Meet the MerSims

Stevie Maelstren

Merfolk in the Maelstren Pod often dwelled close to the shores around Ohan'Ali Town. Their pod had the closest relationship with humans. Their proximity to the shore and the human world ended up being their undoing. When the Human-Merfolk conflict escalated, the first pod to get hunted was the Maelstren Pod. Without warning and under the cover of darkness, the humans hunted down every Mer in the Maelstren Pod. When the sun rose, the Maelstren Pod no longer existed. Every single Maelstren Mer the humans found were dead. The humans believed that they hunted down every single one.

However, during the chaos, a merboy Stevie saved a merling Calden and a merling Lir. The merchildren fled to deeper water. Once his younger brother and cousins were safe, Stevie swam for Zalia Shore to warn the other pods. During Stevie's absence, Calden and Lir ended up lost at sea. Stevie tried to find them before the pods left Sulani, but he had no luck. It wasn't until he caught up with the Zalrian pod much later that he learned Lir was safe. Stevie still doesn't know what happened to his younger brother.

Many decades after the pods relocated, Stevie wanted to restore the Maelstren Pod. For that to happen, he needed to find a life partner, settle down, and locate his little brother and cousin. When Stevie fell in love with a halfling mermaid, his heart was broken. The halfling mermaid cheated on him with a human and proved to care very little about the ocean. Instead, she used Stevie for her own personal gain. Torn up by a broken heart, he gave up on restoring his pod. Depressed and alone, he went to Damion for a way to escape his heartache and live a new life.

Damion offered to grant him a human form in exchange for the Love in Stevie's Heart. Thinking he had nothing to lose, Stevie sacrificed his ability to love in exchange for the ability to take human form permanently.

Stevie now lives a life between the land and sea. He's incapable of finding love again. Without love in their hearts, merfolk are often consumed by darkness filling the void. Stevie proved resilient enough to hold onto the light in his heart. Over many decades, Stevie adjusted to life in the human world and learned how to blend in with them. While he lives out his days on land, he always returns to his home in the sea.

Among the islanders, Stevie is a known fire dancer and bartender. No humans know he's a merman, and for the most part, he's begun to live a quiet and peaceful life on land. Stevie is one of the first merfolk that returned to Zalia shores after the human-merfolk conflict.

Many humans have fallen for his looks and charm, but the love is always one sided. While Stevie doesn't seek out romance of any kind, he's often hearing the troubles of humans that buy a drink from him. He's learned how to help others through their troubles.

Damion agreed to help Stevie live a life on land because he wanted a Merman's Love in his collection, and he wanted to experiment with what would happen if a Benevolent Reef Mer lost the light of love. He knew that it had the potential to corrupt a mer, but he didn't know exactly how. Damion theorized that the reason Stevie never had the void in his heart turn him evil was because he never stopped trying to help others. Human or Mer, Stevie stayed true to his good nature shared by all Reef Merfolk.

Damion concluded that the loss of love only corrupts those that already have a malevolent nature or choose dark actions shortly after going on land. As for Stevie, Damion believes that a different light filled the void in Stevie's Heart.