Werebeast

Fera 02 — Werebeasts (Art by Steve Ellis)

“	The brainy types like to call them therianthropes. But more commonly they're known as Werebeasts. Unfortunate suckers who're cursed into becoming a beastie. And can only turn during some natural cycle, like the moon or the tides. You already know about Werewolves. But there's others like 'em. Werecats. Werebears. Hell, even Wereboars or Werehyenas. All of 'em are real nasty sons of bitches. Even vampires stay clear of 'em.	„
	~ Bobby Zemeckis

Werebeasts, also known as Fera, Werekin or Therianthropes, are beings, usually a human, who can shift between a normal and beastial form at will due to a curse, magical ritual or another circumstance.

Overview

Therianthropes may live either among other humans, blending into society, or in the wild to avoid harming others. Despite their preferable isolation from human society, therianthropes are often seen as emissaries of the gods or as a symbol of those who were cursed by the gods for their transgressions against them. Much like werewolves and other supernatural beasts, they are not exactly fond of vampires, with the feelings being mutual, and tend to hold internal grudges towards therianthropes of different types. They are often in friendly relationships with the animals they can transform into and may sometimes hunt with them.

Unfortunately, while some preferred to be isolated from human society, others would unwillingly inflict fear and terror upon rural human settlements and as such many of the werebeasts were hunted and killed to near-extinction by Witchers which includes werewolves. This caused the surviving and thriving members of the werebeasts to hold a bitter and hateful grudge towards humans with the surviving ones going into hiding.

It is unclear of when and where the affliction of therianthropes originated though it is likely that they first sprung during the era of Mycenaean Greece as werewolves, or lycanthropes, emerged from the curse of Lycaon. Anthropologists like Charles Tesla believes that the idea or concept of werebeasts trace back to one of the first gods to emerge, Vitriol, the god of beasts. The origins of other werebeasts is unknown though archeologists from the Federal Bureau of Control discovered the remains of a werebear dating back to the early times of Scandinavia. Werebeasts were also plentiful back in the days of pre-recorded history but suffered tremendous losses during the War of Beasts culminating in their near complete eradication via a flood sent by Zeus himself to cease the war.

Description

Despite the similarities they are distinguishable from skinwalkers as the latter is capable of shifting into any animal at will whilst werebeasts can only shift into a singular "were" form of a specific animal.

Werebeasts are affected by therianthropy: a curse or a "disease" which changes the "contaminated" into an animal or human-animal hybrid during the full moon. During these three nights in a month, the therianthrope is not able to control themself and may be lethally dangerous for those nearby. Despite the folk tales, being bitten by a therianthrope very rarely results in acquiring the illness although it depends on either the potency of the affliction or what it is categorized under. One example is lycanthropy which is placed under "disease" and like any plague could infect another through physical contact via bite but those placed under a curse very rarely affect others.

It is noted that therianthropy is hereditary as well evidence in the existence of pure-bloods (those born with the affliction) and 'mutts' or 'runts' (those that were given the affliction). Those who have inherited it from one of their parents, however, are fully able to control their abilities and might change between one or three forms whenever they wish, not only during the full moon. These therianthropic forms are connected to the amygdala, the part of the brain that controls emotions such as fear, aggression, and stress, and thereby can either be triggered at will, or if the werebeast is experiencing strong negative emotions, such as fear or rage. Contrary to popular belief, the presence of a full moon does not necessarily control their transformations and a transformation in conjunction with a celestial body is dependent on the type of werebeast.