private closed species for me and my gf, though I might make a few customs for others as I want to

theyre basically alien werewolf-dinosaur things; native to caves who were pushed out of the surface level of their planet after it was taken over by elderich style abominations
females have smaller horns; horns can be any styles and tail can be any style as well as long as its a feathered tail
feathers drooping from the head/hair also can be any length and style

they have little paw-peets cause theyre easier to draw

notes: (just for our reference/anyone curious i guess; nothing is guaranteed permanancy/might vary obviously; also- for note references to humans is just reference to their humanoid form they arent technically humans lol)
the planet is still developing/early modern era (So base technology... but not highly advanced, not like- space travel advanced) , and theres two factions, the 'regular' of their kind and then the feral shapeshifters and theres a major war between the two

the feral shapeshifters are in a society like a wolf pack (Alpha male, alpha female, beta male/female, delta, ect) hierarchy based on the idea of promote the strongest, prize strength/protecting the pack over anything else; harsh and aggressive

Shifters are born the way they're born,, not created (There is a way to 'create' them but i imagine its like, voodoo black magic most people dont know how except like the elders of the packs (who are holders of their secret knowledges

humans maybe?? in a monarchy? Either a monarchy or democracy *Both would be interesting for different reasons
You either get the monarchy with a king/queen who has an extreme vendetta against the shifters or you get a democracy full of conflict and disdain with how to approach them; possibly to go with an empress, maybe the empress' husband was killed by the shifters and she's the one driving the grudge, but the new 'emporer'/king she was forced into marrying is in love with someone else in the background who urges him to stop the war and it spurs conflict; empress wants to become the true queen but king has his eye on someone else. She thinks if she convinces king to go to war and they beat the 'threat' she can take over. OR if he dies she'll be made queen in his place and hold power

I like to imagine as well theres conflict between packs because they cant agree themselves on anything which is basically why theyre not organized enough to mount a real defense against the regular humans; im sure depending on the individual pack theres a lot of tension between the alpha and the beta who might want to become the leader

i think that the 'humans' and shifters look similar in their humanoid form, but depending what humanoid form we give them shifters should have some small variant that tells them apart, maybe just a glint in their eyes or sharper teeth(?)

i imagine their planet is very harsh/unforgiving too
a harsh environment would give reason for fights, for food/water/livable land along with the difficulty of humans attacking/shunning them and conflicts between their own kind
*the idea of a really packed and rocky terrian
leaves room for hiding places, and dangerous situations of falling rocks or walking off an edge you didnt' see
I imagine the planet has loads of caves/caverns, and has lots of radically different biomes; or maybe they carry around tents of some sort if they dont maintain a proper home/village or are drifters
having the whole thing underground with glowy caves could be cool too
then the surface is unsafe/unreachable, maybe extremely large/dangerous creatures are there
leviathans
Thought: The moon circling the planet is actually inhabited, and sends these elderich-horrors to the larger planet as they try to search for food, their arrival pushed the humans (who previously lived on the surface-while the packs lived underground) into their territory, which is also some of the spark for aggression;
perhaps the creatures just get more aggressive/start showing up at night to attack, and an eclispe just drives them mad
or like, the biggest creatures come during an eclipse
during the day/light they kind of slow down and get lethargic which makes them easier to avoid/people to travel there to scavange

the shifted form is light sensitive, since the humans prefer the light
but the shifted get weaker in general to be in the light due to their animalistic form
maybe back to that eye glint thing theyre like pryce and light hurts their vision and makes them physically weaker

i think as humans they can adjust a bit better in the dark too, better night vision/ect, still stronger than a normal human in the dark
because of it im sure humans carry about a ton of lights to try to fight them off
lots of flashlights to keep the creatures and shifters at bay

so would they (the humans) be advance enough to have UV lights?
so like batons and arrows with uv lights?
SixbaneYesterday at 10:12 PM
Yes i imagine theyre at least that far
maybe like
Alien equivalent of 1970s here technology wise
advanced enough to have indoor plumbing and television but not iphones and robots lol

if so it also gives humans an edge against shifters to tell if they are a shifter
like when coming back from an outing they gotta go through a uv light 'door' or something
i imagine the humans have a 'wall' , but its not a real wall, its just a wall of light surrounding the city
like a ring around it that shoots down high powered light and they look for people who flinch entering

i kind of imagine they built at an entrance - so one side is a thicker wall against the light/surface while the side facing the darkness has the light alternative
with cave walls guarding two sides naturally
i imagine theres a few exits/entrances, i dont imagine the shifters had much reason to go to the surface at first which is probably why theyre agitated the humans have invaded them now, maybe there was like a historical 'you stay on your say we'll stay on ours' thing

shifters more likely to have multiple pups
i also think the idea of them having kids and them always coming out as babies of their shifted form would be cute
and they have to learn to shift into a human
shifters lay eggs in their shifted forms: it'd also be easier to explain the one sugggestion i had of shifter being raised by humans, they stole an egg
also : survival is just easier as a tiny creature rather than a helpless cant-even-walk human; easy to transport and they come out ready to survive
also like the idea of them using their own feathers to make nests so babies are born knowing their families scents

Can they partly shift? To just have tails and horns/etc?
Or only fully one or another shifts
i imagine yes, but i kinda see it as something thats very difficult to maintain for very long
cause its like stopping the change partway
1st draft




i imagine the alpha grows the big horn and if they lose alpha status /leader status their body can sense the change in aggression/ temperment and makes them shed the horn pretty quickly
i also like the idea of them just shedding horns like deer do sometimes lol

also maybe females dont have the chin horn (??)
smooth jaw?




nostril near the top of the head?? for better swimming/cave diving (?)


also i imagine they can have long fur variants and stuff
and tbh can add/change whatever on specific individuals

1st draft humanoid variant




-that is a correct size ratio, feral forms are small cause 1. matter ratio, 2. if they were huge the 'normals' would never stand a chance, i imagine even at that size theyre super fast, strong, and deadly regardless (there mighjt be a few massive ones here and there for whatever reason ,if theyre big people normally
-they can have all/any body shapes, i just went with the generic one cause.. .i suk thts why lol

That one has male n female variants and all that, ill get the separate pngs later
one thing i cant decide is if they should have normal skin color as a person or?? have markings/actual designs
one part of me wants to go with regular skin color just with some tattoo-like patterns but idk

further things to consider:
-'normals' when it comes to family/marriage ect
-magic use/is magic a thing (??)
-religious views
-aesthetic? (for like,architecture/clothing/ect)
-theories for the origins of shifters?
-other creatures in the world (both companions and foes)
also (??) name of species/ what they call themselves
also
-how much technology the shifters have
-what sort of place they actually live in (i imagine their cut-off hunting grounds/territory then maybe an actual village?)
-what happens to shifters who arent (for whatever reason) a member of a pack

god humans will literally one hit ko me everytime I draw them,,, can I get an f??