Editing Merfolk (section)

== The Overcrowded Aquatic Humanoid Niche ==
Merfolk are a pretty iconic "underwater race" in Western culture, but they're far from the only such creatures. And since D&D takes the "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to race design, well, merfolk kind of draw the short straw in that there have been a fuckton of races over the editions who can basically be described as "magical humanoids who live underwater". A ''short'' list of them, and only listing the ones that specifically live underwater rather than the "humanoids adapted to life on the coasts or at sea" like the various [[demihuman]] subraces from [[Environment Book Series|Stormwrack]], would include:
* [[Aquatic Elf|Aquatic Elves]], who are literally "elves, but underwater".
* [[Selkie]]s, aquatic fey who can shapeshift into the form of seals.
* [[Siren|Sirines]], which are literally [[nymph]]s of the sea.
* [[Pahari]], which are the [[Al-Qadim]] equivalent of merfolk, except they're a) able to transform into pure human and pure fish forms, and b) exclusively women.
* [[Triton]]s, which are either two-tailed merfolk or merfolk with legs depending on the edition.
* [[Nereid]]s, the ''actual'' oceanic [[nymph]] from Greco-Roman mythology.
* [[Shalarin]], fin-backed sea-people native to the [[Forgotten Realms]].
* [[Liminal]]s, which at least are supposed to be "half-merfolk".
* [[Sea Kin]], the specific [[Half-Fey]] born to aquatic fey like selkies, sirines and nereids.
* [[Aventi]], which are your stock "[[Atlantean]]s as humans who can breathe underwater and swim good" race. 
* [[Koalinth]]s, which are aquatic [[hobgoblin]]s.
* [[Merrow]], which began as "[[ogre]]s, but live underwater".
* [[Scrag]]s, which are the [[troll]] counterpart to merrow.
* [[Malenti]], which are aquatic elves, but secretly sharks.

Considering that all of these - which aren't even accounting for the "aquatic [[beastfolk]] races like [[crabfolk]] or [[locathah]] - are able to actually get around on dry land and most of them are playable, and the poor merfolk look even more screwed over.

===Gallery===
<gallery>
Merman 1e.jpg|1e
Merman monster card.jpg|AD&D Monster Card
Merman MCV2.jpg|2e
Merman MM 2e.png
Merfolk 5e.png|5e
TWBTW palasha.png
</gallery>