Wererats

Basic Information

Anatomy

A wererat in humanoid form tended to be a thin, wiry individual of shorter than average height. The eyes constantly darted around, and the nose and mouth may have twitched if they were excited. Males often have thin, ragged mustaches. 
The animal form of a wererat was that of a dire rat two feet long from nose to rump. In hybrid form, the wererat was shorter than in its human form and its head, torso and tail were those of a rat while its limbs were a little more humanoid in appearance.

Biological Traits

When shifted, Werearts gain an entirely new appearance as compared to their unshifted form.

Genetics and Reproduction

Wererats are noted to rarely mate with other Wererats, instead mating with uninfected Humans. The progeny of a male Wererat and a Human woman is Human, but the child will inherit many of the physical characteristics of its father in his human form. The child of a female Wererat and a Human male are giant rats with paws that resembled human hands known as ratlings.
A Wererat's bite is its most dangerous trait as it can spread the curse of the Wererat; anyone bitten risks contracting the curse, and while those born as wererats can control their shapeshifting, those cursed with it often cannot.

Growth Rate & Stages

These ratlings grow to maturity by the age of two and have the ability to transform themselves into Human children who appear to be roughly three times their real age.

Ecology and Habitats

Wererats recognize their relative weakness and congregat in numbers in the sewer systems beneath surface cities. Not only do those who live on the surface maintain their lairs for them but they unknowingly protect the Wererat lairs with their fortifications, allowing the Wererats to frequently leave their defenses lacking.
When in their humanoid form, the stench of sewers remain, leading to Wererats on the surface being relegat to the seedier parts of the cities - this suits the lycanthropes though, as those areas frequently contain the dives that serve the strong alcohol that they favor and make it easier to attack drunks.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Ratmen are cannibals, eating uninfected humans and subsisting on what they could scavenge or steal.

Behaviour

Wererats are cunning lycanthropes with sly, avaricious personalities. They are wiry and twitchy in humanoid form, with thin hair and darting eyes. In their humanoid and hybrid forms, wererats prefer light weapons and use ambush tactics rather than fighting as a pack. Although a wererat can deliver a nasty bite in its rat form, it favors that form for stealthy infiltration and escape rather than combat.

Additional Information

Social Structure

A Wererat never lives alone if they could help it, though they don't tend to form strong interpersonal relationships beyond a pack mentality - love and marriage are almost alien concepts to them. They delight in pitting their superior cunning against surface-dwellers, seeing the cities that tend to be above their lairs as hunting grounds where they can steal food and wealth by killing its inhabitants in a parasitical manner.

Average Intelligence

Wererats are very cunning, and they will stop at nothing to keep their identity a secret. This extends to killing anyone who watches them feed or Shift, or skipping town if that's not possible.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Nocturnal, Wererats aren’t equipped with very good eyesight. Also, not unlike Humans with poor eyesight, Wererats’ other senses of smell, touch, and hearing are highly developed. Wererats also communicate with each other using body language like Humans. Able to perceive and use ultrasound to communicate with each other, pheromones are also key to Wererat communication, emitting them as warnings of danger or when scent marking. Rodents’ olfactory lobes are much more pronounced than in Humans, making rodents’ sense of smell their most important sense organ. Wererats’ sense of smell helps them to navigate many situations.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Wererats are hosts to many diseases due to the environment they choose to live in (usually the sewers). Due to how many diseases fill the uncleanly creatures' bodies, they usually build up a resistance to or don't notice their symptoms. Wererats see the diseases as great boons, inflicting them upon their enemies through their weapons, which they coat with saliva.

Civilization and Culture

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Bestial, Human Language, Language of animals

Genetic Descendants

• Demigods

Scientific Name

Ratmen

Lifespan

175 years

Average Height

Between 0.90m and 1.8m

Average Weight

Varies

Related Organizations

• Were Family