Zylaa's 2013 NaNo

[Zylaa]

The still-young country of Makido is entering its renaissance, and everyone is dreaming big. Adam, who wants nothing more than to see Makido reach the greatness of the old empire, is finding it hard to have any sort of impact on his country's future as a junior warden of the western mountains, where nothing of significance has happened for a hundred years. But when an explorer brings back tales of unfathomable riches in a canyon in the western mountains, he sees this as his chance to bring the country to unprecedented glory. Sure, there are shapeshifters guarding the canyon, but they can be reasoned with, right? Or, as the explorer argues, they can be dealt with.

In a small town deep in the western mountains, Cress dreams of becoming an explorer, and her best friend Thena longs to go to Makido's finest academy. The shapeshifter they meet in the woods, Leaf, aspires to befriend every living soul she can. Leaf forges fast friendships with the two humans. So when an obviously suspicious shapeshifter traveling as a human comes to take her away, Cress and Thena demand an explanation.

The shapeshifter is on a mission from Leaf's father. Leaf's father, posing as a human in the Makido government, may be the only one who knows exactly what's coming--and he wants his daughter out of the western mountains before it's too late.

---

CAST OF CHARACTERS (All of these names subject to change, including the name of the country. Except the shapeshifters' full names, I'm rather fond of those)

ADAM: Young, idealistic, moving quickly up the ranks of the Makido meritocracy. Envisions a brilliant future for the country, one where magic and learning prosper and flourish more than they ever have before. Essentially a good man who knows his cause is just. I don't think I need to tell you all how dangerous that is.

SKIRE: One of Makido's hired explorers. A water mage who was almost expelled from the academy multiple times for actions that she would call "creative magical experimentation"--inventive and original displays of the sadistic uses of water. Nobody is entirely sure how she wasn't expelled, and of course the rumors have only grown in her years as, technically, a government employee. In discovering new lands, she leads a small crew who have long ago lost the distinction between loyalty and fear.

CONSTANTINE: He has gone by Constantine for several years now, from the academy up into the government, but his real name is Sun on the Mossy Boulder After a Violent Thunderstorm. He is, as you may have guessed, a shapeshifter. Constantine dreams of a Makido where shapeshifters are respected as people, and by now he's spent decades (and multiple human forms) working towards this goal. When Skire discovers the canyon, he does everything he can to stop her and still keep his identity secret.

EDGE: Full name being The Claws of a Leopard as it Stalks its Prey. Edge hates humans. Edge hates lots of things. Edge worked with Constantine for years towards his goal of shapeshifter representation--learning to read, learning to write, learning to pass as a convincing human--but eventually, Edge's refusal to stop killing humans (among other things) led to them parting ways. When Constantine needs his daughter saved, though, he knows he can count on Edge (even if he doesn't understand why)(I haven't decided yet if Constantine understands why).

And the mountain trio, who were originally going to be the main characters, but with the latest version of this plot are mostly tangential to the story I'm telling, which is a problem:

LEAF: Full name something like Leaf on the Branch Dancing in the Wind. Preferred form a dog--I envision her looking like a Border Collie, but her personality is very much a Golden Retriever. Loves all people, and loves her new human friends. She wants them to come with her, even if she doesn't fully understand why Edge needs her to leave. As the novel opens, she's never had to think like a human before.

CRESS: Prankster and troublemaker in the small town. Her mother went off with a wandering troupe when Cress was young, and Cress feels like she has a bad reputation to uphold as a result. Unwaveringly loyal to the few people in the world she loves--her father, Thena, and fairly quickly, Leaf (all in different ways). Cress wants to see the world, so her motives are not exactly altruistic when she wants to go off and keep Leaf safe.

THENA: The daughter of the mayor, so she can get away with having Cress as her best friend. Bookish, introverted, the voice of reason to Cress. Much more interesting in my head than these two sentences make her, but it is late, and I'm tired.

---

So that's my NaNo! World background stuff to come later, for those interested. I have a vague arc of a plot now, but still want more... I have everything up until a certain point, after which I have very little idea how to go on. Also, I'm not sure how I want to settle on pronouns for my shapeshifters... all shapeshifters are genderless, but I dunno how modern genderless pronouns would work in a vaguely renaissance-y fantasy.

I welcome all reactions!

[Zylaa]

Here, have lots of random information on how shapeshifters work!

This is taking place in my usual world (about 200 years after the events of my last NaNo), but I've never really included shapeshifters in my stories at all beyond "Yes, shapeshifters are totally a thing." Shapeshifters keep to themselves, and operate very much independently of each other, so humans and crowfolk don't know much about them as a whole.

The most closely guarded secret of the species is how shapeshifting actually works--mages can't replicate it, because they can't figure out how to get around the law of conservation of matter (though I doubt they phrase it that way. I need to work on that). Shapeshifters seem to violate that law.

In fact, shapeshifters bond themselves to boulders of kipstone, an extremely powerful and sought-after type of rock. These boulders give the extra mass and take it away when needed. The rock is plentifully found in one particular canyon, which they guard from every sentient species. This is the canyon Skire discovers.

Shapeshifters are born with only one form per species, and not every species ever--only the species that their parents had. They gain the forms of whatever they eat. Some shapeshifters just steadily accumulate more forms of normal prey animals like squirrels and deer, while some strategically hunt animals whose forms they want. Edge and Constantine, for example, now have multiple human forms each. Shapeshifters can live forever, in theory, because they keep eating new forms.

Shapeshifters can take after the whole range of animal behavior--some are social and form packs and bands, some are loners. The one consistent thing is that they usually have only one child, and they are very deliberate about picking when. Shapeshifters are very protective of their children.

Although no shapeshifter has one given form, they will generally identify with one species in particular and call that their true form. I'm trying to come up for a name for it that isn't totally twee. They will then not eat any animal in that species--it's similar to our cannibalism taboo. So for example, Leaf's true form is a dog, and she is horrified when Cress asks if she can look like any other dogs. I think Edge and Constantine are a leopard and a bear, respectively.