We are created in the image of the Creators. It is written in the First Text, and if the statues are at all accurate, one can see the similarities. They are a tall and powerful people, with deft fingers, sharp minds, and smooth skin. Like moving statues, they were powerfully imposing. They are masters of their surroundings, and you could feel it in their presence, or at least the old texts say.

But this is about our anatomy, not theirs. Still, it is important to remember who made us, and what they came from. Many of our lineages strode on all fours, but all beings now move on two feet, and have two hands. Winged beings gained new limbs, seperating their wings from their arms, allowing for mobile hands without surrendering anything in the process. Mostly.

Bird born have lost much of their gift of flight. Most cannot remain aloft for longer than a few minutes at a time. As small birds, they were light, with empty bones, and had wings that were huge compared to their body. As uplifted beings, their wings are much smaller in comparison, and they share the same dense bones that we all have. With training, gliding from high points a long distance is possible. Cliffside even offers yearly competitions for the best cliff divers, making it a constant spectacle for the denizens of the city.

We have all been drawn together in our uplifting. The same medicines work for a cat born as even a flower born. We eat largely the same food, though our lineages do tend to flavor our preference, there is nothing stopping a hare born from living healthily on a diet of meat, or a wolf born to abide a life of veganism. Some would argue that we are all, collectively, the same species, but this denies the most basic definition of a species.

We cannot form families and children with those that differ too strongly from ourselves. Rabbit must seek rabbit, or at least a hare. A wolf may find a dog, fox, or jackal right companion, but will have little to offer a feline, tree, or bee. Children do not hybridize. A wolf and a jackal will have some wolf, and some jackal children, with a roughly equal chance of either. If the parents were not known ahead of time, no one would ever guess the children were interracial in such a way, or that a jackal and a wolf may yet be siblings.

One of the most dramatic places of change, besides our blessed hands and their talented Creator given gift of manipulation, are our heads. The house of our minds, they are larger compared to our bodies than that of our ancient ancestors, suitable to house this mighty organ that allows us to be the beings we are. It is also because of this that being mothers only produce one or two child at a time, rather than the litters of our ancient past.

Of our hands, I can speak little but to thank them for allowing me to write this paper in the first place. They bare little resemblance to our paws. Unsure what your paw would look like? Look at your feet. Now imagine your feet are also at the ends of your arms. Troubling vision, is it not? Blessed be the Creators, who took our stubby toes and stretched them out into fine grasping fingers, and thinned the fur and padding there until we could touch and feel the world delicately. Their importance is such that almost all sorts of beings, even the late coming plant beings, have very identical looking hands. It is our most common, and treasured, blessing.

Another important area of shared anatomy is our mouths and lips. Most of our ancestors did not have lips, and fewer had the power to form words. Lips are a standard feature of the being, allowing for expression of emotion, and drinking from a cup without looking foolish in the process. I, being monkey born, would have had lips despite, but this gift is most remarkable in those who could never so much as sneer. Birds, fish, and plants look quite different from their lineage starts, where once their faces were frozen in an eternal single expression, now liberated. Our shared ability to communicate helps bind us together as a people, even if we differ in so many other ways.