Jihun

The story of Greater Heights revolves around a group of non-human, but humanoid creatures living in the coastal city of Nueveville. In this world, each larger species of humanoid is afflicted with a trait known as a Creature Curse, unique to the species but affecting everyone born to it. The source of the Creature Curse is unknown, but it is rumored to have been placed by a human magic user several generations ago.

Merfolk come in three categories; freshwater pondfolk, flexible tidefolk, and saltwater abyssfolk. The appearances of merfolk exist on a spectrum, with pondfolk looking the most similar to humans and abyssfolk having the appearance of more traditional sea monsters. All merfolk have webbed hands and ears, and scales on their legs when on land. Pondfolk have adopted human naming conventions, but tidefolk and abyssfolk identify family units through unique markings on their skin.

The merfolk Creature Curse is that they mate for life- forcibly. Merfolk can only love once, and if they are rejected or their partner dies they will wither away. Because of this merfolk are highly aware of their emotions, and arranged marriages are common in their society in upper class families. They are romantics at heart, though, and often these don't work out the way the families hope.

Jihun is the baby of his family, and was quite the troublemaker as a guppy. He got into a lot of messes with his best friend, and as he grew up the messes didn't really decrease but they did get more sophisticated. Jihun has been a creature rights activist for a long time, well aware that not all parts of the world are as friendly as Nueveville. He's a humanitarian who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty, but after starting the outreach program and opening Reunion Hall he's settled down a lot. Part of this is due to his marriage, though that was a bit of an ordeal as well. He was already fond of Sirrah when they met, but had always feared falling victim to his creature curse, so it took him a while to admit it. After he finally did, though, they moved remarkably fast even by merfolk standards. Some time after this, the two adopted a half mer boy they met during one of their events, and the three now live as a small but very happy family.