Merpeople ref

Trying to pin down some basic look to the Gore comic merpeople. I like to imagine they are a bigger deal in the comic than they actually are.

Anyway, there’s no visible anatomical sexual dimorphism between the male and female ones, only in colour (males generally being brighter and colourful and females being more dull) and the bodies and colours vary between the individuals/families. Meaning that sailors may have seen a lot less mermaids than they think. Also they don’t have gills, their lungs can take oxygen out of the water and they live pretty deep.
Merpeople don’t really hold humans in high regard, at best they may be helpful (like saving people in shipwrecks) and mostly really annoying dicks, though they rarely get aggressive without provocation.

Like with most humanoid monsters (like vampires and lamias), originally merpeople were normal people who got group cursed (like, a whole city) so strong in numbers that they were able to become an actual species in the long run. Meaning that their snotty attitudes towards humans is more bitterness that has been carried on through centuries and has become their pride.