Way Below Your League: A look at sentient aquatic life

Way Below Your League: A look at sentient aquatic life
Wish to explore the sea? Good luck! Even the most acomplished swimmers cannot swim very far before they tire or are pulled underwater by the currents. Even with a ship, it is difficult to properly explore beneath the surface without some means of breathing underwater.

Truly, only the Mer-people have ever been known to offer aid in this regard. Though the relationship between land dwellers and their marine counterparts has been somewhat strained over the years, it is said that the Mer-people (in particular their leader, King Neptune) can appraise an individual quite accurately. In fact, they seem to possess a natural ability to sense whether a person intends hostility toward them or not. Fortunately for the would-be adventurer to their underwater kingdom, they are a peaceful people, not prone to unwarranted acts of violence.

The Mer-peoples' nature is in sharp contrast to that of their neighbors, the Sharkees, who live in seclusion in the deeper, darker waters of the ocean. Little is known about them, except that they are fearsome to behold and do not take kindly to visitors. They are rumoured to be excessively xenophobic, and hence have avoided contact with most of the outside world. It can be assumed that tresspassers into their territory would be dealth with swiftly and harshly.