Dire Shifter

The Dire Shifter. Massive naturally born creatures of magic.

They stand heads above other shifters. These are the top of the Proverbial Food chain of shifters. Not all Shifters are Dires, but all Dires are shifters.

There are male shifters born that are not dires, but simply shifters. As are there female shifters that are naturally born, but these are not dires either.

Long ago, during the holy war, there were both male and female dires, but as the Demons created rifts in the fabric of planes, they were not the only ones that were able to come through.

### The Story of The Land of Dires

Before Time was Time...when magic flourished...there were three islands. The Lands of the Dires.

They were protectors of the Earth, of the Land and they watched over the normal humans as they flourished. The three islands curled across the sky, with their deep swamps and these dires and their lines were able to watch over everything, attack darkness before it got too far towards the humans, allowing them to continue to live.

When demons started to come, the three islands landed in the ocean, those that made the islands do so moving to join the main groups of those that could make land fly, leaving the dires to take to the skies in other ways, or to cross land and water. This didn’t bother them at all, they were, again, one with nature.

It was the demons that brought about the change, a group moving deep into one of the islands, a sacred place, where life magic welled, a place where almost anything could be healed, those hurt badly able to be brought back from the door of death as long as they  still breathed.

“Enca! Somethin’s goin’ on!”

The voice made peridot eyes turn and then the small group was running, bounding through the trees and the swamp, lights flashing and points in time folded to take them to where the intruders were. What met them was a chained void angel and a demon that was blacker than black.

“STOP!” The female yelled...only to have the breath slammed out of her as a gateway ripped open. “...oh non…”

It was the first time that Earthland had been Breached by the Dark Plane...and it was the first time that any had dealt with the creatures that lived there...there were screams, yells, the demon retreating when the creatures from the other side...did NOT care that he had helped them get there...the void angel killed...but the gate still raged open.

The People of the Land of the Dires fought, fought to keep these creatures back, magic that only they had being used and the woman, Enca shook as her magic activated, voice curling through the air, “protect Enca. protect our land. Drive back the Creatures to save Earthland. we are Enca.” her body exploded, the motes of magic being absorbed into the land, not just where they were fighting, but all three islands...and the humming started in the back of people’s minds...calling them like a siren to protect the world, to converge to deal with the threat...to close the portal as best they could.

The woman was nothing more than a glowing outline in the middle of the single island, a body without any movement, simply floating as the people of the land of dires worked to close off the portal as best they could. It was a long and fierce battle...the end showing a massive labyrinth of smaller portals that cut off the large one that had been ripped into the land and in the center, what would become, with time, known as The Heart of the Sanctuary, The Heart of Enca and Her People, was a beautiful clearing of pure life magic, with a single tree curling up, leaves a bright green and bark as black as night. When Danger tried to get through the ‘wards’ of the Sanctuary, the other plane trying to break through, the leaves would shift, the haunting song rising in tempo and those that were connected through blood rose to counteract the invasion.

The biggest change from all of this happening, was the state of Female dires. No longer were they like their male counterparts, smaller, less...just less. The Sacrifice of the woman took that from them, not that they knew it, the females had always been smaller, so the change in the magic, the magic having been ripped from them subtly, the longevity, everything about it, it was unnoticed.

While the Holy Wars Raged...Enca directed her people inward to stop the invasion from another plane, to keep that group of dark despots from working with the demons, to keep them from claiming the portal...and so...Eons passed. The Tale of Enca became a myth, the original woman long forgotten, though the land was still regarded as Female, but the meaning behind this lost. Only that the Song of Enca called to the Guardians, those that would protect the world from those dark beings that tried to come out of the Sanctuary.