MERMISTA'S FATHER
King Mercia
King Mercia rules the merfolk under the sea and wants nothing to do with the Horde. Hordak decides otherwise.
King Mercia is Mermista's father and king of the merfolk's sunken city in the Filmation She-Ra series. He appears in "The Pearl" (1986), where Hordak steals the city's power pearl and cracks its dome, and She-Ra and Mermista save the city.
The record
The facts
WHO HE IS
The king under the sea
King Mercia is Mermista's father and the ruler of the merfolk's sunken city, a domed undersea kingdom whose people get their power over the oceans from a single enormous pearl.[1] He is a white-bearded king in a gold crown and a shell-trimmed robe, and Mermista sums up his politics before we meet him: "So long as the Horde does not bother him, he will not bother the Horde."
He keeps outsiders out of the city as well; dry landers are forbidden there because, in his words, "We fear their greed," and the greatest thing they might covet is the power pearl, which was made when the oceans were formed and is what turns the merfolk's legs into fins.
[1] ^ Salineas is the kingdom's usual name. In the episode's dialogue the king calls his home Salinius, as in "or Salinius is doomed."
HIS EPISODE
The Pearl
Bob Forward's "The Pearl" brings She-Ra to the city by way of a baby horn whale. Hordak has stunned the calf to give to Horde Prime, She-Ra and Mermista free it, and they swim it home to Mermista's father. The king's first words are for his daughter, about breaking the rule on dry landers, but he softens when he learns who the visitor is: "Forgive me, She-Ra. I have heard much of your goodness." He shows her the power pearl and asks that the Horde never learn of it. Hordak, listening through a spy device he planted on the whale, learns of it straight away.
Hordak's submarine takes the pearl and cracks the dome on its way out, and the king's first reaction is the one his rule predicted: "I knew a dry lander would bring us trouble." Mermista puts him right, and he apologizes at once. Without the pearl his people cannot grow their fins, so they can breathe the water flooding in but cannot swim out to mend the dome, and the work falls to She-Ra and Mermista, riding the baby whale to plug the crack with a giant sucker clam. Once the pearl is recovered, the king gives She-Ra a medal on behalf of the city, and the baby whale gets one of its own.
King Mercia, Mermista's father, asking She-Ra for help.
Clipped from our own copy of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, The Pearl (She-Ra: Princess of Power, 1986), 11:35 to 13:10, 1 minute 35 seconds. Nothing is added and nothing is sped up. Copyright Mattel.
LATER SERIES AND FILMS
Beyond his one episode
King Mercia is a Filmation character with a single episode. He came after The Secret of the Sword, the 1985 film that introduced She-Ra, and the Dolph Lundgren movie has no Etherian characters. He is not in the 2026 film. Later series reworked his daughter and her kingdom, and the Mermista entry follows her through them.
Mattel has not made a King Mercia figure, so there is nothing of his to buy.
Questions
King Mercia questions, answered
Who is Mermista's father?
King Mercia, ruler of the merfolk's sunken city. He appears in the Filmation She-Ra episode "The Pearl."
Which episode is King Mercia in?
"The Pearl," written by Bob Forward and first aired on October 25, 1986. It is his only Filmation episode.
What is the power pearl?
The treasure of the sunken city. The king says it was created when the oceans were formed, and it gives the merfolk their power over the sea.
Why are dry landers banned from the sunken city?
King Mercia says the merfolk fear their greed. He makes an exception for She-Ra once Mermista tells him who she is.
Is it Salineas or Salinius?
Salineas is the kingdom's usual name. In "The Pearl" the dialogue calls the city Salinius.
Who voices King Mercia?
The Filmation episode credits do not name his voice.
Who wrote The Pearl?
Bob Forward.
Is there a King Mercia figure?
No. Mattel has not made one.
Compiled by the heman.org desk from the She-Ra: Princess of Power episode "The Pearl" and its episode guide, and Wikipedia's She-Ra episode list for the air date and writer.
Alongside
