These chapters were originally intended to order my own thoughts behind the history and cosmology of the more unusual species that inhabit the Necropolis universe. Thinking more deeply on the subject I thought that it would be rather useful for the more inquisitive of those among you to give a potted history of the species.

The Author also feels it necessary to point out at this time that the Necropolis featured in my work is in no way related to the 'Necropolis' White-Wolf chat rooms. The word is instead borrowed from the Greeks as they very kindly provided a very convenient word that means 'City of the Dead'. Always useful for one full of Vampires! The Author would also like to state that this universe and its cosmology and history were in existence long before the film 'Underworld' was released. This information is the product of my own diseased little brain and although I have drawn on various scientific and folkloric sources they are by no means intended to be a definitive explanation of the phenomenon of shapeshifting, therianthropy or vampirism in any place other than my own head! With all that out of the !

'The Sapient Species that Share our World' Part 1. Paper Published by Dr B. Hammond (deceased), University of Lampeter City (pieced together from fragments remaining in the laboratory after it was destroyed by fire earlier this year. Our respects and thoughts go to the family of Dr Hammond. The scientific community salutes this epic work of fiction.)

The human species is known as being an arrogant one and is happy to believe that we are the only inhabitants of this planet. However, folklore states that there are a great many inhabitants of this planet besides ourselves. I remember as a child seeing a girl running down the lane behind our house. When I looked again, a shaggy dog was bounding away where the girl was. Since then, I have been fascinated with the concept of others that may share our planet and devoted my life to the study of biology and the search for these mysterious creatures. Over the course of forty years, my findings have been most fascinating and disturbing. I have discovered that not one but three sentient species share our planet with us, at least in a nominal fashion. In this report I intend to justify their existence with scientific evidence.

Shapeshifters

Fauna Sapiens Metamorphensis (Werebeasts) as a species exist simply as an evolutionary niche and are as old (if not older) than the species Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

So, why did Werebeasts come into existence? The answer is does any hunter develop its specialisation? Food. In the Savannahs of Africa when mankind was still a form of tiny, upright ape they were fair game for any predator. As time progressed, the Paranthropines and Australopithecines became more intelligent, the animals that preyed upon them also had to grow in intelligence. What better predator can there be than one that can move freely within the herds of its food as one of their number until the moment to strike comes?

Archaeological evidence taken from kill sites in Tanzania suggests that the original form of Fauna Sapiens Metamorphensis was of some sort of panther or leopard. As millennia progressed and the werebeasts followed the migrating herds on their quest to colonise the planet, the werefolk gradually assumed the physiology of local predators. There is no good explanation as to why this was. Perhaps it was to better cope with the climate of the local area i.e. a shorthaired panther would not cope well in a place with the same climate as Ice Age Europe. It is also possible that due to their mutable nature, the werebeasts were able to breed with local predatory (and on occasion herbivorous) populations, which restricted the metamorphic ability of the species and provided the distinct races of metamorphs extant today. This species specific breeding so early in the evolutionary scale would also explain why it is only in rare circumstances that a werebeast and a human can successfully mate and produce offspring - presumably due to the presence of the mutable reproductive gene in the werebeast parent. More compellingly perhaps is the theory of convergent evolution - take for instance the resemblance between an armadillo and a pangolin - separate species both evolved for undertaking the same task. Similarly this seems likely with the metamorph populations - the form of the local faunal populations simply was the best to suit the climate and terrain and so given the mutable nature of their genes, that is the shape that they assumed. The helix of these creatures would however only seem to be capable of assuming the form of a humanoid and a single species of animal and variants thereof. It is entirely possible therefore that a mixture of these two hypotheses is the case - the metamorphs moved into the area, commonly assumed the form of the local animal population that best suited their needs and so interbred with that population as a matter of course. This would also explain why a humanoid appearance is also encoded into their genes as breeding with the humanoid population had also ensued.

As I mentioned above however, successful mating is rare with either species and yet it would appear to have been successful enough to affect the genetic coding of these creatures.

Transformation

It has been discussed earlier in this paper that the mutable ability of Fauna Sapiens was driven by predation upon the increasingly intelligent human species, although populations of herbivorous metamorphs would argue against this case, at least after the exodus from Africa.

The next question that we must ask ourselves is: How is this transformation achieved? This is a question that is almost impossible to answer given the almost mythical nature of these creatures in modern times. Post 17th century we see very little record of the appearance of these creatures, why this is I can only speculate. Perhaps some disease peculiar to the species spread and all but wiped out these unfortunate creatures.

I have personally investigated sightings of werebeasts for forty years all over the globe and have managed to produce very little, if anything in evidence for the continued existence of this species. Individuals executed in the past tend not to have marked graves in order for their remains to be examined and in modern times these shy creatures now appear to be all but extinct. My search for concrete evidence of their existence has not in any way been helped by the fact that the natural physiology of this sentient species lends itself towards the local human and predatory populations.

Examining historical and contemporary accounts of sightings and possible attacks by these creatures leads me to reach a rather radical theory which is in part developed from faecal matter of an individual of tiger extraction gathered on my last trip to India, although the quality of the sample was poor and needs to be substantiated by a more concrete test.

A number of samples from various individuals gathered in India were under test conditions in the university laboratory and were undergoing various procedures on the night of September 28th 2002. One particular specimen (subject 12a) was undergoing separation in the centrifuge. Te specimen seemed to be pure tiger in origin on first glance, however with closer scrutiny certain differences in its genetic makeup made it clear that it was not. The sample also contained heightened levels of endorphin such as I have never seen.

A violent electrical storm occurred later in the evening, striking the power lines into the laboratory and shorting out a number of systems before the backup generators started up. On examination the next morning, the sample of tiger origin inside the centrifuge had changed into what appeared to be a human sample although the positions of the discrepancies present in the tiger sample remained the same. Also of interest is the fact that the endorphins present in the sample were no longer extant.

The sample chamber was still sealed and showed no signs of being tampered with. On closer examination over a number of weeks, one small sequence remained common to the anomalous sample from the centrifuge and the unaltered sample from the refrigeration unit showing that it was from, if not the same individual, certainly an individual that was in no uncertain terms related. This would be a feasible claim if the two samples at least shared the same species. Sadly, my laboratory was destroyed, along with its samples before I could record concrete evidence of this phenomenon.

Attempts at successfully replicating the change in genetic coding were unsuccessful on all counts. Scant levels of endorphin salvaged from what remained of the untouched sample seemed to have little effect on their initial introduction. However, on the passing of high electrical current through the sample, the subject briefly made a 'shadow' of itself on the slide. The shadow itself was intangible and showed signs of mutating into human tissue but the change was never successfully replicated in laboratory conditions.

Musing on the apparently mutable nature of the genetic information gleaned from Subject 12a, I was led to the inevitable conundrum as to how this phenomenon could take place. Even with an electrical current as large as one provided by a lightening strike it is a physical impossibility for a genetic sequence to change in such a way. Eyewitness accounts of shapeshifters always make note as to how clean and painless the shift appears and how effortlessly it is undertaken. Also, eyewitnesses tend to report a rippling not just of the skin of the shifter, but also the air around them much in the same way that the genetic 'shadow' appeared under my microscope.

At a loss to explain this via conventional means, I hypothesise this, it is possible that via some evolutionary trait, the metamorphs are able to 'feel' their way into 5th dimensional space using bio-electrical energy coupled with heightened levels of specialist endorphins produced by their bodies and are in some way able to 'convince' reality that they are a certain shape. It would seem, after tests on subject 12a, that werebeasts almost definitely have the encoded in their genetic makeup the ability to assume the shapes of two species only, human and the animal of its particular species.

Driven by the urge to find 'The Origin of the Species' as it were, and spurred on by may laboratory breakthrough, I sought fossil remains from across the globe and found the results surprising to say the least and I shall deal with my findings in the next section of my report.

Report Addendum

On testing the subject further, the sample showed surprising resilience not only to extremes of temperature, but also seemed to regenerate if damaged or parts were removed. The only exception to this was when exposed to silver or derivatives thereof. The introduction of the metal seemed to confuse the subject's 'ghosting' ability and cause the sample to 'self destruct'. This reaction could account for the folkloric accounts of silver being the only item able to combat these creatures successfully.

By the way that the subject reacted under test conditions, I would also venture as far as to say that these creatures were possessed of a physical strength far superior to our own. However, it has been proven by their scarcity that these creatures pose no threat to humankind and have not done so for eons.

It is my firm belief that the field of medicine could benefit greatly from the successful examination of one of these remarkable beings, as could the field of physics and indeed philosophy.