Diseased Lycanthropy
"There's only one way to tell the good and bad of them apart, and that's the eyes. Most of 'em got a calm, sharp stare. You can reason with those ones. The others, they just look hungry. Then again, if you're that close, you're either strong, stupid, or stew meat. Best to steer clear of 'em either way."Lycanthropes are a rare mutated form of Beastfolks. Empowered by the ever-changing moon, they gain the ability to shift from a standard mortal form to a powerful bestial state. While it's ordinarily a genetic trait, first a mutation and then something that can be passed down, certain circumstances can render the shifting nature of the Lycanthrope into a curse, a disease, that can be passed onto an unsuspecting victim.
Transmission & Vectors
The transmissible form of Lycanthropy is only present in rabid, frenzying Lycans, and is transferred via getting their secretions into the victim's bloodstream, either by biting or clawing primarily, but if a subject gets the Lycan's blood mixed with their own, it can also be transferred that way.
Causes
The magical power of Edda's twin moons activates the mutation that causes base Lycanthropy, and those natural Lycans are often influenced by the phases of those moons. So, it is said those born when the twin moons, Oculus and Súil, are both dark will grow increasingly ferocious during their shifts until they become fully lost in a rampage.
In that mindless rampaging state, the Lycan's teeth and claws will secrete a unique germ that contains the cells for Lycanthropy in a transmissible form. From there, it's just a matter of getting it into a victim's bloodstream, and if you're close enough to a rampaging lycanthrope for them to lock onto you, you have to be very smart or lucky to avoid it.
While it's rarer, the Lycanthropy cells can be transferred by any frenzying Lycan if they've passed a certain threshold of self-control.
Symptoms
When someone first contracts Diseased Lycanthropy, they will begin to grow more irritable and manic by the day, often descending into full fits of aggression. As the moons grow in fullness, their aggression will get worse, as will a debilitating fever and intense body pains, sometimes accompanied by an increase in weight. This all increases and worsens until the next Twin Full Moon, where the magical energy from the near moon, Oculus, and the far moon, Súil, reach their peak.
The victim will then enter a half-transformed state, violent and ferocious, hungry and hunting. This will only last until the sun rises, where they will revert back with less pain but just as much rage, but the cycle begins again until the next Twin Full Moon, where they will instead turn into a fully transformed Werebeast.
From that point on, there is no stopping or reversing the process of Lycanthropy, and each twin full moon, and some Oculus full moons, will transform once more, permanently infected with intense hunger and anger.
Treatment
Before the full transformation takes hold, there are several methods for curing Diseased Lycanthropy, the clearest being anti-disease healing magic, as the transformative cells are treated as invasive by such magic and eradicated. If such options are not available for whatever reason, one may also try herbal medicines based on Sunroot, Silverleaf Flowers, or Furbane Berries. Each of these methods is bitter at best and can induce intense nausea at worst but over a two-week course, the prescription can mostly remove the cells, although periods of aggression may flare up if a generous amount of Lycanthropic cells were transferred.
Hosts & Carriers
Lycanthropes who are victim of a frenzied rampage produce the secretion that carries the transferable Lycanthropy cells that cause this transformation. Notably, non-frenzying Lycanthropes can be infected as well, only it causes them to gain the same mad frenzy rather than forcing a physical transformation.
Prevention
If someone has already taken Sunroot, Silverleaf Flowers, or Furbane Berry-based medicine beforehand, they can kill the cells upon contact within 24 hours of ingestion. But, typically, only those who know to hunt monsters have this level of preparation, as those three plants can be difficult to find and distill properly.
Epidemiology
If not curtailed, Diseased Lycanthropy can spread out of control. Diseased Lycans cannot control their transformations, and therefore only exist in the frenzied state that produces more of the transferable secretions, and if they transform in a populated area that gives them who-knows-how-many potential subjects to transfer it to.
Cultural Reception
Since most Lycans remain secretive within their own groups or among Beastfolk groups, for the longest time the Diseased form of Lycanthropes was the wider world's only experience with them. This led to an intense stigma of any Lycan, from Werewolves to Werebears, and even diminutive Wereravens or Wererats. This even ended up splashing on the Beastfolk in most areas, except for Magnum Opus and the 'Oki Islands, where they were most prevalent long into the nation's history, but especially the Half-Beastfolk that are capable of slight shifts back and forth.
It's only been in the last 60 or so years that the stigma of Lycans as their own group has started to fade away, but Diseased Lycanthropes are still a threat, especially with the rise and fall of one of the Beasts of the Apocolypse, the Wolf of Greed.
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