Mythologists whisper that the Juunishi-p'o were once men, transformed by their worship of the twelve animals of the astronomical calendar. Whether this is merely legend or fact, it is a biological improbability that the similarity between the Juunishi-p'o and their House namesakes (the animals represented by constellations) comes through breeding. It is more likely that through study and mimicry of these animal species that the Juunishi-p'o stumbled on some flaw in Natural Selection and changed their mutation pattern to more closely resemble their animal benefactors. That their blood structure more closely resembles the blood structure of Rosuto-Shimans than it does the animals they resemble is evidence toward this theory. Why the Juunishi-p'o never grow to more than four feet tall and have a look of youth for their entire lives is unexplainable.
There are twelve types of Juunishi-p'o: the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Goat, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog, and the Boar. Each of these twelve types, called Houses, have distinct characteristics, making the Juunishi-p'o resemble that animal. However, the characteristics are inconsistent; for example, a Rooster Juunishi-p'o typically has a comb, like a rooster's, instead of hair, and often has wings, but he may also have hand with four fingers and an opposable thumb somehow connected to these wings. Occasionally, the Rooster does not have wings at all, merely feathers that bestow upon him some likelihood of flight (though this is improbable due to the laws of physics, it has been known to happen). Likewise, the Snake may have no hair on his head, instead, having a flat face with flared nostrils but no nose; or he may have a full head of hair but a split tongue and fangs. How such characteristics are determined is a worthy subject for another study.
