| “ | The entire Eastern Pod, including tenth-level mermaids, lost their powers to this creature... | ” |
The Eastern Pod was an ancient pod of mermaids that lived in the waters of the East China Sea near the mainland of China.[1] Unfortunately, around the late 1990s or early 2000s, the entire Eastern Pod was defeated and wiped out by the water dragon (actually a cursed Nerissa)'s cold fire breath that turned almost all of its present mermaid members permanently into human beings, resulting in the ancient pod's eventual disbandment. It was known, however, that some members of the pod survived, including a hatchling named Weilan, and the latter's elderly grandmother, and were still part of the Eastern Pod following the water dragon's devastating attack. As of the mid-2010s, the current fate of the Eastern Pod, along with their legacy, remained unknown, though it was presumed that it was eventually reactivated.
Prior to the Eastern Pod's eventual disbandment, Weilan's Grandmother was said to be one of the elders of its Mermaid Council.
Rules[]
Every pod has their own rules. The rules of Eastern Pod are unrevealed.
Description[]
See the main article: Pod.
The Eastern Pod possessed the knowledge of certain moves and spells known primarily only to its members, such as "Turn the Tide", a very difficult self-defense move to deflect magic that no Southern merperson was known to master, and a powerful spell to transfer knowledge.
Hatchling members of the Eastern Pod were also taught the Turn the Tide spell as a part of the curriculum of its Merpeople School, presumably as a form of self-defense. Eastern merpeople also became skilled with Chinese kung-fu styles, and used them for their spell-casting.
History[]
Since ancient times, a pod of dozens of Eastern mermen and mermaids was found living in the waters of the East China Sea.
Due to the entire merkind race being magically gifted with extraordinary magical abilities and the capacity of amplifying them hundreds of times by Moon Pools since ancient times, the mermaids across the seas, including the Eastern Pod, honor the Full Moon in a ceremony since then, which was reserved only for the initiated mermaid members of the pod in the possession of a Moon Ring.
Eons later, during the Shang Dynasty, the Chinese Mermaid was a member of the Eastern Pod and fell in love with a land boy. When another pod heard of this, they punished the mermaid and her entire pod by turning the land boy into a Water Dragon. The Chinese mermaid used the Jiao Long Bracelet to undo the spell on her lover and return him to his human form. Despite these events, the Eastern Pod was eventually restored.
Approximately two thousand years later during the 11th Century, an army of Eastern mermaids, along with four other mermaids from the other four oceans, drew on the powers of the oceans and locked the Trident away in the Trident Cave with one of the kinder merman's help. From then on, all mermen were to be abandoned by their mothers when they were born to be raised on land in human foster families as the Legs Spell easily makes it possible.
Centuries later, in the late 1990s, the Eastern Pod found itself under attack by the rebel mermaid, Aurora. A powerful Northern mermaid named Nerissa came to their rescue and fought alongside them for years. Eventually, the battle with the Eastern Pod turned against Aurora and Nerissa went to face her alone. During the battle, Aurora overpowered her and turned Nerissa into a Water Dragon. She forced her to destroy the entire Eastern Pod by stripping its members' tails and magical powers with its cold fire, turning them permanently into human beings, despite the Eastern Pod's efforts to fight the dragon. Later, its surviving members, including a hatchling named Weilan and her elderly grandmother, were forced to flee to the mainland of China, and eventually the pod split, when all of their efforts to restore their lost tailed true selves and magical powers proved to be utterly futile.
After the defeat of the Water Dragon in July, 2014, Weilan decided to go back to China to restart the Eastern Pod and Ondina decided to go with her. It is unknown if she succeeded in rebuilding the pod, and if mermen were allowed to rejoin the pod, though given Weilan and the rest of the pod's more tolerant view and outlook on mermen and boys in general due to being raised on land since the water dragon's attack, it was likely that they did.
Known Members[]
Current[] |
Former[]
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Etymology[]
- The Eastern Pod derived its name from the East, one of the four main cardinal points of the globe, where the Moon and the Sun was known to rise up, and where their native East China Sea was located.
Trivia[]
- According to Weilan, Eastern mermaids used their Moon Rings to shape clumps of seaweed to look like land people and made them dance on top of the water.
- It was unknown if Weilan ever succeeded in reconstituting her native pod. As she expressed her interest in returning to Shanghai, China, following Nerissa being reverted back to normal, and the threat of the water dragon being permanently neutralized, it was possible that she, with the support and aiding of her best-friend, Ondina, a Southern mermaid native from the Mako Pod, was eventually able to rebuild the pod with the other surviving members, including Eastern mermen, who might had been allowed back into the pod.