underwater it would already be in the process of cooling down, which would cause it to stop eventually depending on the extent of the eruption.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 1:59 pm
Indeed! Or maybe they just have some other type of system that we can't imagine. But that's just trying to explain something that we, most likely, will never see proof of. You know?
I suppose that a heated argument is a good way to get things going at an unused forum, huh? sweatdrop
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 2:02 pm
Either that or to drive anyone thinking of posting far away?
I only see you, me and Berz posting regularly in this subforum at this moment in time, which is aggravating me.
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 2:44 am
I must say, I enjoy merfolk in their purely fantastical, half human form, and am quite satisfied with suspending disbelief in areas such as these. When I write fantasy, I expect my readers to feel the same; and when I wrote about siren/water nymph-like creatures (in a fully human form this time) living in and around the waters of the Aegean Sea, I never got a comment asking how that was possible. Because it doesn't have to be. That's the glorious thing about fantasy, isn't it?
That being said, perhaps if one felt the need to prove the possibility of their existence, one could always create some sort of alien origins for them. Could be interesting.
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:19 am
Of course, fantasy can be as realistic or unrealistic as you want it to be.
I just try to make my work more realistic than not if you know what I mean.
Powerful magic exists in my world, but I've added believable ways for it to exist. The same goes for merfolk. I haven't really designed them yet, and I don't really need to at this moment in time because I'm not going to be using them for a while. However, I'm going to make them as realistic as I can and design them along the lines of those depicted on the Magic: The Gathering playing cards.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE fantasy in all it's forms, both realistic and unrealistic. I simply chose to create a world to write in that does make sense (however, you'd need to have an eye for detail and want to learn if you have hopes of understanding my plotlines and the likes).
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:23 pm
I come in here and find an odd place to settle. xD
Anyway, I would like to start by referring to what Berz said about things being buried and such in the ocean. If you haven't noticed, so much could still be lying under the ocean floor, since that is where oceanic crude drilling occurs. There could be thousands of feet unearthed because it is simply too deep for natural occurrences to expose. Even so, we are still finding creatures alive and extinct in the ocean so ruling out the possibility that Merfolk exist or existed is basically jumping to conclusions too quickly.
As for Merfolk burying their dead, they could easily use underwater caverns as their burial grounds, ones that humans have yet to discover and explore. We cannot navigate a lot of area in the many bodies of water, Loch Ness being a lake holding many caverns that are too deep and unaccessible at the present time. This could also be where they live and thrive.
Perhaps we have not found a creature of this species simply because their intelligence is equal to or simply exceeds ours. That could explain why we might not see them as they know the oceans more than us and can navigate through every body of water because they live there and know we are incapable of moving in them without special equipment and going farther than what our bodies and machinery can handle. Or, as I can also see, they could also exist within another dimension/plane that is adjacent to ours and can go back and forth from theirs to ours because they have the ability and intelligence to do so. That could also explain why we have yet to discover "proof" of their existence. This could also go along with other creatures such as dragons, vampires, demons, cyclops, the Leviathan, etc. and why we have yet to have physical proof of them as well. I remember once I was watching a Montel Williams (talk show) episode with Sylvia Brown (world-renowned psychic) and she said something about there being three levels (planes) to this world, one being where creatures as such exist, then the one with us, then the one with Heaven (the lower one she said was not "Hell", but rather an Underworld where they lived: not evil).
Eek! So many words! xD
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Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 6:20 am
GOOD post ED!
That's exactly how I think when it comes to this sort of thing.
If beings that are different to ourselves don't WANT to be discovered, they will make sure they aren't or will do everything in their power to try.
You can guarantee that if such beings exist and don't really want to be discovered, they have a good reason of thinking that way. Everything new that the human race discovers should, in the opinions of most, be studied. There have been numerous films about such things.
An example of merfolk in such a situation is Madison from Splash!
When humans discover her, there are very few who want to help but so many others that want to keep her as a research specimen. Would YOU want to put yourself in that kind of situation in a world dominated by humans? If merfolk or any other type of being exists, then if we consider why we haven't found them yet we may be able to understand a bit better IF they did or do exist.
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