And so the search continued for even safer shelters such as deep gorges.
Finally, the ideal location was found, with high walls and only one entrance from above. Then the idea arose to close off this entrance with a dome.
This would not only provide safety from predators, but also from the mermen's arch-enemies...the mermaids.
For as long as either group could remember, there had always been war between them.
At regular intervals, minor conflicts arose for the slightest reasons,...
...which always degenerated into major battles. However, these rarely resulted in fatalities.
Once a year, however, all hostilities ceased. When the seawater was at its warmest, the mermen chose their most beautiful specimen to court the queen of the mermaids.
Together they had to provide for offspring.
Courtship lasted a day and a night, according to strictly prescribed rituals. In the past, it sometimes happened that one of the partners died after the act.
Once the act was completed, the queen retreated to a secret location where she laid tiny eggs, which continued to develop outside her body as their embryos grew.
When the eggshells were broken, the queen, who had watched over them all this time, left the secret cave. The female babies followed her to be accepted into the community of mermaids. The male babies would survive on the coral reef until they were six years old before receiving their training in the merman group.