Lycanthropes and Shifters

The virus itself can be caught by being scratched by another 'thrope, and possibly through bites and contact with various bodily fluids as well. The process is unpredictable, and a victim of an attack might survive extremely serious wounds and remain uninfected while another person will turn at the slightest scratch. There is a viral shot for lycanthropy disease though the inoculation itself is known to cause lycanthropy, and the person getting the shot does not get to pick what type of animal they will end up turning into. If given the shot quick enough after the initial infection it can work to cure them, but considering it can also cause the infection the viral shot is used with calculated risk.

An infected indivdual will turn for the first time at the next full moon; after that the moon itself appears to trigger involuntary changes though lycanthropes can choose to switch forms at will the rest of the time. The transformation itself is extremely painful, bones and flesh reshape and fall off leaving the area around the shifter covered in liquids and pieces of flesh. Since this process is extremely tiring young lycans, and even stronger ones need periods up to an hour or more of near comatose rest after shifting back-longer if they are forced to shift back.

Most lycans have two forms, human and their animal form which is generally twice the size of the normal animal. However, the strongest lycans are able to take the form of the fabled half-beast. It seems the non-predator lycans must be very old to accomplish this, reasons are unknown.

Lycans are omnivores, though in their furry form they have a preference for the type of food their animal counterpart eats. Normally this means meat and as such the carnivore type of lycans seem to be somewhat cannibalistic, they will feed on humans and vampires and even fellow lycans despite their close relations to all species.

Lycans are warm blooded and always have a very high body temperature, which rises closer to a full moon. They tend to resist being touched by humans because of their almost fever like touch.

As with all 'immortal' beings, lycans become stronger with age. Normally a lycan looks and feels human when they are in the form, though closer to the full moon the weaker ones get jumpy and jittery and usually are forced to stay away from normal humans by their fellow pack members. If a lycan has spent a large amount of time in their 'furry' form, they will retain visual parts of their animal in their human form-forever. Eye color, pupil and iris shape, ear shape, teeth shape and hair turning into feathers or fur. If a lycan stays in their form for days on end, they may not be able to turn back.

It should be noted that unlike the lycans and shapeshifters of the stories, they can not talk in their animal form. They can articulate in their half-beast form to a degree, but its mostly filled with growls and grunts.

Other lycans can smell and sense a fellow lycan, it is considered rude to touch another lycan without permission. If one is in danger running to the nearest 'alpha' or leader lycan you can sense and prostrating yourself at their feet is a sign of submission and need for protection. If the alpha accepts he or she will touch your neck and take you into their protection. This is a double edged sword as once protected you owe this alpha your life. They can take it when ever they please.

Some humans are born with the ability to shape shift, and are generally not affected or governed by the cycle of the moon. It seems that the 'born' gene tends to stay with the rarer animals, like cobras, tigers and large non-predator birds.

Witches can potentially shape shift with the proper spell and with the skin from a werecreture. Shifting this way has benifits since the person gains the power of the skin but is not tied to the moon. Unfortunately for the spell to work, the werecreature has to die at the END of the spell. For a witch to simply end their time 'furry', they simply take the fur off and can use it a few more times before the magic disapates. You can tell the difference between a 'natural' shifter and a witch-shifter when they are in animal form, and you check their bellies. Witch-shifters have an almost seam along their stomach and groin, where the skin is held together. You can literally take it off, but it usually, almost always, kills the witch.

Witches can also curse humans, causing them to turn into werecreatures. A witch has to be extremely powerful for this to work though, and cursed-weres are near-immortal if not injured badly. Cursed weres have a higher tolerance to silver than the normal werecreatures, but it still hurts them.

Witchs tend to go for the lesser creatures, swans, geese, extinct animals since these will cause the most problems around natural weres. Smelling like a bird after all is painting a sign on yourself saying 'free burger, nibble away'.