Research: Mythical Adaro

In addition to several fictional works, I'm also working on a mass fantastic reference of mythological beings. I have Excel sheets, Word lists, and several combined notebooks just for this pet project, working to document as many creatures, and variations of those creatures, I can. It's fascinating and eye-opening work that provides all of these mythological entities not drained dry by mainstream media (poor werewolves and vampires, they've been through a lot).

Mermaids have been through a lot, too.

Today, I'm jumpstarting the actual deep research required for this project; I have the names, I have the mythologies, I have the geographical locations, but I don't yet have the myths or the facts or the images. Starting alphabetically (because Excel is fabulous), I started with the Adaro from the Solomon Islands, near Australia. 

Solomon Islands Adaro Sculpture (c) JCC Jewelry

The Adaro is a malevolent mer-person, often considered a sea spirit rising from the wicked part of a person's spirit. According to Encyclopedia Mythica, the Adaro travels along rainbows and attacks men by shooting poisonous flying fish at them. These dangerous merfolk are also known to travel in waterspouts, according to Mythical Creatures Guide. The Adaro are described as more fish than man, with gills behind the ears; fins for feet; a horn like a shark's dorsal fin; and a swordfish/sawfish-like spear growing out of his head.

Merfolk are highly sexualized mythological beings in mainstream media, so it's intriguing to learn about actual merfolk in actual mythologies. They're not all half smooth fish tail and half well-formed human; clearly, some are dangerous and that presents quite a interesting image. If anything you can have fun imagining a man-fish sending a swarm of poisonous flying piranhas at a really annoying character.