Me: I decided to steal Sapphira's idea and let my main character Alyse explain about her race!

Alyse: Can I start now?

Me: Yes!

Alyse: Okay. Well, the Aelingians, or shapeshifters, are an ancient race from Arenia. In the beginning, God gave us the ability to change our shape into a specific thing, like that I can become a mermaid, and my sister Lindsey can shift into a dragon. It comes in very handy sometimes!
But we were also granted the ability to use what some call magic. Each shifter has the ability to control one thing. I can control water, and Lindsey can control fire.
We all have pointy ears and are very agile, kind of like elves. And we all have violet eyes.
Sadly, when the barbarian Vandels invaded Arenia, most shapeshifters were wiped out, leaving only myself and a few others. Six of us were taken to another world when we were children to ensure our survival. I didn't even know that I was a shapeshifter until my brother Luke told me 12 years later! Not long after that, we were all taken back to Arenia and trained to fight in the war and help defeat the Vandels.
That's all I know, since I'm rather new to this whole shapeshifter thing! If you have any questions, ask Abby!

Pretty cool

I really like the Idea Keep up the good work

Thanks!

Each shapeshifter can shift into one thing (like a dragon or mermaid) except for one who can shift into anything she wants. But that's VERY rare.

nice work sis! I know I've known about this for years , but it's still awesome!

I'm glad you like it!

ummm... I hadn't thought about that, especially since one of them is evil! Did you have something in particular that you were thinking of?
Of course, Alyse's ability to shift into a mermaid wouldn't be helpful at all if there weren't any water around! So that does make some of them more vulnerable in certain situations.
And my magic isn't all-powerful, either. I made it so that to create fire, you have to take the heat or energy from something else. If it happened to be cold outside, it would be much harder to make fire! Or if they were trying to use water-magic in the desert, it wouldn't work very well!
That's what I've come up with! Sorry if it's kind of confusing!

That makes sense.

I had a little idea: what if each shapeshifter had a little "magic storage" type thingy (could be a rare kind of artifact or stone or some sort of force in them... the latter sounds a bit strange). Then, if they were ever in a place where it would be difficult or impossible to use magic, they could draw the element out of this... thingy. For instance, if one character with the power over water was stuck in the desert and she needed to hydrate herself and her companions, she could draw the water out of this object.

OR, each shapeshifter could carry around a little vial of an element that would help them use their magic if they were ever in a situation when they could not draw the energy from the environment around them. So, your water-shifter could carry around a bottle of water, from which she could draw the liquid in case she was ever in a dire situation.

Just a little idea for you to play around with... if you like it.

I do like that idea, Aleathea! I'll have to play around with it a little bit.

And, White Raven, I'm working on finding them a weakness. Your ideas sparked my imagination a little bit!

Very very cool! I wonder what the Evil one can turn into

Actually I've been wondering about that myself... She wasn't evil at the beginning of the story, so it can't be something extremely evil. Any ideas?

Yeah well it can't be too evil; Dragon is taken right?

Yep. If I needed to I could switch it around though.

The element that would be advised for the bad Aelingian could be ice or fire (depending on the weakness of the main character) And the Animal (or whatever) that it would shift into should be appropriate for the elemental control that the baddie provides.

Okay. That makes sense! It gave me a few ideas too! I hadn't thought about ice before, so that could work really well!

Good, ice can be evil (and creepy ) The White Witch gave me the idea to tell you that one.

She could be a wolf or a leopard seal or... a PENGUIN !!! Not really!

Actually, a penguin could work... you wouldn't know it's evil until right before it kills you :P

A penguin? Really? I think I might have the craziest brother who ever existed!
I do like the wolf idea, though!

Wolf would be very nice!! It could be completely black or white!

I'm thinking maybe black with a few white markings.

It is always good to have texture and detail.

lol... I can see it now: "Alyse smiled as the cute penguin waddled towards her. Little did she know that it had a dagger hidden beneath its feathers." (Could a penguin even hide a dagger in its feathers?)

Ohh!!! that is so cute!! I can just imagine it. If they ever made a movie i'd watch it just for that reason!

lol, Definitely!

Wow......
Wait I can see it too! As the cute penguin with the dagger walks toward Alyse, it suddenly slides on its belly like lighting and whips out its dagger ! lol

LOL You guys are going to make me want to use penguins!

Is that a bad thing?

Don't be dissing penguins!

No dissing going on here!

Go for it!

Each shapeshifter can only shift into one thing. There is one girl in my story who can shift into anything she wants, but she isn't able to use magic.

Oh, okay. Sorry I misunderstood you!

They can shift into basically anything. Some of them can shift into ordinary animals (like wolves or horses) and others can shift into fantasy creatures, like dragons, mermaids, pegasi, centaurs, and griffins. Those are all the ones I've come up with, but there might be more!

Something I've been thinking about is whether or not the things they can shift into actually exist in Arenia. I don't think so, because that gives them more power, but I'm not sure. Would it be strange if fantasy creatures didn't exist even if the shapeshifters could shift into them?

I never thought it before... but I do like that idea. What do you think about having seven fantasy creatures and seven normal animals?

Nope. Each one only has two forms: Their human form and one creature.

I think I like you people

lol That's what I'd be doing!




Um... I haven't come up with them yet, except for the ones I already mentioned. For fantasy creatures I have dragon, mermaid, griffin, centaur, and pegasus. And I have horses and wolves for "normal" animals. Some other "normal" animals I thought of were bears, eagles, deer, dolphins, and leopards.
I'm kind of at a loss for other fantasy creatures... any ideas? I need two more.

That's amazing! I'll have to look through those!

I do think I have seen this somewhere else, though.

*ahem* I posted it, Mom. Copycat.

Oh and about the little dragon dialog up there . . .

R O T F L!!!!!

You could have a phoenix and a sea serpent for the other two mythical creatures

Unicorns, Phoenixes, Satyrs, Fauns, etc.

What are kelpies? And a Basilisk is the serpent thing right?

Okay, I think I'll use unicorns and sea serpents.

Ooooh... Kelpies sound really cool! I think I'll stick with my first choice though, since everyone knows what they are!

Nope, that might be interesting for a few of them, but it could get really complicated with some of them!