If every force has a human and animal form then Culture is just some guy or are they a human-form-shapeshifter? Are they bullied in the temple of the celestial forces because they're just like. Personâ„¢?? Are their forms a giant titanic human AND a tiny normal human??? I gotta know
HAHAHAH fantastic question! So it gets a little bit complicated because the lore is sliiiightly different depending on what medium I'm writing this story in - which sounds weird, but it's mainly because some things work better in at a conceptual level, and some things work better on stage, and those circles don't necessarily overlap hahaha. But in general terms - i.e. when I imagine this as just a narrative concept that only exists in my brain, or perhaps as a intense animated movie that I visualise in my head - the Forces have two main forms. First, their 'giant' human form, which they use in the Hall of the Celestial Forces, and then their 'animal' form, which they use to interact with the mortal plane. And in order that they're not mistaken for normal animals that mortals might try and hunt/kill, the animal forms of the mortals have a double set of eyes. So, Culture's 'animal' form - which, as you rightly said, is just a regular sized human - would actually have four eyes. Creepy.
(I actually quite like the idea of them being a human-form shapeshifter, though - like, maybe they can make themself look like anyone? That would be neat, I like that a lot. Maybe that's canon now)
However, in the musical version, neither the Forces or Ruin and Forest can turn into animals. They just have animal related imagery. I mean, in my head they can all shapeshift in the musical version, but like......ok so when writing the script, it was kind of difficult to work in the fact that they could shapeshift, especially when it didn't actually relate to the plot at any point? Like, the key thing is that Ruin and Forest are both birds of prey because Time was a bird of prey - but that's shown through the imagery and the masks. And then the other plot point was Ruin being able to get back to the Hall and rescue Forest/get him back to the mortal world because they could both turn into birds and the Forces didn't realise that they could do that. But like, I haven't written that bit yet, but I have written them escaping the Hall at an earlier point and literally they just...run off stage HAHA, like it doesn't have to be visualised in the same way, and it doesn't have to make logistical sense in the same way, you know? I can just have the storyteller say 'they must return to the mortal world below', and then have Ruin and Forest say 'take my hand and run!' and then they run off, and the audience is like 'oh neat they left the Hall and got back to the mortal world' and it's fine hahahah. So I sacrificed the lore exposition for the sake of smoothness of narrative. I feel like, if I didn't cut it out at this stage, it's probably going to inevitably be cut out later by someone else. So I might as well just be efficient about it haha
(But in my HEART, Ruin and Forest can still shapeshift. And if this was an animated movie, it would totally be a thing. But it's not so, c'est la vie)
