Werewolves (Terra)

A result of an ancient curse, Lycanthropes are normal humans who have been turned bloodthirsty, lupine humanoids. The curse spreads by bites. Lycanthropes have an innate desire to reproduce rather than kill with humans. Lycanthropes live normal human lives during the day, but during the night, they become the beast. Lycanthropes typically have giving qualities such as being hairier than normal, eating raw meat, being more aggressive than usual, or larger than normal fangs.

The only known ways of curing Lycanthropy is death, or arcane decursing, which can only be done by powerful arcanists and ethereals.

Interestingly, Lycanthropes in their transformed state look nearly exactly like Wulvar. This has made scholars question why the correlation exists. It also causes fear when humans first meet a Wulvar.

## Origin

Lycanthropes first appeared when vampires started wreaking havoc on the world. Elves were not sure how to combat this threat, so they came up with an idea: What if elves had guard dogs. Elves already had servants in the form of humans, so what if they turned them into dogs that could fight off the vampire threat. Thus, a few humans underwent a transformation ritual to become a werewolf. These werewolves were very effective in combating the vampires. Infact, too effective. Their designed infectious and ruthless nature meant that they had started to wreak havoc on things other than vampires. Thus, there came to be two kinds of werewolves: Those that would escape and terrorize all the humans, and those who became more civil under elven care.

## Powers

Lycanthropes are incredibly strong. They possess 1.5x the strength they would normally have as humans, and then 4x the strength they would have in werewolf form. They grow to be about 1.5x the size they once were when transformed. They have powerful regenerative capabilities, and thick skins that can resist vampire bites. Their sharp claws tear through flesh instantly and cause massive gashes. Their senses are enhanced, especially smell and hearing. They can sniff out any sort of vampire from miles away. Finally, they have a great amount of speed when they run on all fours, around 45 mph.

Werewolves become dog-like at night. They lose track of all humanity and intelligence and become ruthless killing machines. THis is especially beneficial when hunting, as they don’t hold back. Interestingly, they can learn to obey commands as a dog would.

Werewolves are weak to the typical things a dog would be. They can be spooked by loud noises. They also all have a failsafe mechanic where a silver bullet is poisonous to them, and it will immediately immobilize and disable their werewolf transformation. Then, they can be killed as humans.

Werewolves have a small amount of celestial power in them. All of them. Thus they are especially effective against void beasts, and in fact hunger for demonic flesh.

## Feral vs Elven Werewolves

Feral werewolves are the werewolves that got outside of elven territory and into human lands during the Vampire Wars. They are the ones typically represented in media. Bloodthirsty, hungry werewolves who spread throughout human lands. Their presence has damaged the relations between elves and humans quite a bit, which is why it has taken so long to restore relations. They are usually seen shaggy, bloody, and feral. Some feral werewolves ended up moving to Wolfhome and making their own little paradise there, so there is a werewolf territory.

Elven Werewolves are, in contrast, human servants that became werewolves and stayed with elves. Many elves have human werewolves as pets. Both to serve as a helping hand as a guard dog. It has so far been very effective at keeping demons and unwanted intruders out.

## Spread

Werewolves spread via bite. The bite will look infected shortly, but nothing else. After a few hours pass, the person will start craving meat for their changing bodies. They will begin acting more aggressive, hungry, rabid. After around 4 hours of that, they will start teething and clawing as fangs and claws start to come in. They will grow more hair in areas where there was no hair before. They may even attack other elves, which is why bitten are caged when they reach this point. It is important to note that all of this, until night comes, can be cured with a large dose of metallic silver. However, when the first night comes, they fully transform, ready for blood.

Only humans so far can become werewolves.

## Appearance

Werewolves, in their human form, don’t look very different. They have retractable claws and fangs that they can use for self defense. They have more body hair than the average human. They are also more physically fit and larger than other humans.

Werewolves in their transformed state look like dogs that are larger than humans. They can walk on both hind legs and all four. They have digitigrade legs, always present and sharper claws and fangs, and claws on their toes. They are covered in fur, but have an especially large amount from the chest and shoulders up. Their fur color typically ranged from black, gray, brown, and white. Their eyes glow  a wild, feral yellow. They have large, sharp, upright ears.

And finally.

They have.

**Toe beans.**