Lycanthropy
Little is known of this curse. As few studies had been conducted in the dark days, before the Mage Wars, but like so much arcane knowledge, it was lost in flurry of burning books, scrolls, and robes. Part of the reason is perhaps the fact that lycanthropes have proven an elusive and rare breed. The condition is rumored to only be transmitted via the bite of a one such afflicted. The victim not only suffers the curse of transformation but, according to legend, becomes enslaved to whomever delivered the curse, allowing packs of such creatures to spread quickly if left unchecked. Apparently the offspring of a lycanthrope is either immune to the curse of its forebears or perhaps the offspring have never survived to term. Without additional study, it is unlikely to be determined.
Additional study is, however, extremely unlikely. Those afflicted are universally regarded a plague upon society. Losing control of their sanity during a full moon, such unfortunate individuals are said to transform into creatures neither beast nor human (or Soulmeliti or Ork or whatever). Such mixed creatures prowl the night under the light of either Verdun or Mora, sating their bloodlust by killing all who come their way.
It is widely believed that such creatures can only be harmed with weapons of the purest silver - though the Kharlbhak - who are often charged with ridding them from their Khadric Kingdom Kingdom - claim that Mithril works just as well. The blessings of Anderi are also said to work miracles against such foul denizens and the Holy Legion of Light has led the eradication of more than one nest.
The creation of the first of such creatures is a myth lost to time. Some claim that the curse came from Tiras in a fit of anger, jealous when Anderi took Chetria as a lover for a time. With a scornful word she cursed some of Anderi’s most devout servants to take on the gestural nature of Chetria’s favored - the rat and wolf, bat and tiger, and of course bear. The curse was tempered when later, when Chetria forswore the Sun King in favor of her four legged children, and now takes hold of the afflicted only under the full light of Tiras’s child.
Which one - Mora or Verdun - however is a matter of debate. Some claim that Mora controls transformations in the smaller beasts while his larger sister - Verdun - controls greater beasts. Others say that it matters not and the light of any full moon with cause the insatiable hunger to emerge in a lycanthrope. Still others swore that they have only seen such transformations when both of Tiras’s children are full.
The truth does not, perhaps matter as any discovered are, in general principal destroyed. Rumors persist that Arimathica has the power to still the hunger and remove the curse. The Lady of Peace, however, has not bestowed this mercy in centuries since Anderi last broke her heart.
