Morphylax
A quiet skinwalker of thirteen shapes, every one of them held to keep the world safe.
- Gender
- fluid, form altered
- Pronouns
- he/she/they
- Species
Name
Morph comes from the Greek μορφή morphē, shape, form.
Phylax comes from the Greek φύλαξ phylax, guardian, keeper, watcher.
Guardian of forms is the reading. It holds both halves of him: the many shapes he carries, and the reason he carries them.
Temperament
Morphylax is quiet, but open. He is reserved, and he isn’t shy. Ask him something and he will talk with you openly and at length.
He cares deeply for the natural world around him, and he holds that his gifts exist to preserve and protect, both the world and everyone who lives in it.
His gender moves with his form. In his own body he is he. In a morphoderm his sense of himself leans with the body he is wearing, toward she as the otter or the tiefling, toward he as the lion or the wolf, and he prefers the pronouns that go with that form. Any of the three is welcome all the same, and he takes no offence at whichever one is used.
Sometimes he wants to lean another way for a while, and then he takes up a form that gives him that feeling and stays in it for as long as he wants. His gender is something he can step into, the way he steps into a skin.
Physical description
Morphylax is a tall, grounded presence, calm and steady as old stone, and quietly watchful of everything around him. He takes in a place before he speaks in it, thoughtful in his attention, and once spoken to he warms easily and openly. There is a solidity to him, a deep and settled steadiness, as though he has stood where he is for a very long time and means to go on standing there.
In his base form he is he. In each morphoderm he leans toward the pronouns that suit the body he is wearing, and he, she or they are all welcome in any of them.
He stands around six foot five, broad through the shoulders and long in the limb, and his strength is a lean one, carried through the length of him with an easy reach. He holds his height without hurry, loose and at rest, and every line of him is built for long distances and long work.
His skin is a dark, warm brown, and laid faintly across it are the patterns of all thirteen morphoderms he carries. They overlap and blend into one another, each softening into the next: the striping of a lion and a wolf, the scattered spots of a dolphin, the grain of bark, the curve of scale, the seams of plated chitin, a wash of red-gold and violet and silver drifting through the brown. Their textures are there too, faint beneath the hand: in one place the softness of fur, in another the smooth edge of scale or the cool, close joining of plates, and somewhere the grain of a tree. They are clearest in uneven light and at twilight, and they show most when he moves, or when someone looks closely, the patterns rising and fading across him like light through leaves.
His eyes are a deep hazel, and they are never only hazel for long. Flashes of colour come and go in them constantly, the eyes of every creature he carries passing through his own: lion gold flecked with green, silver-blue, amber-orange, red-gold, earth brown, chocolate brown, a bright and sudden white, the gold and silver of the fae. Sometimes one colour shows alone, and sometimes several layer together at once. Feeling can bring them up, though it needn’t, and they move through his eyes the way weather moves across a valley.
His hair is long and black, falling just past his shoulders, thick and gently wavy, and he usually wears it loose.
His face is broad and open, with a strong jaw and a calm, unhurried expression at rest. A well-kept beard runs along his chin and lower lip, black like his hair, neat and close.
His hands are large and strong, steady in everything they do. Beneath each fingertip lies a fine retractable claw, invisible until he extends it. When he does, it slides out long and delicate-looking, bone white and almost reflective, catching the light as it moves. The fineness is deceptive. They are very strong.
The earth answers him, and his affinity for it is fairly strong. He can move earth and stone, and he can move growing things, coaxing a root to shift or a branch to bend. He can pour his own energy into something living to help it grow. He uses it as the moment calls for, often casually and without ceremony, so long as he believes it does no harm to the land around him. Where it would, he leaves it be, unless there is no other way.
His walker magic is very strong and exceptionally skilled, and he chooses the pace of every shift. He can change in a moment when he needs to. At other times he lets it come slowly, because the sensation of a slow shift is deeply pleasurable to him, and he takes his time with it. The morphoderm rises seamlessly from beneath his skin, like a tree growing new bark, so that it seems to grow from him and not to come from anywhere else at all.
His feelings show first in his eyes, in the flashes of colour moving through them, and then in his posture, the settling or straightening of his frame. Strong feeling brings his patterns up as well, rising clearer across his skin the more deeply he feels.
He moves quietly, lightly for his size, every step deliberate and smooth, as though the ground is something he would rather not disturb.
The atmosphere around Morphylax is grounded and quietly safe, steady as the earth underfoot, and close to the natural world, like standing at the edge of a wood.
He smells of pine, of moss, and of cool stone. In every morphoderm that scent stays with him, and the scent of the form he is wearing settles over it.
Morphylax is an old forest, a mountain at dawn, and a stone that holds many colours in it. He is quiet and deep-rooted, and everything he carries, he carries to keep the world safe.
Lion morphoderm
As a lion, Morphylax is powerful, a big, heavy male standing about four and a half feet at the shoulder and weighing around 435 pounds. His strength is plain in the depth of his chest and the heavy muscle of his limbs, and it shows in every part of him.
His fur is a dark brown, thick, warm and soft beneath the hand, and black striping runs across his torso and down the length of his tail, ending in a tuft as black as the stripes. Beneath the brown lie the faint patterns of his other twelve morphoderms, spots, scales and plating traced softly through the fur.
His mane is a lighter brown, long and full, a little rough to the touch and pleasant to run a hand through. It frames a broad, strong face, and faint white markings lie across it, showing only in brighter light.
His eyes are gold, with slight flecks of green, and the colours of his other forms pass through them in flashes, silver-blue and amber, red-gold and white.
His paws are broad and strong, and the claws sheathed in them are thick and powerful.
His feelings show in his ears and his tail, and strong feeling sends a slight ruffling through his mane.
As a lion he smells of warm fur and sun-baked grass, laid over his own pine and stone.
He moves with power and grace, purposeful in every stride.
Otter morphoderm
As an otter, she is a large sea otter, about five feet from nose to tail tip and around a hundred pounds, at the very top of what a sea otter can be. Her build is a lithe swimmer’s, long and supple through the body, sleek and fast.
Her fur is red-gold, the densest fur of any creature, and it stays warm and plush to the touch. Wet, it carries a dense weight. Along her underside it runs a purer red. Her nose and the tips of her ears are black, and a striking white spot sits in the middle of her forehead. The patterns of her other forms lie faint beneath the red-gold, there to be found when she is looked at closely.
Her muzzle leans narrow, and her whiskers are full and many. Her eyes are grey-green, and flashes of every other eye she carries move through them.
Her forepaws are small and deft, with rough pads for grip, good at holding and turning things. Her hind feet are broad and webbed, built for driving through water. Her tail is flexible and tapering, visibly muscled along its whole length.
Her feelings show in her tail and in the way she holds herself.
As an otter she smells of clean salt water and sea air over her pine and moss.
She moves with grace, flowing on land and in water alike.
Moon-blessed wolf morphoderm
As a moon-blessed wolf, he is far larger than any natural wolf, perhaps six feet at the shoulder, with broad paws and a strong runner’s build, deep-chested and long-legged.
His coat is a dense red, shorter than most wolves’ and lying close to the skin, coarse over a thick underfur and heavily textured beneath the hand. Silver striping runs across his body and tail, and at his throat the silver gathers until it is nearly whole. The tip of his tail is white. Faintly beneath the red, his other morphoderms’ patterns run through the coat.
His face is broad, and the silver striping stops short of it, so that the red is unbroken around his eyes. Those eyes are a striking silver-blue, made all the more vivid by the plain red around them, and the colours of his other forms flash through them in turn. When the moon tie wakes in him, a glow rises in them, and it shows in his size and strength as well.
His ears are long and mobile, turning toward every sound.
His feelings show in his ears first, and then in his tail.
As a wolf he smells of snow and frost, cold and clean over his own pine and stone.
He moves with a smooth, powerful, gliding stride.
Tokren morphoderm
As a tokren of the Impactos lineage, she stands near eight feet tall, powerful and graceful, with the heavier build of her lineage.
Her plating is a dark green chitin, smooth and interlocking, with every seam and segment plain beneath the hand and each plate smooth between them. It carries a slight, reflective sheen in uneven light, and in that same light the patterns of her other twelve forms show faintly across it. It covers her hands heavily, and they are strong and graceful all the same. Venom waits in her fingertips, her bite and her mandibles, as it does in every tokren.
Her face is softly insectoid and gently angular, covered in interlocking segments of chitin that follow her expression easily. Her mandibles are strong and thick, prominent on her face, and her antennae are short and thick.
Her eyes are a deep amber-orange, lit faintly from within, and flashes of her other forms’ eye colours pass through that glow.
Her wings are broad, built to carry her weight, and a dark violet, nearly black in dim light, patterned with leaves and vines in many colours, like autumn leaves. When she dances, the glow they give off is a shade brighter than the wings themselves, dark greens and violets intermixing in the air around her.
Her feelings show mostly in her mandibles and her wings, and strong feeling shifts the glow in her eyes.
As a tokren she smells of night-blooming flowers over her moss and stone.
She moves surprisingly lightly, with the grace of a gymnast, and beneath it runs the natural rhythm of every tokren.
Kitsune morphoderm
As a kitsune, she is a halfbreed of the dark- and light-touched, and her magic runs extremely powerful. She can shift between fox, anthro and human forms, just as any kitsune can, and her patterns and eye flashes go with her into all three.
Her fur is a deep purple, thick and very, very soft, so dense that lying across someone she would weigh on them like a heavy blanket. A darker red striping runs over her flanks and chest and out along her tails. Her eyes are a striking red-gold.
In her fox form she is the size of an arctic fox. Her muzzle is narrow but strong-boned, her face wholly a fox’s, and her ears are tall and distinctly a vixen’s.
In her anthro form she stands about seven foot seven, and her fox build carries all the way through her, lithe and muscled with a fox’s grace. Her face blends fox and human, keeping its muzzle but drawing it back into a more human shape, and her ears stay wholly a vixen’s. Her hands have long palms and long fingers, with defined muscle beneath the fur. She can bring out thick, strong claws at her fingertips when she wants them. When she doesn’t, her nails are well defined and so naturally polished they almost glitter.
In her human form she stands about five foot ten, still lithe, like a dancer who has learned to fight. Her skin is caramel, her eyes are the same red-gold, and her hair carries the deep violet of her fur, falling just past her shoulders. Up close, her face is a little narrow and the tips of her ears a little long, small traces of the fox that only show at very close range.
Her sixteen tails are very long and heavy, thick with plush fur, and she carries all of them in her fox and anthro forms. In her human form, showing them is her choice.
Her foxfire burns the same red-gold as her eyes. When she draws on her light, her eyes glow gold. When she draws on her dark, they glow violet.
Her feelings show in her ears first, and then in her tails.
In every form she smells of warm spice, of cinnamon and clove, over her natural pine and moss.
She moves like a martial artist, purposeful and graceful, every movement measured and flowing into the next with unerring confidence.
Lunari dragon morphoderm
As a Lunari dragon, he is substantial and visibly powerful, about ten feet at the shoulder and fifteen feet from nose to tail, more muscle than length. Much of the length he does have is in his tail, which runs long and slim, with a cutting edge along it.
His scales are the deep red of gemstones, smooth and close-set, their seams easy to feel and their edges smooth beneath the hand. At his belly and throat they darken to a burnished red. Across the red, his other forms’ patterns lie faintly, catching in the light along with the scales.
His head is very broad, with a strong muzzle, its muscle visible and well defined. His horns are straight, with slightly curved tips, prominent and nobly set. His eyes are a dark green, and the colours of his other forms flash through them.
His wings are a dark purple, and wide, and that width is part of what makes him so agile in the air. His claws are thick and powerful, easily able to tear or dig.
His element is fire, and his flame burns bright and strong.
His feelings show mostly in his tail and his posture, and very strong feeling moves his wings.
As a Lunari dragon he smells of embers and ash over his own cool stone.
He walks with a confident, powerful stride, and in the air he is fast and agile.
Solari dragon morphoderm
As a Solari dragon, he is long, about eighteen feet, with a large, flowing serpent’s build and a heavy, strong tail.
His scales are a dark green, many and close-set, so that he is richly textured and ridged beneath the hand. Along his belly they lighten to a green closer to fresh grass than dark pine. The faint patterns of his other morphoderms wind along his length with the scales.
His muzzle is long, with a fine, noble bone structure. Dark horns curve to frame his face, and a thick, feathered mane, honey gold, rolls back from his neck. It is very fluffy and usually warm to the touch. His eyes are an earth brown, and flashes of his other forms’ eye colours move through them.
He has four legs, and his claws are wide and sharp, sure on any ground.
His element is water. Nothing of it shows until he uses it, and then water gathers and mists around him.
His feelings show mostly in his coils and his tail, and very strong feeling ruffles his mane.
As a Solari dragon he smells of rain and river water over his pine and moss.
He moves flowing and fluid, a serpent who knows his way.
Venutian dragon morphoderm
As a Venutian dragon, she is tall and athletic, around nine feet at the shoulder, lithe and powerful, with her weight evenly spread through her frame.
Her fur is a striking silver, slightly rough and incredibly soft, laid over heavy hide. Faintly through the silver run the patterns of her other forms. Her wings are set high on her shoulders and neck, built of hard muscle, and the muscle shows plainly through them. On her wings the silver deepens to a darker charcoal.
Her muzzle runs toward the longer side, clearly a dragon’s. Her horns curve and swirl before straightening at the tips. Her eyes are a chocolate brown, with flashes of her other forms’ eye colours passing through them.
Her claws are black, with green venom channels running visibly along them. The channels show beneath the silver fur as well, running like a web under her jaw and down her tail to its tip. Her tail is long and athletically muscled.
Her feelings show mostly in her wings, her ears and her posture.
As a Venutian dragon she smells of warm fur with something faintly bitter beneath it from her venoms, all of it over her pine and stone.
She moves lightly and effortlessly, with easy confidence and purpose in every motion.
Coyote morphoderm
As a coyote, he is large for one, close to sixty-five pounds, with a lean runner’s build, long in the limb.
His fur is closer to black than brown, and it is richly textured, a pleasure to run a hand through. His other morphoderms’ patterns show faintly across the dark coat. His muzzle deepens to a full black, so that his bright white eyes flash sharply against it, and flashes of his other forms’ eye colours move through the white. His ears are large and upright, tipped in a brighter reddish brown.
His tail is long and bushy, carried low when he runs. Along its length, on either side, sit three triangles, purple, green and red.
His illusions are the only sign of his magic.
His feelings show in his ears and his tail.
As a coyote he smells of dry sage and dust over his moss and stone.
He moves quick and smooth, like a fast glide.
Fae morphoderm
As a fae, she stands around five foot eight, graceful, lean and lithe.
Her skin is a dark brown, like a tree’s bark, and it feels like running a hand over a tree, grain and all, warm and supple where bark would be stiff. The patterns of his other forms run faintly through the grain.
Her face has strong features, a little wild-looking. Her left eye is gold and her right eye is silver, and the colours of her other forms flash through both. Her hair is straight and black, falling to her shoulders.
Her hands are strong and long-fingered, with smooth nails that are naturally polished. Her claws retract and extend, and as they come out they grow almost like small branches.
Her wings are draconic, wide, substantial and powerful, with visible muscle through them, built for strong flight. They carry the same dark brown as her skin, with green striping running through it. Her tail is a full green, long and trailing, with the same feel as the rest of her skin, and fully prehensile. It almost never touches the ground.
She carries affinities for storm and fire. When she uses them, flame or electricity gathers along the edges of her wings, or a breeze stirs the air around her.
Her feelings show in her tail, her hands and her eyes.
As a fae she smells of bark and green wood, close kin to her natural pine and moss.
She moves with confidence and measure, with a warrior’s grace.
Tiefling morphoderm
As a tiefling, she stands around six foot two, with a lithe, balanced build like a skilled fighter’s.
Her skin is black, textured yet smooth to the touch, like worn stone, and her other forms’ patterns lie faintly across it, clearest where the light moves over her.
Her face has strong, wild features. Her horns are a dark red, striking against her skin, rising about two feet as they curve smoothly up from her head, smooth like her skin, only harder. Her eyes are a pale, crystallised gold, and flashes of her other forms’ eye colours pass through them. Her hair is cut short, thick and as dark as her skin.
Her hands and feet are larger. Her hands are broad and strong, with defined muscle, and her nails are dark and smooth. Her tail is strong and thick, about six feet long and fully prehensile, and its tip is sharper, able to do damage when it is swung hard.
Her hellfire burns a dark red, like her horns.
Her feelings show in her tail and her eyes.
As a tiefling she smells of smoke, with something faintly sulphurous from the hellfire, over her pine and stone.
She moves with a warrior’s confidence and purpose, patient and precise.
Testrian morphoderm
As a testrian, she stands about six foot eight, with a full, broad build.
Her skin is a dark blue, soft and extraordinarily smooth, thick and slightly yielding under pressure. Her slime is blue as well, faintly shiny, and the patterns of her other forms show faintly through both.
Her shell is a dark green, worked in elaborate interlocking and concentric rings, and fully opened it can easily cover her and another person besides. When she has no need of it, it folds away into her body.
Her face has a long muzzle, with broad, expressive features above it. Her eyes are a bright purple, flecked with silver, and flashes of her other forms’ eye colours move through them. Her antennae are short, flexible and highly mobile.
Her hands and feet are large and strong, with visible muscle, and the gastropod shape shows plainly in them.
Her feelings show in her antennae and in the shape of her pupils, shifting between slit and round.
As a testrian she smells of rain and wet earth over her pine and moss.
She moves with substance and confidence, heavy without ever being slow.
Dolphin morphoderm
As a dolphin, he is larger than most, about fourteen feet long and around 1,600 pounds, with a powerful, full swimmer’s build.
His skin is a charcoal grey, smooth to the touch, with brighter white spots spread across his whole form, gathered most thickly over his back and shoulders and scattered more sparsely over his fin, flippers and flukes. Faintly beneath the grey and white lie the patterns of his other forms.
His beak is long and slim, and the melon above it rises gently. His eyes are hazel, and the colours of his other forms flash through them.
His dorsal fin stands tall and strongly curved. His flippers and flukes are broad and powerful, matching his size.
His water and moon magic show nothing until he uses them.
His feelings show in the way he moves: how hard he drives with his flukes, in leaping and rolling, and in how close he stays to someone.
As a dolphin he smells of sea spray and cool night air over his natural moss and stone.
He moves gliding and powerful, like a dancer in the water.