Mermaid Princess Amelia – Best Mermaid Book Series For Teenagers

Name: Tikalie Uxmal

Mermaid kingdom: Antemidia (The Carribean Sea).

Looks as a mermaid: Amelia never describes Tikalie’s looks, but from official artwork we know that she had long turquoise hair that she often put into two high ponytails. She wore white or violet ethereal robes, and her skin was more tanned than Amelia’s. Her tail was likely turquoise since she was an Antemidian.

Personality: Tikalie was the embodiment of charisma, a talented and determined person, with the potential to lead nations. She used to say that ‘a princess always wears her crown even when she has a hat on her head”. When she took over the throne, Antemidia was just a poor periphery of the Gulf of Mexico. However, in less than a few years, Tikalie managed to turn it into a powerful country, called the Carribean Tiger. Tikalie was so outstanding, Amelia often finds herself wondering what she’d do, if they switched places.

It’s important to mention, though, that despite her many talents, Tikalie suffered from depression, which led her to eventually make the tough decision to stop being a princess. She feigned her own death, which was an act requiring desperate courage, and cast a shadow on the perfect person that she used to be.

Family: Not much is known about Tikalie’s family, only that they were of aristocratic origin. The Uxmal Manor was their family home. Amelia described it as the Koh-i-Noor of the western suburbs.

Best friends: Missing mermaid princess of Atlantis, Samantha Santoro, received a scholarship to study in Atanga, Antemidia, which was signed in person by Tikalie. The two were best friends, together with Lumina Mond. Tikalie kept in touch with Lumina even after feigning her death, but her contact with Samantha was lost. From the letter that Lumina wrote after years, we learn that she got a boyfriend.

Trivia:

• Tikalie was said to have died electrocuted by eels that somehow sneaked into her bedroom in the Uxmal Manor. It’s not clear how they entered the room, if there were guards outside.
• Tikalie’s bedroom was located deep inside the Uxmal Manor. It had an exhibition made of glass animals and a door with three disks. However, even though Tony and Amelia tried all combinations, they couldn’t open that door. It was probably sealed after her fake death. Tony promised Amelia that he would open that bedroom, but it’s not clear yet if he managed to do it.
• Tikalie was buried in a sarcophagus, however, nobody saw her face. She was covered by shiny white material. Tony said, it might have as well been a perfect statue.
• The person who had helped Tikalie fake her death, was no one else but General Asvald. It looks like, General Asvald took pity in her unhappiness and helped her think of the plan, to free her from duties.
• Tikalie, just like Amelia, wasn’t allowed to date anybody until age 25. Tikalie told Lumina, it was lonely to be an Antemidian princess, and that she didn’t have any freedom. It’s highly likely, all of those factors contributed to Tikalie’s depression, who couldn’t live life on her own terms, and eventually ran away.
• Amelia thinks that Tikalie wasted her talent, but Lumina took Tikalie’s side, saying: “At some point, performing perfectly costs you so much that you just can’t go on anymore. And success isn’t about how much talent you have but rather about how much you’re willing to endure to keep shining.” Lumina, who went through a breakdown herself, knew well that sometimes, being ideal cost too much and that this should be forgiven.
• Tikalie’s name and surname, were derived from Mayan cities named Tikal and Uxmal. This points strongly to her having Mayan origins.

Tikalie Uxmal in “Stories from the Undersea World of Mermaid Princess Amelia, Vol. 1.” by Maxine Foti

“The Quetzal’s Escape”

Tikalie got her own story in the collection. She is portrayed as a young mermaid and a teenage prodigy who becomes the most famous elective princess of Antemidia. She is the pride of the Uxmal family, a descendant of the powerful lineage that advocated for reduced taxes, greater freedoms, and economic development. Her mother’s name is Natalie Uxmal.

Tikalie’s first name was inspired by the onshore Mayan city of Tikal. As a child, she spent summers at the temple in Aternidad, wearing white robes and veils, meditating and playing sacred music.

Later, she attended the High School for Elite Antemidian Sisters (High SEAS), where she excelled due to her pattern-based problem-solving. She has naturally turquoise hair, typically worn in two high ponytails adorned with intricate silver decorations, and she often wears ethereal white robes and galaxy makeup.

Despite her stunning appearance and success, she suffers from crushing loneliness and pressure, feeling like a puppet fulfilling everyone’s expectations. She finds solace in pen-pal friendships with Princesses Lumina Mond and Samantha Santoro, and later in a romantic connection with Agosto Toscano, which ultimately leads her to fake her own death with General Asvald Altamira’s help to gain her freedom.

Tikalie Uxmal as “Adelaida Toscano” in “Mermaid Princess Amelia and the Destiny’s Theater” by Maxine Foti

Adelaida Toscano is the meticulously crafted disguise of Tikalie Uxmal, the former elective princess of Antemidia who faked her own death to escape the lethal political pressures of royal life. When she meets Portia in Icosahedron’s First National Museum, she is almost unrecognisable: her skin is deeply tanned from deliberate sun exposure, her hair is styled into victory‑rolls that give her a retro 1940s glamour, she wears dark sunglasses that hide her eyes, and her simple tunic makes her look like any other inconspicuous visitor. Yet beneath this camouflage lies a woman carrying a vision that could save or doom multiple kingdoms.

Tikalie reveals to Portia that she has foreseen a future war between Antemidia and Atlantis, and she has written a politically neutral play to be performed in Destiny’s Theater—a ritual that can prevent that conflict. She explains the trident’s Mayan inscription and its ability to be charged by lightning, and she shares that her vision showed Portia wielding that trident while protected by someone with a large shield, who she later identifies as Amelia Quintana.

Tikalie is cautious, almost paranoid: she warns Portia not to claim credit for the vision, insists on absolute secrecy, and takes great risks to deliver her warnings. She has spent years in hiding, yet she resurfaces when the stakes are highest, driven by her sense of duty. She understands Antemidia’s ancient mechanisms, the Treaty of Athala, and the geopolitical minefield of the ocean kingdoms better than almost anyone alive. When Samantha confronts her in the theater, Tikalie does not flinch; she reveals herself fully and warns that the Global Ocean Council will execute Samantha for mass murder. Throughout the story, she acts as a wise, weary mentor—one who has already sacrificed her crown and public identity but refuses to sacrifice peace. Her return is the catalyst that sets the final confrontation in motion.