Selkies

Selkies are a bizarre race of aquatics, unlike any of the others. When the Alliance expressed an urge to spread northwards, a large group of colonists was sent to start a city in the ocean around the Northern Continent. Once there, they found that the water was too cold for them to survive. They made contact with the terrestrial inhabitants of the Northern Continent in hopes of finding a solution, and were directed to the gnomish merchants that often sailed from the ports on the southern coasts. For unknown reasons, the gnomes decided to help the merfolk, and, with the help of several dwarven scientists, created an enchanted virus. It would allow the merfolk to bind their genes to those of seals. They would be able to transform into seals at will and gain several traits of them even when not transformed. As special addition, the gnomes added frost elf genes to the virus, giving the merfolk their resistance to cold, as well as replacing their fins with legs when not transformed. It was not contagious, and could only be spread by putting it in a specific potion and placing an equally specific enchantment on it. The newly created selkies were ideally adapted to life in the Northern Ocean, and were extremely grateful to the gnomes. They were unaware at the time that early versions of the virus had mutated and escaped, giving rise to the lycanthropy virus. When in their terrestrial form, selkies resemble merfolk with the legs of an elf (they are not blue, despite coming from frost elves, as only the bone structure was taken, and the skin is still that of a merfolk). They do have several seal-like characteristics, however, such as webbed feet and hands. Their seal form is almost indistinguishable from a normal seal, but their eyes are still a vibrant green. They also lost their ability to breathe underwater after the transformation, but can still hold their breath for up to half an hour in either form. Because of this, underwater cities that hold selkies have large towers leading up to the surface for air to travel through. Their mobility on land makes them the best candidates for aquatic diplomats and merchants.