Beast shifter guide

Beast Shifter:

    Welcome to the world of Beast Shifting, before we get started on your selection or selections we need to go over a few fundamentals first. Regardless of what you choose you will be required to undergo physical training and psychological analysis for five months minimum; longer if there are any workable problems. Remember whatever you choose you will always have a minimum of two species' instincts and behaviors within you; human, and whatever else you choose to become.

   The basics: Beast shifters gain the traits of one or more animals; these can be expressed by the individual through various forms of transformations. Partial, Hybrid, Humanoid, Beastial Humanoid, Full Beast, Giant Beast, and Mythos. In order those are from easiest to most difficult to do as well as requiring the most upkeep if kept in that form too long. While the metaphysical aspects of this procedure can ignore most of "conservation of mass" with little stress on the body; the transformation its self if kept on produces body parts and mass that will require upkeep such as eating, drinking, and of course breathing. This later is the main reason mythos transformations are advised against for beginners and should only be kept on for a limited time. A general rule if you begin to feel hungry, thirsty, or light headed while in bestial humanoid or higher in complexity revert back to a partial form or fully human form immediatly and reframe from taking on another more complex form until those feelings have fully gone away after enjoying a good meal, hydrating, and relaxing for a few hours at least.

   Partial Transformation: the most common, most popular, and so easy to upkeep many beast shifters stay this way on a permanent basis. This is where you transform only part of your body such as changing your senses, eye shape, adding animal ears, tail, and other mostly cosmetic changes. With practice you can change as little as your senses, fingernails, or ears.

   Hybrid: This form is one step above a Partial transformation, mainly because this form means having animal feet or hands, extended quasi-muzzle, only the lower half of the body being transformed but still bipedal (not unlike a satyre), arms turned into wings or wings coming from the back as specially designed. In all the boundry between this and partial is how many features are changed at once. Add a tail, ears, eyes, horns/antlers, paw feet and lower body, and animal nose and you are officially in hybrid territory.

   Humanoid: Sometimes called the "fursona" form by some; this form is mainly cosmetic as well however in this state you will resemble the animal or animals you have chosen only at human proportions. In essence resembling an anthropomorphic animal cartoon character. Having the head of the animal, fur/scale/feather covered body, arms and legs, tail, and other features of which ever species you have chosen; yet still recognizable as a general humanoid.

  Bestial Humanoid: A bulked up version, what some have dubbed the "therionthrope" or "were-beast" form. Having a more "primal" apperance, bigger and stronger. At this point upkeep of this form can be strenious requiring more calories than anything else; and the animal instincts can be stronger. In general it is best to avoid this form unless absolutely neccessary for personal safety. As a reminder law enforcement personel undergo special training to maintain and train in this form when becoming beast shifters.

   Full Beast: Essentially one becomes the animal of their choice entire. However while the transformation is fueled by metaphysical principles for the purposes of retaining human awarness and control this form has size limits on how small and how large one can become. For instance if you choose mouse features and train to go full beast this mouse will be the size of a medium sized dog at minimum; likewise choosing an elephant or giraffe form would result in "pygmy" versions of said animals. This form does have the potential to require less calories than the Bestial Humanoid, but does require learning to get used to moving around and the limitations of these bodies. However as a dire warning, while in this state most wild life won't be able to identify you as human; this can pose a risk when encountering dogs, predators that have learned to be afraid of humans or mistake you in this form for their natural prey, and animals that may mistake you for competition. It is best not to take on these forms in places where doing so may put your health and well being at risk.

  Giant Beast: This form is not something a non-trained individual can achieve; however what it is, is a mixture of Full Beast and Bestial Humanoid, becoming something human sized or larger and resembling a bipedal version of the animal yet having little to no human traits. This form has been described as "monstrous" and can be very stressful to maintain for even a few minutes. Generally if you do manage this form without training please report it for your own safety as well as those around you so we can administer medication or switch you to a different animal or animals (as well as remove one possible problem species from a reactionary combination) to prevent further incidents.

  Mythos: Most forms described as mythos are not as taxing as the earlier warning may describe for example a full beast but with a human head or human head and torso qualifies as a mythos transformation. The biggest problems there may be intaking enough air with the human air passagways for the animal body and cause light headedness. The most dangerous, yet understandibly popular is the "taur" where ones produces a human or humanoid torso sticking out of a large full animal lower body (like a centaur). This may be amusing for aesthetics, however as warned this form can be taxing due to poor air intake, the complex body's energy requirements, and hydration. This form causes the majority of medical emergencies by individuals attempting to retain it for hours on end. This form cannot be safely sustained and as warned at the first sign of trouble you need to revert back to a simpler body plan; partial transformation or full human.


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   Next you may select more than one species for your beast shifting form. However the less alike the animals chosen the greater risk of compatability issues; as remember you are already human so any non-primate will have some conflicting emotions and reactions that you will be assisted through for the four to five month period of adjustment. However note there is too compatable and too incompatable. Too compatable problems arise when you select either a primate or two animals very closely related to one another; if your concern is aesthetics such as fur/scale/feather patterns we can adjust those without mixing species. The problem with too compatable arises as their instincts are increased exponentionally in strength; with primates this brings up kleptomaniac and aggression problems, particularly about food and percieved possessions and dominance. As a result a primate may only be selected as part of a package deal with a non-primate species. Although aesthetic wise primates would differ very little from a human aside from being harier and a tail, traits which canine and feline partial shifting can cover instead.

   When selecting multiple species a "duel species" package is recommended, adding a herbivore such as a deer or antelope is common to give your otherwise predatory choice features such as horns or antlers. It also helps behavior wise to even out their dietary instincts maintaining a human's normal omniverous instincts; regardless of one's dietary choices. Vice Versa as well adding a more carneverous animal to a primarily herbivore choice can add fanciful fur patterns, longer tails, and other potentially desired traits with the added health benefits. However this is not required, as stated before your primary default is your own species, human, the animal traits in beast shifting are primarily aesthetic; behavoral instincts are subtle which is the reason for the four to five month of sessions to identify what these are and how they may manifest along with adjusting to the physical changes.

   Triple species packages or "chimera" packages are available, these cost extra and will require upwards of one to two years of sessions, possibly more if the species chosen are too compatible *for instance selecting, mouse, squirrel, and hamster* or too diverse *for instance raccoon, deer, and alligator*. If one is looking for something like a dragon or kaiju there is always those packages.

   The dragon/kaiju package uses aesthetic templates of select features with little to no behavioral influences; a one year of adjustment sessions will be required as it counts as a "multi-species" pack to be sure no complications take place.

  Only special forces units can utilize four or more species and require weekly sessions for as long as they have all these templates inside them. This is not publically available at this time. We are hoping like with the dragon/kaiju package to work out and filter out the kinks in this system to make these more available in the future.