Flussjungfrau

Flussjungfrauen (“river maidens”, sing. flussjungfrau) whose voices are inherently beautiful.

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: Akhoata

• Taxonomic Family: Phryscarans

• Alignment: Celestial

• Energy: Euphony

• Lifespan: 300 years

• Diet: Pescatarian

• Habitat: Rivers and seasides

Origins

It is said they were formed by the song sung when Phryscara swam in deep rivers and made love to Flussilied.

Description

Flussjungfrauen appear to be female-assigned humans with varying shades of golden hair. Their skin tone ranges the natural range of human skin tones, but with green and blue tinges under their hair, between their fingers and toes, around their eyes, and in their armpits.

The voices of flussjungfrauen are said to be beautiful to most who hear them. This is a result of supernatural qualities of the flussjungfrau, however; their voices have the same range of expression of humans. They do have innate skills with music.

Flussjungfrauen can be overtaken by the songs they sing. If they sing chords or if they sing in unison with others, their bodies often transform temporarily to have features of passerine birds. This can take the form of replacing their arms with wings, turning their head and shoulders into that of a bird, transforming their legs into birds’ legs, turning their lower bodies into bird bodies, or transforming them into birds with human heads. The type of bird is always a passerine, but specifics vary by individual and culture.

They have gills and lungs; their gills are only visible when they are underwater.

Procreation

Flussjungfrauen reproduce with the male-assigned members of any sexual species that has male-assgned members, always producing flussjungfrau children, except when reproducing with enders.

Powers

Flussjungfrauen are born with the ability to swim and breathe underwater. They have a resistance to the cold and their bodies adjust to pressure changes easier than most.

Rainbows form when they comb their hair.

Voice and Hearing

Flussjungfrauen have perfect pitch and exceptional hearing. Their voices have a supernatural quality that makes them appealing to others, and when they sing, this is amplified significantly. If they sing underwater, the song carries for the whole length of the river or for hundreds of miles along the coast. If someone hears their song resonate from the waters while looking into it from above, they see the image of the person they love most in the waters.

Passerine Forms

When a flussjungfrau sings with all of their heart, with an intensity of emotion, they can sing chords (multiple notes at once). When they do this, their bodies transform. Depending on the intensity of their song, their transformation will be more complete and last longer. They may do this intentionally or not.

This can also be effected if they sing with other flussjungfrauen in harmony, but only if they do this with the intention of transforming. All of them will be transformed, and they can control the transformations in these cases.

Flussjungfrauen can take the form of any passerine bird they have heard the song of or that those they sing with have heard the song of. Some nations have a cultural affinity for specific birds.

Weaknesses

Cacophony seriously injures them. Arcane shadow mutes their powers. They must wash in water (and drink water) more often than others in order to stay hydrated. Once every seven days, they must completely submerge in natural waters. Polluted waters will harm them more significantly than others.

Nations

The flussjungfrau come from several nations:

• Aloja: Danuan flussjungfrau who dwell in or near lakes.

• Fließenders: the original flussjungfrau in central Jesenya, along the rivers and cliffs there.

• Laminak: (sing. lamina) the flussjungfrau of Jael’ [Basque] in western Jesenya, the mountains between the Galdish westlands and the Kerupene states.

• Réfsi: the Stayflian flussjungfrau in southern Ranu, along seasides and rocky rapids. Called sirens by the locals.

• Tekushchiy: the southwestern Dabusense flussjungfrau who dwell along rivers alleged to have a connection to the land of the dead.

Culture

Fließenders live along or in the river Plätschern in the Kerupene Lands.

In their original culture, they dwell in small communities led by a group of powerful flussjungfrauen elders (holunderin), those who are recognized in the community as having the wisdom to lead, harmony of heart and mind, and the power to protect. Their communities are an egalitarian mix of flussjungfrauen and people of other species.

Communication between them is more often song than not. They sing without thinking about it, due to how they were raised. Children are raised by the whole community; it is custom to sing to the child rather than speak until they are old enough to understand language and communicate back. Once they begin singing back, they are taught how to speak without singing, but primarily, they are communicated with via song.

Children are given a prospective name when they are born. This name is always based on what the birthing parent hopes for her child - love, happiness, wisdom, kindness, etc. After the child sings their first transformative song, they are given a new name based on the song, their voice, and the other people involved (if any). Examples include Strahlstimme (“lambent voice”), Süßtraur (“sweet and sad”), etc.

For the first decade of their lives, they are allowed to be free from worry and stress, left to play and sing, dance and bond with the community. In the year they turn ten, they and all the other flussjungfrauen who turn ten that year are gathered for a ceremony during the late spring or early summer wherein they are encouraged to sing together. They spend the year before picking what songs they will sing together, practicing a ritual dance, and learning special parts of the rite. During the song, at the climax of it, the adults in the community join in, and the harmony created in this moment - controlled as it is to prevent transformation - shares with them the hearts of the children. From this, they learn what roles the children most want (at this time).

From then on, they are trained to meet that role. They spend the next decade learning how to fit their favored role - commonest roles include weaver, spinner, fisher, farmer, ferryer, healer, and shepherdess. Uncommon roles include priestess, harmonist, and bladesinger. Though they do not need to use a ferry, they often have ferryers in their communities for the non-flussjungfrauen or to raise money for the community to use.

As adults, they have the right to vote in all important decisions of the community; after the age of 200, they retire and become elders. The elder harmonists and priestesses are usually elected to the council of leadership who guide the community in most decisions and tasks.

They believe that being in harmony musically is the best way to protect the community. They weave songs together and use many different powers to turn that music into protection from evil, including harmonism. They also use this to find when others in the community are feeling discordant; when someone does not feel attuned to the community, they sense it in the song and seek to heal them.

Music is so common among flussjungfrauen that they don’t even view it as a special art. It is simply a fact of life. Dance is their most common artform - they view it as the most important expression of emotion and thought outside of direct (musical) communication. Other arts are respected, but dance (of any form) is revered.

Water is sacred to them. Their voices stay with the water; they never live far from a river, lake, or sea. If their bodies are not buried in the water, they believe they will not be carried to heaven. They rely upon the waters for food as well; they eat fish, but not other meats. They raise sheep for wool.

National Cultures

The other nations of flussjungfrauen:

• Aloja: they have an affinity for water blackbirds, and are said to make the waters boil when they bathe. They are said to be very prideful of their beauty. Their hair is often red-gold. They love nice clothing and appear more beautiful under the full moon. Like the Laminak, they also prefer to work at night because of oppression. They keep their bodies and wings beautiful. They wield hazel wands and use mana. They are very protective of their children.

• Laminak: they are brutally oppressed in the conquered regions where they dwell, and so they only operate at night. They create a bond with the local community by exchanging labor for food left out for them. They will plough fields, build bridges, or repair external damage to buildings overnight. They must finish their work at night or they abandon it completely. They often build dolmens during the night time as part of their religion. trans masculine Laminak are called mariak and are more common with them.

• Réfsi: Réfsi culture is extremely similar to Fließender culture, but they accompany their songs with lyre, kithara, and aulos playing. They live closer to the seas than to rivers, and they have a nasty reputation locally, which they play up to keep outsiders away.

• Tekushchiy: in the taiga of southwestern Dabusen, the Tekushchiy have a reverence for their founder, Sirin, and they are deeply religious, worshiping a cluster of celestial deities. They are said believed by other locals to protect the rivers that lead to heaven.

Esoterica

Flussjungfrauen are beings of euphony and its greatest wielders. They are also known to wield other celestial energies, but their second most commonly wielded energy is conflueverant, the aether of water. They are also fond of poioumenonic powers. They cannot wield cacophony or arcane shadow, and sonic aether usually becomes euphony when they try to use it.

Religion

The Fließenders worship Flussilied, the Riversong, through rites of dance and through holy songs sung only under the waters. They believe she is the source of their voices and that she lives in all harmony. They believe she creates harmony with the world, with the soul, with the waters, with each other. In their communities, priestesses (priesterin) lead rituals via dance, sometimes accompanied by small drums, and always accompanied by rich harmonic prayers. The priesterin will transform fully into a songbird with her own human-like head and raise her voice above all others to communicate with Flussilied the needs and gratitude of her people.

Some priesterin or other members of the community will sometimes be overcome by Divine song. They will sing, transform into the full bird-bodied form, and release praise and sacred music that has incredible power to unite. They are called begeistert, and they are revered when this happens. Some speak profound truths or even prophecies, and they are called weissager.

Others commune with the rivers directly, becoming druidin, and their role is to tend and protect the rivers that feed their communities.

Every year, thousands of flussjungfrauen travel the rivers to sacred waters called Quelle ("Source"). Quelle is where they were said to have been born of Phryscara and given their voices by Flussilied, and it is a sacred shrine protected by the priorin. Those who travel there are the wallendin.

Gender

Though they are all female-assigned by patriarchal societies, in their own culture, they do not assign gender at birth. Their pronouns and language are translated to feminine by others, but in their own language, they have no genders. When they speak of gender at all, it is seen as a fluid thing or even a communal thing.

More important than individual gender is how each person fits into the harmony. Some flussjungfrauen do choose to present themselves more masculinely. This can range from being butch to finding ways to physically transform. The most common form of this is removal of breasts, often cited as a need for combat in warriors, though this is an excuse belied by the existence of non-transitioned warriors in their communities. This is not commented on, but their actions are encouraged because not following through creates discordance. These warriors are called verwirklicht (“actualized”). Their voices are cherished for enriching the harmony.

Marriage is unknown in their communities. They welcome non-flussjungfrauen of any gender as long as they add to the harmony (i.e., don’t act like assholes), and when a flussjungfrau wants children, she will choose one to have sex with. If they wish to simply have sex for pleasure, they will sleep with any one who consents (or any ones). Sex is an act of harmony and always accompanied with song, such as it is said that Phryscara and Flussilied sang during their union.

Flussjungfrauen who use sex magic are called süßesmädchen (sweet girl), and their voices create music that brings protection to the entire community.

Economy

The original flussjungfrauen lived in matriarchal communities.

Military

Flussjungfrau communities have very few warriors, but those they do have are called klingensänger (bladesingers). They use their voices to control weapons that they do not even need to be holding. They train for decades to do this; it is a special, separate form of euphonic magic. Among them are the verwirklicht who present more masculinely and remove their breasts to fight, and they have the ability to turn their weapons into liquid in air and thus transform them - turning a straight blade into a curved one, shortening a blade or lengthening it, altering an arrow in flight, etc.

Language

Their language is based on German.

Trade

Fish and wool are the main things they produce.

Occupations

Common occupations not mentioned previously include the following:

• Altesweib: witches attuned to the cycles of the worlds voice.

• Einsteller: harmonists who fix the voices or hearing of members of the community.

• Erstertänzerin: holy dancers in the community. Raqisa.

• Gauklerin: flussjungfrauen who wander and sing tales. Gleeman.

• Geigenbauerin: luthiers or other instrument makers.

• Runzlig: elders taking the role of teacher in the community.

• Schlaganfallin: rangers of the riverlands.

• Vogelsänger: harmonists who sing and communicate with birds. They usually use this for recreation, but some use this to gather information. Others use it to ask birds to carry them places, if they can convince enough of them to do so, using special chairs with ropes.

• Weitsänger: harmonists who can throw their voices for miles; farsingers used to relay messages to other communities.

• Zaubersänger: extremely rare spellsingers, wielders of euphonic magic.

Outside View

Flussjungfrauen are accused of wrecking ships, hiding treasure, being loveless, seducing men, cannibalism, and being witches by patriarchal powers. They are often conflated with merfolk.

Notables

• Aurbacca, Autumnal Aeonian, wife of Good Tom

• Lorelei, Flussjungfrau Manifest, Aeonian, deceased

• Sirin Mat', founder of the Tekushchiy, legend who is said to have been elusive and whose voice brought profound happiness and wisdom. She wore and used giant owl wings to fly, wore a crown with a nimbus and was said to tell the future, and she would only weep among the apple orchards where others might not hear, deceased

• Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Floßhilde, legends who allowed the gold of heaven be stolen and corrupted by mortals

Estimated Populations

• Aloja: 300,000

• Fließenders: 1 million

• Laminak: 100,000

• Réfsi: 800,000

• Tekushchiy: 1 million

• Other: 1 million

Sample Stats

PRO 8
ATH 9
STR 8
AWA 9
WIL 8
PRS 10
STH 9