Fiction:Therianthropy

"Forget the Theriocephali. Even in the noblest elf aristocrat or the most devout human knight, there is the same seed of wildness in their souls as the lowliest of beasts. It is just suppressed, concealed, kept hidden under the veil of culture and sophistication. But one can always break it. One just needs to make a little... push. A single bite, a kiss of the Goddess... and the man is gone. The beast inside awakens, and woe betide all who stand in its way."

- Zevulon Whitemountain, Alhassan priest and scholar

Therianthropy, most commonly known as Werebeast Disease is a magical curse which has been spread through the ages in. It is characterized by the often involuntary transformation of the victim into a monstrous animal hybrid every full moon. Werewolves are the most known werebeasts, but many other kinds of cursed creatures are known to prowl the night, with some scholars assuming any animal could potentially manifest as a werebeast, leading to unpredictable, and often very grotesque, combinations.

History
Unlike, therianthropy has no determinate, recorded origin. It is a much older curse than that of vampires, assumed to have existed since the age of the first immortals. Some scholars claim the curse was created by Herself, who gave birth to werecreatures to serve as protectors of the world until they were lost in their bloodlust, abandoning their original purpose. Others claim the Simulacrum of Chaos is the creator of therianthropes, having bred them into existence in the distant past for no specific purpose. Some scholars, however, have attributed to werebeasts, claiming the Simulacrum of Hunt created them to be both hunters and hunted for himself.

Regardless of their origins, werebeasts have caused great destruction for hundreds of thousands of years, leading the civilizations of the world to hate and hunt them at every opportunity. The Duskwoods, a land whose very soil is cursed, is known to spontaneously create different kinds of werebeasts than those commonly seen across the world, with those who escape them coming to inevitably spread their curse at every chance they get.