Guide on Novels and Games - FANTASY - RACES - WEREBEASTS

> WERWBEAST

It's difficult set the origin of this race from a single source because all the myth describe them in a way or another.

In some work werebeasts and beastmen are the same race.

APPEARANCE:

This race is basically composed of humanoid animals.

Given the large pool of animals that can be used is not possible make a compact description so just think that any type of animal made humanoid can be a werebeast.

BIOLOGY:

A werebeast's biology is quite peculiar because it change depending on it's animal species... technically speaking a werebeast is an animal with enough human traits and biology for make it humanoid but not enough for make it appear like a humans... this may mean various things but make clear too that they are mostly animals

LIFESPAN:

For the werebeast is difficult give a specific lifespan because we need to consider their animal part and their human trait so we can opt for three possible solutions:


 * 1) the	werebeast have the pure lifespan of their animal part so, for	example, a cat werebeast can live for 20 years (that more or less	are 100 human years)
 * 2) the	animal lifespan is influenced by the human traits and is slightly	more long than normal and an author is free to change, so if an	animal is supposed to live for around 15 years than as werebeast can	live for 30 or something more years.
 * 3) The	human nature grant them a lifespan very similar to the human one so	if the normal lifespan of a human is of 80 years than the one of a	werebeast is of 70~75 years.

REPRODUCTION:

This race is deeply influenced by their physiology and for this reason they reproduce the same way their animal counterpart do... so if a race lay eggs than the relative werebeast variant will do that too.

Aside the way animals are able to breed and reproduce, we need to remember that animals have periods of "heat" that are when they can "do it".

VARIATIONS:

Personally I divide the werebeasts depending on their lower part and their type.

The lower part one are:


 * Centaur,	their lower part is not humanoid but animal like the mythological	greek being from where come the name, please remember that the part	change depending on the animal so if the "part" is a snake	like then will be like the mythological lamia, if is a bird than it	will have the bird like body as lower part, if the animal is a wolf	then it will have a canine shape, etc.
 * Humanoid	Legs, they are the werebeasts that walk on two legs and are not	centaur like but similar to human. The	fact that the original animal walk on four legs don't mean that the	relative werebeast will be a centaur have to be a four leg centaur	like for example the minotaur wasn't a four leg centaur like bieng	but a humanoid one with only two legs.

When we use the "type" method what we have are:


 * Earth	type, all the races that walk on the ground and that dig underground	and this include races like moles, cats, dogs, foxes, ostriches,	kangaroo, rabbits, etc.
 * Water	type, all the races that live underwater and this mean all type of	fishes, whales, dolphins, sharks, etc. For this group the	"centaur" version is normally  the lower part as fish like	sirens with a low chance of them with finned legs.
 * Amphibious	type, all the races that can move to a certain degree inside both	water and ground like certain type of snakes, seals, alligators,	etc.
 * Air	type, all the races that are able to fly like bats and all the type	of birds.
 * Mythic	type, all the animals that come from myths like dragons and unicorns

Maybe someone noticed this but I didn't included insects in the list, this come from the fact that most authors don't use insects for make werebeasts... personally I have a little internal fight about this because from a side I think is right but from another aspect I'm against it because if one want to use an insect like humanoid race then it have to make it as something different and on its own

POWERS & ABILITIES:

Werebeast have various physical skills that are superior to humans but the very problem lie in the fact that the various species of animals have various particular bonus.

If I want to make a list of possible "boost" a werebeast can have respect a human then...:


 * Speed,	physical speed.
 * Strenght	- Muscle, pure physical strenght.
 * Strenght	- Charge, in this case is strenght show with charges against the	target, an example is a rhinoceros.
 * Sense	– Smell.
 * Sense	– Sight, in the case of feline it can be said that they have night	vision, for the one that don't know how their eyes works then you	need to know that their iris open and let enter all the light	present that humans can't see resulting in them able see at night	but if there is no light in the place they are unable to see like	any other humanoid.
 * Sense	– Hearing.
 * Perception,	this type of boost is sensorial but let me explain it better...	snakes are able to "see" thermal traces and bats can use	sounds for move around in dark places... this traits can be	separated by the normal senses because, for a reason or another,	they differ by common sensorial boosts.
 * Fly,	limited to the one that have wings.

SOCIETY:

The classic werebeasts and beastmen are most of the time described as races divided into clans, in some cases we see various members of a single type of werebeast create a village or city.

For both werebeast and beastmen, create a kingdom is not impossible, the government will be basically like a parlament where a member of each clan is present and protect their own interests.

As last special note about this race is need to say that humanoid that can shapeshift into one can be considered as fake one because is something that is not born as one but something that become one but this don't mean that they are not a werebeast in that moment