Life's Breath: Magic of Beastfolk

The world of Beastfolk is that of life, hunting, and adaptation. And while they are getting farther away from those roots thanks to their world creating portals to other worlds and freeing themselves from Fae's oppression, their magic still reflects their beginnings. Life's Breath is a manifestation of the spirit of all living beings. By manipulating it, one can gain the abilities of other creatures and temporarily replace one's body parts with theirs.

Controling Life's Breath

Any Beastfolk possesses an innate ability to learn how to control this magic, however,

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one needs to spend years of learning, grueling physical and mental training, and changing the way they perceive themself and other living beings just to be able to manifest its powers at their most simplistic level. It is said that the Beastfolk that resemble the animals that already mimic other creatures have a little easier time with reaching the first step of this journey. Once they start mastering it, casters using this kind of magic can change their bodies in the blink of an eye to better suit their surroundings, enhance their combat prowess, blend into the background, or impersonate someone.
Life's Breath tends to be stronger the closer one is to the creature whose traits or parts they want to "borrow" at the moment of casting it. This makes the duels between the two bearers of this power quite a sight to see, as they can "borrow" parts from each other at their full strength, quickly turning it into a race of who can adapt to the strengths of their enemy the fastest.

Growth of magic

Back when the world of the Beastfolk opened its doors to other realms, the range of the creatures the Beastfolk mages could "borrow" from grew infinitely. While in the past they were only able to mimic only physical traits, now their powers can also take on more supernatural and magical ones. It is said that the strongest Beastfolk casters can also temporarily borrow the magic of other beings, though doing so without understanding its principles is ill-advised.

Death's Breath

There are some Beastfolk who are already so close to death, either by being part animals representing it or by having frequent contact with it, that their magic already considers them partially dead. This gives them a few new ways they can use their magic. First, those without a connection to death have a harder time trying to use the Life's Breath to "borrow" their abilities. Second, the bearers of Death's Breath might "borrow" the traits of the beings that are not alive. Doing so, however, comes at a cost, and as long as they use this magic, their bodies are dying. Even the strongest mages aren't able to use this power for more than a minute and a half.