Alpha: Leader of a Pack/Pride, they are born, not made. Each species of Alpha has a unique ability.
     Wolf Alphas have a significant telepathic link with their Pack, allowing them to coordinate hunts.
     Coyote Alphas have a similar link with their Pack, but it alerts the Pack to nearby danger rather than allowing for actual words.
     Lion Alphas enhance their Prides, allowing them to be smarter, faster, quicker than anyone else, but only when the Alpha is      

     present.
     Puma Alphas have the least impact on their Pride, as Pumas as a whole tend to be independent creatures. The Puma Alpha

     creates a strong family group, even more so than Wolves. Without an Alpha, Puma Prides tend to break apart, each Puma seeking

     a new Pride with an Alpha.

 

Beta: The second-in-command of a Pack or Pride, they step in and run things when the Alpha is unavailable. They step down when the Alpha does.

 

Curana: The Curana is the mate of a Puma Alpha, with powers almost as strong as the Alpha's own. They are one of the few Pumas who can openly challenge the Alpha and win.

 

Hunter: A Hunter is a sanctioned huntsman for the Senate, a group of shifters who report only to the Leo. A Hunter has senses beyond the norm for more than their Pack/Pride/Family Group and hunt rogue shifters. They will often be assigned to territories near their home.

 

Luna: The Luna is the mate of a Wolf Alpha.

 

Marshall: Equal to the Omega in power within a Pack/Pride, the Marshall is responsible for the physical well-being of the Pack/Pride. They can sense when someone is physically hurt, and are often the ones who work with Hunters when that elite group comes to town. Often Marshalls are policemen or sheriffs, but not always. The Marshall retires when his Alpha does.

 

Marshall's Second: The right hand man of the Marshall, and lowest man on the totem pole in the Pack/Pride Hierarchy. They carry out the orders of the Marshall and the Alpha, and assist in protecting the Pack/Pride. If the Marshall falls, the Marshall's Second can, and will, step into his place, creating a need for a new Marshall's Second. The Marshall's second retires when the Alpha does.

 

Omega: The Omega can sense the emotional well-being of the members if his Pack/Pride. They are responsible for taking care of, or reporting, anyone who is unstable emotionally. The Omega steps down when the Alpha does.

 

Senate: The Senate rules with the Leo, ensuring that the shifter world remains out of sight of the humans. They take care of the day-to-day running of the shifter community, along with the Alphas. They answer only to the Leo. They run the Hunters.

 

The Leo: Ruler of all shifters, the Leo is the most powerful shifter in the world. He is always born pure white.

 

 

Shifter Types

 

Shifters are all land-bound mammals of a certain size (no larger than a Siberian tiger, no smaller than a lynx). They are also all predators. Each shifter type has a unique ability that the others don't have.

 

Puma
The Pumas have the ability to partially shift. They can have their claws come out even in human form. They have the best control over their teeth, as well.
Wolf
Wolf alphas share a unique bond with both their Packs and their Lunas. They share a telepathic bond, enabling the alpha to direct the Pack on hunts and in battles. The majority of Pack meetings are held silently, reinforcing the bond between the Pack Alpha and his Packmates. Also, a Wolf and Luna's powers intertwine, causing them to feel comfort, bliss, and sexual caresses rather than intimidation when used.
Fox
Have you ever seen the picture of the fox-hunting dogs with the fox smack-dab in the middle of them? Foxes have the unique ability to cloud their scents, making it more difficult to hunt them. They can camouflage their scent to the point that it is difficult to determine what shifter species they are.
Bear
Bears are the only shifters capable of remaining upright when shifted. For example, if a Bear has you against the wall by the throat and shifts, you will find yourself higher on the wall rather than on the ground. Bears, in American Indian mythology, are called the keeper of dreams and the keeper of medicine. It was thought that, in a dream, Bear could show a shaman the plants that were safe to eat and the plants that were useful in medicine. Bears have a minor ability to heal the wounds of others. This ability is strongest in the Kermode Bear, also known as the spirit or ghost bear of British Columbia, a white subspecies of the black Bear.
Cheetah
Swiftest of the shifters, Cheetahs cannot be outrun, in human or shifted form.
Lion
The king of the jungle has the ability to command all other shifters, even their Alphas, under very specific circumstances. The Leo is always a Lion shifter.
Tiger
Tigers are the greatest warriors of the shifter community. The second largest of the shifters (Bears being the largest), Tigers have the ability to shift into a third hybrid form of man/cat. The hybrid form of the Tiger is massive, stripped, and furry, with a long tail, clawed hands and feet, a mixed human/feline face and broad shoulders. They are capable of wielding weapons and wearing armor in this form, but it must be custom made to fit and put on after the Tiger has shifted. ;This is the source of the legends of the Rakshasa.
Hyena
Hyenas are highly resistant to ingested poisons and diseases, thanks to their animal halves. In the wild hyenas have no aversion to and readily eat carrion, so their digestive system deals very well with bacteria. While Hyenas, in general, are less prone than their animal brethren to eat carrion thanks to their human halves, they have been known to do so in order to keep their resistances intact.
Lynx
In the wild lynxes are almost completely silent. Odds are one can be living near you and you won't know it unless you find one of their paw prints. The Lynxes also have this adaptation, making them virtually impossible to track or hunt, in human or animal form.
Coyote
Coyotes have a rather unique ability, and are often used as non-partisan judges in disputes and conflicts within the shifter community due to it. Coyotes have the ability to tell truth from lie; the only time they are fooled is when the speaker firmly believes he or she is telling the truth. Coyotes are one of the few shifters who tend to be drawn, as a whole, to specific professions in their human lives: cops, judges, private investigators, reporters, anyone searching for the truth.
Jaguar
Jaguars have one of the most powerful bites of all the shifter species, enabling them to bite through materials most other shifters could only dream of.

Ocelot
Ocelots have the ability to sense the emotions of others as well as alter the emotions of others. They can use this power for good or ill, depending on the personality of the individual Ocelot. Ocelots tend to be extroverts, working party circuits and taking jobs as PR people, psychologists, marketers, project managers and the like. The only people immune to the "charm" of an Ocelot are its immediate family and its mate.

Jackal

Jackal shifters have the uncanny ability to immediately assess a life-and-death situation and figure out a way to survive it. Killing a Jackal is extremely difficult because of this.

African Wild Dog

Wild Dogs have supernatural endurance. Running, sprinting, or other physical tasks that require endurance are easy for Wild Dogs. Wild Dogs have also adopted the social structure of their wild brethren, putting their pups before anything else and being wildly loyal to their pack members. If you attack one Wild Dog, the entire Pack will descend with the fires of Hell on whoever did so. Because of their tight pack structure and willingness to work together for each other's well-being, Wild Dogs rarely go rogue.

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