#askwerewolf

Well, that would probably change the culture and attitude surrounding lycanthropy for the better. People probably wouldn't be as afraid of them, so the werewolves would have more freedoms and wouldn't have to hide away in isolation or little packs of their own kind anymore.

On the other hand, what you're describing were basically gnolls, and we all know what happened to them...It's possible that the werewolves would also be enslaved, or genocided, or plagued to extinction.

That's an interesting question, I think there are a lot of different possibilities for these "civilized werewolves".

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Lore Masterpost

Yep! It's possible for mermaids to also contract lycanthropy, and when they do, they have a unique beast form that looks crocodile-like.

I don't have art of this currently but it's something I've had on the list for a long time. It will be added to the main lycanthropy article. I don't have names for these aquatic beast forms or a final design yet, just some very rough concepts so far.

Aquatic werewolves are particularly dangerous because water does not slow them down at all--in fact, they swim even faster than they run! This is not the case for terrestrial werewolves, who aren't very graceful swimmers.

Like other Aquarian creatures, aquatic werewolves dehydrate quickly. They tend to seek bodies of water as soon as they transform, hiding in creeks, ponds, even sewers and swimming pools to ambush their prey.

Aquarian peoples are mostly safe from terrestrial werewolves in the water, but aquatic werewolves remain a serious threat.

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This makes perfect sense to me! I like this idea much better, it subverts expectations and makes for a more unique story. Thank you for this!

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Lore Masterpost

That's a really good question. Could this be the "cure" to lycanthropy?

I think it highly depends on the skill of the transmutationist. Most transformations are just superficial, meaning they affect appearance, but everything "under the hood" stays the same.

I talked about this in more detail here and here.

Let's say a transmutationist transforms a human lycanthrope into an elf.

If this is a shallow, superficial transmutation: the patient looks totally indistinguishable from a natural-born elf, but they will still give birth to human babies and transform into a werewolf under the full moon. This is because they still resemble a human under the skin, and the disease still has not been cleared from their body. Just like cosmetic surgery won't cure diabetes, a superficial transformation won't cure lycanthropy.

If this is a deep, cellular-level transmutation: the patient is totally indistinguishable from an elf on an atomic level. The transformation is so thorough that they can even cast spells and give birth to elven children. Lycanthropy is not compatible with elven DNA, meaning the disease can't survive in an elven body. So, the patient would stop transforming under the full moon, and for all intents and purposes, would be "cured".

However, there is a possibility that the disease wouldn't be fully eradicated. Maybe the transformation just caused it to lie dormant in their system, and under the right conditions it could be passed on. If this elf were to bite someone--or otherwise make blood-to-saliva contact on the night of the full moon, it's possible they could infect a commoner with lycanthropy.

TL;DR: This might be a viable "cure" for lycanthropy, but it might also turn the patient into a Typhoid Mary.

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Lore Masterpost

There are a few. The most popular theory is that Cerno created lycanthropy on purpose to get revenge on commoner kind. This belief is so popular that it's even made its way into some academic books. In some regions, lycanthropy is commonly called "Cerno's revenge" because of this.

The truth is, Cerno created a single werewolf to help him escape Evangelite enslavement. He didn't know that it would go on to infect a bunch of commoners with a disease and create an epidemic.

Some people believe that the disease was not created by Cerno, and that it instead evolved naturally. They don't believe that there was ever a "master werewolf" to begin with, and that the disease simply jumped from animal to man.

Some believe that lycanthropy was created by the Mogdiri government, so that they could infect commoners and have a "justified" reason to commit genocide against them. Others think it was instead made in a Zareenite lab, and it was a botched experiment to create super soldiers.

There are many other wacky beliefs about lycanthropy and werewolves. Since Cerno is so secretive, it's hard for researchers to get information about its true origins, and this makes it a hot topic for conspiracy theorists to spin their own stories.

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Even the World Athenaeum isn't sure exactly what causes this phenomenon. It's known that different phases of the moon have different effects on lycanthropes, causing symptoms (hunger, anxiety, aggression, etc.) to increase as it waxes, peaking into a full werewolf transformation when it's full. As the moon wanes, symptoms decrease again.

Interestingly, direct exposure to moon dust can actually trigger a short-term transformation, regardless of the moon's phase. This was seen in "Trial of Titans" and "The Lycanthrope's Laboratory".

Moon dust is an extremely rare resource on Looming Gaia. The only ones who can get their hands on it are pleiadae and powerful teleportationists like Courage. It does not come cheap, so research on its effects is limited. Dr. Lendon is one of the few scientists researching moon dust's effects on lycanthropes, and his work is still in its infancy.

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You mean...Evan goes into Full Furry Mode(tm)? YOU NEVER GO FULL FURRY, MAN! OWO

Serious answer: This actually has happened to some lycanthropes who underwent Dr. Lendon's experiments. Some of them got stuck in their werewolf forms, in varying states of aggression and intelligence. Some unlucky bastards even got stuck in-between werewolf and non-werewolf forms.

If Evan still has human intelligence in this form, then I think he'd be okay functioning at home. But he'd have to watch his ass every time he left the house because people wouldn't understand what was going on. He'd get mistaken for any other werewolf and killed on sight.

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With werewolves, rating them on a scale is easy because all they really have is strength. No special abilities beyond that, no different levels of intelligence, you just kinda measure how dangerous they are based on how hard they can hit.

With vampires, things get more complicated. This is because vampirism affects different fae species in more complex ways. For example, vampiric elves burn in daylight, but vampiric limniads are strengthened by it. There's really no way to rate how dangerous they are because it's like asking "are elves more dangerous than goblins?"