Ceffyl Dwr

Secluded in large mountain cities, the Ceffyl Dwr are a semi-aquatic people. Once travelling the world, long ago, now anxious of foreigners, paranoid of the conflicts that had forced them to hide ages past. Often compared to the Kelpie of the Welsh, the Ceffyl Dwr tend to blend in with humans, concealing their identity to all, even from one another.

Appearance and Anatomy
The Ceffyl Dwr are humanoid in shape, though shorter than humans, the tallest of them being around 5'8. They have pale, pearl grey skin, with voluminous hair and fur. While the most common hair colour is Stone Blue, though there are families who have black and white hair. Their arms end in clawed paws, their long legs ending hooves. Ceffyl Dwr skin is smooth, producing a sheath of slime in times of great distress or trauma.

They have a tail similar that of merfolk, typically the same length as their legs, with hair trailing the back of the leg. The tails appearance can often distinguish different Ceffyl Dwr families from one another, some families having stubby tails with patched hair, others with almost comically stretched tails with a thin layer of hair.

Within the Ceffyl Dwr body is an organ that regulates their temperature, and branching from this organ is a network of veins. If a Ceffyl Dwr's temperature exceeds a certain threshold, they shall begin to evaporate, and become mist. Once they cool down again, the aforementioned vein networks allows them to reform properly without any abnormality. Should this system be impaired, it is not unknown for Ceffyl Dwr's to remain permanently as mist, never to return to their true form.

Ceffyl Dwr also have the ability to shapeshift, though it is not a be-all end-all trump card that some view it as. While a Ceffyl Dwr can assume any form, the further the form is from their origin, the harder it is to become as such. For example, disguising as human may only take a few minutes with little concentration, impersonating a sea-monster or mountain would take hours, or even days of hard concentration that the benefit hardly outweighs the process. However, this downside can be negated through vigorous study of an object, and some tales tell of Ceffyl Dwr who consume life to emulate its form.

Behaviour and Culture
The Ceffyl Dwr are an incredibly secretive race, being hunted for their inhuman appearance long ago. They typically colonize the mountains, often blending in with humans to easily establish cities. They have no native language, choosing instead to learn the language of the environment around them.