In a wild, ancient part of the world, forgotten by time and civilisation, there stretches a seemingly endless forest.
Once, nearby villages had elaborate stories to warn their children against entering this mysterious place, tales of trickster spirits and living plants that turned you around a led you astray. Adult hunted only in the very outer fringes, even the most skilled woodsman knowing that venturing deeper meant wandering lost and aimlessly in a dapple-green maze, only to stumble onto the village again days later- if they returned at all.

These tales of myth and magic were slowly lost over time, as the villages died out or moved closer to places of industry...
But each held a nugget of truth.
Once, a trickster spirit did walk the forest.
Now instead, at its heart, far beyond the reach of lost huntsmen or curious explorers, lies a ruinous castle and the faint impression of what was once a city surrounding it. Time seems to stand still here, or perhaps move so slowly as to seem halted.
Those that yet remain here are so vastly changed from how they once appeared as to be unrecognisable- yet in these strange, smaller forms they continue to forge lives for themselves.

A mad King, willing to take any measures to hold on to power.
Five Royal siblings, scheming to take it from him, and from each other.
A young Priestess, desperately trying to break a powerful curse.
A vengeful Priest, disgraced but unwilling to accept blame.
A court filled with secret longings and dangerous lies.
And a mysteriously dwindling population of common folk, edging on riot and rebellion.

Notes:

• Royal ancestor killed an ancient sentient animal protected by magic, and the kingdom was cursed by the forest to take the form of animals in penance.
• Succession commonly decided by regicide/patricide/matricide; otherwise, the eldest child takes the crown upon the death of the current King/Queen.
• Offspring of the royal family almost exclusively take avian form, civilians are more diverse but can also be birds. 
• Kingdom is cut off from the rest of the world by an almost untraversable stretch of forest.