Beast People

Beast People are all human-animal hybrids, most originally created by Preserver experimentation millennia ago, and a few strains created by Serpent People science and sorcery in their efforts to create new servant races. All Beast People have a mixture of human and animal characteristics, typically that of one animal species, although some rare “chimeras” appear from time to time with multiple animal traits.
Beast People with similar species qualities (two cat-persons, for example, or two ungulats, with hoofed animal traits) can interbreed, although they are not always fertile and their offspring are sometimes further mutated. Intermixing with other strains from the Clans has further muddied the genetic waters with regard to the Beast People’s heritage and breeding.
Some Beast People resemble various human-animal chimeras from mythology, such as centaurs, satyrs, minotaurs, and so forth. Others are combinations largely unknown outside of tall tales or speculative fiction (or the tabloids, which have inadvertently revealed the existence of the Cryptid Clans many times over the years).
Some Beast People still have active retroviral RNA, making their condition potentially contagious. That is, in extremis, the Beast Person can pass genetic material on to a compatible human (or even animal) host, inducing a series of genetic changes. Such subjects become Changed Ones and the practice of creating Changed Ones is strictly limited by the laws of the Cryptid Clans. So much so, in fact, that many capable of passing on their condition are not even aware they can do so until circumstances align for it to happen.