Small Running Title
People
Beastfolk
Beastfolk are fully sapient mortal peoples whose inherited body plans and instinctive architecture remain substantially animal-derived, organized through Kindreds, optional Branches, and Lineages.
Sapience Without Separation from Instinct
Beastfolk are neither humans with decorative animal traits nor animals that happen to speak. They are fully sapient mortal peoples whose reflective minds remain closely integrated with inherited animal-derived senses, body plans, and instinctive priorities. Instinct can make certain dangers, movements, scents, social cues, or environmental changes especially noticeable, but it does not dictate morality, temperament, profession, faith, or culture. Instinct supplies salience, not destiny.
Kindred, Branch, and Lineage
A Kindred is the broadest formal Beastfolk ancestry whose Lineages share a compatible inherited and metaphysical architecture; Lineages within one Kindred are normally reproductively compatible. A Branch is an optional intermediate rank used only when several related Lineages make the distinction useful. A Lineage is the stable inherited population whose characteristic sapient form reproduces reliably and is usually the level most important in ordinary social identity.
Taxonomy follows inherited architecture rather than outward resemblance. Avian Lineages can differ dramatically in flight and limb structure while remaining one Kindred, while labels such as reptile-derived or rodent-derived may be too broad to imply one reproductive group.
Awakening and Ascension
Some Beastfolk populations are ancient enough that divine shaping, natural awakening, and later convergence can no longer be cleanly separated. The same world also continues to produce Wildfolk: magical beasts that accumulate extraordinary power and eventually cross into reflective sapience. A Wildfolk may enter an existing Lineage if the awakened form truly matches that inherited architecture, or remain unclassified if it does not.
Ascension is different. It is an individual transformation that occurs after sapience and can change form, capability, and purpose dramatically without changing Lineage. Wildfolk is an origin state, Lineage is an inherited state, and Ascension is an individual developmental state.