| “ | I was nine-years-old. We were living in Ireland at the time. My parents were busy, so I went exploring, and there was this place. I walked down by the ocean at the bottom of the cliffs. I felt, I felt drawn there like, like I was looking for something, only I didn't know what. There was a cave. I felt so peace in there, like, like I belonged. And then, something magical happened. | ” |
Nine-year-old Bella Hartley becomes a mermaid in the Sea Caves of Ireland
The Sea Caves of Ireland were a set of sea caves located somewhere on the Irish coast, where a Moon Pool was found facing the North Atlantic Ocean.[1]
Story[]
In ancient times, an impact of a celestial object created a part of Mako Island,[2] approximately 50 kilometers off the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, where the first known Moon Pool was later established at its heart. It was believed that several of its shards impacted other places on Earth, creating the set of sea caves at the Irish coast, and possibly other Moon Pools across the globe. The rock of these caves was the same material as a comet, creating a magnetic attraction that regularly pulled it to Earth.
Pre-Series[]
In early 1700s, a young Irish girl (believed to be a mermaid) named Eva used her abilities to save those around her from a comet that was later named after her. Once the comet's eventual impact was repelled, she disappeared, and her fate remained unknown.[3]
Many centuries later, in late 1990s, a young girl named Isabella Hartley underwent her metamorphosis in the Irish Moon Pool at the age of nine, granting her power to turn water into a jelly-like substance, and to solidify water into another substance similar to glass. Years later, Bella found a crystal at the bottom of the pool, tied it on a string, and wore it as a necklace.[1]
Through the Series[]
H2O: Just Add Water[]
The Irish Moon Pool was last mentioned many years later in 2008 by a recently teenage-year-old Bella when she relocated to the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, and became a part of a group formed by her and her new friends, Cleo Sertori, and Rikki Chadwick, the latter two underwent their metamorphosis together with Emma Gilbert, who had departed to travel the world with her own family, in another Moon Pool at the heart of an ancient and mysterious Mako Island back on February 13, 2006.
Features[]
The Sea Caves of Ireland, like any Moon Pool, have the power to transform humans into merpeople, when the Full Moon passes over, granting them all merperson powers if someone enters alone. When two or more people enters, the Moon Pool grants them individual powers as it chooses. It can be guessed that different Moon Pools will give different water-based powers. The Irish Moon Pool grants the powers of Substanciakinesis and Gelidkinesis. Isabella Hartley is the only known mermaid to have these powers.
The water in all Moon Pools appears normal to scientific experiement, but is a type of magical Moon Water, which holds the power of the moon itself. All active Moon Pools itselves are the only known counter-spells of the Tailless Spell. There is a potion of full moon magic amplified by fifty which has to be used on a merperson in the Moon Pool during the regular Full Moon and another merperson could use it to extract another human-metamorphosed-merperson's powers.
All Moon Pools around the Earth generate different magnetism and effects depending on the moon's phases and the planetary alignments. The known effects are as follows:
- Lunar Eclipse: During a Lunar Eclipse, any human-turned merperson who is in the Moon Pool during the event will be stripped of their powers for a period of twelve hours. After this period, their powers and tail will be restored.
- The Moon of Weather Magic: Also known as the Elemental Moon, during a rare planetary alignment, the moon will increase the water-affiliated powers of any human-turned merperson, granting them the weather and elemental powers if they are in the waters of any active Moon Pool during the event. A merperson with a power of Gelidkinesis or Substanciakinesis is speculated to receive Geokinesis, the power to control the earth.
- The Moon of Fifty Years: Every fifty years, when all planets are lined up with the moon, any human-turned merperson who enters the pool will be stripped of their powers permanently. It is unknown whether they can undergo metamorphosis again. A potion exists to recreate this effect at other times.
- Comet Collision: When a comet comes within range of collision with a Moon Pool, the pool itself undergoes changes. The known effects are only proven in the Mako Island Pool, but historical data can suggest similar effects in the Irish Pool. These are as follows:
- A rise in temperature in the air and the water of the Pool and surrounding cave;
- A tentacle generated to warn nearby merpeople of the impending danger;
- The ability to display a projection to merpeople of the events to come in order to warn them; and
- The power to magnify the powers of any merperson in order to help divert the course of the comet.
- Seventh Lunar Cycle: During a seventh lunar cycle in the life of a new-born or a recently human-turned merman hatchling, it was believed that a fledgling merman's magical powers and connection to the specific Moon Pool that served as the source of their metamorphosis was to escalate to greater levels of strength than before. It was not known whether this cycle was truly cyclical, and could be repeated more than once in a fledgling's lifetime.
Merpeople native from the sea are immune to all of these events, and they only have temporary or permanent effects on their kind that once were humans (as sea-born mermaids do not have a human form, despite do possesses the ability to grant themselves one with a Moon Ring).
Trivia[]
- The Sea Caves of Ireland are one of three known Moon Pools, with the other two being on Mako Island, and somewhere off the coast of China.
- The exact location of the Irish Moon Pool was unknown, as it was only known that it was nestled somewhere on the Irish coast, but it was never revealed exactly where.
- It is possible the Irish Moon Pool is the native Moon Pool of either the Northern Pod or the Western Pod.
- Isabella Hartley is the only known person to go through metamorphosis in the Irish Pool.
- It was unknown whether Bella ever re-visited the Irish Moon Pool before she was forced to relocate to another country sometime after her metamorphosis.
- It was unknown if Eva was a natural-born or a human-turned mermaid, and if the latter proved correct, where she might had underwent her metamorphosis, although Bella, who herself underwent her metamorphosis in the Irish Moon Pool at the age of nine during the late 1990s, believed her to underwent her metamorphosis in the Irish Moon Pool as well. It was also unknown whether Eva was a member of a Pod, and even if she was a mermaid in the first place.
- Bella mentioned that she felt drawn to the pool before her transformation. It could be assumed that there was a power akin to fate at work. This aligned with Ondina's speech given at the end of Mako: Island of Secrets, when she affirmed that Rikki and her friends were 'drawn' to the Mako Moon Pool.
- Bella mentioned she felt like she belonged and was at peace there. Ondina and Mimmi were noted to sleep in the Mako Pool, suggesting its a similar feeling to how one feels secure in their bedroom.
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