Beastman

A beastman is a human or other civilized organism turned part brute animal by the Beast Powers. Beastmen exist in varying degrees, some almost human with just a hint of bestial traits, and some almost pure beast with only the slightest vestiges of humanity, and many, of course, at all levels in between. Regardless of how theriomorphic a beastman may appear, however, it retains its human intelligence, and for the most part its human psyche, albeit perhaps altered a bit by animal drives and instincts. Beastmen need not be human-sized; generally, the closer a beastman is in form to the beast (and the farther from human), the closer it is in size as well.

Creation

Most beastmen had originally intended to undergo ferification and become fully animal, but changed their minds before the process was through—perhaps having made the decision originally as an act of youthful rebellion of which they later repented, or in a period of depressed disaffection from society from which they recovered. Perhaps they thought they really wanted to be animals, but once they found themselves actually changing, they realized there was much in civilized society they didn't really want to give up after all. In any case, the Beast Powers are sometimes willing to grant a supplicant's request to halt the transformation—but not to reverse it, leaving the indecisive individual in an intermediate state. Spells of transfiguration could, of course, restore the person's original form, but without access to such spells he is now stuck forever as a beastman, the proportion of the transformation completed before it was halted determining how much beast and how much man he is.

Some beastmen, however, intended to become beastmen from the start. These were men who petitioned the Beast Lords for their part-animal forms, unwilling perhaps to become fully bestial but still wanting to have some nature of a beast. The Beast Powers do not always grant such petitions, but have done so when they apparently believed that the would-be beastman was sincere in his intent and would in some way be of service to them.

Inverse Beastmen

On very rare occasions, an animal may undergo the reverse of the ferification process, turning from beast into man. It sometimes happens that they, too, change their minds mid-process. Even more rarely, an animal may intentionally choose to have a hybrid form. In either case, the result is an inverse beastman, a beastman that started as an animal instead of starting as a human. Biologically, there is no difference between inverse beastmen and other beastmen; the only difference is what they were before they became beastmen. This does, however, lead to some possible psychological differences, and inverse beastmen tend to have even more trouble fitting in with human society.

Polytheric Beastmen

Sometimes a beastman who became that way through an aborted ferification changes his mind again and decides he does want to become an animal after all, in which case the Beast Powers can resume the transformational process where it left off. In some cases, however, the beastman may decide he wants to become a different animal than his original intent. Alternately, someone in the process of ferification may without interrupting the transformation change his mind and decide that, while he still wants to be an animal, he wants to be a different animal than he originally thought. In either case, the transformation now means that he appears part human, part one beast, and part another, and may have the combined instincts as well of his three (or more) parts. Such polytheric beastmen are very rare on most worlds, and may be subjects of awe or superstition where they do exist.

Habitat

Many beastmen live in cities and towns alongside ordinary humans, trying as best they can to fit in and live ordinary lives. Not all settlements welcome beastmen, however, and not all beastmen want to live among other people. Some beastmen, therefore, either choose or are forced to live outside towns in the wilderness, perhaps living alone or perhaps gathering with others of their kind, if there are such others nearby.

The diet of the beastman is determined partially by what kind of beast it corresponds to, and partially by how far it is along the line between human and beast. A beastman that is almost fully human will usually be able to eat any sort of human food, though it may have its preferences influenced by its beast part; if it is part rabbit, for instance, it may find meat edible but distasteful. On the other hand, a beastman that is almost fully beast will have to eat accordingly, though again it may still retain some of its human tastes. A cat beastman with only a small trace left of humanity will perforce be a carnivore, though it may prefer its meat more seasoned and subject to more complicated preparations than would be the case for an actual cat.

Relations

On some worlds, beastmen are uncommon enough that the meeting of two beastmen would be an extremely rare appearance, which makes it hard to generalize about just how such a meeting would go. On other worlds, however, beastmen may be more common, and meetings between two beastmen may be a more frequent occurrence. Even then, though, the details may differ from world to world. On some worlds, any two beastmen may tend to get along well and consider themselves allies. On others, beastmen tend to consider each other rivals; on still others, it may depend on the kind of beast they are made of—perhaps those of the same kind of beast stick together, but distrust those of other kinds of beasts; or, conversely, perhaps those of the same kind of beast are competitive with each other, but freely associate with those of different beasts. It may be, too, that the relations between beastmen mirror those of their corresponding beasts; a beastman part mouse may fear one part fox, but be indifferent to one part sparrow.

Relations between beastmen and other races are similarly variable; they may be welcomed among their societies, or hated as betrayers of humanity, or feared as mysterious beings of which little is known. The one constant, however, is that beastmen tend to get along well with pure beasts of the same kind, the more the farther the beastmen are from humanity.

Beastmen are capable of mating with each other, regardless of how far from humanity they are or the kind of beasts they embody, as long as they aren't so far from humanity and so anatomically different (or different in size) that their genital organs are unable to interface. The result is a beastman of the same type as the parents, or a polytheric beastman if the parents are of different types. However, such a beastchild the Beast Powers will permit to choose his own path when he gets older, and will transform into a full beast or a full human if he so chooses. Near-human beastmen may also be able to mate with humans, and near-beast with the corresponding animals; the result is in the first case a human with slight beast characteristics, and in the latter a beast with slight human characteristics. Whether these offspring qualify as beastmen themselves is a matter of definition; in any case, in a few generations the anomalous characteristics tend to breed out.