Merfolk

I've decided that I shall post things about my story/aliens here, in search of advice and brainstorming and all that jazz.

I haven’t decided whether they have ear-like fronds or a dorsal fin type thing. Pros: I love ear fronds. Cons: make less sense, look more like Abe Sapien again. Also trying to decide on a suit design for when their on land. The skimpy one makes a lot less sense if they’re not scaled, which I’m pretty sure they’re not.

Also also trying to decide on the coloration for Plucky Fish Boy. Who still needs a name. All fishfolk have chosen names because their language doesn’t have phonetic approximations.So basically dolphin noises. I like the idea of him having a fancy English name.

Their coloration is fairly varied, usually purple, green, blue and grey with some brown.

Their gills are located on the sides of their torso. They have three electrical receptors on each cheek.

Their language is mostly clicks and high-pitched dolphiny noises. the collars on their suits are used to pick up these sounds (independent of the mouth, though they tend to nash their teeth when speaking) and translate that into land-dweller speech. The collars translate their own name for their species as ‘human’ as that is the closest approximation. People begun calling them “Merfolk” or “Atlantians” and it caught on.

Pretty sure they also pick up sound with their throats? Not sure.

They have no secondary sexual characteristics. There is either no gender in their society or it is kept very private.

Their ancestors were amphibious, thus the frog-like legs and lack of scales. Some natural disaster or other made living on land impossible, so they are now entirely aquatic.