Therianthropes

Therianthropes

Subclass: Cursed ones

''“Arrived at the attacked village. Two dead. Weretiger. Identified suspect. She has no idea. She's ten years old. What the fuck do I do?”''

-       From the journal of

Master Gerard Rivers of the R.B.G.H

Some monsters do not deserve to be struck down, on account of them not being a threat to humanoids. Some monsters have no such compunctions, kill plenty of humanoids, and are hunted down for their crimes. And then there are the therianthropes. Men who become monstrous beasts.

As otherwise ordinary humanoids afflicted by a curse, it is not at all uncommon that the therianthrope is entirely unaware of their condition, and thus their actions in their animal form. In such cases, the change is usually brought about by external stimuli, such as intense emotions, bodily harm, or certain potions or toxins. It is worth noting that the curse gains and loses potency with the moon. A werecreature will be stronger, faster and more animalistic when the full moon draws near. It is also then that most unwilling therianthropes are subjected to the transformation, though this can, as mentioned, be triggered by other means.

The curse of therianthropy is of divine origin, though exactly which deity first bestowed it is debatable. There are still some deities who, when angered, may turn mortals into therianthropes, providing the first means of spreading the curse.

The second, more well-known vector, is this: the saliva of a therianthrope may, very rarely, infuse the victim of a bite with a strain of the same curse as the attacker, meaning a werewolf might occasionally create new werewolves, provided his victims survive the ordeal. Both these causes may, in general, be treated, and the curse lifted without killing the cursed.

The third, and least known way of spreading the curse, is through more mundane procreation. The child of a therianthrope is likely to also develop therianthropy, though in the case of born therianthropes the curse mutates somewhat. In general, those born with the curse may change between their forms at will, and are in full control of their actions as they transform, but unlike the other two methods of spreading these victims are not treatable.

Many different types of therianthropes have been documented, usually but not always of mammalian character. Werecrocodiles have been reported, as have weresharks, but the vast majority of therianthropes transform into a predatory mammalian animal, most usually a wolf or a bear. The shape of their cursed form may vary, ranging from almost perfect copies of the animal in question, to some sort of middle ground between that animal and a humanoid. Born therianthropes may sometimes have the ability to only change parts of their bodies into their beastly forms, such as gaining claws whilst the rest of their body remains human.

Should one need to fight a therianthrope, the first thing to do is to find the true identity of the cursed monster. From there, a potion of Aconitum, also known as monkshood or wolfsbane, mixed with the fat from the animal in question, will stave off the change until the night of the full moon, as well as let the cursed retain all of their mental faculties throughout the change. This potion should be mixed by a professional alchemist, as monkshood is poisonous in large doses.

If this is not an option, and conflict is unavoidable, a hunter would do well to equip himself with some silvered weaponry. This is toxic to werecreatures, and enough silver in their body will cause them to revert to their humanoid form, wherein a hunter will have a very short window of time to remove the silver should he wish to spare the cursed, who will otherwise perish shortly. When in their animal form, all therianthropes heal at a marvellous rate, and are fully capable of regaining lost digits and even limbs over the course of a night.

It is also worth mentioning that those therianthropes which change into pack animals, such as wolves or lions, will usually have a pack of such mundane beasts close by. Like almost all animals, the werecreatures also have a great hate of undead, and will slay them if the opportunity presents itself.