Global human mutations

Sounds kinda like Shadowrun. Following that pattern, cultures that always had a magical/shamanistic tradition would probably take the lead, governments would break apart and reform accordingly, and there'd be a tremendous reduction in population and an economic breakdown that would take decades, at least, to stabilize.

Most organized religions would either dissolve or radicalize, considering how this would pretty much flip most of them upside-down. Chances are the churches that remained or new ones, or tribes, or even existing secular educational institutions would take on magical training, depending on the nature of it (Is it ritual magic? Channeling spiritual force? Arcane formulas? etc.). There'd of course be new markets, but that depends on how intact market-based societies remain.

I'd bet there'd be a hell of a war between Terrans and humans, too. Those who don't transform would view those who did as monsters, and Terrans would have to defend themselves or be wiped out - in many cases, by friends, families, neighbors. A global civil war sort of thing, until the transformations take over.

I'm really intrigued by the mental impact this would have on people. You said the transformation takes six hours. That is six hours after impact? And that's it? Everyone transforms at the same time? Can people die from the transformation? This kind of reminds me of an episode of Outer Limits. These two kids find this alien music that starts evolving them. Somehow they transmit it to other people and it begins evolving too. Harmony was reached, I think, but it was a long process. Some people may take well to a transformation, but other people aren't. There's going to be chaos. Have you read up on any theories people have about 2012? Daniel Pinchbeck's 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl is one that comes to mind. There is also a new Complete Idiot's Guide to 2012 book out, too.

Well not exactly. Think of the transformation to the worm/butterfly metamorphosis. It's quite similar, but very quick at the end. At the start of the transformation, a tattoo appears on the body, and I mean ANYWHERE. After that, he or she will wait six hours until the violent 5 minute mutation, then they are a Terren for life. For younger kids, this doesn't happen until their 13th birthday (puberty), but for everybody else, it's totally random and takes a full 4 years until the whole world is changed. Oh, and nobody can stop the transformation, whether they like it or not.

Thanks guys for the feedback, keep it up.

Five minutes seems a bit too brief. The sort of psychological trauma that amount of pain would/could cause is enormous.

Sex, man. And lots of it. Also probably flail around crying a lot and hugging all my animals and being in denial.

I just have to say, if this is what the 2012 apocalypse has in store for us, I say YES. That is so much better than just vanilla death.

If I knew what was happening, I think I would try to get together with my loved ones to be there for each other as the transformation was going on, and make sure we could know each other after it had happened. Heck, even if I didn't know what was going on, I would get together with them and we'd try to stay calm, I guess. Get away from the looters. I would probably be having an apocalypse party, anyway, so that'd be convenient (last chance, right?)

As far as society, I think there would be an upset for a while (a week to five years, depending on how much got destroyed in the time everyone's trying out their powers and apocalypsing it up), but then people would try to reorganize the situation into something that looks as much like what we have now as possible. Or else an evil oligarchy.

Giving powers to everyone would probably make the level of mental patients go down, but in a bad way. Those people, having gotten such magical powers, might become that evil oligarchy or gang leaders or just random agents of destruction. Depending on the mental impairment, of course. Some would just stay huddled up in the ruins of their cells, and some would just chill, I guess?

Six hours? Depends. Is my personality changed, or just the body? Do Terrans interact with humans, are they friendly, do they maintain emotional connections to family, friends, loved ones? Do they eat the same foods? Could make Thanksgiving a little awkward at first. Would be especially difficult for teens, I'd think. I mean, here you are, the least popular girl in school (or the most popular), concerned mostly about boys and pimples, when all of a sudden, wham, you've got scales, a tail and funny ears...and no one else does. I'd stay home from school for sure.

If Terrans do interact with humans much as they did as humans, I think some would take it upon themselves to make themselves available to help humans beginning the transition. Since lawyers, CEO's and politicians would also be affected, I think laws and lawsuits protecting Terrans and humans would quickly be passed.

I'd think having a Totem and a bodyguard would also be very awkward, too. I mean, you show up for your job as a waiter, and you've got this tail swinging around, an animal guide padding after you and a bodyguard stalking around. Guess what? The chef has them too, and so does the sous chef. They get in a fight. The sous-chef butchers the chef's rabbit spirit guide and defiantly pops it in the oven. Your part time body guard calls the cops, who also all have these guides and bodyguards. None of them agree on the definition of sanity. The dishwasher gets a tattoo, screams and runs out. Meanwhile, out in the dining area, one of the guests has started sprouting a tail and a spirit guide. The restaurant empties.

You get fired for laughing so hard you can't stand up. It doesn't help that your animal spirit guide is a lecherous lobster, who pinches the pastry chef on its way out. She throws a pie at it, misses, and hits the sous-chef's animal spirit guide, which is a skunk. You run. It doesn't help, because your part-time body guard couldn't get out in time. He now follows you everywhere, smelly and whining.

Multiply this mayhem by 6 billion people. That's one heckuva stinky pie fight. It doesn't even include the magic or the vampires.

Myself, I'd curse the fact that I didn't lose weight and get in shape sooner, and now I'll have a fat pasty-white, cellulite-riddled middle-aged tail and flabby ears. Great. Can magic fix that? Depending on what Terrans can do, I might be gleefully anticipating the change. Six minutes ain't so bad; compare that with pregnancy and childbirth. Piece of cake! Just give me a tail that would intimidate a kangaroo, that's all I ask.

If I only had six hours left where I was sure I would be myself, I would drive home, finish my comic book that I've been reading, bake the cookies I've been meaning to make for the last three weeks and the cupcakes I've promised for an upcoming community service project. If there was time left after all that I'd walk my dog down to the river.

If everyone is changing, I don't really think it would make major changes in the world market. Everyone would panic at first, then go about their lives.

Don't know if it'll help, but I stumbled across this today:

http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=9969430&imageindex=2#4...

The initial time before the first transformation “symptom” and the thing itself is exactly 6 hours. So in a small sense, what would you do if you have 6 hours left being human?

Whatever I couldn't do as a Terran.

Wow! I love that idea...

Anyway, I think that would completely screw up all things, maybe anarchy and then martial law.

On the question of fashion and influence on other mundane aspects of life, I would think the influence would be mostly cosmetic. I mean, people don't wear clothes just because they need to protect themselves. We wear cloths because it's part of our culture. Some of the clothes people wear today make little sense (What's the use of a tie, for instance? Or why do most women still wear tops on a hot day at the beach? How did blue work pants, made for durability rather than comfort, become the most coveted trousers for young people? If kilts are so comfortable, why do only Scottish men wear them?). My guess would be people would still wear the same clothes (especially if the clothes serve as a reminder of their lost humanity.) with a few needed changes (a hole for a tail... Or maybe an extra "tail leg".). Maybe tail rings will come into fashion. Not to mention a big flux in earrings... ear tattoos? scale tattoos? Does that make any sense? And naturally, hip indie Terrans would wear different clothes from those of high class lawyer type Terrans. But I get carried away.

You didn't really specify what "magical powers" mean. Let me demonstarte why this matters:
Scenario 1:Magic allows you to create food and shelter simply by mumbling a few words. Well...Who needs money, right? The economy disappears, sure, but no one notices it's gone. Life just got easier for everyone.
Scenario 2: Magic is more limited but, say, people can now transport themselves without having to use cars. They might need less oil, and car manufacturers will all be out of a job, so the economy will suffer bigtime (at least for a while), and people would also suffer, because they still need their jobs and money to pay for their basic needs.
Scenario 3: Magic is limited. An average Terran can use it, say, to shoot lightening out of his fingers or to turn an apple into a pie. A really good magic user might be able to fly and make storms. But this changes nothing. People still need money. People still need cars and computers and if you're looking for a job as an IT manager, shooting bolts from your fingers is irrelevant to your application..

People react differently to change. Possibly a lot of people would resist it at first. Maybe there would be laws against the use of magic in certain situations. Maybe there would be "anti-Terran" fanatics who would cut their own tails and kill their totems in order to go back to being humans. Or people who would refuse to use magic.

Wow, I could write ideas about this world of yours for ... a month :) But I'll stop now.
It's an engaging universe you've created and I think your story raises a lot of interesting questions.
Cool.

I had to pause on the magic because, to me, is quite complicated to come up with, especially if its made up. I have a concept in my head that might work and gained info from other magic systems, but I will have to come up with it durning the event. And I DID think about limitations at the very beginning, that I forgot to mention, that the Totems control the magic and energy "creation", but only to keep their hosts from killing other Terrans with magic.

Well, I'm not sure what effect the Totems may have on society. Although Philip Pullman's daemons in His Dark Materials trilogy might make an interesting study of some aspects of this question.

But as far as the magic goes, I think a rule of thumb would be that if the magic provides people with an alternative way of doing something they had to pay for before, they would use their magic for that purpose and that will cause a change in that field (e.g. teleportation will damage the automobile industry, extensive use of magical light orbs might cause power stations to shut down, precognition will change the face of both insurance and gambling, etc.)

Just bumping.

It seems to me that the death toll would be HUGE. First, no matter where your big asteroid hits Earth, it's going to cause major environmental disasters which would in turn cause human injury and death: tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions maybe, and probably some kind of gas or smoke plume that would cover thousands of miles of air space.

Also, if it takes 4 years between impact and the transformation of the very last human being, you're probably going to have civil wars and riots break out all over the world--ESPECIALLY in the first 6 months to a year when people start realizing that other people are becoming monsters (that's how it'll be viewed by most people) and they're next.

Think of all the gun-nuts out there--people with their own personal military arsenals. I would think that before society settles down, there'd be millions of people and new transformees in every country who'll get killed defending themselves and their property from massive house-to-house rioting. It's not like the police or the army could do much to control people if THEY'RE losing people to the transformation, too. And depending on which country the asteroid lands in (or near), who's to say other countries won't attempt to eliminate the threat of the "disease" spreading to the rest of the world by launching nukes?

Also, something to think about: if children don't transform until they hit puberty, are they going to be raised by Terrans? What about infants? How will they breastfeed? I would suggest that EVERYONE be subject to the transformation, including babies and children--and those that survive the new world order will probably be the most well-adjusted. Children are incredibly adaptable.

Personally, I would drop the magic powers, the totem animals (very similar to the "daemons" in Phillip Pullman's books as someone else mentioned), the bodyguards and the vampires. You've got MORE than enough juicy mayhem to develop with the asteroid and the planetary turmoil of losing all of humanity.

And what happens to the plants, animals and insects? You could have a food chain problem as well.

You have a lot to work with here! :)

6 hours left being human. I'd want chocolate, playing with my dogs, and spending some quality time with my boyfriend.

It would destroy the fashion world, create new jobs for scale-pro lotions, and create new jobs because we would need to get in our house, we'd have to adjust life to whatever hands/paws they have. If everyone's like it this would create a social network and community. If it's a division, then a huge rift would be for the 'normals' and the nots. It may lead to the unity of the race, but I don't think we'd be going off planet any time soon. I think we'd have a tendency to focus on what's goin on here first.

Magic...there would still have to be rules. Order. A new system of checks and balances. A magical high court whose job it wasto make sure that no one abuses their powr.