The Moirae's Mirror - April

The Ecology of the Nymph

For FoA purposes (and in general) the term 'nymph' is a type noun of wide applicability. It marks something closer to a genus than a species, with a wide variety of types and subtypes populating that genus. 

Classifications

Within the category 'nymph,' broad subtypes are recognized based on affinity. Water nymphs, for example, are any of the subspecies which populate rivers, lakes, seas, or oceans, and are typically blue or grey-skinned, with hair in the same spectrum, or rarely white as seafoam. Some may have fins; any of them have gills as well as lungs, so they may breath both in and out of water. They are both visually and in terms of abilities quite different from the other nymph species: plant, earth, air, light, and the occasional fire. 

Within these species are subspecies. "Water" nymphs, for example, include Naiads (rivers, streams, lakes, marshes, and other kinds of freshwater), Oceanids (seas and oceans), and so on. Further differentiation is possible, too, as some Naiads distinguish themselves by the type of freshwater from which they are born or over which they preside. Pegaiai are the nymphs of springs, while their 'cousins' the Heleionomai are attached to marshes and wetlands. 

There is a rich taxonomy here, and that is even before one considers the realm a particular nymph inhabits. 

Environs

Nymphs can and do inhabit any of the three realms: Olympian nymphs are considered the most deity-like of their cohort, and are often capable of the most powerful magic. Despite this, their role on Olympus is usually in service to the gods there in some capacity or another, though many of them do make up the ordinary citizenry of the Olympian metropolis.

Nymphs in the mortal realm typically fill their usual role, as guardians of springs, groves, mountains, and so on. In such capacity, they occasionally interact with humans or demigods, but for the most part their lives are solitary, or carried out in insular, clannish communities, either exclusively with other nearby nymphs or with other beings nearby. Many mortal-realm nymphs are site-bound, unable to range too far from their spring or meadow or whatever else, and so dependent on others coming to them for company.

Though less common, there are also nymphs inhabiting the Underworld. So-called 'Chthonic Nymphs" are usually considered wretched and fallen by their kin, and in keeping with nymphs' tendency to take on the appearance of aspects of their environment, many are visibly distinct in that their palettes have more subdued and greyish tones, though some, especially Chthonic Oreads (a type of earth nymph), may have rich, jewel-toned color palettes uncommon in their kin elsewhere.

Some nymphs of the Chthonic or Olympian sorts have their own, albeit small, deific domains. A tree nymph, for instance, may be the guardian or poplars or oaks. Such particular beings are generally much more powerful than those who are attached to a specific place or thing, and do not have the same restrictions on their travel and lifestyle.

Nymph Reproduction and Gender

The vast majority of nymphs (but certainly not all of them) identify as female. While biological childbirth is possible for them, they tend to generate by other means, with a nymph typically coming into existence as a natural phenomenon of the requisite type does. On Olympus, this is a much more regulated process, and biological childbirth is more common, though still exceedingly rare.

Chthonic nymphs rarely if ever reproduce, as the Underworld's conditions are not conducive to it.