Skin Walkers

Physical Description:

A skin wallker is a man or woman that can shift between an animal form and a humanoid form. There are no half stages between man and animal, as that is purely a werebeast ability. While shifted they look like whatever animal they shift into, there is no distinction in appearance. The only difference is that a skin walker still retains the ability to speak in animals form.

In humanoid form skin walkers have the features, builds, and appearances of the humanoid race they resemble, or their heritage race. However, they take on none of that races’ racial abilities. The only difference is that a skin walker may manifest certain skin walker features while in humanoid form (example: leopard spots, wolf ears, fur, etc.) These features are purely ascetic in nature.

Society on Euphoros:

Skin Walkers originate from the Euphoros planet and have existed as far back as anyone can remember. They often take on the qualities of their animal, and usually, live out their lives according to how their animal would.

Most skin walkers live in communities referred to as packs or clans. These communities have an infrastructure of their own determined accordingly and are usually very similar to their base animal in nature. Skin walkers are often categorized as predator and prey and sometimes act like this toward one another. Different packs and clans may not get along, and will often battle over territory, among other things.

Skin walkers often mistrust cities and prefer to live out their lives surrounded by nature. This may not always be the case, but those that do decide to live away from nature often find themselves resisting nature's pull. Because of this skin walkers will sometimes need to take breaks and seek out a natural setting to cooperate before returning to their lives in the city.

Skin walkers are also mistrustful of humanoid technology in most cases. Though they do not completely shun technology, they do not favor making themselves entirely dependent upon technology either. Many humanoids would view a skin walker's life as archaic compared to their own. A life lived in natural structures without many modern day comforts.

The skin walkers of Euphoros are usually born with the ability to shift. This is not always the case, sometimes the ability appears later in life, at times it does not appear at all. Each clan or pack deals with this accordingly. Some packs or clans do not trust humanoids and therefore cast anyone without the ability to shift out of their communities. Others are more accepting, but even among these communities, a pure humanoid may be treated differently.

Most Alterion skin walkers are one with their animal. There is no separation between animal and man, in fact, they are as much the animal that they can shift into as they are humanoid. Sometimes they are even more animal than they are man. This isn't always the case; there are rare instances where the animal is more like a separate entity that exists within the same body.

In most cases, Euphoros skin walkers distrust those from Earth. Sometimes they even go as far as meeting them with open hostility and aggression. Though there are a select few skin walker communities that are willing to try and get along with the newcomers. It doesn't mean that they trust or even like those of Earth any more than the rest of the skin walkers, it only means that they are willing to try and get along.