Created originally by the Humans during the Age of the Fifth Sun to act as body guards for the wealthy, the Shifters are masters at remaining hidden within crowds. Originally called Slipskins, Face Changers, or Changlings, the term "Shifter" started as slang within several of the Ancient Human Tongues, becoming the main way of addressing these individuals as time went on. After the Human departure from Desolation between the Fifth and Sixth Sun, those who fled with them became solidified as their own people with their own identity separate from those who they were modified from. Still viewed by Humans and later the Hym with some disdain, most have developed a tendency to remain within a single form to prevent others from knowing their true race.

Shifters live all across Creation's Rest within The Mooring, managing to not end up on any of the Ark Vessels that arrived on the Elemental Halos. Some communities do remain in the Aether across Desolation and stranded within Ark Vessels that drift aimlessly through the Abyss, but those individuals are either in hiding, embedded within Hymic communities, or have managed for form settlements of only Shifters among the old Human ruins.

The Shifters were one of the first successful all-encompasing genetic experiments of the Humans during the Age of the Fifth Sun, and were the most complex successful singular modification completed before the departure from Desolation. The modifications that allowed for the creation of the Beast Heart were the basis of the Shifters, placing the two closer together genetically than to the Humans.

Shifters, for the most part, appear very similar to Hym and other Human descendant races. Their skin is a pasty white while they are in their base form, and their eyes have a thin film covering them that prevents the color of their iris' from being seen. Their bodies are hairless, aside from some at the top of their head.

Just like the Hym, Shifters are highly adaptable and can survive in nearly any environment. While their selection is more restrictive due to adverse opinion of them from the other Tonallitecameh, they do still blend into other communities fairly often, and nearly every town and city has a small Shifter population.

Shifters do not have any additional perceptions or sensory abilities outside of their light telepathy. While Typically used to communicate, it can be adapted to read simple emotions and intent with lots of training. For some, their telepathy has even been able to read the thoughts and emotions of animals.

Due to their scattered nature, Shifters do not have their own language and instead adopt the languages spoke where they live. While they did speak the Ancient Human Tongues before their departure from Desolation and the Hymic Incursion, in the centuries following, their attachment to the languages of their sibling races has long dwindled.

Like other Hym descendant races, the Shifters hold the Hymic Incursion as a tale of their past. The stories of a world covered in cities of glass and metal, fully conquered and controlled by the Humans, and how they were treated as lesser and forced into servitude as bodyguards and protectors for their elite. They were dragged into the Aether as Desolation consumed their cities whole, eventually arriving in The Mooring upon Creation's Rest where they set out onto the new world. Their time in the Aether allowed their relations with the Hym to become one of equals, but many still saw the injustices of the past as still needing to be repaid before they would be forgiven.