Werewolves

Werewolves are one of the 6 types of PARA.

Wolvification

To be turned into a Werewolf is to be Wolvified and the condition of being a wolf is known as Lycanthropy. The individual when not in Wolf-form is known as a "Lycanthrope". After being bitten, the wolvified individual goes through life as normal, until the stars arrange to form the shape of a "C". That night, they will fall into an unwakable sleep, sleep through the stars arranging to form a luminescent circle the next night, and then forming another "C", but this time in the opposite direction. After these three formations, they awake, and are externally unchanged.

While they may appear normal, the lycanthrope has slightly increased mental and physical abilities. Like all PARA, they are completely incapable of magic of any type, and do not age.

Transformation

Each month, during those three consecutive star formations, the individual turns into a wolf-human hybrid, known as a Werewolf. The Werewolf has increased strength, and (like Vampires when they haven't fed for 3 days) automatically go into The Hunger, killing everything around them, people and creatures alike. When attacking, Werewolves will not try too hard to get prey: if their victims are locked away, rather than working out how to get to them, they will simply and quickly move onto the next available prey. In a city not expecting a werewolf attack, with people on the streets at night, a werewolf can kill 100 people in a single night, or more. Generally, cities have city-wide warning systems in play, so that after the first night, there will be no one on the streets the second night.

If, on one of the relevant nights, the Werewolf has been restrained in some way, they will not suffer the madness. Instead, their mental and physical abilities gradually increases, and they will try harder and harder to find some way to get free, and start their rampage. Once free, their intelligence is neglible as the Madness controls them, however their strength and dexterity stay at the vastly increased rate. There has never been a prison that a Werewolf has been unable to work their way out of, and as a result, trapping them simply means that there are more casualities, and less chance of killing the Werewolf.

As a result of the carnage they leave in their paths, the bounty on werewolves can be quite high, and werewolf hunters are often in demand. Werewolf pelts are worth a lot of gold in themselves, and so smaller villages tend to use the pelt of the werewolf as incentive enough to remove the werewolf threat.

Individuals bitten before the age of 20 don't suffer the consequences of Lycanthropy until they turn 20, however they are entirely unable to worship any gods except the unholy gods.

At the end of their night of mayhem, if the werewolf is still alive, it will return to the building from which it emerged earlier in the night, however as a rule will not return until immediately before light, and so as a result, werewolves tend not to kill those residing in the same building as them.

Alignment effects

Awareness of the carnage one is causing, but continuing to live so will inevitably change the lycanthrope's alignment to evil. The most common way to minimise the carnage of being a Werewolf is to leave any populated areas several days before the relevant time of the month, and camp out in the scrub, as far away from people as possible. Without a building to use as a landmark, however, the Werewolf has nowhere to return to, and it is not uncommon for a lycanthrope to wake up miles, sometimes days from where they went to sleep, with no equipment whatsoever.

Killing a werewolf

While in lycanthrope form, a wolvified person can be killed just like everyone else, however when in werewolf form, they are extremely tough, and only a few things can damage them (normal weapons having no noticeable effect.) Silver is the most common weapon of choice, dealing twice the damage that a regular weapon would on a mortal. Additionally, whenever silver comes in contact with a lycanthrope's skin, it burns, and leaves a scar. The only other known way to damage a werewolf is through aggressive magic spells, and quite often a Wolfhunter will rely primarily on magical ability, having only one silver weapon as a last resort. Holy symbols repel werewolves, however they do not damage them.

Werewolf Abilities

Werewolves and lycanthropes don't have regenerative abilities independently, however whenever a shapeshift occurs, the new shape (werewolf at night, lycanthrope by day) is completely free of damage and scars of any type. After a lycanthrope's first ever shapeshift, their tattoo will not remain on their skin, unless they worship one of the unholy gods.

Contracting Lycanthropy

Werewolves never deliberately leave people alive, and thus lycanthropy as a rule is contracted only deliberately, by seeking out a lycanthrope and convincing them to bite and pass on the condition. The most common reason for one to wish to become wolvified is for the stat bonuses, and the most common people seeking these benefits are Barbarians and Hitmans (as they are not losing any magical ability,) mostly of the evil alignment. While Pirates also do not lose any magic, a pirate who turns into a werewolf will inevitably wake up the next morning having to run an entire ship by themselves, having slaughtered the rest of the crew during the night.