Changelings

A changeling is an animal with the ability to take on a human form at will.

At one time, all animals possessed this ability, but currently, only roughly 3% of animals are changelings. This percentage is shrinking and will only ever continue to shrink.

Animals who aren't changelings are typically referred to as "dustless animals" or simply "the dustless," in reference to the creation story of the changelings.

Origin of Changelings
Changelings say that they came to be in the Garden of Eden.

As the story goes, after Man and Woman were banished from the Garden, the animals were afraid to leave with them. The humans were given dominion over them, but now that the humans had fallen, they were flawed, and the animals felt that they could no longer trust Man to be a benevolent ruler. How would they protect themselves from humanity's abuses? Would some of them be condemned to extinction for our folly? Who would be their advocate?

They asked these questions of The Creator, and The Creator listened to their concerns patiently before assuring them that they would be their own advocates.

The Creator revealed to the animals the patch of dust that They shaped Man's flesh out of and instructed each of them to drop down and roll in it. After each creature rolled in the patch, the coat of dust that clung to them transformed into a coat of human flesh. The Creator sent the animals out of the garden in these human disguises that they could shed or don whenever they needed to, that way they could hide among humanity and be champions for animalkind.

Origin of the Dustless
Though some changelings believe dustlessness is only an unfortunate natural mutation, most maintain that it was a curse sent down by The Creator.

According to them, there was a time thousands of years ago when changelings, aware that they vastly outnumbered humanity, conspired to usurp and enslave them.

The Creator, however, who sees all, had been watching the changelings scheme against mankind. In anger, They sent a mighty wind storm over the whole earth, blowing the changelings' coats of dust away and stripping them of their human shapes forever, sparing only those who had refused to participate in the plot. Only a small number of the animals were still changelings, and they were promised that they would never again overtake humanity in number.

It is for this reason that harming humans is a serious taboo in mainstream changeling culture. It's believed that it invites the wrath of The Creator.

Transformation
Because changelings' human shapes are made up of dust, transformation looks like this: When going from human to animal the human shape billows outward, looking like dust or smoke, and momentarily creates a cloud. The animal becomes visible as the cloud dissipates. When going from animal to human, this visual plays out in reverse.

A seriously injured changeling, or one in otherwise poor condition (ie. starvation, severe sleep deprivation, or even sudden psychological shock) will become locked in whatever form they're in when they incurred the injury or condition. They will stay that way until they recover, if they recover. Certain disabilities (i.e. blindness or deafness) do not have this effect, even when they're acquired rather than congenital. Minor injuries do not have this effect at all.

Language
Because animals had no hand in the creation of the Tower of Babel, and because changelings need to be effective ambassadors to all of mankind, The Creator has endowed changelings with fluency in every human language— living or dead; written, spoken, or signed. They can also flawlessly imitate any possible accent.

Tells
All changelings possess a tell, which is a feature of their human shape that hints at their true species. Examples include vertical pupils, sharp teeth, or a particular marking on the skin.

A changeling's tell is the same as every other member of their species, and some groups of species all share the same tell (ex: all snake changelings have forked tongues).

Not every tell is necessarily obvious or even visible.

Mind Reading
All animals, including changelings, possess the ability to read each other's minds via eye contact. Making eye contact with another changeling is a deeply intimate act usually reserved for one's mate, parents, or children, and is taboo to do with strangers or anyone else one isn't close with.

It's also possible for animals to read each other's memories through sustained physical touch.

No animal can use these abilities to read the minds or memories of humans. All human minds are unreadable. Likewise, with the exception of frans, humans can't read the minds or memories of animals.

Cognition
Changelings possess human-level intelligence even when in animal form.

All changelings think in pictures rather than in words, which can make their thoughts difficult for frans to interpret.

Diet
Changelings retain the dietary needs and limitations of their species even while in their human shape. A dog changeling, for instance, would die if they ate a handful of grapes, and a shark changeling must live on an all-meat diet.

Though most carnivorous changelings hunt live prey on occasion, hunting and eating another changeling is considered murder. Only the dustless are allowed to be eaten.

Reproduction
Romantically and sexually, humans and changelings are innately repelled by one another. Relationships between humans and changelings never happen. Human-changeling hybridization has never happened either, nor is it possible.

Death
The lifespan of a changeling is the same as that of a human, unless the lifespan of the changeling's species exceeds that of humans, in which case it will be longer.

Because a changeling's human shape is merely a coat that they wear, killing a changeling in its human shape will only destroy the coat. The animal themself will never again be able to take on human form, but they will not be dead. If you want to truly kill a changeling you will more often than not need to kill it twice.