| abstract
| - Druidic shapeshifting is one of the most misunderstood forms of magic in Warcraft. It's easy enough to imagine stepping through portals or summoning fire, but actually becoming a different creature is very difficult to comprehend. Druids do more than just adopt the outward traits of animals. Yes, your hands may shrink, you may grow a tail, your nose may elongate. But with it, your entire perspective of the world changes. As a bear, your nose is constantly assaulted by scents. A cat? You must look at the world in black and white. A bird? Imagine the sensation of unsupported flight – mankind's dream since one proto-human smacked another with a club. Shapeshifting is like opening a passage to a whole new universe of sounds, scents and experiences. The world seems bigger and your mind sees everything differently. Roleplaying this experience takes a certain shift in sensibilities. Imagine for a moment that you are a Druid, transforming for the first time into the shape of a cat. First, look at your hands. Imagine them shrinking, each finger losing distinction. It feels like your knuckles have swollen – they lost their flexibility and skill. Your palms grow thick, too thick to feel through easily. Then your back begins to hunch, curving as your hips tip strangely. When your legs point at a natural 90-degree angle you fall to your hands and knees, feeling your legs shrivel and your bones compact. At the same time, your arms grow out, away from your body. Your elbows twist end bend and your wrists lock. Your tail sprouts through your trousers, brushing against your legs as your clothing is absorbed into the cat's fur.Feeling naked, you look at the chair you once sat in and it's oddly large – its seat is on the same level your head is. Your nose stretches forward, your skull curves and elongates and several new teeth grow in your jaw. Then, you recognise scent – scent a humanoid never knew. Imagine a blind man waking up to find he can see. How do you define the first sight of the colour green? This is how it feels like to feel your first trace-scent, to know exactly who has been here and how long ago. Now that your transformation is complete, you must learn to walk like a cat. This isn't at all easy, coordinating every step with your arm movements. Leap forward, always landing on your hands and don't compensate for the length of your legs – they aren't long any more, remember? Learn to growl and purr, you've lost your capacity to speak. Don't pick things up – your hands don't work that way and besides, how would you carry it? Let others strap something to your back and you feel like your spine is breaking. Machines seem magical and terrifying. It's your instincts that have begun to take over – without them, your mind wouldn't be able to process the strange smells and sounds you are experiencing or to balance the unfamiliar weight of your body. You have to relax and allow the instinct of your new form to guide you – but at the same time you have to prevent the cat from taking over. If that happens, your mind could be lost forever. When the time comes to cast off your form you have to go through the process again. Your haunches stretch, throwing you terribly off-balance as your forelegs shrivel and shrink. Your paws lose their strength and your fingers become ribbons of bony flesh. They don't work together in harmony but instead flex separately, like strange claws. Your spine thickens and and you can hardly twist your body around. Something in your hips tilts and you fall to the ground, unable to support your heavy rear on your spindly forelegs. Your nose shrinks, your eyes lose focus and the world fades away. It's almost surreal how much information you lose and yet how vibrant the colours become. Sounds fade, smells are forgotten and you sense a great chill as your warm fur becomes loosely hanging shreds of fibers and hides. All this, and more, is part of the magic of the Druid. Truly becoming another creature is one of the greatest joys – and dangers – of Druidism. It is unsafe to remain in animal form for too long. When a Druid spends too long within, his own thoughts and memories fade and he starts to lose himself more and more to the animal. This process can take weeks, months even – but Druids learn to recognise the feeling and revert immediately, sometimes even swearing off shapeshifting for a few weeks to make sure their mind remembers their true form. Symptoms include feral behaviour even when not in animal form, a reluctance to sleep or travel in any form other than an animal and long periods of silence and fugue. Normal animals avoid a Druid who has gone “feral” - they sense the strange sickness that has come over him and shy away as they would from a predator. Strange animals sometimes appear across Kalimdor, Druids with no memory of their previous lives and no desire – or knowledge how -to return to their former selves. It is possible for those Feralkin to be returned to society, but only through the intervention of another Druid who must convince his feral colleague to relinquish his form. This can become quite a battle as the Feralkin fights to maintain his animal form, his mind refusing to accept his memories and intellect. In extreme cases it can result in death of one or both participants. Stronger forms – those of the Moonkin and Treant – are said to be even more dangerous. The spirit is so strong that the change literally obliterates the soul within the body. A Night Elf legend say that some of the first Ancients were such Druids. Bound by magic and power they could not control, their souls shrivelled and died and their half-changed bodies gave birth to a new race. This tale is a legend, nothing more, but the danger it illustrates is very real. Druids should keep it in mind when they travel in a body that is not truly their own.
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