Werewolves

I watched the bones of his face snap into new shapes, and black hair squirm it’s way out of his skin. He howled, and I knew it wasn’t just out of pain. It was like watching a person boil from the inside, skin rolling with shifting bones and muscle, and steam rising from it. All at once, the changing stopped, and what remained turned to me with blood curdling hunger in it’s eyes. Had I not been prepared, I’m sure I would have met my doom there and then.

-First hand account from a traveling bard of a werewolf’s transformation.
Lycanthropy is one of the most painful afflictions a human can go through, and no lycanthropy curse is more known that that of a werewolf. These chaotic evil creatures ravenously devour any flesh they can find, regardless of where it comes from.

Behavior

Lycanthropic curses are spread through bodily fluids, usually a bite. Once a person has been bitten, they often fall ill for a few days, though this might simply be a result of normal infection of such a wound. Most survive this illness, and all seems well until the night of the next full Eluna. Their body will rapidly transform into a combination of humanoid and wolf, though at this stage they are much closer to wolf than man.
The process is extraordinarily painful, and seems to extract a large amount of energy from the host’s body. Despite popular beliefs, it is this energy drain that causes the immense hunger rather than the curse itself, and the pain that seems to utterly stun most higher brain functions.
While many werewolves are simply unlucky farmers and peasants with no evil in their hearts, many werewolves actively embrace the power given to them. While usually driven crazy, these people gain almost full control over their transformative powers. While still forced to transform during a full Eluna, they gain the ability to transform at will, and also to transform completely into a wolf as well as their hybrid form. They also gain full ability to remember their time transformed and remain mostly lucid.
Most victims are not evil nor insane enough to take advantage of the curse, however, though such an unfortunate fate can certainly make them so over time. Either way, those who reject the curse are usually oblivious to their actions when transformed, and have no lucidity once controlled nor power over their transformations. There is evidence to suggest that this is more a case of psychological dissociation and repression rather than an effect of the curse.
There are two to three groups around the world rumored to have mastered the curse while remaining sane and virtuous. The idea isn’t necessarily improbable, as once a werewolf’s hunger is sated, it usually becomes docile and passive or even catatonic if a person rejects the curse. Their process is rumored to involve intense meditation and training by other lycanthropes, which results in someone in full control of their curse while remaining themselves. One of these groups is said to be an cult of paladins worshiping an ancient chaotic good god of the wild.