Lycanthropy

The lycanthropy is a bite transmitted condition, someone consider it a curse rather than a disease, that occurs to a creature that gets bitten by a lycanthrope. The slaver of the lycanthrope injected by the bite it is to consider the vector of trasmitting the disease, therefore virtually every creature capable of biting and salivating has a lycanthropic version, however were-wolves appear to be the most common type of lycanthrope.

Cause of the disease

The disease is trasmitted by the bite of a lycanthrope and incubates the new host for the following month in a pre-patient period, however some change may affect the host such as facial distortion, hirsutism and onychogryphosis already during this time. When the host gets exposed to a sufficient amount of moon rays, generally it requires a full moon, it will transform in a were-creature, similar to the one he was bitten from. As mentioned above, were-wolves seem to be the most common type of were-creature, however some scholars consider that they are only the most aggressive type and therefore less secret. There's report of were-bear, were-tigers, were-badgers and were-rats, just to mention a few.

Symptoms

During the pre-patent period of the condition, the body of the victim start to change in order to better tolerate the metamorphosis. When exposed to a sufficient amount of moon rays he will incur in a trasformation assuming the aspect of a lycanthrope, it is commonly accepted that when transformed the creature is totally under the control of natural instincts and very aggressive. After the first moon cycle, and gradually more, as the condition progresses the temperament and physical aspect of the victim will get more similar to the transformed version.

Traditional remedies

It is commonly believed that lycanthropes are strongly affected by silver weapons. Unfortunately, these weapons will ultimately kill the creature affected by the condition together with the disease. Another common folklore reports that were-creatures are affected by running water, but some scholars don't agree with this statement.

State of art cure

It has recently been discovered by a team of arachnologists that the bite of the giant spider Aculepeira Marmorea could be a suitable treatment for the condition. The treatment has been discovered by serendipity when a werebadger attacked their camp on the Fjell Sorg, during an on-field observation program of the reproductive ritual of the spiders. The lycanthrope reverted immediately to his original nature once bitten by a large female and, after been saved by the team of scientists, never transformed again. Presently the same team is researching a system to stabilize the cure in an injectable extract, although the studies have put in evidence two caveats: 1)the venom can still be lethal and 2)if the condition has been established for a long time some features of the condition can permain, especially hirsutism and facial distorsion.