Werecreatures

Werecreatures, also called furchangers are far more abundant than you might think. And they are far more diverse than you might think - from the far north to southern shores people like to scare the weak minded with stories of werewolves, but werecreatures are way more diverse than that. There are loads of different forms - some are birds, some shift into reptiles, some into mammals, some even into fish, but all share one trait - they are all big carnivores.  

The origins

When the tales of gruesome humanoid carnivors, preying on helpless people are told, every ones in a while the question arises "but where did they come from? Who made them?". And today is your lucky day, because I am one of the few storytellers who actually know the answer.
Similar to the Vampire / Venator sanguinis, the origin of the werecreatures goes back to an ancient god. The root of the werecreatures are Arboras, the god of the deep forests, his daughter Vulperia, princess of the hunt and Ranuclestes, his son, farther of flowers and sprouts. While Arboras took care of his realm o trees and deep forests, Ranuclestes growed a garden of unmatched magnificence on a meadow deep down in a forest which is now long forgotten. In a vale far up in the mountains on a fertile meadow he started to plant flowers, bushes and sprouts until he created a paradise he shared with the wild animals of the forest while his sister with her pack of wild predators - wolves, bears, hawks, and many others protected this sanctuary of their aetherial family. But one day, an elf of all people wandered too far from his settlement, looking for mushrooms and stumbled uppon the garden. He was absolutly overwhelmed by the gardens beauty and stood there in awe. Until Vulperia caught him - but seconds before the could kill the intruder, Ranuclestes stopped her. He was flattered by the obvious admiration of the elf and told his sister to spare his life. She hesitantly agreed and the elf swore not to tell anyone. He left, never to return. A few centuries went by, but then the elf got so ill, he knew he was beyond help. Then he remembered all the strange plants in the garden and he started hoping - maybe, just maybe, some unknown medicine would grow there. He knew he could never tell anyone, so he had to go for himself.
  And so he went. But his son, who deeply cared for his father followed him, when he realised his father took of to the mountains. He thought his father went mad with illness and wandered of - so he wanted to bring him home to die within his family. But his farther had a good headstart, so it took him a while to track him down. It was just at the boarder of the garden when he found him. From afar he only saw how his farther kneeled infront of a giant - a humanoid figure, as tall as a tree, half elflike, half tree, covered in blossoms - Ranuclestes.
  His father explained to Ranuclestes why he broke his promise and that he told nobody where he went - he justed humbly wanted to ask if he, Ranuclestes had a cure for his sickness. Ranuclestes, eventhough his sister was everythig but pleased, forgave his admirer and led him away to a grotto where he had his medicine garden. The old elfs son just saw his farther beeing led away by two aetherials and did a terribly stupid thing. Instead of accepting the inevitable and go home, he followed them to try to "free" his father. Of course vulperias beasts immidiatly realised there was an intruder and killed him on the spot - in her wrath - she thought the old elf lied - Vulperia killed the old elf too - against the protest of her brother who wanted to atleast give the old elf a chance to explain himself.
  You might think the story ends here, but Vulperia feared there would eventually be more elves from the village finding their secret sanctum so the next time both moons were full, she turned into a big bright red vixen, sneaked down into the village and cursed all villagers to turn into a manhunting beast every full moon. Then she disappeared back into the mountains and wasnt seen again for a long time.
  A month later, the first transformation happened - the village was still mourning the loss of their medicine man and his son when suddently, the moment the full moon rose above the tips of the surrounding forest all animals went silent and a terrible hunger arose in the villagers. They didnt knew what happened to them, but within a few heartbeats they all turned into different species of predators - the species depending on their personality. Since everybody fell under the curse there was no prey and they swarmed into the land, looking for helpless sleeping folk.
  In this night they spread far across the land and brought terror over the lands around their village. The moment the moon dsapperead behind the horisont they turned back into their elvish self and realised what happened - but not why. That was brought to them later by their priest of Vulperia, who recieved a vision the next morning where the goddess explained what she had done and that they have to leave their village and never should come back.  

Different creatures

You now might wonder - this Vulture I saw yesterday, that looked so suspicious, was that a werecreature? I guarantee you, it wasnt. When a cursed person - be it an elf, demon or human - turns into their beastform, the outcome is a disturbing mixture of animalistic and humanoid features. Its like you blended beast with person. So for the vultureexample, a werevulture has two odd looking legs with claws, while still resembling humanoid feet, two big wings with claws on the knuckles an a bald head that looks humanoid - yet sports a giant beak. The same goes for werebears, werewolves, werecats and other werecreatures. The only rules, when it comes to the beastform are, the species must be a predatory species, it must have roughly the mass of a person or more and needs to match the persons personality. So for example cooperative courageous persons are likely to turn into a werewolf, while free spirits most likely turn into sommething airborn. If you are a very attentive listener you noticed that I left dwarfs and orcs out when I listed the species earlier - oh I didnt forgot them, they are actually imune to this curse.  

Weaknesses

Now onto the most important question for most of you. How in the world do you kill one of these beasts? The answer is yet simple and not simple at all. When they are in their human/elvish/demonic form they are pretty much a normal person. You can shoot, stab or poison them. No special effects needed. They just show a little more stamina and physical strenght then your average joe. But when they are in their beastform, let me tell you, then you are in trouble big time. Unless you have a silver sword, silver arrows or any weapon made of silver. Vulperia uses silver weapons and of course she wanted something to put her beasts in their place easily. Any wound that wasnt caused by silver or higher magic will heal in the blink of an eye - only if you manage to decapitate them a normal sword or axe will most likely do.
And if that wasnt enough, in their beastform they are immune to poison too.
 

Strenghts

Depending on their mental strenght they will more or less keep the controle over their actions. Weak minded people become merely more than an animal under the influence of the full moon, but people with a strong will can master this curse and controle the animal within them. Those are the few really deadly ones, that combine animalistic power with their immunity to normal weapons with humanoid intelligence. As a little bonus, similar to vampires, werecreatures have slightly imroved senses in terms of hearing, smelling and eyesight, depending a little on their beastform.  

Transmission

The curse is transmitted by foxbites, but only when both moons are full. Or by the bite of a werecreature in beastform.