Long ago, in the City of Atlantis, a then thriving community, tragedy struck. Human Nature. They were beginning to make choices that were harming the great earth, and worse yet, mother nature. Having foreseen the future the humans were creating, a group of seers, holy men, and priests began looking for a way to prevent this from coming to fruition. To preserve nature as it was, not as it would be. After much debating, research, and countless hours of arguments amongst themselves, they came to one unified conclusion. They would take spirits of nature and give them a body of their choosing. In this form, the spirits would interact with humans and help them to make better decisions. They would help prevent the humans from making the choices that would ruin their beloved planet.
The forms the spirits had chosen were that of an anthropomorphized human, or Anthro for short. An anthro is, simply put, part animal, part human. The spirits chose this form for two reasons. The human half of their form would give them free will to do as they wished. It would also give them an appearance very similar to humans, to aid in their interactions with one another. Their animal half would keep them close to nature. Connected with nature as they once were. This, of course, meant that they were far more in tune with the elements and nature than the humans.
For some strange reason, unknown the those who summoned the spirits, the spritis always took the form of a male. And while the new bodies looked very close to that of a human, there were still some animal characteristics. The bodies were not perfectly human, as was plain to see.
The inital group that had summoned the spirits consulted their spell weavers. Through the spell weavers, the priests discovered that there was one spell, only one, that would let them hide the animal characteristics of the spirits. It was the most dangerous one the spell weavers had come across. The spell weavers dared not cast it for fear of the backlash it would cause. The seers did not care, they only wished for the humans to not destroy their precious earth.
Seeing this as just cause to cast the spell, the priests and their peers went on about their business, gathering any artifacts that may aide them in casting such a dangerous spell. It took them many a moon to finally collect everything required. By then, they were old men and women with children and grandchildren. One brilliant night, under the brightness of a full moon, they gathered. The animal spirits they had brought forth were surrounding their circle.
With such a grand age, several of the original group were lost. They had been replaced with younger, stronger versions of what they once were, as is always the case with aging. Those who remained meditated. They knew now what the spell was going to cost them, what it was going to do. They realized that they should have listened to the spell weavers when they were first warned of the dangers of cloaking the anthros from the humans. Yet, this had been their life mission for many moons. It would be their final achievement.
The elders cast out the new members of their society, not wishing them to see what would happen. After a long night of meditation and chanting, the spirits had been cloaked. The cost? Each of the original summoners lay deceased on the ground of the anthro's feet. In this moment, the spirits knew what true sacrifice meant.
Some of the anthros were cruel and reveled in their newly found freedom. They had not only been granted a body, but freedom to move amongst the humans without being detected. Others were far more kind. They wept for the loss of those who had gifted them so greatly. They would have been in mourning for so many more years if it had not been for their goal. To stop the humans from destroying the world as they knew it.
Now the original group had passed on, none of the current priests, seers, or holy men knew what had gone into the spell. They had an idea the cost, but not a clue the spell. It was fortunate for them, they would never see the animal spirits again. They would simply know them as humans they had never met before. Now, before the previous grouping of priests, seers, and holy men had done something that would forever change the anthro's way of life. They had created different races of anthro.
Anthros could tell themselves apart by sight, there were two leaders for each race, an Alpha and a Beta. Spirits recognized each of these leaders for their races as the ones they would obey. The ones that they would have to answer to if they did something truly horrid or against their nature.
It was thanks to this that they had managed to survive through the long ages. The alphas and the betas would change through time, having been challenged for their position by newer and stronger anthros. Such was the nature of the animals they had chosen to embody. It was thanks to the alphas and the betas that each race had gained different talents and dominion of certain objects. Each race held dominion over different things and would often fight to attempt to control that which another race had.
Eventually, as time wore on, the anthros saw the need to interbreed with one another, to preserve that which they had been intended to create. Peace. They would mix their races to create stronger offspring. Naturally, the elders were against this. However, if it were not for the mixing of the races, their unique racial abilities would have been lost forever.
Over time, Anthros spread through the human world, finally beginning to accomplish their original goal. To stop the humans from destroying their precious earth. As humans began to advance in their technology, the anthros quickly became overwhelmed with trying to keep up with the humans. They would come to forget why they had been created in the first place
Today? Today the anthros blend in amongst the humans, having almost entirely forgotten why they had been created and the sacrifice they had been offered so many years ago. There are few left from the days of old. Those that still remain, they keep that information locked tight. Those few anthros that remain still try and steer the humans towards a better nature while the newer generations simply blend in and act as humans would.
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