Gennisi
Part 1
Birth of the Were-Hunters // The Allagi
Come with me, my modern traveler, back to a time that has been shrouded by mystique. Back to a primeval legend that has been mostly forgotten; or at the very least …distorted.
We see remnants of it in our advanced world. Because what present-day human doesn't know to fear the strange noises in the shadow of the full moon? To fear the howling of a wolf? Or the shrieking cry of a hawk? Who doesn't look with caution into the darkest of alleys …not in fear of human predators, but in fear of something else.
Something dark, and dangerous, something even deadlier than our human counterparts.
But mortals did not always hold this fear. In truth, there once was a time, time and time ago, where humans were humans and animals were animals. The idea of one being able to change into another was unheard of, not even a myth.
Until the day of the Allagi. Like most great evils, they say the birth of the Were-Hunters, started out with the best intent: a selfish man with selfish actions.
When King Lycaon of Arcadia wed, his darling, beloved queen, he had no idea that she held a dark secret within her. She wasn't human. Born to the accursed Apollite race, she was destined to die in the heart of her youth---at the tender age of twenty-seven.
On her last birthday, when the King was forced to watch his beloved Queen die a horrible death of old age that he realized the two sons she had borne him would follow their mother to an early grave. Devastated, Lycaon sought out his priests who all told him the same thing: there was nothing he could do. Fate was fate.
The King refused to regard their wisdom. He was a sorcerer and he was resolved that no one, not even the Fates themselves, would steal his sons away from him.
And so, Lycaon began his beastly experiments on the Apollites. He gathered as many of them as he could and used his magic to…change them, to alter their genetic makeup on a level so basic that it might fool a god. He tortured and killed them so that he might find a way for the Apollites to go on living, so that his sons might go on living. He experimented on them like they were animals.
And then he experimented on them with animals.
With the use of his arcane-magic he magically spliced their essence with predators who were renowned for their strength and for their superior survival skills. For their teeth and deadly claws, the bear. Panthers, for their agility and hunting skills. Hawks, for their swift and deadly beaks and keen eyesight. He used leopards for their almost supernatural ability to go undetected. For its speed and ability to work together came the lion. The jackals, for their long legs and cunning ways. Tigers, for their large size and lack of natural predators. And wolves for their heartiness and stamina; the mad King even captured the legendary dragon, with all its might, magic and majesty.
The King hoped that if he could bring together an Apollite's life force with those of these animals, it would make them strong enough to break the curse.
For better or worse, his experiments worked. Instead of living their expected lifespan of only twenty-seven years, these new Apollites now had expectations of close to a thousand. As expected, they were strong, agile, powerful, and lethal. Because they had been born of magic and were descendents from the psychic pureblooded Apollites, they ended up with a few other powers: telepathy, telekinesis, and shapeshifting.
Lycaon spent years refining his new race, until at last, he was sure he found the cure for his sons. After determining from among their new monstrous cousins, the king blended his sons with a dragon and a wolf-the strongest of animals he experimented with. He imbued them with more strength and magic than any of his other creations. In truth, he gave his own power to his sons.
He thwarted the curse set upon his family by Apollo; he defied the will of a god with his own human hand.
But in the end, he gained more than he bargained for. Not only were his songs going to live longer than his wife, longer than he, they would live longer than any known species. They weren't of any known species. No longer human, no longer Apollite, no longer animal, these creatures were something completely different.
When the Fates looked down and laid eyes upon what the proud king had done; they were angry at his impedance in their domain. The Fates declared that he must kill his sons and all in kind.
The King refused.
So it was then that the Fates sought out their own form of penance for his insolence. His children and all in kind were cursed over.
"There will never be peace among your children," Clotho, the Fate who spun the threads of life, professed. "They will spend eternity hating and fighting until the day when the last of them breathes no more."
And so was so.
Energy is neither created nor destroyed; whatever you put in, you will pull out. So whenever the king blended animal and human, he in fact, made two beings. One being held the heart of an animal and the other held the heart of a human.
There were those who walked as men-those who held human hearts-where called Arcadians after Lycaon's people. Those who held the hearts of animals-who walked as creatures-were termed Katagaria.
The Katagaria were born as animals, lived as animals and when they reached puberty-when their magical powers were unlocked by their hormones-they would be able to become human …at least externally. Their animal hearts would always guide their actions.
Furthermore, the Arcadians were similar yet opposite. They were born as humans and lived as humans until their puberty brought their magic and ability to shift into animal form.
Two sides of a coin, two species that should have been at harmony. Instead the Fates sent Discordia to plant mistrust among them.
The Arcadians felt themselves exceptional, superior, to their animal brethren. After all, they were the humans with human emotions and human rationality while the Katagaria were only animals who could take human form.
The Katagaria learned swiftly that the Arcadians weren't honest about their intent; they would say one thing and then do another. They were prideful and envious in only a way humans could, as well as easily able to stab someone in the back.
All through time, the two groups preyed upon each other while each side took the moral high ground. The Katagaria believed the Arcadians to be the threat while the Arcadians believe the animals must be controlled or put down.
It was an endless war; it is an endless war.
And as with all wars, there has never been a genuine champion. There have only been casualties who still grieve from the prejudice and unfound hatred.