The Clans of Anieth - Multi Shapers

I am a multi-shaper. I had always played the character of a wolf when we first went to Anieth, but over the years, I explored other animals. My wife, Raissa, joined me in this exploration. We wanted to learn as much as we could by living through the eyes of the different Animal Clans. But I slipped into a desire of wanting to change shape as the mood took me and not have to wait several years for the game to end in order to take on a different character. I had four characters I favored: a wolf, a bear, a hawk and a raven. I had tried other characters and found their social life too constraining; I was never a social person, bearish even on Earth.

Lucia drew a picture of me on a Tarot card doing the Raven Dance. When Lucia broke the gate and trapped us all in Anieth with no memories of Earth, Raissa and I kept our ability to shape multiple creatures. At first, Raissa could only take on the lynx form. Her mother in Anieth, Gaupe, was of the Lynx Clan and had learned to shape a bird. When Raissa (who was Luaith in Anieth) was pregnant with Faol, she feared to change shape too much. So she taught herself shifting by projection. She said that the idea had come to her while weaving on her loom. She had listened to me talk about carving and art, of the artist being the animal he shaped. At first, her projections were ghostly, like those of the River Birch, but they began to take on solid form as she willed herself more and more into being "one with the shape." Finally, she could project herself out of her body into the shape of an animal that felt real to her and seemed real to everyone else. If she were killed, she would wake up at home in her human body. She taught our son this trick and I fear it made them rather reckless. But it created a desire in me to start testing the laws of our world. I had no memory of Earth, but I had some unconscious feeling that we were not living in a world that was as solid we thought it was.

Here is a list of the multi-shapers of which I knew. Seven of them were born on Earth, so it might have be more of an accomplishment for the ones born to Anieth!

Of these people, Lucia, of course, controlled the gate and remembered everything. I and my wife did not remember much. Neither did Sasha (Faol), but Brian and Geoff were able to remember some of who they were on Earth. Diana was the disruption for, not only did she remember everthing, but she thought it was a game. Diana was so adept at shape-shifting that she could take on any shape she wanted as easily as her aunt, Lucia, could. Lucia's daughter, Ellie, was not interested in much other than the deer, but she learned another shape when she was forced to learn. The kids, Brian and Geoff, just learned to break the rules of the Tree Clans and shape the trees of their fathers.

The other shapers despised and feared us. I had never heard of anyone possessing this ability with shapes other than Brannan, Gaupe, Lucia and her daughter and granddaughter and neice. Her daughter, Ellie, could shape any shape, as Lucia could, but preferred to run with the Nine in the shape of a roe deer. I had heard of other multi-shapers, but Brannan insisted that they had been killed.

My house was at Coombe Charria, technically in Rowan country, but closely bordered by both the Ash to the south and west, and the River Birch to the east and the Alder to the north. The White Doe lived east of me as if she wanted to keep an eye on me and mine. I think she waited for one of us to make a mistake. One day, one of us did. Ellie, daughter of Lucia and the Rowan, was shot down when the Nine went after the humans who invaded from Nava. The Nine, knowing no better, took her to their mother for help. Rather than help her, the White Doe saw her chance and took it. She knew that Ellie's daughter was fated to save Anieth, and she assumed that the human father in the vision of the Rowan was going to be Korutos. So she bound Korutos with the promise of his first born. After she lost her daughters at Láir Tor, this turned into an obsession with the White Doe that lasted well into the adulthood of Ellie's daughter, whom the White Doe pursued and harassed, trying to get her killed.

My son grew up to hate most of the people who despised us. He was even more of a bear than I was! But by this time, I was trying to interfere with more than shaping myself, I was trying to unshape the world. Luaith had shown me that too much of Anieth depended on our preconceptions of the way that our world should work. I put this to the test. If I had been more involved with our family, particularly with the problem of Ellie, who had sought refuge and guidance from me, I may have changed the outcome of events. My son grew to be a shaper of great power and ability. Yet he took on the responsibilities that I shirked and took it upon himself to champion other multi-shapers and those who broke the "rules" of Anieth.

Sasha, as the Wolf, Faol, inherited Coombe Charria, when I vanished and Raissa (Luaith) would not stay in the house I built for her. She did stay nearby, and Faol suspected that she had a place near the Glade of statues where she hid. He had become adept at projection, but found that having a carving was a way to become one with the animal he chose to shape. He was able to take on the shape of the wolf, lynx, raven and bear, but he projected himself into the other shapes. If one of them was killed, he found that his statue had been destroyed. But the magic was changing. He chose to ignore it, being quite happy at Coombe Charria and hating everyone else for interfering. He had a rough life, trying to help Ellie's daughter. When she was at Coombe Charria, he wanted nothing else.

His statues far outstripped mine in realism. His talent was such that he attempted to carve statues for Ellie's daughter, which ended in disaster when Diana interfered.

Multi-shaping was as uncommon among the Trees as it was among the Animals. For an Animal, shaping the body of a deer and having the mind of a wolf was bound to lead to some insanity. There were boundaries we had to overcome: the Predator Boundary, the Air and Water Boundary, and etc. My son was able to shape the birds well, but also could shape herbivores and even the salmon. For the Trees, changing shape was possible for the very young, but almost impossible to reverse when the human part of the Tree aged. Not only was their the physicality of "taking root," but the psychology of it was intense. Those who became trees literally lost their minds. Normally children could be struck or frightened back out of form, but quickly learned that it was very risky to change. The mental barrier was also just as intense where the mind of one tree and the shape of another clashed badly. A person who resembled a Birch with the mind of an Oak would truly have problems with the Birch or the Oak!

There were two famous exceptions to the Tree boundaries, an Oak who had an Elder mother and thus was called "Dubh" (dark), and a Holly who had a Rowan mother. However, it needs to be said that both of these Trees looked very like their adopted Clans which supported my theory that the "rules" of Anieth were not stable at all for those of will. Yet Tréan, whose father was Holly and mother was Rowan, could grow a beard if he chose and was not as light of skin as most Holly, just as Dubh was not as dark as the Elder and had the bone structure of his father.

It was no surprise to us that these two boys became great friends and even one the championships and forged the first peace that the Holly and Oak Clans had ever known. Both suffered rebellions among their people who would not be led by half-breeds, but both were vital to the Alliance that was formed by their fathers in secret that finally spread through the Wood and secured Anieth against the Zelosian Invasion. Yet Tréan harbored a deep grudge against his parents, for as a child he had very dark red hair and his holly cousins tormented him. His mother had chosen to live among the Holly, no uncommon for the Rowan, in order to be near her lover. Her son was expected to be a Rowan, and, when tormented, took on that shape. It was not until he was thirteen that he overcame this tendency through sheer stubbornness and not because his father wished it. His friend, Dubh, easy-going and amused at almost everything, could take on each tree shape at will until he got to old to quickly take up the root. This drove Tréan crazy wild with envy, for he had little control over his shape. Yet Dubh got him to practice the Holly, probably more out of rage than any real desire on Tréan's part!

The other shaper worth mention is the notorious Diane Stanford, daughter of Marion and Mark. She took on shapes at will merely to trick and torment the other players. It is not known whether she was aware of this ability as a player who retained her memory, or simply became as she wished because she honored no law among the Clans but her own.