Corporeus

Corporeus, or physical shifting, is one of the two types of shape-shifting found in Polymorphidae magions, often called 'shifters'. It is characterized by the preservation of the shifter's psyche and mass in all of their forms. While magical, the shift does have a physical appearance of bones, muscle and tissue rearranging as the body changes. It is not painful, and generally too quick for the eye to perceive, but can be frightening to behold, particularly if not expected. The physical quality of the shift means that it is only the form that changes, the matter of the shifter remains, with nothing added or retracted, thus the magion will have the same mass in all forms, and in many cases certain physical characterizations will persist in all forms as well.

Physical shifters consider all of their forms “true forms". Their personality and self-awareness remains intact when they shift, and they can choose to remain in any of their forms for any period of time. The physical attributes of each form can affect such choices. For example, the ability to communicate verbally is often the reason that Homoformi (polymorphidae with at least one human form) often spend much of their lives in human form.

For a long time corporeus magions were called “True Shifters", both to mark the impartial perception of their self in all forms and to separate them from Curse shifters. However, it became clear that this wording alienates shifters whose change does not follow physics laws and seems to stress ideas that come from human culture rather than magion. Therefore a new terminology of Corporeus and Arcānus was established. The two groups are still sometimes referred to together as True Shifters, as opposed to Curse Shifters, but it is generally considered an outdated term.