The Halfie Race
General Traits:
Halfies are a race that were originally created by the magic of the Change God, Clyde. The main focus of many of the Change God's priests is to use the magic that turns a regular person into a halfie, and their service is a surprisingly popular one. Not only do people enchanted with their magic take on the physcial traits of the monsters or animals they chose, they are in some instances given some of the skills and powers of said creature. Some half-monsters are capable of breathing fire, living in extreme conditions, and possessing superhuman strength or speed. Of course, they are never more than half as strong as any monster would be, and those who chose to become alike a creature that has wings are seldom able to fly due to the small size that the wings generally turn out to be.
Halfies are generally called half-monster or half-animal, depending on what sort of creature they seem to take after. Halfies can also take after more than one animal or monster, but it's much rarer.
A halfie can pass their monster or animal traits on to their children, so most Halfies in modern times do have never had any Change Magic used on them.
There are occassionally some strange accidents that can happen in a transformation to weremonster - there have been reports of people accidentally being merged with monsters, resulting in two minds in one body, tales of people who've been transformed into a half-monster that did not resemble the monster that the priest had been targetting at all and rumours of people who'd been changed such that they were not half-monsters, but a strange people more like weremonsters.
On the whole though, the enchantments used to turn people into halfies is quite safe. It is much safer when animals are used, and most halfies are actually half-animal, and are born halfies because of the traits of their parents. Humans are usually the only people who undergo the treatment, though. On occassion, a Feathry will transform themselves too, but the other races become half-monsters very rarely. When a feathry or a scaler becomes a halfie, their children tend to inherit their monster features more strongly and their base people features less strongly, resulting in grandchildren that look much like human-halfies.
When a feathry or a scaler becomes a halfie, their wings and horns/crests tend to stay the same, while the rest of their body changes. When a 'Taur becomes a halfie (which is very seldom), the usual spells affect only their top half, though more advanced magic can change them in odder ways. Other peoples become halfies even more seldomly, and the resulting form can be very strange. When change magic's involved, anything can happen...
The patron god of the halfies is Gaea, the earth goddess.
The average lifespan of a halfie varies immensely. Some will live up to 40, whilst others have lived for hundreds of years. Those with animal traits typically have the usual lifespan of their base person race.
History:
Rumours have it that the halfie race, which has been along for a very long time, was created on a lark by some of the gods, mostly under the influence of Blue, the God of Alcohol. Not long after this, a priest of the Change God discovered the spells that let people become halfies directly, and since then it has grown surprisingly popular.
Miscellany:
Many other people, particularly the humans, see the halfies as a race of people to be a complete joke. 'Taurs find the entire concept of halfies to be hilarious, although they try not to hold that against people.