“A feral pelt grafted onto an aware mind. Is it torment? A gift? Perhaps a duality? The werebeasts of the realm are scattered far and differ great.”
- - Naraeth Raider
Therianthropy, though known by many other names throughout the world such as the Wild Blood, the Werebeast, and the Savage Curse, is the umbrella term given to the variety of curses, blessings, and innate powers to shapeshift into beasts and beast-like forms and the entities capable of granting this power, all of which having different origins into how they came to be. Therianthropes are known to be extremely diverse in their transformations - some therianthropes only have a slight effect to the body and their abilities, others turn into man-animal hybrids with either an animal-like mutation of their original face or an outright animalistic head, others turn into the animal of their curse in question, and rarely others can shift between all of these states. Scholars generally agree that any animal throughout Narazen is capable of manifesting as a werebeast in individuals inflicted with therianthropy, with the most common arguably being mammalian werebeasts such as wolves (werewolves are often thought of first when therianthropy is mentioned) and bears, to being exotic and outright grotesque examples such as sharks, salamanders, and even leeches. All species are capable of being inflicted with therianthropy - hominids, beastman, dragons, or otherwise - though certain races can possess resistances to the affliction and some can only be turned into therianthropes in specific ways.
History
Much like the equally infamous affliction of vampirism, therianthropy is extremely old and has no clearly defined origin or theory to how it began. What is known, however, is that therianthropy appears to be even older than vampirism as a concept; therianthropes were known to have existed in the Mythic Era and possibly as early as the Archaedian Era. Some cultural myths (especially that of the Laanai Elves in the Clans of Kaehtinar) claim that werebeasts were created by the Mother Soul of Narazen, and that all mortals were werebeasts at some point. Whatever the case, therianthropy was known to exist long before the current age and it's believed to be endemic to Narazen, unlike vampirism which is known to be a creation of the Titans. Evidence that links therianthropy to Narazen stems from the strong spiritual and mental aspects of the affliction; the Animal-Blood Tribe of the Nagan Zhai are known werebeasts but due to this, possess an extremely strong connection to the planet, the Mother Soul, and the wildlife that surrounds them. Additionally, while all races of Narazen are susceptible to therianthropy, no non-Narazen individual is a true werebeast.
It's believed that the association of violence with werebeasts and their association with the moon occured when Maghralakan first made his presence on Narazen. The first moments Maghralakan walked on Narazen coincides with the moments that violent therianthropes first began to rise, and the former werebeast blessing started to be seen as a curse. How the werebeast became so associated with the moon and the lunar phases remains unknown; legends vary from the arrival of Fahriina further changing them, to Nocturmathos and the Mother Soul binding the werebeasts to the lunar phases to keep them from hurting innocents. Whatever the case may be, soon after therianthropy became known as the curse of the werebeast, therianthropy became reviled and feared and remains so to this day. Therianthropes were prevalent during the Mythic Age when those aligned with Hhagaduu and Maghralakan were among those that comprised the various armies of the ancient civilizations during their battles against the deities of Narazen, though therianthropes that were capable of controlling their curse found themselves on the sides of the gods and the protogenois as well. Therianthropy sharply declined during the final years of the Mythic Era due to the losses suffered by the Abyssian Lords and the Titans after their banishment, where therianthropes were hunted down and killed for their association with Maghralakan and Hhagaduu.
Despite this, the affliction survived into the common era; although werebeasts remain far rarer than vampires do, the affliction remains prevalent especially in Horvaeri and Graennarune, both continents containing varying influences from varying sources and