A sometimes winged being with an upper body that resembles a woman and a fish or serpent-like lower body. The lower body or "tail" can be doubled with fins or single with no fin.

Most live below the surface of freshwater lakes, springs, and rivers. However, they are able to survive above the surface for short periods of time and may appear human-like while on land.

There is also a rare race that lives primarily above the surface, they are found in or near forested mountain regions. Forest melusines may have serpentine tails or they may have two legs and closely resemble humans.

Melusines are deeply steeped in the occult and each one is customarily expected to master the art of sorcery. They have or can learn almost any magick but are especially strong in bottling or trapping entities and humans, transforming beings into monsters or cursing/endowing beings with monstrous traits, and changeling substitution.

Changeling substitution is the process of taking an elderly melusine, reforming it to appear as a human baby, then stealing a human baby and leaving the changeling in its place. Only human males are taken, they are raised beneath the surface and then later used for reproductive purposes.

The offspring can be born either above or below the surface of the water. Those born above appear to be mostly human, those born below appear to be mostly melusine. Both types of children often have atypical characteristics such as fangs, deformed hands, or other abnormalities. The males are almost always infertile.

In heraldry the double tailed melusine is often depicted with one tail held up in each arm. In folklore, Melusine was the name of half human half fae creature who was cursed to become a serpent from the waist down every Saturday.

Also known as Melsuline and Melusina.

See Also: Creatures by Type: Mermaids, Serpents