Werewolves
Werewolves (broadly rel. beraan; beast-bodied or "of a beast's form"), are a group of creatures capable of changing into a singular beast form, that resembles a different (animal) species. The transformation either has conditions that need to be met, often related to positions of stellar bodies, emotions and sources of magic, and is involuntary, or can be controlled and triggered by the person at will. There are many different types of werewolves, and as well, numerous ways of becoming one. Werewolves and shapeshifters differ in the amount of alternate forms or bodies they can transform into; while shapeshifters often have no limit on forms they can change between, werewolves only possess two, one of which being their biological species. Selkies are similarly unrelated to werewolves as they attain a different form without truly giving up their true form, and are naturally beasts.
The individual varieties of beraan can be seen, and often are seen, as species, as they are hereditary and exhibit genetic and phenotypic variety and unique interspecies dynamics of their own. The critique of this approach to werewolves brings up two main points that do not align; in rare cases, the status of a werewolf can be transmitted to another, specifically by blood-to-blood contact, and they are similarly able to appear "randomly" through curses or stellar transformation. This lands them in a similar albeit less questionable box of ambiguous species status as the Simulacra, the Syrinx and the Kalazakchi.
Characteristics
Physical characteristics
Werewolves are characterized by having an ordinary body (true form) that aligns with their biological species or genetics, or, if some form of transformation has already occurred, their history, and an alternate form, typically of animals connected to higher powers (wolves, ravens, snakes, birds of prey, fish, deer and cattle), and higher beasts, most often dragons. This beast form is inherent to the soul of the werewolf and is a part of them the same as their "true" form is, and many werewolves themselves refuse the notion that one form is truer than, or above, the other.
The beast form is often the stronger of the two, possessing greater raw energy potential, though said potential is often difficult to channel and fairly chaotic and primal in nature. They tend to also be physically bigger than the species form, and in the case of animal-like werewolves, bigger than the animal species at hand. With werewolves mimicking dragons, however, the werewolf is always inferior in power and size to a dragon, but possesses many similar or identical characteristics of a given dragon species.
Werewolves are naturally capable of third-level regeneration of most body parts.
Eyes
The eyes of a werewolf tend to be identical between both forms, and may even glow or glint in low light depending on what animal species the werewolf is mimicking. This can change with werewolf allegiances, which often change many aspects of both of the werewolf's forms, such as Chaos-aligned beraan always having bright, burning golden eyes or the eyes of Void-aligned werewolves taking on a cyan or purple hue with circular pupils and bright neon details on their bodies. The eyes of a werewolf aligned to Azharrraja are burning red-orange; nearly indistinguishable from those aligned to Mjonfaheir. The only beraan allegiance that leads to close to no change in eyes is that to the Divine Disease.
Werewolves have generally superior eyesight, though the specifics of it changes between diet, hunting style and the species they are mimicking. Some werewolves are more suited to a nocturnal lifestyle, leading to an absence of color vision, while others are nearly blind in low-light conditions but equipped to see and tell apart color excellently. Many werewolves (especially those mimicking certain snakes, birds and fish) exhibit the fascination with movement characteristic to the Syrinx, and will become entranced watching slow and smooth movement such as that of schooling fish, dancers and a person's gestures.
Teeth
The teeth and jaws of werewolves in their beast form fully regenerate without limit, as the teeth fall out regularly and are replaced as part of a natural "molting" cycle, typically on the timescale of years or decades. They are far larger and longer than the species the animal form is mimicking (with the exception of dragons) with one identifying component; that being the pair of enlarged fangs either on the bottom or top jaw, which can be used to transform a person or animal they bite into a werewolf of the same kind should they choose to do so. Contrary to popular belief, this is not done through venom, but through autohemorraging; secreting and injecting their own blood in a similar mechanism as venom. Some beraan are able to shoot blood, similarly to spitting snakes.
The blood of a werewolf is contagious through blood-to-blood contact, but most werewolf bites do not involve autohemorraging (dry bites), and only a minority of those bitten with a simultaneous blood-injection will become werewolves, as most recover and are simply poisoned with the appropriate symptoms for a certain amount of time specific to the individual, or simply succumb and die. The majority of bloody bites happen in offense (hunting), only a small minority can be traced to defensive behaviour, typically from young or less experienced beraan, or significantly threatened and cornered elders.
These fangs appear even in the non-beast form either as rear-mounted permanent or sheathable fangs, or slightly more pronounced canines, though only the beast form has blood glands. The blood of a werewolf in their non-beast form is poisonous and contagious as well.
Energetical Characteristics
The status of a werewolf grants one greater access to their soul's energy reserves in a raw and often hard to control way, with their soul's energy production and channeling being increased; the volatility and risk, then, might be caused by inexperience and other related factors rather than it being an inherent fact. Regardless, it is posed that the soul of werewolves has undergone an event equivalent to a merger of two stars or the formation of a contact binary, energetically equivalent to the shift from a yellow-white main sequence star to a hotter, more luminous and more massive blue-white MS star. Werewolves are capable of casting magic and using this increased power for sorcery, and this gave rise to the Beast Sorcerers.
Behavioral Characteristics
There is no temperament change between forms, although heightened instincts and senses can sometimes cause higher defensiveness and agitation from being overwhelmed, confused and terrified, especially stark in cursed or young werewolves. In the majority of cases, werewolves are in full conscious control of their actions in their beast form.
Most beraan have a specific event that forces them to transform; nearly universally, it is the power of a full eclipse, but others documented are full moons, twilight and sunrise (especially in systems with multiple suns), passings of comets, asteroid showers and large solar flares, as well as high tides.
Weaknesses
Werewolves can be hurt by many regular means, but they are especially weak to fire, silver and copper, as well as the blood of a different werewolf; all of which can be lethal.
Varieties
Beast-mimicking werewolves
These beraan shift into a form possessing many characteristics of a specific animal form. They are bigger than their target species, oftentimes capable of speech, possess blood-glands and related fangs, are capable of nearly total regeneration and have greatly increased magical and physical abilities. Though werewolves can theoretically mimic any species, most belong into a limited number of categories, such as:
Mammalian werewolves
Mammalian werewolves are among the most common and prolific. They tend to be associated with moons and other smaller celestial bodies, and are the most common transformation for mammalian species, especially for werewolves born of a curse.
Canid werewolves are perhaps the most famous category of werewolves, even if they do not make up the majority by numbers. They are the reason for the English name werewolf, and the most common animal they mimic is a wolf. Other notable and common canid werewolves mimic direwolves, foxes, hyenas, dogs, coyotes and more. Canid werewolves belong among the most common classes of werewolf possibly because of their close relation to lunar bodies and lunar events; many werewolves being created by eclipses and full moons. This gives rise to many thousand different werewolv lineages, and a higher percentage of newborn or young individuals.
Canid werewolves tend to be more social, prone to living in families and attachment to a group of either other werewolves (even regardless of mimicked species), or non-werewolves and other shifters, and have very good nocturnal vision and poor color eyesight.
Ungulate werewolves are just as common as canid werewolves and consist of creatures taking on forms most often similar to deer, boars, pigs, cows, antelope and horses. They are deeply connected with eclipses.
Avian and reptilian werewolves
This group consists of a gradient of possible forms. It includes crocodile and snake-like beraan, theropod and dromaeosaurid-mimicking werewolves and werewolves with forms reminiscent or directly based on birds such as herons, hawks, ravens, seagulls, chicken and more.
Fish-like werewolves
A very broad category from which the groups that stand out the most are Voidkin werewolves mimicking the forms of voidfish, and werewolves mimicking sharks and large predatory fish, such as swordfish, murray eels, placoderms and groupers.
Werewolves mimicking higher beasts, g-ds and beings
These werewolves are nearly never born as werewolves and are often the result of rituals, failed and otherwise, and direct divine influence. This includes actors scrambling for greater power or status such as the failed dragons.
Draconic werewolves
There are numerous stories of people trying to mimic the power of a dragon, and many of them concern the draconic werewolf; so-called failed dragons being a product of the failed and often short-sighted effort to become a dragon, resulting in the individual becoming stuck in a half-way state.
Being a draconic werewolf can as well be an honor; a state given to close, loyal and trusted long-time friends of dragons, who gift them with part of their power and the ability to become a creature that closely resembles them.
Draconic werewolves are always smaller than the species they mimic, with few of them being capable of flight. How many features of a given dragon species they retain changes case by case.
Origin
All sentient species can become werewolves, though it is much more pronounced in sapient species (such as humans) and fairly rare, though not impossible, in species that already shapeshift or transform between two and more bodies, such as selkies. Werewolves can become so through either being born as werewolves, being the focus of a deliberate or accidental transformation, or through failed rituals and accidents involving higher powers and currents of cosmic energy.
By birth
These werewolves, often called starborne, are werewolves from birth. This is either because their parents were beraan as well and passed this (recessive) trait to their children, or because they were born during an eclipse, full moon, solstice or the equinox (passing through the perihelium), or potentially flares and other cosmic events. Many werewolves are born as well when a true Ascension rocks the world.
By curse
It is possible to transform someone into a werewolf by cursing them through a ritual or a spell. This type of magic has long since dwindled in popularity and now stands as a rare occurence, though it was fairly common during the Ancient Ages.
By ritual
Many werewolves have chosen to become so as part of a ritual or have created a ritual to transform themselves. This is true for many false dragons; draconic werewolves who have failed to become a dragon; corvid werewolves; worshippers and loyalists of Vitravnen; and the Beast Sorcerers. Any creature seeking greater power may consider this transformation and some undergo it, though most consider the benefit of it miniscule compared to other far riskier possibilities, such as becoming a Kalazakchi, Syrinx or a dragon.
By blood
Rarely, victims who survive a werewolf bite may become werewolves themselves. Most werewolves are single-strike hunters, and typically inject blood in a similar fashion as venom; to quickly weaken and kill their prey from a single bite due to the expensive trade-off that giving up their own blood offers them. As such, cases where victims of a genuine hunting attempt survive are rare, and full, bite-borne werewolves even rarer. Defensive bites are common, but the majority of them are dry, especially with more experienced werewolves; they may also happen accidentally, however, when the blood of a wounded werewolf enters its maw or gets on its claws.
Most cases of blood-borne werewolves involve either consensual transformation or similarly deliberate self-transformation.
Diet
The diet of a werewolf depends on the mimicked species; however, by far, most werewolves are omnivores with a stronger lean towards herbivory, and hunt either out of preference, for pleasure, inaccessibility of other means of nutrition, or for convenience. Many will also purchase meat or hunt/fish in their ordinary bodies and keep stock of meat and animal products on hand. Wildly broad preferences between werewolves are very common.
Common favored herbivory options among werewolves are soft grains, fruit, roots, leaves of certain soft-leaved, fleshy plants and blooms. Most beraan that prefer and consume mainly the leaves (like that of herbs, grasses and trees) tend to be those mimicking herbivorous species.
Werewolves can be poisoned, sometimes even by otherwise ordinary foods such as certain kinds of spices, fruits, nuts and plant products (such as chocolate of coffee), and obvious choices such as the meat and body parts of poisonous species. On the other hand, they are not likely to die from such poisonings, recovering with mild symptoms, and have a far higher resistance towards other typically lethal substances, such as many drugs, mushroom toxins, and even cyanide and the cumulative effects of heavy metals. Mushroom toxins specifically are often ingested voluntarily, as they produce a hallucinogenic reaction within the beraan's system. Werewolves have a low resistance to alcohol.
Envenomation
The symptoms of werewolf blood envenomation appear often rather quickly (within as little as 10 minutes to as much as 3-7 hours, depending on the amount of blood injected, the person bitten and where the bite site is) and are typically:
In the case of people who do not get turned, the symptoms, if untreated, progress to loss of consciousness, arrhythmia and heart failure, paralysis of the diaphragm or a heart attack/stroke due to clotting. Bites can be treated with antivenin (either general, which is less effective, or specialized werewolf antivenin).
In the case of a person who has favorable conditions to turn (often associated with an already high energy potential or being a magic user, high stress or on the contrary a degree of calmness about the situation, being bitten on favorable cosmic arrangement conditions and receiving a smaller dose), symptoms progress to the following:
Werewolves in the process of turning will typically refuse food and starve until their first transformation is complete, and attempting to give them food is not recommended for the safety of the beraan.
Young, freshly turned werewolves will be weak, hungry, and often terrified, leading to both defensive behavior and a certain desperation when hunting, being willing to eat just about anything. Most young werewolves are even then unlikely to attack sapients unless cornered and can be easily scared off; most bites recorded on sapient species by a young werewolf are purely defensive or accidental. It is customary to offer newly turned werewolves food, especially fresh produce or meat, and access to clean water, especially for the first transformation, as the process can be incredibly traumatic and not having to hunt for food may make the process easier on them.
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