The Metamorphosis of a ɮudō

The ðōnujulaeab were the masters of their gift, Metamorphosis. They could share this gift with the others, as they did to Awaken the zerɮudōju. At times they were known to bring this gift to individuals as well. It could be given as a gift or a curse, and could be perceived by the recipient as either as well.
The ðōnujulaeab wrought changes upon those they thought deserved them, for better or for worse. They did not believe in ending life preemptively, only in changing it.
They could change the physicality of a person; add horns, wings, a tail, bark skin, merge them halfway with the form of another animal or plant. They could change the psychology of a person; make them calmer, wiser, angrier, more animalistic. They could show them new powers and abilities or take them away.
There are hundreds of stories and children's tales told of people meeting with a ðōnulaeab and returning changed. Often these stories formed the base for tales of the Old Kind. Being changed, they became something... else. Not wholly ɮudō anymore. They lived apart from anyone else. They took to dwelling in the far places of the world, where few others would go. That or they wandered ancient paths that kept them from others.
The new beings worked differently from ɮudō now. They sometimes had different powers, now being so heavily touched by metamorphosis. They themselves were sometimes seen as a kind of sub-ðōnulaeab, something not quite either race but having great similarities to both.

Historical Basis

Many believe this to be only myth, but in the old days this did happen. Especially when the ðōnujulaeab interacted so frequently with the ɮudōju. These transformations were given as a kind of judgement; either positive or negative. But their mentality was radically different from the ɮudōju. They were a thousand times older, and their way of life and physicality was so different, at times the thoughts of the ðōnujulaeab were considered unfathomable. They were as to ɮudōju as the fey are to humans.
Many of the people touched by metamorphosis became those of the Old Kind. Their years were lengthened and they became beings of great knowledge or power. But their minds were often changed and they became less like the ɮudō they once were. So they retreated even further from the secluded life of a wanderer. As so little was known about them- how they came to be, why, and what they truly were now- they were shrouded in a great aura of mystery.

Spread

The myths and tales of these transformed people are known across the continent; particular changed ɮudō are mentioned more frequently in different areas where their story is more popular.
True sorcerers, the zerɮudōju, and the Old Kind keep the knowledge of this truth with them. Many of the Old Kind are, in fact, those that have been thus changed.
Sometimes wanderers or travellers do come into contact with these transformed people. They bring back stories to further the myths. Those they saw become akin to cryptids. Sometimes the area they were seen becomes flooded with those looking to spot them, sometimes the area is avoided like the plague for fear of angering whatever walks there. Sometimes no one believes the stories and they go on their merry way. But superstition runs deep and not all of a warning will be ignored.

Variations & Mutation

The names given to those changed by the metamorphosis of the ðōnujulaeab are many.

• Tree-Touched
• Tree-Changed
• The Half-Blessed/The Half-Cursed
• TBD
• (Mistakenly) the Old Kind

They are mistakenly called the Old Kind because not all of them were of the Old Kind, nor were all of the Old Kind made of those changed beings.

Related Species

• Ðōnulaeab
• ɮudō