Partial-possession, Possession, and Form-sharing

"Morning everyone." Eranoth groaned as his body rejected sleep. "This time I am going to be addressing another common application of shapeshifting. Back in the 1990s and earlier, the following forms of shape shifting were commonly added to games and movies: Partial-possession shifting, possession shifting and Form-Sharing. These three are similar but each has varying degrees of applicability."

"Jumping back to things mentioned in chapter 2: a good chunk of lycanthropic lore is actually related to this as well. I mentioned Elderscrolls last time. In Skyrim specifically, that branch of werewolf uses a combination of the corrupt bloodshifting and one of these three. The lines between these three are often obscured so it can be difficult to distinguish."

"While I won't go into details as some of my personal novels (which will eventually make their way to webnovel) relate to these. Please know that there are many ways to apply all three of these in many different professions."

"Anyone play Legend of Dragoon? (90s game for the original Playstation) This is one game where they used partial possession shifting as a super power up. PPS, as I am going to call it for now, (it is easier to write) basically entails some sort of agreement between the shifter and another entity, object of power, or special energy source. The shifter draws upon the power of this external source. The external source transforms their host's body up to a certain point. This is often a channeled ability and takes effort to maintain the transformation."

"For those who use this form of transformation willingly it is often manifested as some sort of temporary 'power-up'. It is rarely used for other types of things. On the flip side, it can be used in conjunction with other types of shapeshifting to encroach upon the will power of the shifter. It can also be used as a chaotic curse. Being ravaged by this being, object, or power causes mutations and influences mentality."

"As a side note related to PPS, there are many minor applications to this type of shapeshifting that show up in many stories. This is frequently used as an obtained ability. I can think of many stories on web-novel that have at least one minor application but I am going to mention (avoiding spoilers) Spending My Retirement In a Game By DiceVR. For those who have read his stuff this won't be too shocking. For those who haven't read it, it won't make too much sense until you do. The eye ability obtained by the character is a perfect example. It comes from another source and causes a mild mutation while active."

"Things to keep in mind about PPS:

First: The transformation rarely has full body transformations. In most cases it will show up as changes in certain aspects of the creature rather than an overtly complete type of transformation.

Second: This can be easily implemented into a story on the minor side of things with very little chance of lorebreaking. The more extreme versions should be thought through a bit more.

Third: This is usually used for specific for positives is it used as an enhancement. One thing to remember is that it isn't a miracle power. When used it has a specific purpose. On the negative side of things it is used as a detriment. When dealing with detriments though, you need to keep in mind a level of caution. It is easy to go overboard.

Fourth: This type of effect can be used as either a stagnant effect where the ability itself doesn't grow or change which makes it easy to remember. This is great for stories where you want to focus on the character's growth and less so on the transformation. OR It can be used as a growing ability. The longer they use it the more influence it has over the host of the transformation; especially when active. This is great for stories when you want to show a growth in skill capacity.

Fifth: There is a free range when it comes to side effects. Depending on how you want to play it, you can have no side effect, minor side effects, heavy side effects, side effects while in use, and so on. With this type of shifting do side effects that fit the flow of your story. Referring back to Retirement; the eyes had a side effect while active."

Stomach growls… "Be back guys, I should actually eat breakfast like a sane person…"

"I'm back and ready to write more. Next topic: Possession shifting. It is similar in nature to partial possession shifting but is much more overt. Basically you call upon another existence or power to override your existence to a degree. As you can probably tell this is potentially a very dangerous type of shapeshifting. This is also an easy way for demonic or 'evil' entities to find an access point into worlds."

"There are a few ways to go about it, The more 'evil' side of things is usually similar to a being taking over a host body and adapting it. Basically the "host" becomes the physical shell for the other entity. This can usually be resisted but more often than not it is used as a means to bring back dark lords. It is often used on a minor bad guy to bring back a bigger one. Authorwiz's Reborn: Evolving from Nothing does this (I told you I would bring them up again…)."

"A lesser 'evil' way to do it is a werewolf like case. The wolf (spirit/power) possesses the body while transformed. When the energy of the possessor weakens the host regains control and reverts to normal. The wolf still influences the mind though even when not transformed."

"Both of the above are only examples of ways to apply it. And these are on the darker scale. Another way to apply it is actually the inverse. The 'host' gets possessed by the body of the possesser but retains their own mind. This is usually only done in the case of a very friendly relationship between the two and is often not seen. This usually requires energy to maintain the transformation. There are always exceptions. For example with this third type of possession shifting if you remember the 90s kid show Ben 10. The entire superpower is this exact type of shifting. He basically body possesses the aliens recorded within the bracelet."

"Things of note:

First: There are ways to pull off good variations of this type of shapeshifting. However it is more common to see darker applications.

Second: There are almost always consequences. This type of shifting has a great impact on the psyche' especially if the possessor doesn't truly leave the host.

Third: When using this type, be aware there usually needs to be a 'cause'. If you don't have a cause when using this type of shifting, then it is like smacking the reader with the broad side of a barn.

Fourth: Usually there are harsh conditions to allow this type of thing to occur. If it happened too easily then your bad guys would never die.

Fifth: The stronger willpower and the better health the host is in the easier it is to resist. Which is why in most things the possessor will try to erode the mind of the host and convince it to get into dangerous situations to make taking over easier."

Eranoth sighed as he wasted almost an hour on the discord chat. "I understand Reili why it is so hard to hop off and not get distracted. They try to suck you back in…"

"Okay focusing. The last type of shapeshifting to introduce in this chapter is called form sharing. As I said before these three types of shapeshifting are easily disguised as each other. This particular version of shapeshifting is very problematic as I will try to explain."

"Form sharing shapeshifting. Two (or more) creatures share the same existence. It is a bit difficult to describe. Basically person 1 and person 2 cannot exist simultaneously and they swap back and forth who is in existence. There are a few ways to pull this off. You may have even seen shows or animes where this happens. The first way is a literal identity swap. The other is actually similar to the other above things. It is like the first except there is only one dominant mind. The other mind is suppressed, non-existent, Etc. '1/2 shows will sometimes use this type of shifting."

"The third type is one of my favorites and is actually a combination of Possession shifting and Form-Sharing shifting. For those who have seen the black and white version of 'the shaggy dog' you will understand what I mean. The person and the dog are linked. The boy becomes the dog and the dog vanishes because its body is being controlled by the boy. However instead of an identity swap it is mealy a body swap. When active there is only one of them while not active both are there."

"Things to remember:

First: Rarely is this a positive thing. However creative people have been able to make it workable in a positive way in stories.

Second: What is the state of the mind that is not active? Does a mind-meld happen? Usually there is a conflict in regards to souls with this type of shifting. How much damage does the soul suffer with this type of shifting? Do the souls start fusing or rejecting eachother? Is one consuming the other?

Third: Timing is usually not able to be controlled with this type of shifting. It is great if you want to add a story chaos element. The switches appear to be random. But can be directly influenced by the questions in the second point.

Fourth: This type of shifting in most cases is used to push the story along. Have things keep happening. It is easy for it to overtake your story and turn into the story."

"Well, since I have wasted too much time on discord… I am going to post this chapter now and go do something productive away from my computer for a bit. Hope you enjoyed it! And again, I know Eranothian is sometimes a difficult language to understand. Feel free to let me know if you want more clarification on things. Trust me when I say this. I have barely scratched the surface of shapeshifting explanations to this point. There is a lot more to come still."

© J Eranoth