Merm lore thread

[Baark0]

saw ppl talking about merms in my qol thread so here you go have fun talk about wurt's bugs fish people lore

[Dextops]

heres my lil interpretation

animals in the gorge whether it be the swamp pigs or goats angered the gnaw and turned into merms. What happened after or at least what pipton says is the sick went to sea so im inferring they ended up in the constant and start doing some wacky ****. somewhere along the way merms evolved into 3 species merm merm guard and fisher merms though people say merm guards are the female variation of merms idk if this is true. Long after maxwell comes around screws somethings up adds some racists pigs and then refuses to elaborate. The pigs and merms have an ongoing race war wurt is born makes a merm king and then present day.

[QuQuasar]

In the beginning, there was mermkind. And mermkind looked upon the constant, and saw that it was Good.

And then ugly pigfolk showed up and ruined everything.

[SecretPizzaMan]

We first need to point out a unique property of the constant, it causes it's inhabitants to go insane and lose their minds, why wouldn't this apply to pigs, merms or bunnymen?

First we need to know how merms are made... like what the hell is happening in those houses cause when we hammer them no extra merms appear, so I'm assuming there's a portal to merm paradise and they have a seasonal hunger games every day where 100 merms are used as tributes to be sent to the constant in order to appease the constant. Same with pigs and bunnymen.

Maybe they were more sophisticated before arriving to the constant, maybe they are the lowest of society, like prisoners or the ones in debt, if so, that'd mean the constant doesn't induce higher rates of Insanity and that this merm society isn't a paradise. Can someone put their more knowledgeable input on this hypothesis.

[QuQuasar]

On a more serious note, I don't think the Gorgefolk getting mermified and going to the sea paints them as the origin of Merms in the Constant. I think the former is more akin to Odysseus' crew getting turned into pigs as a punishment for pissing off Circe, and the latter is simply a straightforward lovecraft allusion. There's nothing to indicate that the oceans of the Gorge and the Constant are connected.

The Merms are definitely among the oldest still-living sapients in the Constant. They probably weren't around in the Ancients time: at least, there's nothing in Wurt's quotes or the Ancients murals to support that. 

I think it's possible, therefore, that they were a creation of the Ancient King after his civilizations downfall, in the same way that the pigs were a creation of Maxwell.

36 minutes ago, SecretPizzaMan said:

We first need to point out a unique property of the constant, it causes it's inhabitants to go insane and lose their minds, why wouldn't this apply to pigs, merms or bunnymen?

Merms get sanity by hugging the pet fish in their inventory.*

Pigs provide sanity to allied pigs. Additionally, they spend the evenings in their well-lit houses, countering any sanity loss from darkness.

Bunnymen are unaffected by sanity because they are horrible beard monsters. What we see while sane is a delusion, a comforting dream we buy into so we don't spend our every waking moment gibbering in terror.

 

*footnote: and suddenly I realize that we desperately need a "/hugfish" emote for Wurt. Get on it, Klei!

[HowlVoid]

"Pigs. Spiders. Merms. Bunnymen. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Spider Nation attacked. Only the Survivor, master of all four mobs, could stop them, but when the world needed them most, they vanished. A hundred years passed and Charlie discovered the new survivors, a mob-bender named *insert character name here*. And although their mob-bending skills are great, they have a lot to learn before they are ready to save anyone. But I believe *insert character name here* can save the constant."

[Harrowick]

1 hour ago, QuQuasar said:

*footnote: and suddenly I realize that we desperately need a "/hugfish" emote for Wurt. Get on it, Klei!

This could be the best update of 2022. 

[MikoFanboy]

13 hours ago, QuQuasar said:

 

In the beginning, there was mermkind. And mermkind looked upon the constant, and saw that it was Good.

And then ugly pigfolk showed up and ruined everything

 

Merm, merm, merm and more merm

Long ago, the four nation lived together in harmony 

Then, everything changed when the ugly pig attacked

Only Wurt, master of "the power of being playable" could stop them, but when the world needed her most, Klei forget about her

 

Many months passed and a bunch of players and I discovered about her, a young little girl, and although her visual bug and meh gameplay is still there, she still wait till the day Klei ready to does something about her

[maradyne]

3 hours ago, QuQuasar said:

*footnote: and suddenly I realize that we desperately need a "/hugfish" emote for Wurt. Get on it, Klei!

every day until you like it

[Dextops]

9 hours ago, QuQuasar said:

I don't think the Gorgefolk getting mermified and going to the sea paints them as the origin of Merms in the Constant.

this is just my best guess and i haven't seen any evidence otherwise

 

9 hours ago, QuQuasar said:

There's nothing to indicate that the oceans of the Gorge and the Constant are connected.

same with this only insight on where the merms went is with pipton

[RoseAppraiser]

9 hours ago, HowlVoid said:

"Pigs. Spiders. Merms. Bunnymen. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Spider Nation attacked. Only the Survivor, master of all four mobs, could stop them, but when the world needed them most, they vanished. A hundred years passed and Charlie discovered the new survivors, a mob-bender named *insert character name here*. And although their mob-bending skills are great, they have a lot to learn before they are ready to save anyone. But I believe *insert character name here* can save the constant."

Cheeky, someone make a mod for this immediately and this Rose Appraiser shall bestow a *proverbial* Golden Rose Branch to congratulate them.

[Cookie95]

Keep in mind that Wurt has little horns on her head, so she is likely somewhat related to the goat people from the Gorge. Maybe one of her parents was cursed, resulting in her unique look?

[Dextops]

1 minute ago, Geo95 said:

Keep in mind that Wurt has little horns on her head, so she is likely somewhat related to the goat people from the Gorge. Maybe one of her parents was cursed, resulting in her unique look?

merm guards also have horns not all merms have to come from gorge seeing from fisher merms they reproduce and evolve

[Cookie95]

You are right, I forgot about those. So Wurt is just a child merm guard I guess.

12 hours ago, Dextops said:

Long after maxwell comes around screws somethings up adds some racists pigs and then refuses to elaborate.

According to the Pig King vignette, pigs traveled themselves to the Constant (possibly from Hamlet). It's not clear if pigs or merms arrived there first.

[Dextops]

16 minutes ago, Geo95 said:

You are right, I forgot about those. So Wurt is just a child merm guard I guess.

According to the Pig King vignette, pigs traveled themselves to the Constant (possibly from Hamlet). It's not clear if pigs or merms arrived there first.

does maxwell have special dialogue for pigs? idk but he does for merms saying they were there before he was

[Cookie95]

12 minutes ago, Dextops said:

does maxwell have special dialogue for pigs? idk but he does for merms saying they were there before he was

He doesn't have special dialogue but according to the vignette it is safe to assume that at least he didn't create them. This is the exact text:

Legend has it the Pig King and his followers left their home long ago to rule freely in The Constant.

[Echsrick]

im just goin to say that the gorge merms and constand merms are literaly 2 differend kind of merms the merm merm and the mermtransformed its realy easy and wurt skin is just to like have a reference so notihgns canon

[Dextops]

18 minutes ago, Dr.Medic said:

im just goin to say that the gorge merms and constand merms are literaly 2 differend kind of merms the merm merm and the mermtransformed its realy easy and wurt skin is just to like have a reference so notihgns canon

imma guess what you said but there is no evidence to prove gorge merms and constant merms are 2 different types/species and came from different origins so this is just a head cannon

[Echsrick]

2 hours ago, Dextops said:

imma guess what you said but there is no evidence to prove gorge merms and constant merms are 2 different types/species and came from different origins so this is just a head cannon

so is that there the same there is no evidence that there are the same

[Dextops]

16 minutes ago, Dr.Medic said:

so is that there the same there is no evidence that there are the same

yes there is
piptons quote for where the sick went and our only known origin of merms being from gorge

[ShadowDuelist]

1 hour ago, Dextops said:

our only known origin of merms being from gorge

Their common origin could be the gnaw.
Maybe the gnaw moves across different planets/realms and changes their inhabitants into merms (for whatever reason that is). The gnaw being an otherworldly entity could have been in the constant at some point, created merms, then left (or was banished by other supreme beings of the constant)

[Dextops]

15 hours ago, QuQuasar said:

I think it's possible, therefore, that they were a creation of the Ancient King after his civilizations downfall, in the same way that the pigs were a creation of Maxwell.

wut?

1 minute ago, ShadowDuelist said:

Their common origin could be the gnaw.
Maybe the gnaw moves across different planets/realms and changes their inhabitants into merms (for whatever reason that is). The gnaw being an otherworldly entity could have been in the constant at some point, created merms, then left (or was banished by other supreme beings of the constant)

yeah sorry should've specified better the only known origin of merms is the gnaw which we've only seen to inhabit the gorge

[ShadowDuelist]

Speaking of the gorge, was it finally revealed who was the "other of your kind" that went through the gorge as mentioned by Mumsy? Was it Warly, or was it Wagstaff? Or someone else entirely.

Why do I bring this?

Because the Gnaw is a being that is clearly hungry. And perhaps the way it enjoys its food, is being a Merm. So for that it makes the creatures of a planet sick so they turn into merms, which it will then eat. Like maybe you, reading this, would add ketchup to your food.
Now let's say that all of a sudden you are hungry and in your usual behavior about to put some ketchup to your potato french fries. Except these fries, which are sentient  potato fries, tell you to hang on, and start cooking delicious things for you, to keep you distracted, while they escape.

Well I like to think that the Gorge's inhabitants were doomed, with a one way ticket to be mermified and eaten, until Warly arrived, taught them advanced cuisine as a means to keep the hunger of the Gnaw, and then he eventually escaped. And by doing this, he gave the inhabitants a powerful tool to survive (which, is eventually shown to Wilson and company by Mumsy).

So basically, regardless if the Gnaw visited the constant before or not, the Merms are ketchup covered potato fries that thrived and kept going despite all, and got angry at the pigs for some reason (which we will call sentient pizza from now on).

Anyway, I'm hungry RN, I'll keep expanding later maybe.

[Dextops]

4 minutes ago, ShadowDuelist said:

Speaking of the gorge, was it finally revealed who was the "other of your kind" that went through the gorge as mentioned by Mumsy? Was it Warly, or was it Wagstaff? Or someone else entirely.

Why do I bring this?

Because the Gnaw is a being that is clearly hungry. And perhaps the way it enjoys its food, is being a Merm. So for that it makes the creatures of a planet sick so they turn into merms, which it will then eat. Like maybe you, reading this, would add ketchup to your food.
Now let's say that all of a sudden you are hungry and in your usual behavior about to put some ketchup to your potato french fries. Except these fries, which are sentient  potato fries, tell you to hang on, and start cooking delicious things for you, to keep you distracted, while they escape.

Well I like to think that the Gorge's inhabitants were doomed, with a one way ticket to be mermified and eaten, until Warly arrived, taught them advanced cuisine as a means to keep the hunger of the Gnaw, and then he eventually escaped. And by doing this, he gave the inhabitants a powerful tool to survive (which, is eventually shown to Wilson and company by Mumsy).

So basically, regardless if the Gnaw visited the constant before or not, the Merms are ketchup covered potato fries that thrived and kept going despite all, and got angry at the pigs for some reason (which we will call sentient pizza from now on).

Anyway, I'm hungry RN, I'll keep expanding later maybe.

what are you on because i want some