All But Human
A skinshaper’s human form, or their human disguise, is almost indistinguishable from the average human. All children of the night have a human disguise, but a skinshaper’s disguise has the fewest flaws that would unnerve a human. It’s an innate talent they’re born with, to shift into a human shape that doesn’t rely on human blood, memories, or other, more supernatural, elements.
Even still, a skinshaper’s human guise isn’t perfect. There are still subtle tells that can give humans an uneasy sense of wrongness. Small details that will cause most humans to recoil, such as an odd reflection from their eyes in direct light, unnatural grace, or uncanny hearing or sense of smell. Small, but important clues to their true form.
The Beast Within
The true form of a skinshaper is their half-human, half-animal shape. Unlike other children of the night, skinshapers don’t have a single, inhuman form. Instead, each skinshaper’s true form is tied to their lineage, which defines both appearance and abilities. In this way, they become a blend of both worlds, human and children of the night, but still unique on their own.
“The thing didn’t kill me. It just stared at me with those black eyes and whispered, ‘tell your kind to stay out of the wetlands’. I’ve never run so fast in my life.” — Anonymous survivor
Each skinshaper lineage mirrors traits of their animal counterpart. A diverse blend as wide and varied as the woodlands, abandoned towns, and cities they inhabit. But still, each bloodline carves its own niche among the children of the night. Some are guardians, others predators, but they are all creatures of power, cunning, and death. The most notable lineages are:
Bat
The true form of a bat skinshaper is a perfect blend of fruit bat with a human. A soft brown fur covers their humanoid body, and membrane-like wings extend along their forearms to their sides. These wings, only large enough to let them glide, fold neatly against their body when not in use.
In their true form, this skinshaper’s head has an angular shape like a fruit bat. This comes complete with a bat’s facial features, from delicate snout to pointed ears, eyes, and teeth. Their fingers are a little longer, with retractable black claws. Those claws are sharp, able to cut through rope or let the skinshaper defend themselves in close combat. A bat skinshaper’s ears are highly sensitive, able to pick up a low whisper from across a concert hall.
Myths aside, bat skinshapers do not drink blood or have a craving for it. Instead, they are true to their fruit bat cousins with a heavy fruit based diet mixed with human foods. Neither do they spread disease like rabies, and are, in fact, immune to the deadly disease. Their abilities come with a downside, as in their true form, bat skinshapers are slightly nearsighted. Their eyes also glow with a faint green aura in the dark, which at least enhances their night vision in deep twilight.
Deer
As bat skinshapers glide through the sky, deer skinshapers are tied to the earth. Both noble and savage, this lineage calls primeval forests they protect ‘home’. Legends and rumors say they migrated from the Scandinavia region over to North America. But since arriving, they’ve lived alongside humanity for centuries, keeping to themselves. They take their self-appointed role of guarding the deep forests with a lethal determination. They manipulate humans, or many times kill them, to protect those primeval places from human incursion.
Their true form is both majestic and terrifying. Deer skinshapers are tall and graceful, standing at least six feet tall without their modest antlers. They have white and brown fur over a humanoid body, topped with a lean deer-shaped head and stern, malicious eyes. A healthy set of antlers sprouts from their head. But they aren’t the kind seen on most normal deer. Instead, they are a modest set of antlers that extent only a foot over their head. Brown-black and sharp, they are strong enough to punch into a car door.
Deer skinshapers are nimble and fast, probably the fastest runners of all the creatures of the night, despite having cloven hooves instead of human feet. Combined with a natural aggression against outsiders, they are the most violent and eager skinshaper to kill an intruder. Especially if that intruder is a human.
Raccoon
As deer skinshapers guard their forests with bloody violence, their raccoon cousins slip through the urban sprawl with equal cunning. Their talents thrive in the shadow of human towns and cities, where sharp minds and nimble fingers are more deadly than stout antlers.
This skinshaper thrives in those urban environments, moving unnoticed through back alleys or sewer systems of human cities or towns. While they are the least physically formidable of the skinshapers, they are still deadly in their own right. For them, intelligence, resourcefulness, manipulation, and a sharp set of claws are their weapons.
In their true form, raccoon skinshapers show their raccoon lineage in lurid, eerie detail. A fine layer of charcoal gray fur covers their humanoid body, while their head has the traditional raccoon shape down to the black fur mask around their eyes. Unlike a raccoon, their eyes aren’t black but amber, and glow slightly at night. Their black furred hands end in small, sharp claws are quite dexterous. Nimble fingers, perfectly suited for all sorts of activities, from picking locks to picking pockets with ease.
Despite their physical limitations of being the weakest skinshaper, their agility and short bursts of speed make them hard to catch. Along with short, sharp claws that can tear flesh as quick as a knife, they are dangerous to back into a corner. In addition, when cornered, they can snarl a low, chittering growl that can cause pain. A snarl that other creatures of the night describe as a ‘sound scraping at your sanity’.
Rarely protectors of anything, raccoon skinshapers rarely kill victims outright. Instead, their complex schemes leave their victims broken. Those poor, unfortunate souls are shattered financially, emotionally and mentally with little way to recover. To many raccoon skinshapers, ruining a human life isn’t a means to an end, but a form of performance art.
Alligator
While raccoon skinshapers survive with wit and guile, their alligator cousins prowl with power and menace. These titanic terrors of the wetlands are the very picture of death waiting in murky waters.
They’re lethal to humans, and any other children of the night, since alligator skinshapers have no qualms about casual killing to suit their appetites. This lineage comes from the Darklight rich waters of bayous and wetlands with their endless mazes of reeds and mysterious reflections. Least sociable of all the skinshapers, this lineage is fiercely territorial, preferring a near solitary life in their humid homes surrounded by the deep wetlands.
The true form of an alligator skinshaper is a hulking horror. Humanoid bodies thick, with greenish-black scales that perpetually glisten. Almost as if they are always covered in slime or swamp water. Their head is the shape of an alligator’s head, only with the rich, devious intelligence of a human. Reptile eyes burn bright with a yellow malevolence, and their muscular tails have more than enough force to break a human’s ribcage. Their claws, while not as sharp as one’s belonging to their bat or raccoon cousins, are thick and solid. Easily able to punch through most any metal door if they put their strength behind it.
While they’re able to cause random nightmarish violence, they often don’t. Alligator skinshapers are cunning, patient hunters. Lurking almost motionless in the shadows for the right moment to strike. Once they move, it’s swift and brutal, with a tackle, grab, or sharp snap with their jaws. Victims are yanked off into the darkness screaming, until muffled by shadowy murk and mire, before they vanish completely underwater.
They rarely work with humans, and only near them when necessary. More often than not, humans are food, not friends, for alligator skinshapers. But no more so than many other creatures of the night, as far as this lineage is concerned.
“We were out checking the traps one night. I don’t know what it was. But all we heard was water move, then Duke vanished so fast into the dark, his screams had to run to catch up. Then those vanished when we heard a sharp crunch. We left too fast to hear anything else.” — Anonymous survivor
Shifting Shadows of the Night
Each lineage is distinct, a separate bloodline on their own that’s been immortalized in myths across history. Those myths often paint them as mindless monsters or walking killing machines, but reality is more complex, and far more dangerous.
All skinshapers share certain traits and specific venerabilities. In their true form, they embrace the terrifying blend of human intelligence and primal instinct. Skinshapers, in their true form, can speak and navigate the human world with little trouble. But their animal-human form panics most humans to unreasonable fear. Some skinshapers use that as a tool, while many others revel in the terror they cause, and the murder it allows.
Skinshaper senses are enhanced, but this depends on the lineage. For some, it’s hearing. But for others, it’s a sense of smell, and with the alligator lineage, it’s a sensitivity to vibrations. Such as nearby motion on land or water. Any other skinshaper traits wildly vary between each lineage, and sometimes even by the particular skinshaper.
Truth of the Myth
Skinshaper legends have fascinated, and terrified, humans for countless centuries. Stories and tall tales talk about these monsters, and how to destroy them. But most of those lurid tales aren’t true. Stories of silver and moonlight are exaggerated, as are biting victims to infect them with a bestial curse. Those are just stories, often invented by skinshapers to keep humans in line.
But not all of it is a dark fairy tale.
Skinshapers do have weaknesses. Vulnerabilities that are like deadly human allergies that can easily kill them. All skinshapers share a fatal allergy to shadevines, monkshood, and the sap from blackthorn shrubs. But in the case of blackthorn shrubs, even though they are allergic to the sap, skinshapers can eat the berries safely.
If any skinshaper comes into contact with those saps, they suffer the lethal effects. They break out in painful, bleeding hives they can’t stop scratching in minutes. After that, their tongue swells, suffocating them. Most times, death results in five to seven minutes.
Protector or Predator?
Skinshapers have a deeply complex and unique relationship with humanity, more than any other children of the night. Some prefer to exploit humans, using their cunning, talent, or terror, to bend a human to their will. Others kill humans that stray too close to primeval or personal areas, believing they are providing an example to keep them away from the darker creatures of the night. But there are an uncommon few that will work to shield humans, quietly nudging them from the shadows, trying to protect them against the dangers of the night.
“No matter how you look at it, you have to wonder… are they protectors? Or just predators with an excuse? I’ve met both, so I’m not sure which my money is on.” — Elias Brindle Hawthorne
Unwritten Rules
All children of the night have unwritten rules about interacting with each other, or humans. Most of those are to protect a particular group, rather any sort of general fair rules of behavior. Few, if any, of those rules or guidelines are in favor of humans. Skinshapers are no different, other than their guidelines vary between lineages. Something that infuriates bloodleeches, and any other children of the night who try to deal with skinshapers.
But because skinshapers move among humans more closely than any other creature of the night, they all have one unspoken law: Never form attachments to humans. A rule that has been broken occasionally over time, with either lethal or unpredictable results.
Line Between Beast and Animal
Even though these creatures evenly walk the line between human and beast, they don’t share every trait their animal cousins have. All skinshapers are omnivores, despite their particular animal-kin, but most prefer lean meat like fish or chicken. There are some exceptions, like alligator skinshapers, that simply aren’t picky at all. To them, human is as tasty as pork, beef, bloodleech, or any other meal put in front of them. All skinshapers seem to enjoy some type of vegetable or fruit to round out their diets.
Farmers near wetlands tell haunted stories of entire chicken coops left untouched, save for one featherless, eviscerated bird. Methodically picked clean, as if for a sinister feast. Skinshapers rarely take more food than they need if they steal from humans, but their methods often carve out deep nightmares behind them.
“Humans don’t see us for what we are until it’s too late. By then, they’re already dancing to our tune.” — Tempus Feit, Raccoon Skinshaper
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