Aurora

A millennium ago, a mysterious mage wandered the world, indiscriminately inflicting an equally mysterious curse on those who crossed their path. Those afflicted were transformed to resemble beasts, but the change was more than surface-level. These cursed beings were stronger and sturdier than ever before, and healed at a vastly accelerated rate, making them deadly dangerous and nearly impossible to put down.

In the early days, these cursed beings terrorized the land, driven wild by their abrupt transformation. More terrifyingly, it seemed there was no way to help them. Cures for chimerical mutations were shrugged off, victims of their own enhanced magical resistance. All attempts at understanding or replicating the curse were in vain, and the elusive mage who cursed them was impossible to track down. No-one was safe – from the simplest peasant who drew their ire to a grand royal family whose hospitality failed to impress them. The curse struck with karmic precision, peppering the landscape with wild, bestial victims.

And victims they were. Despite their terrifying appearance and power, these cursed creatures, branded “Ferin”, were no more to blame for their circumstances than the hapless townspeople who feared them. As the mage appeared less and less frequently and the Ferin began to settle into their new existence, the world began to calm. These Ferin, after all, were simply tragic individuals afflicted with an unfortunate magical ailment. And despite their immense personal strength and animalistic abilities, their power was quite limited. Even the wild, destructive ones were simply lashing out in terror and confusion. The elder races had not feared the Merfolk or the Gladestriders when The Twins had first created them – was there truly reason to hate and fear these tragic creatures?

The true horror only revealed itself a generation later. It had been assumed that Ferin, like all magically-crafted living abominations, were unable to reproduce. But Ferin could indeed have children – and those children inherited their curse. For the first time, an enchantment bred true.

Those precious decades of tentative goodwill vanished into the wind. More than a personal danger, Ferin now posed an existential threat. Societies worldwide cracked down – some Ferin were driven from their homes and their partners, some societies sought to legally classify them as sub-citizens and strip their protections from them, and some even declared that their animal nature was dominant and they could no longer be considered part of the Elder Races. The tide of the world turned against them, and sensing the danger, many Ferin fled into the wild to escape, harried by monster-hunters and frenzied peasants alike.

With the Ferin now categorically seen as monsters and threats, an impromptu hierarchy began to form among the hunters. Ferin were classified by the danger they posed; more harmless, prey-like strains were begrudgingly tolerated in society, as their strength and sturdiness made them appealing for physical labor – but the more monstrous, predatory variants were categorized alongside chimeras and cave-crawlers as existential threats to be driven out or eliminated. Though Ferin have always been able to find or create havens and refuges to call home, the civilized world has made it abundantly clear that they are unwelcome – merely tolerated, an acceptance conditional on their perceived weakness.

Though the world has changed (and in many places improved) since those dark days, Ferin are still unwelcome in most societies. While in some places this mistreatment is comparatively mild and limited simply to social cruelties, in others they are categorized as sub-citizens, and are only tolerated as a servant or slave labor force. Even in the most open-minded regions, “predator Ferin” are still viewed with extreme wariness. Nowadays, while “prey Ferin” can be found living in most cities and even some small towns, “predator Ferin” are much rarer, and in this region tend to be exclusively found either in gladiator arenas, in Godless communities or alone in the wilderness – since the very traits that make them so feared in civilization perfectly equip them for a life outside of it. A Ferin can carve out a surprisingly functional existence for themself solely from their own strength and power – but it is a lingering tragedy that so many have to.

Perhaps their mistreatment is habitual at this point – a tradition upheld for its own sake rather than any grounding in reality. But even more open-minded communities have noted, with some disguised alarm, that the Ferin population has only grown, and grown significantly. Even dozens of generations down the line, the Ferin curse has never diminished or diluted, and a Ferin parent will always produce Ferin children. With their strength, sturdiness and ability to heal from wounds that would naturally debilitate or kill, they are already more powerful than most humans and elves. Their only noteworthy failing is that there are no Ferin mages, but this is small comfort to the scholars who theorize that Ferin will someday grow to outnumber the Elder Races, and eventually eclipse us completely. Perhaps it is this fear that motivates their treatment, even in otherwise open-minded parts of the world. Even the most high-minded academic mages shrink from the thought of a future where no mages exist.

It is impossible to know how many strains of Ferin there are, as the wandering mage who them created them seems to have done so in every forgotten corner of the world, and almost pathologically refused to use the same curse twice. Instead of categorizing them by animal strain, Ferin are typically categorized instead by how skilled the mage appears to have been when they crafted their curse.

• In the early days, the mage’s creations were unstable. Their forms fluctuated between their natural shape and an animalistic one seemingly at random, or at the whims of their subconscious emotional state. These Unstable Ferin are viewed as the most dangerous and unpredictable type, since that kind of morphic instability is otherwise only found in highly volatile chimeric mutants, and as their unstable emotions rage, their form becomes more powerful and dangerous in turn.
• Later, the mage created Ferin who could shift smoothly from one form to another. These Shifter Ferin possess two forms, one wholly animal, one nearly indistinguishable from their original base form – though they possess a few hints of their true nature, most commonly in the color of their eyes and hair. Shifter Ferin can pass as non-Ferin most easily, a trait considered insidious and alarming by many.
• Finally, the mage’s creations seem to have stabilized, producing Ferin with wholly immutable forms – a single shape that hybridized animal characteristics with their original body. These Hybrid Ferin, though much less unpredictable than their shapeshifting compatriots, also tend to be significantly stronger and sturdier than them, making them quite dangerous.