I'm heavily considering posting the first couple of chapters of my stories online in the next couple of weeks. No spoilers for anything coming up, but I feel.... idk. I'm AFAB, but I have had gender, and just general body dysphoria, my entire life. Being adopted messes with a person. it's kind of what led me to creating my forest imp characters.
And I really want to share them with the world.
So, the tl;dr of it is: Otters. The otters evolved into mermaids, hairy mermaids because this planet is late-snowball-stage and still actively thawing. Eventually, these mermaids found land, and evolved into these furry "merrish" creatures I call Otter Elves. The ones that stayed on the coast stayed tall and lanky, but the ones who migrated into the woods shrunk and started to branch out. A lot. There's gnomes, goblins, nematoads, trolls, and forest imps.
Of the branching halfling races, the forest imp is the most diverse. They are a very transformative race. They use magical enchantment "chowders" in special community rituals when one of them comes of age and has chosen what they want to be in life. Some pick bird enchantments, some pick cat or wolf enchantments, some toolmakers even pick bug enchantments. Every imp has their own transformation, and every imp has their own transformative journey.
The wolves made a Moon-Pact (She is sentient) and went Bipedal a long time ago.
Also, the cats just... talk. And have taken over the fishing industry.
Magic is a sort of Creative Visualization concept. Wizards/Witches become so by choice and by being very, very, VERY into whatever it is they are into.
I've been worried about bringing out my imps into the world for years. After everything I've gone through in my life, and seeing it mirrored in others' experiences, I just... I'm tired of keeping them to myself. I'm tired of worrying about adversity over them. I love them. I hope others will, too.