Beneath The Waves - Mura Kelp kingdom

final humanoid design before moving on to the creature designs-

far from the conflicts of the reef tribes and the cetan raiders, the inhabitants of the mura kingdom live in relative peace deep within the kelp forests. One striking feature all kelp inhabitants share that easily distinguishes them from the other races is their glowing yellow eyes. the tall dense kelp reaching up to the edge of the surface covers up most of the sunlight, leaving the sea prairies of the mura lands in an almost perpetual twillight, due to this reason many ocean bacteria and plankton species developed bio-luminescence, but unlike other bio-luminescent organisms in the reefs and oceans that glow blue, the ones in the mura kingdom glows yellow, and over many generations, some of these yellow bacteria have evolved to live inside the eyes of the mura merfolks. upon hatching, merfolk infants are fed with certain species of kelps where the dormant versions of these bacterias lay waiting to be ingested and transferred into the infant's developing eyes. it is actually a common method of punisment among dishonorable mura nobility to have their children taken away from them and not be given these kelps so that they will grow up to live in near blindness without glowing eyes.

the people of the mura kingdom can be divided into two society classes, the regular peasant fishes, and the ruling nobility leopard sharks and ray/skates people, though one race of fish merfolk, the giant kelp fish people are among the well respected fish race due to a past internal war in mura history. 

clothing and armor in mura culture is almost solely based on kelp, as there aren't many other resources in the kelp forests, even their weapons are made from sharpened kelp stalks that resemble bamboos, or weaved and pressed from their leaves to form staffs. many mura weapons are made to be cutting weapons, thin long slicing sticks basically, or staffs that can grip and choke their opponent. as in most fighting in the kelp forests there is little open space. So merfolks have to engage in cat and mouse fights, hiding among the tall kelps and striking when their opponent is unguarded, often just running down the length of their very sharp kelp blades onto their vital weakspots. armor isn't seen much as a neccesity to the mura merfolks as they believe one's reflexes and mastery of the blade should determine whether or not they live through a fight. this coupled with the fact that large scale wars have almost never happened in the relatively peaceful kingdom have led to the minimal and simplistic weapons and armors of the mura kingdom. despite that fact, the structure and sophistication of mura society is comparable to the cetans, even if their technology can't match theirs. They live in villages of weaved kelp, where the kelp stalks are neatly kept in tidy rows forming pathways, some even turned into beautiful village gates, and in these pathways, kelp lanterns filled with captured bio-luminescent planktons are placed in every side of the path. one interesting thing is that in order for these lanterns to glow the plankton inside must be shaken before they'll illuminate for several hours and afterwards fade again, so very often village patrol merfolks have to swim up along the path, using their long staffs to shake up the lanterns so that it will light up the area for the passing villagers. This also became a good method for the mura kingdom to set up curfews and market hours for their subjects.