Prologue- History of Two Worlds

Once upon a time, we were everything.

We were great and powerful. Our armies and weapons were the strongest and most tactful the world's ever seen. No one could stop us. Our cities and architecture were beautiful and glorious. We used to rule every inch of the globe. We defined beauty and strength.

We were the first everything. We invented writing and communication. We were the first to chart the moon, the sun, and the stars. We discovered medicines for our illnesses. We put history on paper. Art was as common among us as the air we breathed. Everything began with us.

Humans, our descendants, feared and worshipped us like gods. And those that hunted humans were labeled as monsters. They mimicked our temples. Our depictions spanned the walls of their tombs. They longed to be like us, half human, half animal and free to switch between both. We considered them filth. They were no more significant than the stones beneath the slow currents of a stream. They labored in our fields. They completed the tedious work. They were our slaves. We chose a few to interact with. Our favorites were remembered in history.

But after all these years, we were beginning to fade. We feuded among ourselves and seperated into clans. Our cities were left abandoned. Four rulers, the Cardinals, tried without success to keep the peace. We isolated from each other. We were dying.

And now, it was the Imperial Queen of those humans who hunted us, and our scarce protections faded. He sought us out in the forests and mountains and seas and tore our homes apart. This was a time of chaos, of death for our people, our furs and feathers and scales stained red with our own blood. The Queen pillaged our cities first and the bloodshed slowly leaked to our peasant villages. A million birds took to the skies and our paws thudded on the earth to escape the impending fall of us, the shifters.

And so, a war between our two worlds begins. And what's the prize?

Survival.