Category:Shapeshifter

Shapeshifters are a downworlder species which possess the uncanny ability to physically transform into an animal while retaining their human state of mind. The number of animals a shapeshifter can transform into is dependent on how they received their abilities. Shapeshifters are the only species that weren’t created at the beginning of the First Age; they were unintentionally created by Okysus when he raped the surviving women of his crusades.

Before the reign of King Tobias Casterly III, shapeshifters were hunted for sport or enslaved to be used in war. When Tobias reserved a plot of land for the shapeshifters, he decreed that they were equal as man, and hunting them became illegal in Asaland. Shapeshifters are currently despised for their role in the war against Okysus, and are therefore attacked if found alone. Generally, shapeshifters stay in packs if they’re not in New Wolfrun.

History
Shapeshifters were created during the Age of Kings, after mankind had conquered much of Arestoneiam. Their conquering resulted in the genocide and physical removal of many creatures from their homes, which pushed them to the edge of the lands or to the mountains where resources were scarce. The mistreatment of the Elvish Folk caught the attention of Edera, Goddess of Darkness. She decided to avenge her Elvish children by unleashing a terrible plague on mankind. The Goddess traveled to the Unknown Realm and found a demonic disease. When she returned, she found her brother, Okysus, the last of the Old Gods, and poisoned him with the disease. His magic was plagued by the disease, and every time he grew angry he transformed into a mythical beast. One day, when he had transformed into a Sphinx, Edera led him to the southern shores of Arestoneiam and unleashed him on the world. For several days he attacked the southern shore, as a Sphinx, a Phoenix, and a Dragon.

During his crusade, he killed anyone who stood up to him and pillaged the fishing villages on the shore. Afterwards, as a man, he raped the surviving women and impregnated them with his children. His siblings soon stopped him and imprisoned him, but they could not reverse the damage of impregnating his victims. That following Spring, several children were born. When the children began maturing and reached adolescence, they began changing into animals and were labeled as monsters, like their father. They were banished from their villages and sentenced to death if they returned. The shapeshifters fled to the Whispering Woods.

Shapeshifters became active during the Age of Reconstruction. To hedge their chances of survival, many of them formed clans based around a common transformation. The Wolfshines were the first clan to form, a clan of direwolves. The Elrich followed their work and made a clan around stags, and the Bloodbass around bass. They mated with other bloodlines within their clan, and after many generations of creating a single pool of genes, clans began producing children that had a common transformation. This common transformation, now known to be a dominant transformation called an “Indonum”, became present in all shapeshifters and was the basic building block for forming clans.