Infection and Attacks
The bottom line in most lycanthrope groups is that to attack a human being is one of the gravest of offenses, most often punishable by death, or if under rare, extenuating circumstances, banishment from contact with the individual's entire lycanthropic species.
Lycanthropy is passed by a virus, and can only be transmitted during a shifted state-- though this state doesn't have to be a full transformation. Some cases of infection have been reported with the contagious individual was showing no more than eye-color changes.
Legally, infection whether by attack or by deliberate infection, is punishable by the death sentence in the human justice system as well. It is difficult to prosecute, however, as surviving individuals usually are either absorbed into their respective lycanthropic societies, do not survive their first transformation, or are eliminated by the lycanthropic group responsible.
In adults (which in this case includes anyone over the age of puberty) the infection comes from contact between the shifted lycanthrope's body fluids and the victim's bloodstream. Cat lycanthropy is the most easily contracted, with certain caveats, while Wolf lycanthropy is most easily contracted in any demographic.
The virus for Cat lycanthropy is a unique strain. Unlike other varieties of the virus, the virulence of Cat lycanthropy infection varies according to the victim's age.
From birth to age 18, infection results in a 100% transformation rate. From 18-22, the transformation rate drops to 50%. Individuals 22-27 risk a 25% transformation rate. After age 27, transformation risk levels off at 1% thereafter.
Adult individuals with autoimmune disorders, including severe allergies, may suffer a higher transformation rate if infected.
OOC: Infections in characters not initially approved as Cats must follow these infection rates. If a player wishes to infect an adult character with Cat lycanthropy, they must make a request to the Council.
Once infected, there are no immediate effects noticeable. The wound(s), however, never becomes infected and may heal at a more rapid pace than is normal. The individual increasingly notices a mild fatigue and malaise that progresses into quite painful body aches and a constantly elevated body temperature of 103 to 105 degrees. Most, who are not aware their infector was lycanthropic, would assume they had a bad case of the flu.
Mentally, most manifest an increasingly agitated and irritable mental state, may exhibit unusual violent urges or outbursts as the infection progresses, and often the victims complain of vivid, disturbing nightmares which disrupt sleep almost completely. It is possible to contract a more mundane illness, usually upper respiratory in nature, during the lycanthropy incubation period, and this can confuse diagnosis.
Once the full moon rises, any such confusion disappears. If an individual is infected within a week of the full moon, it's an even chance whether the persons shifts that moon. In most cases the virus needs between 7-14 days to take over the body fully enough to allow a shift. An individual's first transformation is always more or less agonizing. The amount of mental distress and trauma from the attack seems to have some effect on this, but it is not a certain link. And no first transformation is comfortable, regardless of the individual's acceptance of their fate.
Approximately 10% of the infected do not survive their first transformation. A much smaller percentage, 1-2%, have a precocious transformation before their first full moon and of that small percentage, almost 99.9% of such early transformations prove fatal.
Once having experienced and survived the first transformation, the individual is contagious to others. There are no asymptomatic carriers of lycanthropy.
Subsequent transformations prove progressively less uncomfortable, until an individual is able to transform with as little distress as would be experienced in going from an awake to a sleeping state, or from walk to run.
Lycanthropy is passed by a virus, and can only be transmitted during a shifted state-- though this state doesn't have to be a full transformation. Some cases of infection have been reported with the contagious individual was showing no more than eye-color changes.
Legally, infection whether by attack or by deliberate infection, is punishable by the death sentence in the human justice system as well. It is difficult to prosecute, however, as surviving individuals usually are either absorbed into their respective lycanthropic societies, do not survive their first transformation, or are eliminated by the lycanthropic group responsible.
In adults (which in this case includes anyone over the age of puberty) the infection comes from contact between the shifted lycanthrope's body fluids and the victim's bloodstream. Cat lycanthropy is the most easily contracted, with certain caveats, while Wolf lycanthropy is most easily contracted in any demographic.
The virus for Cat lycanthropy is a unique strain. Unlike other varieties of the virus, the virulence of Cat lycanthropy infection varies according to the victim's age.
From birth to age 18, infection results in a 100% transformation rate. From 18-22, the transformation rate drops to 50%. Individuals 22-27 risk a 25% transformation rate. After age 27, transformation risk levels off at 1% thereafter.
Adult individuals with autoimmune disorders, including severe allergies, may suffer a higher transformation rate if infected.
OOC: Infections in characters not initially approved as Cats must follow these infection rates. If a player wishes to infect an adult character with Cat lycanthropy, they must make a request to the Council.
Once infected, there are no immediate effects noticeable. The wound(s), however, never becomes infected and may heal at a more rapid pace than is normal. The individual increasingly notices a mild fatigue and malaise that progresses into quite painful body aches and a constantly elevated body temperature of 103 to 105 degrees. Most, who are not aware their infector was lycanthropic, would assume they had a bad case of the flu.
Mentally, most manifest an increasingly agitated and irritable mental state, may exhibit unusual violent urges or outbursts as the infection progresses, and often the victims complain of vivid, disturbing nightmares which disrupt sleep almost completely. It is possible to contract a more mundane illness, usually upper respiratory in nature, during the lycanthropy incubation period, and this can confuse diagnosis.
Once the full moon rises, any such confusion disappears. If an individual is infected within a week of the full moon, it's an even chance whether the persons shifts that moon. In most cases the virus needs between 7-14 days to take over the body fully enough to allow a shift. An individual's first transformation is always more or less agonizing. The amount of mental distress and trauma from the attack seems to have some effect on this, but it is not a certain link. And no first transformation is comfortable, regardless of the individual's acceptance of their fate.
Approximately 10% of the infected do not survive their first transformation. A much smaller percentage, 1-2%, have a precocious transformation before their first full moon and of that small percentage, almost 99.9% of such early transformations prove fatal.
Once having experienced and survived the first transformation, the individual is contagious to others. There are no asymptomatic carriers of lycanthropy.
Subsequent transformations prove progressively less uncomfortable, until an individual is able to transform with as little distress as would be experienced in going from an awake to a sleeping state, or from walk to run.
Lycanthropy Infection in Children
The most sacred and most jealously maintained taboo in lycanthropic society, trans-species, is the taboo forbidding the infection of children below the age of puberty. Whether accidental or deliberate, a lyc infecting a child will face certain death-- and a most painful execution-- if discovered.
Children, with their immature immune systems, growing bones and plastic brain-wiring, are utterly defenseless against the lycanthropy virus. Their system is almost immediately overwhelmed, and a transformation within 24 hours or sooner is the norm.
Fortunately, the transformation is not an incredibly painful ordeal as it is for adults, but the emotional and mental damage done by the experience is quite often permanent and devastating.
Children infected with Lycanthropy develop normally, unlike children infected with vampirism. They enjoy the same utter immunity to further infection and an even more enhanced healing factor than adult lycanthropes. However, the mental, emotional, and familial toll of the infection far outweighs any benefit, thus explaining the draconic consequences of subjecting a child to this ordeal.
Cats are the only shifter group that has no taboo against infecting children, because of their unique rates of infection. Many established Colonies forbid it, but the numerous, less law-abiding groups use infection of children as a recruitment tool.
Children, with their immature immune systems, growing bones and plastic brain-wiring, are utterly defenseless against the lycanthropy virus. Their system is almost immediately overwhelmed, and a transformation within 24 hours or sooner is the norm.
Fortunately, the transformation is not an incredibly painful ordeal as it is for adults, but the emotional and mental damage done by the experience is quite often permanent and devastating.
Children infected with Lycanthropy develop normally, unlike children infected with vampirism. They enjoy the same utter immunity to further infection and an even more enhanced healing factor than adult lycanthropes. However, the mental, emotional, and familial toll of the infection far outweighs any benefit, thus explaining the draconic consequences of subjecting a child to this ordeal.
Cats are the only shifter group that has no taboo against infecting children, because of their unique rates of infection. Many established Colonies forbid it, but the numerous, less law-abiding groups use infection of children as a recruitment tool.
Infection and First Shift; How Does It Feel?
Infection and first shift is an experience no lycanthrope ever forgets. It's as clear a memory for them fifty years later as it was a day after their first moon.
The effects of infection with the lycanthropy virus varies in severity according to when the person was infected. The closer to the full moon they were infected, the worse the symptoms are, and the higher the chance that they will die instead of transform.
That is why deliberate infections are done on the full moon, so the person has an entire month to go through the restructuring process the virus provokes. Ok, symptoms now. This is a general example for someone infected just after the full moon, with almost an entire lunar month to let the infection work. Best case scenario, in other words. (A lunar month is 28 days.)
After the bite or scratch that infects them, the victim feels very little. The wound heals unusually quickly and doesn't ever get infected or leave a scar. They may feel weird sensations where the wound was, even though nothing shows at the surface.
Donovan Talbain, for instance, was scratched by a tooth on the wrist. The minor wound barely broke the skin, and healed within a day or so till it was invisible. But he could feel the path of it the entire month before his first moon. He said it felt like a "fine, white-hot wire twisting just beneath his skin." It burned and itched unmercifully.
Within the first week, they will start to feel unwell. The sickness starts off like a case of influenza, with high fever, upper respiratory symptoms, vomiting and diarrhea, both usually more or less bloody. It rapidly gets worse, until it's far beyond any survivable human 'flu. The person is being literally rebuilt from the inside out, and the body's tissues are broken down and their chemical components are reused by the body, or they are ejected.
As Taz Lehrer remarked about an infection case-- they're going to have body fluids and body tissues coming out of every possible orifice. The brain is affected by both the fever and the literal restructuring, so as the lunar month goes on, the ill person is going to become more or less delirious. This mental confusion can be constant or not, it depends on the person. Regardless, nobody's going to be in their right mind the entire time.
Usually only fluids can be held down for any amount of time, and high protein liquid foods are tolerated best. It's important to keep the victim as hydrated as possible, and whey protein "shakes" made with water and no sugar or other flavorings is considered the best for the purpose. They're going to vomit back almost all of it, but what little they can absorb is considered vital for increasing their chances of survival.
Fingernails will fall out, teeth will fall out, hair will fall out-- even skin can peel off in sheets. it's an ugly process. Breathing difficulties aren't uncommon. There's nothing that can be done to ease the suffering, no drugs will be effective. Only supportive nursing care gives any benefit-- that's making sure they're cooled if they're feverish, aren't allowed to lie in their own vomit and filth, and are urged to drink as much as they can hold down.
The day before the full moon, the illness reaches its crisis point, and seems to ease up a little. Most victims can walk or at least stand by this point, though they are utterly exhausted and extremely weak. Oddly enough, despite all their vomiting and near-starvation, they are not emaciated, as muscle tissue is rebuilt rather than "eaten up" by their body during their illness. However, any and all subcutaneous body fat has been burned away, even the normal healthy amount a very lean person carries as protective padding.
Nobody goes into their first shift overweight, plump or even normal looking. Imagine one of those "muscles of the body" charts, and mentally stretch jaundiced, peeling skin over it. That's pretty much what people on the cusp of their first shift look like. Their mental state is normal at this point as well, they are rational, fully oriented, and completely aware of what's going to happen to them.
When the moon rises, and the light touches them, their agony reaches a pitch that every victim has described as indescribable. Donovan said it became no longer pain, but an altered state of consciousness, an entirely new plane of existence. When this reaches its peak, the person either shifts-- or dies as a heap of chaotic disorganized tissue.
Assuming survival, the person will, from one instant to the next, find themselves in their alter form. Their fur is dry, and they are no longer in any pain nor are they unusually weak or exhausted. They may feel a bit disoriented because of the changes in color vision and perspective in their new forms. (Each species is different that way. Check the information on this website, and look up the real animal via a web search and see what their color vision etc is said to be. As always, when in doubt, ask the Council.)
It takes some few minutes to get used to navigating with four limbs, as well. Most shifters don't compare the sensation of suddenly having four legs to being on hands and knees, it's an entirely new feeling, and one that feels natural, just-- unfamiliar. Most wobble around for a minute or two, then move as if they'd been born in that form.
The virus also adds a set of instincts to the brain's programming, so the new shifter will find they suddenly know what a lot of the smells are, that are overwhelming them. They will also find they have instinctive behaviors and knowledge of what subtle signals of tails, eyes and ears mean as the shifter "language" of their particular species.
In fur, shifters aren't telepathic. They communicate with each other much as the bestial animal of their form does. However, as these are "humans" still, their physical language is much more refined and expansive than any animal's.
That's an important point to remember-- no matter which form they are in, shifters are always human beings, they are not reduced to animals. Some new shifters are so traumatized by their situation that they have amnesia for events during their first few shifts, or they claim their alter form is "a beast" and a separate entity from themselves, but that is a mental abberation and is not the reality.
After the first few shifts, a shifter will be exhausted and sleep for hours. They will also be ravenous. All that's accomplished the first few days after the full moon is eat, sleep, and eat again. Lost weight will be regained until the shifter is at a healthy, lean physique once more. Fat shifters are rare, and it is considered a form of mental illness.
The fatigue from shifting goes away either in that first moon-month as a shifter, or shortly after their second moon. For the rest of their life, shifting is as natural and easy as going from sleep to awake, or from a walk to a run.
Remember, this information applies to those infected by lycanthropy. For those born lycanthropes, shifting, whether from birth or in puberty, is a painless process and is not a traumatic experience.
The effects of infection with the lycanthropy virus varies in severity according to when the person was infected. The closer to the full moon they were infected, the worse the symptoms are, and the higher the chance that they will die instead of transform.
That is why deliberate infections are done on the full moon, so the person has an entire month to go through the restructuring process the virus provokes. Ok, symptoms now. This is a general example for someone infected just after the full moon, with almost an entire lunar month to let the infection work. Best case scenario, in other words. (A lunar month is 28 days.)
After the bite or scratch that infects them, the victim feels very little. The wound heals unusually quickly and doesn't ever get infected or leave a scar. They may feel weird sensations where the wound was, even though nothing shows at the surface.
Donovan Talbain, for instance, was scratched by a tooth on the wrist. The minor wound barely broke the skin, and healed within a day or so till it was invisible. But he could feel the path of it the entire month before his first moon. He said it felt like a "fine, white-hot wire twisting just beneath his skin." It burned and itched unmercifully.
Within the first week, they will start to feel unwell. The sickness starts off like a case of influenza, with high fever, upper respiratory symptoms, vomiting and diarrhea, both usually more or less bloody. It rapidly gets worse, until it's far beyond any survivable human 'flu. The person is being literally rebuilt from the inside out, and the body's tissues are broken down and their chemical components are reused by the body, or they are ejected.
As Taz Lehrer remarked about an infection case-- they're going to have body fluids and body tissues coming out of every possible orifice. The brain is affected by both the fever and the literal restructuring, so as the lunar month goes on, the ill person is going to become more or less delirious. This mental confusion can be constant or not, it depends on the person. Regardless, nobody's going to be in their right mind the entire time.
Usually only fluids can be held down for any amount of time, and high protein liquid foods are tolerated best. It's important to keep the victim as hydrated as possible, and whey protein "shakes" made with water and no sugar or other flavorings is considered the best for the purpose. They're going to vomit back almost all of it, but what little they can absorb is considered vital for increasing their chances of survival.
Fingernails will fall out, teeth will fall out, hair will fall out-- even skin can peel off in sheets. it's an ugly process. Breathing difficulties aren't uncommon. There's nothing that can be done to ease the suffering, no drugs will be effective. Only supportive nursing care gives any benefit-- that's making sure they're cooled if they're feverish, aren't allowed to lie in their own vomit and filth, and are urged to drink as much as they can hold down.
The day before the full moon, the illness reaches its crisis point, and seems to ease up a little. Most victims can walk or at least stand by this point, though they are utterly exhausted and extremely weak. Oddly enough, despite all their vomiting and near-starvation, they are not emaciated, as muscle tissue is rebuilt rather than "eaten up" by their body during their illness. However, any and all subcutaneous body fat has been burned away, even the normal healthy amount a very lean person carries as protective padding.
Nobody goes into their first shift overweight, plump or even normal looking. Imagine one of those "muscles of the body" charts, and mentally stretch jaundiced, peeling skin over it. That's pretty much what people on the cusp of their first shift look like. Their mental state is normal at this point as well, they are rational, fully oriented, and completely aware of what's going to happen to them.
When the moon rises, and the light touches them, their agony reaches a pitch that every victim has described as indescribable. Donovan said it became no longer pain, but an altered state of consciousness, an entirely new plane of existence. When this reaches its peak, the person either shifts-- or dies as a heap of chaotic disorganized tissue.
Assuming survival, the person will, from one instant to the next, find themselves in their alter form. Their fur is dry, and they are no longer in any pain nor are they unusually weak or exhausted. They may feel a bit disoriented because of the changes in color vision and perspective in their new forms. (Each species is different that way. Check the information on this website, and look up the real animal via a web search and see what their color vision etc is said to be. As always, when in doubt, ask the Council.)
It takes some few minutes to get used to navigating with four limbs, as well. Most shifters don't compare the sensation of suddenly having four legs to being on hands and knees, it's an entirely new feeling, and one that feels natural, just-- unfamiliar. Most wobble around for a minute or two, then move as if they'd been born in that form.
The virus also adds a set of instincts to the brain's programming, so the new shifter will find they suddenly know what a lot of the smells are, that are overwhelming them. They will also find they have instinctive behaviors and knowledge of what subtle signals of tails, eyes and ears mean as the shifter "language" of their particular species.
In fur, shifters aren't telepathic. They communicate with each other much as the bestial animal of their form does. However, as these are "humans" still, their physical language is much more refined and expansive than any animal's.
That's an important point to remember-- no matter which form they are in, shifters are always human beings, they are not reduced to animals. Some new shifters are so traumatized by their situation that they have amnesia for events during their first few shifts, or they claim their alter form is "a beast" and a separate entity from themselves, but that is a mental abberation and is not the reality.
After the first few shifts, a shifter will be exhausted and sleep for hours. They will also be ravenous. All that's accomplished the first few days after the full moon is eat, sleep, and eat again. Lost weight will be regained until the shifter is at a healthy, lean physique once more. Fat shifters are rare, and it is considered a form of mental illness.
The fatigue from shifting goes away either in that first moon-month as a shifter, or shortly after their second moon. For the rest of their life, shifting is as natural and easy as going from sleep to awake, or from a walk to a run.
Remember, this information applies to those infected by lycanthropy. For those born lycanthropes, shifting, whether from birth or in puberty, is a painless process and is not a traumatic experience.
Scars, Tattoos, and Foreign Bodies
During this first transformation, any foreign objects in the body are expelled, including medical devices. Hearing and vision are corrected and brought into the enhanced lycanthropic range, and scars may be erased or diminished. Tattoos may or may not be erased, but piercings are always healed, the jewelry being rejected as a foreign object.
Scars and tattoos are often exceptions to the above process. They seem to carry a metaphysical "weight" that may allow them to survive a number of transformations, or to persist indelibly. A non-traumatic scar or a tattoo gotten on a whim will be erased either at once or over a few transformations. A disfiguring burn scar, a scar gained during an especially traumatic or meaningful incident, and any tattoo that has deep emotional significance may be retained to some degree. A scar inflicted with silver is permanent, whether the wound is received before or after infection with lycanthropy. (OOC: This does not mean that tattooed or scarred shifters are common. Please discuss persistent scars and tats with the Council when creating such a character.)
If a lycanthrope decides to rid himself of a persistent, non-silver-inflicted mark, the area must literally be cut away, removing the full layer of skin down to the fat or muscle layer. The wound will heal with new, unmarked skin.
This regeneration ability extends to organs and even limbs. Unless the damage or amputation was silver-contaminated, the lost body part will be slowly regenerated. A blind person would have their eyes regenerate on the first shift. A sighted shifter who is somehow blinded would regenerate their eyesight more gradually, over the course of three moons.
Amputated digits, ears and other small body appendages would regenerate in three or four moons. In the case of a hand or foot, the rebuilding would take about a year. An entire limb, or most of one, would take a year or longer to fully regrow.
Shifters can die from massive trauma which is non-silver inflicted. This is in cases where the trauma is so extensive it overwhelms the body's ability to regenerate quickly enough to sustain life.
Scars and tattoos are often exceptions to the above process. They seem to carry a metaphysical "weight" that may allow them to survive a number of transformations, or to persist indelibly. A non-traumatic scar or a tattoo gotten on a whim will be erased either at once or over a few transformations. A disfiguring burn scar, a scar gained during an especially traumatic or meaningful incident, and any tattoo that has deep emotional significance may be retained to some degree. A scar inflicted with silver is permanent, whether the wound is received before or after infection with lycanthropy. (OOC: This does not mean that tattooed or scarred shifters are common. Please discuss persistent scars and tats with the Council when creating such a character.)
If a lycanthrope decides to rid himself of a persistent, non-silver-inflicted mark, the area must literally be cut away, removing the full layer of skin down to the fat or muscle layer. The wound will heal with new, unmarked skin.
This regeneration ability extends to organs and even limbs. Unless the damage or amputation was silver-contaminated, the lost body part will be slowly regenerated. A blind person would have their eyes regenerate on the first shift. A sighted shifter who is somehow blinded would regenerate their eyesight more gradually, over the course of three moons.
Amputated digits, ears and other small body appendages would regenerate in three or four moons. In the case of a hand or foot, the rebuilding would take about a year. An entire limb, or most of one, would take a year or longer to fully regrow.
Shifters can die from massive trauma which is non-silver inflicted. This is in cases where the trauma is so extensive it overwhelms the body's ability to regenerate quickly enough to sustain life.