Therianthropes

From DirtyWiki

There are many different sorts of wereanimals. Generally, it's restrained to mammals. This is probably because whatever mutation/magic/whatever first led to lycanthropy didn't adapt well to creatures that are far removed from human. A certain level of inherent brainpower is required, after all, to keep human levels of sentience during the change. It is safe to assume that somewhere in the world, there's a were of virtually every large mammal; avians, rodents, not so much so. Most reptiles, likewise, don't lend their genes to being weres, although there are rumours of weresnakes of various sorts. None of these reports have ever been substantiated.

Oddly enough, however, there are no known werewolves falling under the category described by these rules. They have their own.

1 Genetics
2 The Change
3 Personality Quirks
4 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
5 Current Lycanthropic Characters
- 5.1 PCs
- 5.2 NPCs

[edit]

Genetics

Therianthropy is a dominant gene.
- Were/human pairings will result in therianthropic children.
- So will were/vampire pairings.
- Were/angel or were/demon pairings, however, will result in angelic or demonic children, respectively.
If two therianthropes of different subspecies have a child, the mother's subspecies is dominant.
- For example, if a female weredog and a male werecat have a child, the child will always be a weredog, of the same breed.
- Likewise, if a female cougar and a male tiger have a child, the child will be a cougar, not a tiger.
A pregnant therianthrope does not shift during pregnancy.
- This is for the safety and health of the fetus(es).
- Yes, it's a little bit hard on the mother, if she is a therianthrope herself and used to shifting.
- On the other hand, shifting would screw around with developmental speeds, and that would be bad.
It is possible for a therianthrope to spend an entire pregnancy in non-human shape.
- However, as a therianthrope's body will not shift during pregnancy, the father would have to be genetically compatible with the mother's subspecies.
  - In other words, a female werecougar would have to mate with a male full cougar in order to stay cougar-shaped for her entire pregnancy.
  - This pregnancy would take an appropriate period of time for the subspecies in question.
  - The child(ren) of such a union would still be therianthropic, and would still continue in their mother's genetic line.
    - The reverse of this works, too – a therian male can mate with the female of his subspecies, who will have therianthropic children.
    - Such children would remain in the subspecies' form up until they reached the age of the species' sexual maturity, at which point they would shift to human for the first time.
    - It's really hard for such a child to have a legal existence, what with looking thirteen at age, say, nine months.
It's up to the parents to train the children in what being a therianthrope entails, whether or not they call it therianthropy.
- This includes rules, from the very basic (don't tell people you change shape, don't change shape in front of other people) to more detailed (when to shift, how to shift less painfully).
- These rules are determined by the parents or the families in question.
- On the other hand, some are determined by society – if families didn't have rules about secrecy, they wouldn't last very long, being hunted as demonspawn or scientific oddities, freaks of nature, that sort of thing.

[edit]

The Change

A therianthrope's first shift generally happens at the beginning of puberty.
- It is not possible for the shift to happen before puberty.
  - Puberty causes the human body to go through many changes anyway; shifting form is one of those changes for therianthropes.
- In contrast, it is possible that a shift will not occur until later in the teenage years.
- Whenever it occurs, it is usually triggered by some sort of stressful event.
  - This could range from being upset, to being in a fight, to a high dose of adrenaline from going for a run. The point is a physical stress, more than emotional – emotional stress causes physical reactions, but the emotional side of the stress is not necessary.

Therians need to be very careful with their physical healtlh.
- It is possible for an exceptionally well-timed shift to partially heal major injuries (as with Lindsey O'Gevany.)
- For the most part, however, being a therianthrope means that one's physical health will mostly be worse than an equivalent human.
  - This is because human bodies (and animal bodies) were not designed to change shape.
- Shifting is very stressful, and bodies break down after a while, no matter what.
- Shifting a larger amount (a large person becoming a very small animal, or a small person becoming something that masses larger than they do as human) is even more stressful, and causes health problems sooner.
- The best route to a reasonably long and healthy life is:
  - Be a similar size both human- and animal-shaped (if possible)
  - Calculate the lifespan of human and animal forms
  - Divide time spent in each form so as to age both at the same rate, and
  - Pay attention to one's body, as there will be times when cool logic is not the right answer, and a shift may be required sooner or later than normal.

Refusing to take care of one's shift timing has very serious consequences.
- Shifting too frequently, or in rapid cycles, will cause an immediate reaction, including:
  - Severe nausea
  - Dehydration
  - Muscle and joint pain
  - Similar effects of massive physical exertion
  - In extreme cases, cardiac problems may ensue – rapid heartbeat, stopped heart, death of heart muscle.
- Staying in one form for an extended period of time, in contrast, will have an effect somewhat similar to hypoglycemia. Notable symptoms include:
  - Shakiness, nervousness, tremor
  - Heart palpitations, rapid heartbeat
  - Trouble thinking clearly, impaired judgement
  - Anxiety, moodiness, depression, crying
  - Being negative, irritable, belligerent, combative, full of rage
  - Fatigue, weakness
  - Apathy, lethargy
  - Daydreaming, changes in sleep patterns
  - Confusion, forgetfulness, dizziness, delirium
  - Automatic behavior ("running on autopilot", "going through the motions")
  - Drunken-seeming behavior, lack of coordination
  - Headache
- In addition, remaining in animal form and ignoring human form for long periods has a mental component.
  - First, there is a lessening in human behaviors, a lessening in cognition, and a corresponding rise in adherence to instincts.
  - This can snowball into a complete disregard of the need to shift back into human shape.
  - However, as animal bodies are not designed to deal with the added stimuli of human awareness, and ignoring them does not mean they do not exist, the body will start to shut down in an attempt at self-defense.
  - If not caught in time, and if efforts to convince the person to shift back to human-shape are futile, enough body systems will shut down to cause an early death.
- Basically, a lack of good timing really sucks.

Despite this, there are the one-in-a-million cases of therianthropes who have completely ignored this and lived to tell the tale. See Jessica Drexler, who would have died if not for The Black Hole (because every cloud has a silver lining).

[edit]

Personality Quirks

Generally, wereanimals have a tendency to reflect their animal side while human. Dogs are pack animals, while cats are territorial (and housecats are drama queens) and monkeys scream and throw things when they're stressed. This is within reason -- it's unlikely, for instance, that wereanimals mark their territory by spraying. Just as an example.

[edit]