The Pookas and Naiads are shapeshifters who most often take on various animal forms, notably horses but also rabbits and other creatures. In the transformation from the 3rd to the 4th age the increasing solidification of matter made such physical shifts temporarily impossible for all but the most advance of creatures. It is likely that as we progress into the 6th age that we will master the physical plane to the extent that such shifts will again become possible. This time as a conscious mental decision and not just an emotional instinct as it once was. We are prevented from doing so now simply because we have yet to gain the power required to affect such transformations on this, the thickest and most material of planes. The first step toward the realization of this and other powers is mastery of the mental and ideational planes. Once we have control of our minds and thus our emotions, mastery over the physical body will follow.

Quite often these days, you'll find the Pookas hanging about with their favored animal form (that is horse pookas like to be near horses) or failing that they will often surround themselves with statures, paintings, etc. of these creatures. Nearly always you can see the resemblence in their faces, many looking a bit "horsey", or owlish, etc. Their hunger to transform runs deep and the lessons of human life are often difficult to the point where they wish they could simply turn into a bird and fly away.