Through The Forest

Prologue

Long ago, when the forests and grasslands and rivers and mountains were new, existed the Great Mother.

Her legend is that she sat before a magic orb, looking into it and seeing us, the people, that would inhabit her creation, the planet Nyxia.

It had been created with her beautiful magic and song, curated with life and breath.

"Give Nyxia life," she had said. "Give the people each a kernel of my magic, one for every person born and created in the presence of this beautiful world."

And there we were.

Essentially, there are two main groups of shifters, which each have their own subspecies; feline and canine shifters.

The four subspecies feline shift-types were lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs. The canine types were wolves, jackals, hounds, and coyotes.

How you determined your shift-type was through the blood-moon ritual, a process in which you alone have to travel out to the center of the mainland called The Heart, and it's said the Great Mother speaks to you there.

It's a long, difficult journey, and some don't make it back. But it has to be done for the sake of the clan.

Afterwards, you have to camp in the forest territory around The Heart and wait for something called a shift to happen. It's when your body and mind shift into that of an animal, and rumor has it you become a whole different consciousness as your shift-type.

You can't surpass your clan's side of The Heart due to its magic borders, but you essentially just stay as your shift for about 3-4 days then shift back and have to go back to The Heart to collect your Mask.

Your Mask is the public identification you wear on your face to let others know which clan and type you belong to. It's the face of your shift-type turned into a cute little mask, and usually you can't go anywhere without it. There are also bloodmarks, a symbol marked on your wrist with your own blood at birth, that identifies if you're part of a more dominant Quadrant or bloodline. At birth, you're normally born with claws that retract from your fingertips (depending on your type!)

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention, if you end up as a different shift-type than the rest of your clan, you get 5 days to travel to the correct subspecies your type is or you're exiled. Unfortunately.

But, if you do end up being a rare, unique shift-type, there's this unclaimed, vast land called the Land Of The Forbidden where ForbiddenClan resides. It's basically a group of rare, singular shift-types that don't have a specified Quadrant.

You can also have this rare mutation called True Form that you're born with the features of your true shift-type if you're a rare type. At birth, you normally have the features of your Quadrant. For example, wolf shifters tend to have black, grey, or dark brown hair, and mainly dark amber, dark hazel, or brown eyes.

Also, the way the clans are set up is that there are two main clans; FelineClan and CanineClan, each with 4 Quadrants, or subspecies. The dominant shift-type of FelineClan is the lion, and CanineClan the wolf. Pups or kits are born into the Quadrants their families are in, blah blah blah. And when their blood moon ritual happens, they either move away or stay in that quadrant, which usually happens most of the time.

I forgot to mention phantom shifts; they're when unshifted people just have a really strong pull toward their shift-type in certain areas or places like forests, rivers, etc, etc. You can have phantom shifts when you're shifted too, it sometimes shifts you into your species though. They're different for everyone, I suppose.

Oh, yeah, i also forgot about mates. Mates are like that one person the Great Mother destined you to be with; when you meet them and smell their scent, you'll know exactly who they are. It's usually the males that end up having dreams or visions of their future mates, and are  sometimes able to see their dreams and desires. Cool, right?

Sooo, I think that should be good. I can't wait for my blood moon!!!

-Valerra, Wolf Quadrant of Canine Clan (unshifted)