So what are nim about?

The word 'nim' is very old. It's a plural noun, and refers to us. It's not the first name we ever had though. Before that we were called Y, pronounced 'eeee'. But that's another story. Nim is a word we adopted for ourselves, meaning 'taken', 'snatched away', 'plucked', because before we had these forms we used to live on a different planet, from where we were taken, by the First Ones, the ones who called us Y. They rescued us in fact, but didn't give us any choice in the matter, and in order to allow us to live on this planet they gave us new bodies. So none of us ever really remembered what we used to be like on that other planet (though one of us subsequently found out how we looked back then, and gradually many of us learned that from her too).
As to why we were rescued, and what from, well, that's a long story too. The fact is, we are now what we are, and we are probably much better off for having been taken and changed.
The word nim was taken up by the humans we met, and they changed it in their own unstructured languages into other words, so that most humans today are not familiar with the original form of the word. The nearest human word is probably 'nymph' now, which has bent the meaning of 'taken' into 'taken as a bride'. Wishful thinking probably. Other languages still have the base nim meaning 'to take' though, as in German nimmen, Sanskrit ni, or Cantonese 拈 nim, usually meaning to pluck as of a flower, but still used in a popular phrase about chasing girls.
In other languages, humans gave us other names, either of their own invention, or more usually, by adopting one of the more specific terms we use for different kinds of nim, and using that for all of us. For example, we are called apsaras in India, due to them thinking that our word for water nymphs referred to all of us. In some cases, humans only ever met one of our sub-species, or used a word correctly which referred to the group they met, such as dryads or valkyries, or they just made up general terms for what they thought we might be, like nature spirits, fey folk, the hidden ones, or such terms as these.
We weren't always hidden from humans. There was a time when we outnumbered humans on this planet. A long long time ago. In those days humans were no threat to us. A nuisance at times, with their lusty attention, yes, but no threat. But the world changed in so many ways since those happy times. Through the ages, humans have become dominant, and so so numerous. Humans have now forgotten that they used to share this world with anyone else. They lost their respect for the ancient wisdom, they lost their connection with and love of nature. And through their scientific curiosity and ignorant and greedy polluting ways they have unfortunately become a threat to us.
We can no longer avoid contact with humans as we once did. And sadly, most nim no longer hold out much hope of educating enough humans to make a difference any more. So now we stopped being 'the hidden ones', and most of us are now, 'the disguised ones', mingling with humans, pretending that we are human ourselves, always fearing that our true nature will be discovered.
Some of you may ask, what do we have to fear? Why not reveal ourselves? Well, unfortunately, the world is now run by powerful, greedy and secretive people. Some human leaders will stop at nothing to hold onto and to increase their power over others, and their material wealth. They hold onto their power by preventing others from learning about their weapon technology, by exploiting others in secret, by disregarding the well being of anyone who is not useful to them. Our problem, which used to be our blessing, is that a certain ability of ours could undermine their power and secrecy, or if harnessed by them, could be used to greatly increase it. You don't need to know what ability I'm talking about, just take it from me, we have good reason to fear.
And I'm not talking about the obvious thing, the things nymphs and apsaras are well known for, namely our attractiveness. We were always considered to be extremely beautiful and desirable by humans. The attractive women among you will know that this can sometimes generate behaviour in some men which makes you feel threatened, but that it can also be amusing at times. Human lust is not a threat to us however, even though it can generate very strong passion in individuals. The threat to us from this is much less, in fact, than it would be to attractive human women, since ... well, let me just say since we can handle men on an individual basis.
The real threat to us these days comes from powerful groups with things to hide, with armies under their control, with such disregard for life that they strike unprovoked with their forces, they kill those who get in their way. And we are also threatened by some well meaning scientists, who would sacrifice us as individuals in order to glean from us the knowledge of what makes us different, to learn the source of our special ability, scientists whose aim is to make humans more and more like the First Ones in whom they no longer believe.
But in spite of all this, nim still bear no ill will towards humans. We never did get involved, at least not as a group, in any wars, inter-human wars, or any other wars. Our way has always been to live in peace with nature, and with all those with whom we share our forcibly adopted planet. Some of us, like me, still hold out hope that one day humans will grow sick of their evil leaders, and will be brave enough to take back the power they let them have now. I'm not encouraging anyone to take up arms and fight. I'm hoping that people will stop taking up arms and hold out their arms in a hug of friendship and forgiveness instead. We must all realise that what we share is much more important that what differentiates us, and then, and only then, can we begin to share the love we have inside us, to allow the light of love to make all the shadows of injustice and inequality fade away quietly.

Blog now open

This blog was set up to allow the members of Nim Þrymm to try to educate interested humans out there about how to treat us, and to try to make them realise we do not constitute a threat to them, and not an opportunity either. We would enjoy more physical contact with humans, but this isn't always safe for us, so an online blog is a safer way for us to communicate.

Another way is for us to join together in an interactive online game. We formed a 'guild' in the game Guild Wars so that we can get together in this way. A fantasy role playing game is a good place for nim to interact socially with humans and others these days, without putting ourselves at any risk. As you may realise, nim often find it difficult to meet humans face-to-face, as humans tend to become rather overawed and react strangely to us. And of course, there is always the danger that we may make a mistake in how we behave and cause the human to start to suspect that there is something 'different' about us. An interactive online game provides a useful barrier against this risk. Even if we say something we shouldn't in a game they think we are merely 'role-playing' and don't get suspicious.
And the same goes for putting information online in a blog. All kinds of things get posted on the internet by all kinds of folk, and a few 'people' posting about being naiades or dryades is taken as 'fantasy' fiction.
So this blog will provide a little more 'fantasy fiction' for all you others out there.