>The Seas are controlled by various tribes of giant Merfolk
>The largest of them are bigger than Sperm Whales while the smallest of them are about the size of Orcas
>To fish in their territory they demand a yearly sacrifice of 10 people cast into the sea alive for them to collect
Could such a deal be sustained over hundreds of years?
Depends on how good the sex is.
>every year you sacrifice 10 people for great fishing rights
>less people, more food
>still suffering the same rigors of life otherwise; disease, infant mortality, etc
Sounds like it'd be one of those crazy insular yet idyllic societies like in Wicker Man where if you find out they sacrifice you as part of the yearly tribute.
Nice fetish you got there OP
I'm lying IT'S SHIT
Every single mermaid is dead, butchered by massively powerful adventurers who object, and the remains sold off to wizards for alchemy money.
/thread
Assuming it's not a poor sea side dirt village I suppose it would be a good way to offload criminals.
Then again I wonder how it would go if the humans said fuck the merfolk and tried to hunt them down?
It mostly feels like internal bleeding.
The deal lasts for however much as long as it takes one genius fisherman to realize he could just dump as much pig shit and oil into the ocean as possible to kill them off.
>genius
yeah at best you're killing a major food source, at worst it doesn't even work and now the merfolk are pissed
I have a race like that in my setting. Minus the sacrifice for the most part.
No reason it would be any less practical than the normal aquatic biosphere. As far as convincing people to toss folks into the sea for fish? Hey, man's gotta eat.