: Re: Exposition: Talking Animals - How do I Reveal This to the Reader? I'm writing a book series where most of the cast are highly anthropomorphized animals (or in some cases mythological creatures).

@Sent2472441

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To answer your question, first you would need to answer for yourself the following:

The anthropo-weasels - do they view themselves as the same kind of creature as, say, anthropo-lions? Can anthropo-weasels procreate with antropo-lions? Can / would anthropo-lions eat anthropo-zebras?
How do the anthropo-weasels view themselves in relation to regular weasels? Do they wear ermine fur? Do anthropo-cows eat beef?

The Wind in the Willows quickly introduces the reader to the fact that animals are anthropomorphised. It starts:

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms.

Something similar would have you covered on the anthropomorphic animals front, but not draw the distinction between anthropomorphic animals and regular ones. In fact, a reader is likely to assume that in your world all animals are anthropomorphic. Since that's what the reader is likely to assume, you'd need to hurry up and correct them. The easiest way to do that, I think, would be to show regular animals - farm animals, pets, or food.

However, faced with this state of having both sentient and non-sentient animals, a reader is going to be confused, in a "wait, what?" kind of way. You'd do well to clear this confusion as soon as possible: make your story give the explanation you've given us above, about the gods cursing men. It could be, for example, a lesson given to a child, or a religious sermon, or some sort of commemoration festival. The story of the gods' curse needn't be full, it might have been partly misremembered by the people, but there needs to be enough of it for the readers to understand what's going on.

Alternatively, you can just tell it all in a short introduction, like @Amadeus suggests:

Long ago, soon after humans migrated to the new galaxy, the Gods grew angry with them for not worshipping enough, and the result was the Gods cursing all of humanity to turn into anthropomorphized creatures.

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