Questions tagged [shapeshifters]
Questions dealing with creatures that have the ability to change their body form into someone or something else, voluntarily or involuntarily. Consider also the [chimera-folk] tag.
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How could a shapeshifter change forms realistically and what limitations should there be?
I have a shapeshifter character whose power-set is relatively grounded. They can only change into other human forms. They can basically impersonate anyone they want, so they use their powers primarily ...
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How would the biological ability to generate electricity to fight work in terrestrial animals? [closed]
In a series I'm writing, there are seven categories of species of intelligent, human-like creatures with magical abilities that vary by species. One of them is a revamp of mermaids, or as I call them, ...
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How useful would were-creatures be for military applications?
If a modern military acquired the means to grant some soldiers the ability to transform into a bipedal were-creature, what kind of military applications/roles would they be best suited for?
Abilities
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Is a shapeshifter's transformation exothermic or endothermic?
I'll start by saying that whilst my scientific knowledge is pretty basic (if ever-increasing) it would be good to hear answers that can give a layman's summation as well as a more scientific ...
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What is the most plausible way for an organism to have (limited) shapeshifting abilities?
These shapeshifters - known as Doppels - aren't the stereotypical "blob of goo that becomes whatever it wants" shapeshifters. Instead, they're humanoids that can assume the physical ...
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Would a creature that can change its shape and has temporary limbs have a default/resting body shape?
I have some species of aliens that have pseudopodia, less like the temporary protrusions of amoeba but more like the retractable eye stalks of snails. Their body is covered in areas where limbs can ...
user96146
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Shapeshifters or just no physical form? [closed]
I'm writing about demons who live in an alternate world that exists below our own. They rarely venture into the human world because it forces them into a solid body, which they find painful and ...
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Would veganism become much more popular in society mostly made up of shapeshifters? [closed]
In my story the western world and other wealthy countries have access to shape shifting technology. How it works is that tiny microscopic nanobots flow through the bloodstream and can kinda turn a ...
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Why costly time released shapeshifting drug is more popular than fast acting ones?
In my story shapeshifting drugs are controlled and only widely used for therapeutic medical purposes only, a recent study showed a young patient with severe depression and poor appetite is suddenly ...
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How would a house security/protection work in a society full of shapeshifters?
My story has a country/society made up of mostly shapeshifters. How shapeshifting works is that once someone turns 21 they are allowed the gift of shapeshifting through an advance technology. They can'...
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Would an inter-dimensional being need to eat? [closed]
Would a being that could enter any space in any time, assume any shape, need sustenance or a source of energy to stay alive or does their very existence as inter-dimensional beings imply that they are ...
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Werewolves change gradually according to the phases of the moon. What made people think they only change on the full moon? [closed]
The werewolves in my story change gradually, being fully human on the new moon and being fully wolf when the moon is at its fullest. They only lose their minds on the night of the full moon.
If that ...
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How can my character transform without losing their powers?
I'm writing a story about a character who can manipulate the cells of any living organism - himself, others, plants, soil, etc. His power is psionic-based and stems from his brain.
In my story, I've ...
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What would be a realistic size for a werefox race?
If you have read Eragon, then you know of the Werecat: a race that can shapeshift between a 'large cat' and a 'child', almost certainly with no change in mass. The Magic System is based on the literal ...
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How unintelligent can a gelatin mimic be?
The mimic resembles a transparent slime of gelatinous mass capable of changing colours and also shape.
In front of a predator, as a defense mechanism the slime mimic will shapeshift into a wobbly and ...
user89947
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What would the side effects of being a shapeshifter be? [closed]
In this historical-fantasy scenario, a major protagonist has been given the ability to transform into every animal species that Earth has and had offered, alive and extinct. (Which means if he wants ...
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If were creatures obeyed the physical conservation of mass, what animals could they easily change into from people in their natural range? [closed]
In my world, all animals can have a were equivalent. The requirements are that they must have blood and that they cannot change mass. However, that's not necessarily a limit when it comes to the ...
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It would be possible to make a shapeshifting human being with our current technology?
Genetic engineering, nanomachines, holograms, all of those could be considerated some kind of shapeshifting "power", however, it is way far fetched for our today technology (except genetic ...
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Challenges regarding a particular shapeshifting ability
I've designed a race of creatures known as gloomstalkers, avian beings resembling a cross between a raven and an Archaeopteryx, that possess human-equivalent sentience.
One of these is the inherent ...
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The History of Werewolf Fashion, Part 1: the 2000s
What follows is the first in what will be a series of questions I'll be asking in the hopes of solving a problem I'm running into with one of the species in my story: the werewolf, and the particular ...
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How would a modern military deal with an organized uprising from a group of werewolves?
I remember hearing in a discussion about modern geopolitics and military strategy how modern terrorist groups for a Western liberal democracy. The technological advantage most modern militaries have ...
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How can my shapeshifting superhero best prepare to fight crime? [closed]
Dave lives in a world where superpowers are extremely common, lending to the creation of superpowered crime fighters to combat the superpowered crime doers. What makes Dave special is that he has a ...
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Werewolf Size Calculation
Hypothetically if a human were to turn into a wolf, their legs would stay the same length, if not appearing slightly shorter due to the bending of digitigrade legs, but how big would a wolf be if it ...
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How would this creatures transition areas look? [closed]
I have been working with a creature in mind for awhile and just cant quite figure out the transition areas. The person changes from a human to a creature form.
Creature Form:
Reddish Gold in Color ...
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Recovery time after major bodily alteration (shapeshifting)
In fiction, beings that can change shape can do so extremely rapidly and are immediately able to function in their new shape. While there is some precedent for the latter in nature (butterflies can ...
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Lycanthropy & clothing
In a medieval fantasy setting, if you had to regularly deal with transforming into a beast that's taller, stronger, and that have a much larger build overall than your frail priestess body, what would ...
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Shapeshifter problems: Mass conservation
Note
I am aware of these previous questions
How quickly could a "shapeshifter" lose mass, realistically?
Is there a credible way a shapeshifter could gain/lose body mass when changing forms? ...
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Shadow People - where would they go in cloudy weather? (not the movie)
Shadow people (not the movie)
Shadow people move around by pretending to be someone's shadow. They fix themselves to the soles of your feet. If you already have a shadow they will overlay it. They ...
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How can I make a humanoid character look less human? [closed]
I have a shapeshifting character who isn’t human but pretends to be one, but people who look at them notice something is wrong, but can’t quite place it. What kind of features could I give them that ...
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How can blue blooded shapeshifter blush like a normal human?
An intelligent race of shapeshifter came to settle on present day Earth, they managed to clear the custom and are placed on 24hr monitoring by MiB agents. It is illegal for them to expose their kind ...
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How could a shapeshifter slip past surveillance? [closed]
I have an alien shapeshifter character attempting to slip past its pursuers within a roughly modern-day military installation.
The shapeshifter in question can for the most part freely alter its shape,...
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How to explain high collar cloak's ability to withstand daylight when vampire undergoes transformation from bat's form?
The following is extracted from an account of a man proclaimed to be the last surviving member of the Hellsing clan which is so secretive that it buffers the Illuminati till today regarding their ...
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Would it make sense for animalistic shifters to have mounts?
Would it make sense for animalistic shifters to have mounts when they can shift into a large feral-like form?
That is, not humans that turn into animals, but a species of large humanoids that can ...
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How quickly could a "shapeshifter" lose mass, realistically?
Shapeshifters and mass... ever the bane of realistic science fiction.
Basics:
Let's say someone is changing shape (for whatever reason, voluntary or involuntary, it doesn't matter for this purpose). ...
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To what degree can one control their own subconscious?
After the first contact in history with an alien species, it was discovered that they were colonizers, which approached us to induce, as they called it, the "Next step to evolution". After their ...
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How practical or impractical would a werewolf mount be? [closed]
Got this idea in my head the other day. How big would a werewolf have to be to accommodate a human's weight? Twice the size? Anatomy wise there are bipedal but are capable of running on all fours.
As ...
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In a world where people can freely swap bodies, how does the government keep track of your identity?
Let's say you can have some sort of surgery through the powers of superscience to transfer your consciousness into another body. They'd need a method to prevent all sorts of crimes, I think.
For ...
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If a human body were to break down into simple gasses of its component elements as a means of shapeshifting how much solid matter would be left? [closed]
The setting I am working with has several individuals with shapeshifting powers. To deal with the inevitable “shapeshifters seem to violate conservation of mass while shapeshifting” issue, the rules ...
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What would be a plausible reason for a prey animal to mimic its own predator?
The saying goes "a wolf in sheep's clothing", which is a biblical idiom to refer to someone pretending to be harmless. This got me thinking about if the reverse could also be true. So I came up with a ...
user71341
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How to Interrogate a Memory-Stealing Shapeshifter?
There are shapeshifters who can perfectly replicate a person, and eat their brains to absorb all their memories. These shapeshifters are cunning and predatory, and so humans form extremely close knit ...
user69867
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What flaw keeps the mimics out and keeps the humans in?
A set of small isolated human populations, villages, although geographically close stay separate for one reason and one reason alone. Terrifying beasts that hunt human flesh and terrify children at ...
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What do we call shapeshifters who started as animals? [closed]
In the world I'm creating there are two types of shapeshifters. Humans who can turn into an animal. And animals who can turn into a human.
The first group (humans who can turn into animals) are ...
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Urban design that counters shapeshifters?
Set in the present day Shanghai, China.
Humans co-exist with another intelligent species with the ability to shapeshift at will, the shapeshifters like to morph into various objects (both animate and ...
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What would Mimics be like without human influence?
How would a wild Mimic differ in behavior compared to a dungeon mimic? What are the strategies they may employ? What would they mimic without human influence?
In D&D and other media Mimics are ...
user71341
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What could be a plausible scientific explanation for a man who can transform different parts of his body into different parts of reptiles?
Laws that must not be broken and/or worked around:
Conservation of energy
Conservation of mass
Square cube law
Thermodynamics
No FTL
Essentially, I'm trying to make a character with similar abilities ...
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What difficulties might a 6ft shapeshifter have in impersonating someone 12in shorter?
In one of my settings, I have a character who is given the ability to shapeshift. Her default appearance after obtaining this ability is much the same as it was before. The important part, for the ...
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Anatomically Correct "Stranger Things" Mindflayer's Monster
Background, with potential spoilers:
In the Netflix show Stranger Things...
If we skip the psychic stuff, there's still a pretty interesting creature there. To qualify as a Mindflayer monster, an ...
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Shape-shifting using particle-sized 'building blocks'
My fictional world has special sorts of vehicles that can shape-shift, using some sort of building blocks which are a few times larger than average molecules. These sorts of substances can rearrange ...
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If a person had control of every single cell of their body, would they be able to transform into another creature?
If a person had control over each and every single cell in his body, I.e:
Cell growth
Cell multiplication
Shape and form of cells
How cells bond/bind with each other
Cell Function
Would they be able ...
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Ways to spot non-sentient, non-conscious, telepathic shapeshifters [closed]
In my world, there is a race of shapeshifting creatures, capable of convincingly looking like normal humans in order to lure them and prey upon them.
These creatures, however, are non-sentient and non-...
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