Wers

Transmission & Vectors

The condition can be transmitted in two main ways.

The first is genetically and can be evident either from birth or lay dormant for years until a great trauma triggers the transformations. This form is usually the more intense version and as such many individuals with this condition chose not to have children to avoid passing it on to them.

The second and more publicly method of transmission is through close contact with the blood of suffers when they are transformed. This is commonly through bites and scratches which can cause great public fear of the suffers at other times as well, even though the condition is only infectious during flareups.

Causes

The true cause is still unknown, largely because of a lack of interest in research to help suffers and instead most is focused on the protection of the general population as their is widespread fear of suffers.

Legend states that the condition stems from either an ancient curse of certain families or as a blessing which has become twisted over the years, but the truth to these claims has never been properly explored.

Symptoms

The condition is cyclical, but the length of this cycle varies between individual sufferers and the transformations can take place as frequently as every night or as rarely as one or two times a year.

When the transformations take affect they are intensely painful as the sufferer will feel their entire body torn apart and warped as their physical form is changed into that of a beast. The beastly form is also extremely aggressive and can pose a great risk to unaffected individuals.

In the run up to and following these transformations, sufferers will often feel pain, usually but not exclusively in the joints, as the fibres of their human body loosen to accommodate the changes brought by transformation.

Treatment

Historically, most treatments have been focused on reducing the pain of sufferers, if those treating sufferers even acknowledged that there was legitimate physical pain that required treatment.

Other treatments have been more about the protection of society more than for the benefit of suffers and have included the physical restraint and imprisonment of sufferers. This course of treatment caused more pain to sufferers as restraints often put more tension through their already fragile limbs.

In more recent times, there has been a rise in more compassionate forms of treatment. This has included the wider use of more specialist treatment for the pain and subsequent injuries caused by transformations and the development of medications to reduce the risk of transmission to unaffected individuals.

Prognosis

This condition often limits the life expectancy of sufferers to their late-thirties/early-forties. Although newer developments in treatment mean that their lives are becoming less painful and life expectancy is increasing this is still very slow.

Affected Groups

It can affect almost any person, although it does run in some families. At different times, different demographics have been targeted by those wishing to force the condition on others.

Prevention

People often try to prevent the transmission of this condition with various forms of magical wards and amulets, most of which are actually ineffective and sold by those who wish to profit off other people's fear.

History

Variations of this condition have been widely feared for centuries and has entered folklore as a serious threat for millennia.

Some outbreaks have been recorded throughout history, usually in times of war where certain people have attempted to weaponize this condition to promote their own side in the conflict.

Cultural Reception

This condition has been widely feared and there have been many crackdowns and attempts to control their population over the centuries.

In the UK, there have been several attempts from the Government against the suffers of this condition, including the requirement for suffers of this condition to join a register which allows them to be tracked and later on in the Marking they and then their loved ones were marked as Wers, to allow for easier discrimination against them in their everyday lives.

Type

Magical

Parent

Shifters

Children

• Wolf Wers

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired & Congenital

Rarity

Rare