A team of grizzled sell-swords take on their latest bounty—an evil cult hellbent on ushering in the end of the world. The group descend into a great cave which the cult makes their home.
As a rogue, Mason is normally good at killing with his dual daggers, but he isn’t exactly good at going un-noticed, being the first to charge heedlessly ahead of the rest. He’s always showing up to missions drunk, constantly in a state of non-committal numbness—keeping the fear down, but leaving him feeling like he doesn’t care about much of anything. In theory, the group is headed by Brennan—An imposing figure in stature and strength who wields a huge greatsword, though his lack of brains and presence leave him a pretty ineffectual leader, often coming up with half-baked tactics which are easily talked over. He wants to hold the group together… but it just doesn’t seem like he’s the right guy to be a leader. Roderich looms from behind—in this world, magic is only available to a vanishingly rare few who are born with the potential in their blood—and as sorcerer, he is one of these few. This has lead him to believe that his powers make him better than those around him—how could he not when channeling his powers always came naturally to him, and he’s able to wield absurd destructive power with a flick of the wrist—which he does, often, and with little care of collateral damage. And from the back, Adam struggles along—he’s a cleric of a sacred light order—devoted to his god and granted holy healing spells in return for his piety. These powers help keep the group patched up—but Adam himself also relies on them, as he’s had to live with an awful physical affliction since his early years. He may well have not survived this long without a god’s boon, and so he owes much to his god, and so his piety is given freely--gladly. The group faces down the cultist leader, Katarina. A woman who is something of an enigma. What does it take to make someone want to destroy the world with a single spell?
But the sell-swords are just too late— and only able to watch helplessly as her cruel spell undoes the world. ...Or at least that’s what they all thought would happen. Instead, the spell began to completely remake the world, and the five with it. The grimy cavern interior became an wide open field and the group felt near-blinded by the sheer light and color of the new land in front of them—they were now in a world of light-hearted fantasy. But they were more concerned by the fact they had been entirely re-cast as a group of young, inexperienced, (and fluffy) adventurers setting out on their first journey – and also that their genders had been flipped for good measure.
Mason finds himself completely overwhelmed and intimidated by his now heightened senses and surroundings as rabbit ranger Marzi—now she’s terrified even by monsters that aren’t particularly dangerous, and can’t help but stuggle constantly with self-doubt. Brennan is forced to adapt to a completely different fighting style as agile fennec fencer Brooke—always having taken pride in being a tall and strong “manly man”, she especially is annoyed by being stuck as a girl now. Roderich senses his incredible sorcerous powers fade away, as he is now ordinary red panda healer Rila—armed with only a book of supportive spells meant to aid her team, she’s dismayed by the fact that if she wants magic again, she’ll need to study and work for it. Adam regains his health and strength, but feels his connection to his god disappear as he becomes lizard brawler Astrid—shocked at her new form, but also feeling wildly unprepared to simply punch her problems in the face. Even the evil cultist Katarina is dragged along, finding all her knowledge of dark magicks and sacrificial rituals gone in an instant, as she is now the youngest of the team as a trainee mage fox named Kit—excited to take up this opportunity, and not willing to admit he did anything wrong in causing this at all.
With no way to turn things back known to them, the kids have little choice but to find out how the grim world they once knew has changed, and where they now fit in this new land—none of this at all familiar to them. Ah well. Wish them luck on their adventures!
----- A/N To be completely honest, I drew this a while ago— then promptly forgot about it for literal years… Ah well it happens, I assume. And then once I remembered it, I was hesitant to share because of the recent FA rule changes everyone’s been mad about—but I’ve read the changes and the blog post and a lot of discourse and the discord threads about it, and general AR doesn’t fall under that.
I’ve always been very happy with these characters—I really wanted them to have classic RPG protag vibes, and you can kinda imagine their group dynamic. I wrote an excessive amount about them (I will not apologise) and I wish I posted this sooner tbh. I like fantasy furries—and I guess I’ve been thinking about Reality Shifts lately a lot too.
In other news, I’m gonna be making a game for the Transformation Game Jam 2024! I made a TF generator called Transformi for this same jam back in 2022—and it was kinda jank cause I made it without an engine in python, but this time I’m making a game in Godot that I think of as kinda like… TF pikmin, kinda…? I’m excited about it!