Help on balancing anthropomorphic animals and human characters

(Let me know if this belongs in the discussion section instead of the question tag.)

I’m developing my own (spaceish) fantasy world, with inhabitants all over the Sol system. Briefly, Tierra is our earth and Dunya is if Venus was habitable (a hot desert planet, breathing Co2) and space travel is possible much sooner, as elemental magic is in the very foundations of the universe. I am very divided between making my characters anthropomorphic animals (with evolution divergences) or, then I fall back on them being human but that’s easy. Both frustrate the hell out of me. I do have other types of humans: earth folk, faefolk, and the aquafolk (think Pixar’s Luca). I love animals, I’ve always been fascinated by them, but maybe, I’m worried about taking on too much and getting it wrong. Worlds will produce more than one species, so let more animal kind inhabit these worlds.

Before I expanded it into an original world, these stories were first fanfictions so I know my characters (mostly made from minor characters so a little adjusting, I’ve dragged them out and put them in my world). So I KNOW my characters. I know what kind of world I’d like. I have a plot structure I’m working on, carving out how it’d work in my elemental world. I’m getting nit picky on a core element of my characters. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could balance out anthropomorphic animals and humans?

There’s a working hierarchy in my world. Predatory and what we call “wild” animals were historically the leaders. King Arthur Pendragon was something like a bear/wolf mix (since they anciently inter-breeded) but his marriage to Lady Guinevere, a foxhart - one of the first of her kind (half fox, half deer; and eventually many animals became biped) helped change society’s view on staying isolated from each other and brought them into building bigger communities into governments and cities. From their foundations, they gave rise to the United Kingdom of Albion (UKA), where many can find sanctuary and equality. Despite that, the “domesticated” animals tend to be looked down on. The sheep, cows, goats, and pigs were herded by the divine Shepherds (who have since left this star system) and through persecution, these “lower folk” have assimilated, escaped slavery, and spread the Shepherds’ word.

There’s a LOT about my world so if you have any questions, just ask, and thank you if you read this all. I would love any feedback at all.