When it comes to your classic fairytale curses, a few really seem to stand out. You have your protagonists cursed to die, or perhaps to fall into a deep and deathlike sleep, like Snow White. You have your lovers parted, typically after one of them failed to maintain some strange promise to the other. And then you have your transformations. The frog prince, the monstrous Beast, the princess who was turned into a dragon. (Yes, that last one is a real fairy tale. It’s called “The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh,” and it ends with the sorceress who did the cursing transformed herself.)
Of course, these mystical transformations aren’t always bad things. Countless characters, whether powerful magic users, blessed or not-so-cursed with an alternate form, or using transformative superpowers, can shapeshift at will. The ability to become something wholly different for a time is a fascinating concept. Yet, it becomes a horrifying one when the change is unwanted and inescapable.
If you really think about it, we all change naturally on a regular basis. We grow, learn, heal, and use our food and energy to replace old cells with new ones. But those are subtle changes, and slow ones too. So what does it take to make the big changes, to truly “transform” from one thing into another?
Metamorphosis: growth through transformation
With the above heading, you’re probably already thinking of a few animals that can undergo some serious transformations. Butterflies are the most well-known. Their dramatic change from caterpillar to chrysalis to adult is so famed that they’re seen as symbols of change and rebirth. Butterflies and their moth cousins have well earned that reputation. However, they’re far from the only animals that naturally transform as they grow.
In biology, metamorphosis is the significant and comparatively abrupt change that an animal makes from one form to another. You can find it in many insect species, like ants, bees, and dragonflies. The young of these animals are often called larva or nymphs, and the former also go through a pupa stage that protects them as they transition from larva to adult.
Insects aren’t the only ones that go through dramatic natural transformations, either. Amphibians are equally well-known users of metamorphosis. These animals, most famously the tadpoles of frogs and toads, typically hatch from jellylike eggs as aquatic animals. As they grow, they gradually replace structures like swimming tails and gills with land-ready legs and lungs. Many marine invertebrates metamorphose as well, starting life as tiny, free-swimming hunters before becoming stationary filter feeders or vice versa.
So, just how fast is “comparatively abrupt?” That depends on what species you’re looking at. It also depends on what you count as part of the transformation. Many insects, for example, go through “incomplete metamorphosis.” Their nymphs are distinct from the larva of, say, butterflies, because they tend to look more like the adults and change little by little through repeated molts called instars. Each instar is part of the transformation, but individually, most of them cause very little change.
For the most obvious changes, we return to the pupa state of butterflies and other users of “complete metamorphosis.” As mentioned before, their pupa stage essentially acts as a guarded transitionary state. In it, they use the energy they took in as voracious larva to change from strange little grubby creatures to fully formed, reproductive, often flying adults. This life state can last anywhere from a few days to several weeks or longer. Even within a species, it may vary from generation to generation depending on environmental pressures. The question there becomes whether it’s better to emerge as an adult now before ideal conditions change or whether to wait out a harsher time like winter.
But butterflies don’t even go through their full transformation in the chrysalis. While they’re eating, growing, and molting as caterpillars, their bodies are already starting the process of building their adult structures. Near pupation, special “imaginal discs” prepare to become the specialized wings, eyes, and other structures that the adults will need. During pupation, they kick into full gear, using those cells that the ex-larva no longer need to fuel the growth of the adult body.
So, to recap, plenty of animals go through a truly transformative process as part of their natural lifecycle. But the change is (usually) one way. And while it can be “quick,” that quickness tends to be measured in days at the lowest and still requires some prep work.
Changing back and forth
So then, what about animals whose changes aren’t one way? If metamorphosis is a permanent transformation, are there any examples of natural, back-and-forth shapeshifting? The simple answer is yes. But to what extent will really depend on how far you want to stretch the definition of “shapeshifting.”
For example, many species go through regular seasonal changes to take advantage of breeding seasons or prepare for the harsher conditions of winter. Mammals may switch between light summer and thick winter coats. Birds may develop brilliant “breeding plumage” for summer courting in contrast to duller hues in other parts of the year. And a variety of snowy region species will change color over time to blend in with either dirt or snow.
But unless you want to count the seasonal shedding of deer antlers, none of these natural changes exactly constitute a dramatic, shapeshifting transformation.
But temporary transformations can get much faster and even more dramatic in some species. Color changing, for example, can occur rapidly in a variety of animals from octopi to lizards to frogs. Some animals undergo this to improve camouflage. Others, such as the oft-misunderstood chameleon, do so in response to changes in mood or the surrounding environment.
Changing physical form is a bit harder to define. Most species literally “change shape” on a regular basis just by moving and changing position. At what point does natural movement go from simple flexibility to transformation? That comes down to personal preference, but a few popular candidates tend to come up in discussions on animal shapeshifting.
The pufferfish, which can inflate its body into a large spiny ball-shape when threatened, is a fairly straightforward example. Meanwhile, many cephalopods, in particular octopi and cuttlefish, can do quite a bit with their extremely flexible bodies. Along with the aforementioned color-changing, these bizarre and intelligent invertebrates can change their skin texture and squeeze, stretch, or flatten themselves into just the right shape to blend in to their surroundings or get where they need to be.
Perhaps the most impressive example of natural “shapeshifting” is the aptly named mimic octopus. This octopus can use its natural gifts of contortion and color- and texture-changing to imitate an impressive variety of other, often dangerous sea creatures, including lionfish and sea snakes. It’s probably the closest thing the natural world can get to the transformations of a wildshaping druid or animorph.
Fantasy and Reality
Now that we’ve explored some of Earth’s natural shapeshifters and transformations, how can we use them in our fantasy works? Well, just as animals have a wide variety of ways to change themselves, the only limit to fantastical transformations is our own imaginations. You may be looking to create fantastical creatures with entirely “natural” transformations. Or, you may just be looking for a bit of real world inspiration for entirely magical metamorphoses.
A good place to start would be asking just how far real life shapeshifting can go. That gives us a sense of just where transformations stop following natural laws and start needing supernatural help. Let’s take a look at some guidelines, both following what we’ve already seen and a few additional ones to keep in mind.
- You can’t change an individual’s species, only the form the individual takes. This doesn’t mean the new form can’t be considered its own thing, at least in terms of naming conventions. Even animals that change relatively little, like stoats in their white winter coats, sometimes get special names like the former’s “ermine” when they change. Still, genetics being what they are, humans won’t be literally turning into a wolves or frogs without magic or divine intervention. A more “realistic” alternative might be changing into a form that superficially resembles the other species.
- Natural transformations – especially big ones – take time and energy. Even simple movement requires energy, and full blown transformations need lots of cell growth, division, and rearrangement. The bigger the transforming individual, the more of this has to happen. You could reflect this by using slow transformations, which provide a bonus of added drama, suspense, and/or horror. Or you could reflect it in more rapid transformations by suggesting that the magic is providing the energy and “fast tracking” all those cell rearrangements. In this case, larger scale and more complex changes would require bigger and more taxing spells.
- The amount of matter that goes in has to match what comes out the other end. On a similar note to the above, we have what’s called “Conservation of mass.” Basically, matter can’t be created or destroyed, only rearranged. This can play into transformations in a number of ways. Are your shapeshifters limited in what they can become by having to stay the same mass? Do they have to take in or expel mass in some way in order to change size? Or is your magic system defined by its ability to bypass pesky little laws of physics like this one?
- Surface level changes and mimicry are easier than full transformations. This is pretty self-explanatory, but it bears consideration. Animals like the mimic octopus can change shape, texture, color, and pattern in seconds thanks to their highly elastic bodies and specialized chromatophore cells. If you’re looking for a quick-changing shapeshifter on the more natural end, consider making it more of a flexible “illusionist” than something that does full fledged transformations.
- Shapeshifting, like everything, serves a purpose. Caterpillars don’t become butterflies as a simple party trick. Metamorphosis lets animals start off in a simple form that can get out of the egg and handle itself as a newborn, take in lots of food for energy, and then become something that can travel farther to find mates and send off the next generation. Likewise, temporary changes in appearance typically serve to ward off predators, hide from predators or prey, or communicate with others. Because shapeshifting is so energy intensive, it has to have a big payoff. If you’re doing a species of shapeshifters, consider how their transformations help them to survive and thrive in their environment.
- Full fledged metamorphoses are usually one-way – but not always! Basically, the massive transformation that is metamorphosis is a change from a young form to an adult one. But there is at least one species, known as the immortal jellyfish, that can actually regress to its juvenile state and “start over” when faced with food shortages or other threats to its adult form. This is an excellent example of how the standard rules of biology can be more flexible than they look.
However many of the natural rules you decide to use in your supernatural transformations, metamorphoses and other forms of real life shapeshifting can provide an excellent springboard for ideas. It just goes to show that our own world is more fantastical than we often give it credit for.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to see if I can get away with using a mimic octopus as a druid in my next D&D game.
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