How does the kingdom of mermaids do the following?

>
They are literally made from human and fish being put together by some jackass god or wizard
They either brought stuff witht them from surface or m a g i c it away

>not get enslaved by Atlantis

a judicious application of amber and shark clan, along with better mages

the better question is why they are fighting when the real danger is on the land

>>Develop metallurgy, since they can't use fire
Magic
>>Develop useful hygiene, since their fecal matter and urine would diffuse into their living waters
Magic
>>Develop advanced mathematics, since stone tablets are impractical for doing many repetitive equations on
Magic
>>Reduce the spread of disease caused by eating uncooked meat, since they can't use fire to cook fish
Magic
>>Have human faces, since they live underwater where there is less light and would be advantaged by having extremely large eyes
Magic
>>Not get wiped or enslaved by Atlantis
Magic

None of these are problems if you just make the mermaids feral (outside of mermaids raised in captivity)

>Develop metallurgy, since they can't use fire
Buy, Trade, or Steal, I don't see them developing this by themselves. You get this one.

>Develop useful hygiene, since their fecal matter and urine would diffuse into their living waters
It's underwater, they can just have their poops and pees carried away by the current, it isn't complicated. For PERSONAL hygiene, though, there's always cleaner fish (which could be domesticated and bred very easily) and good ol' fashioned toilet crabs. Toilet crabs: dig a hole, put crabs inside, put poop in hole, don't get pinched.

>Reduce the spread of disease caused by eating uncooked meat, since they can't use fire to cook fish
Lots of the bacteria from uncooked meat come from the process of getting the uncooked meat to you in the first place. Merpeoples mostly only have to worry about parasites since they'd be eating fish as it came to them, because believe it or not: when you live underwater it's easier to transfer fresh fish live.

>Have human faces, since they live underwater where there is less light and would be advantaged by having extremely large eyes
Honestly, I don't expect them to live at the bottom of the sea or even anywhere close to it? I don't even expect most of them to live a nomadic life like Dolphins on the open-ass ocean. Most merpeople would be, like, living on the border of the reef just where it meets the 'edge'. It's got access to the super-fertile reef and whatever the empty ocean has to offer.
Anyway, the point is it isn't unreasonable to think they'd have normal eyes.

>Not get wiped or enslaved by Atlantis
Atlantis would be a non-issue, they're like one nation, they're not naturally aquatic, and they were forced underwater as punishment. They're not living in the ocean with merpeople, they're TRAPPED in the ocean with merpeople.

>Develop metallurgy, since they can't use fire
On this point, couldn't merfolk just trade pearls for metal with landlubbers?

>ITT: Autism

Semi-aquatic biology

They literally can go above water. They could have a forge on a rock somewhere off the coast.

>>Develop metallurgy, since they can't use fire
They don't because they don't need it even if they are aware of it
>>Develop useful hygiene, since their fecal matter and urine would diffuse into their living waters
Go wherever they need to go, or if it's absolutely nesscesary they have designated spots where they go and feeds into the ecosystem they have developed
>>Develop advanced mathematics, since stone tablets are impractical for doing many repetitive equations on
If they are smart enough to develop magic and a basis of a civilization they can do math. No doubt they also learn from surface beings as well
>>Reduce the spread of disease caused by eating uncooked meat, since they can't use fire to cook fish
Why can't they eat raw meat?
>>Have human faces, since they live underwater where there is less light and would be advantaged by having extremely large eyes
There are different species of merfolks depending upon the area and depths they live at. Closer to the surface they have more human looking features while deeper down they are more bestial.
>>Not get wiped or enslaved by Atlantis
They are the true rulers of Atlants.

...

The answer to all those questions is the same for human civs. Make do. Don't take human civ as the goal to reach, it's just the path we took according to our own abilities.

>Develop metallurgy, since they can't use fire
Metallurgy would be used to craft weapons and tools. Mermens don't have natural weapons, so they'll have to make some for sure. They don't need steel strong enough to pierce armor, as armor would be unpractical under the sea. Land foraging for wood, or using shells seems somewhat practical enough to insure survival.

>Develop useful hygiene, since their fecal matter and urine would diffuse into their living waters

Nonsensical. Human acquire a sense of hygiene pretty late in the game anyway.

>>Develop advanced mathematics, since stone tablets are impractical for doing many repetitive equations on
You can imagine civilizations without mathematics. It's not important for their survival, especially if they lack competitors.

>Have human faces
It's their define characteristic. That's something you need to accept if you want to use mermen as a creature concept. Else it's simply not mermen.
>Not get wiped or enslaved by Atlantis
In Plato's parabole, Atlantis sunk and its people drowned. Atlantean were humans, and would not invade the sea, wtf

>Develop metallurgy, since they can't use fire
As others have said, they can either raid coastal towns for metal tools/weapons, or they can trade with them as they have unparalleled access to the bounty of the ocean. For their own weapons and tools, they can grow coral to form tools and weapons from their skeletons, and strengthen those tools using mollusks to infuse the coral scaffold with nacre.

>Develop useful hygiene, since their fecal matter and urine would diffuse into their living waters
As mentioned previously in this thread, fish fecal matter sinks and is handled by bottom feeders. This basically allows them to develop waste processing in manners similar to humans, with chamber pots and what-not being developed at some point. Fish pee is also essential for the health of coral reefs, so they'd pretty much be using it to fertilize their equivalent of farms.

>Develop advanced mathematics, since stone tablets are impractical for doing many repetitive equations on
And yet, stone tablets are how we developed writing and mathematics in our early civilizations. Merfolk also have the benefit of easy access to ink sources, either for use in tattooing, or writing with it in still water, providing a sort of three-dimensional chalkboard.

>Reduce the spread of disease caused by eating uncooked meat, since they can't use fire to cook fish
Parasites are the main issue here, and they can deal with it the same way we do with sushi - properly examining and cleaning the fish. And while the use of heat vents in the sea floor to perform metallurgy is a bit far fetched, its use in cooking food is much more plausible.

>Have human faces, since they live underwater where there is less light and would be advantaged by having extremely large eyes
A near-surface dwelling species of predator could still benefit from binocular vision with near-human eyes, especially given grasping appendages. Humanoid mimicry would allow for improved relationships with humans, as well.

Magic

>Have human faces, since they live underwater where there is less light and would be advantaged by having extremely large eyes
They live near the shores close to the surface.

They're fictional.

Volcanic lava vents on the ocean floor, targetted current manipulation, abacus, stronger immune systems render most consumed viral vectors pointless, oceans have variable depths and if they're capable of interacting with a single-mast ship they're clearly still on the continental plate,and they ARE atlantis, or the descendants thereof, and thus do not need to conquer themselves.

I wonder, if I get swallowed whole and I've got a sharp object, lets say a dagger for example, could stick it right in the throat and either hold on for dear life, or possibly strike out with another dagger in the other hand? Learned that my DM is a vorefag, so I'm getting prepped because we're going dungeon diving and there's a chance a giant snake is living in the dungeon. Someone's getting swallowed and it ain't going to be me

Well, in DnD at least getting swallowed by a large monster might actually be advantageous, provided you can survive the damage you take every round, as it's a lot easier to hurt something like a dragon from the inside.

Although with something as big as the giga-mermaid, a dagger or a sword probably wouldn't do more than mildly irritate the throat.

>Although with something as big as the giga-mermaid, a dagger or a sword probably wouldn't do more than mildly irritate the throat.

Assuming the giga-mermaid was mostly just a scaled up human for the digestive tract (I know nothing of the structure of aquatic digestive tracts), I can imagine a normal-sized dagger/sword still being a pain. Imagine getting paper cuts inside your throat. I don't think it would be deep enough to cause internal bleeding to the point of real harm, but gee would it hurt and be uncomfortable.

>>Develop useful hygiene, since their fecal matter and urine would diffuse into their living waters
Hahahahahahahaha How The Fuck Is Fecal Matter Diffusing Into Living Waters Real Hahahaha Nigga Just Swim Away From The Doodoo

magic.

Depends on how fast you can get to the lower GI tract. Scraping the outer protective layer of the stomach off can cause an ulcer, which hurts a lot but isn't immediately dangerous. If you can rush through and get to the small intestine quickly, then any nick, cut, or tear you cause will rapidly lead to sepsis and death within hours.

Why bother? The ocean is FILLED with animals and plants that feed on fecal matter from higher order animals. Just poop in the vicinity of a swarm of brine shrimp or snails or anemones. They'll do the rest.

To all of this my response would be something like this
>Make mermaids aquatic humans rather than fishmen (meaning they function like aquatic mammals ie. they breathe and have lungs, they can just hold their breath for a long-ass time)
>Have them actively cooperate and copy shit from land humans

Eating small shards of glass kills a human, so swallowing a dude with something sharp asks for trouble

>Develop advanced mathematics, since stone tablets are impractical for doing many repetitive equations on
Mathematics specifically? Game counters. Areas of demarkated ground with prepared markers moved according to rules. 2d abacuses, and so on.
Writing for posterity with weaving and knot-writing.
Note taking on soil trays, chalkboards.

You'd be better served getting adamantine spikes on your armor.

Whoops, misclicked for

>abacus
This is the right answer. Can't believe it took this long.