Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
One hundred and seventy six years ago, monsters, creatures, and beasts of all kinds finally decided to stop living in the shadows and made the collective decision to reveal themselves to the human race. Technology was advancing, their territories were shrinking, and the only hope they had to survive was to adapt and try to live alongside humanity.
A few of the races were fairly well known already. Orcs, centaurs, reptilians, that sort of thing, otherwise known as the "established" races. They had been living among humans for eons.
It was the ones who lived in forests and caves, the ones who liked their privacy, the hidden beings, that had finally chosen to declare themselves: dragons, naga, gargoyles, many types of fae and beast-people, and other such antisocial creatures. They came to be referred to as Neogons, an amalgamation of the Greek néous agónes, meaning "new races." Though, the idea that they were new was laughable. Many of them predated humanity by millennia.
At first, a lot of people took it badly. There were riots and protests, people foaming at the mouth to deny these creatures any civil rights, or as it was still known at the time, human rights. It took years of fighting in the courts, assessing and reassessing what it meant to be "sentient" and "intelligent" and "a person," but finally, after rigorous tests and examinations, it was declared that any creature that could prove itself sentient would be granted the same rights that humans and the Established already enjoyed.
After a while, people's attitudes started to shift. It wasn't all that strange to see a wide variety of Neogons walking through city squares these days. Homes and buildings were modified for the convenience of larger and smaller beings. They found jobs and developed hobbies the same way humans did, and it became normal to see them everywhere.
Except, the strangest thing was that, while the more monstrous creatures were accepted fairly quickly, like hydras, phoenixes, and griffins and the like, the ones that weren't accepted all that quickly were the ones called "beast-people." This referred to any creature that had humanoid characteristics: Merfolk, satyrs, harpies, minotaurs, and similar types seemed to be less widely approved of.
It was particularly bad for those that looked almost human. The ones with the normal human figure, who stood up straight and had proportional arms and legs, but had fur and tails, horns or wings, ears and eyes that didn't suit a human. The ones that you'd never be able to tell weren't human if you talked to them on the phone. Human beings just didn't like the idea of sharing their features with beasts, it seemed. Even now, even with laws in place to protect them, they still faced prejudice and hatred.
It had never really affected you before. The little town you grew up in had a few Established non-human families, but for the most part, it was nearly all human. It seemed odd to you that the older citizens seemed to take pride in that, but you shrugged it off. It wasn't your problem.
Not until a Rabbitman moved to town and opened up a coffee shop. The atmosphere of the town turned cold very quickly. There were a lot of folks who didn't care, but the ones who did seemed to outnumber them.
