Miscellaneous Information
I coined the term "nereid" in reference to Mutio's people.
Others have taken to calling all of them "Mutios", but the term is misnomer;
Mutio is only the name of a unique individual of them. In Greek mythology,
nereids are nymphs of the sea, and daughters of the the old man of sea and
his wife. They lived at the bottom of the sea and often aided sailors and
travelers.
Zorndyke also seemed to be working on a "dryad". Dryads
are forest nymphs that protect trees. They would be born into a tree, and
then watch over it although some dryads were the spirit of the tree. A dryad
would then die when her tree fell. His dryad showed a bit of animation, her
face turning to look at the newcomers. Her arms grow outward (literally)
into limbs.
Musikae are another one of Zorndyke's creations,
and appear to be genetically altered sperm whales with deadly songs. Someone
appropriately called them bio-subs. A true sperm whale's echolocation is
known to stun pray, but this ability has been amplified. Musika sounds
suspiciously like Mysticeti (the Latin scientific name for the whale
genus) or mustikos, Greek for mysterious.
Some people have assumed that the entire nereid
population is exclusively feminine due to the large numbers of females seen,
and the fact that there is no such thing as a male "mermaid". This is not
true. Katsuma is a prime example of a male nereid, another one of Zorndyke's
experiments.