Busting the Were Myths

I think I need to explain about weres, therians, a bit more at this point. In fact, let's play Myth Busters (it's my favorite show).

Myth numero uno: Weres are savage killers. Busted! Therians are no more and no less savage than any human. That doesn't make them saints – after all, Jeffrey Dalmer was a pureblood, no-preeters-in-the-closet, mundane human. A lot of the Hollyweird thrill spinners – and much of the lore that fills up fairy tales – would have it that therians somehow become blood thirsty monsters when they either get the Bite or shift into their were or animal forms. Not so.

Yes, the primitive part of their nature is strengthened. Some of them even call it their Beast. However, the Beast no more craves blood than your average Canis lupus familiaris. Sure, Rover doesn't mind his steak a little on the raw side, but by and large he isn't going to try to tear it out of your toddling two-year-old. When it comes right down to it, human flesh isn't on their menu. Lycanthropes, for a-not-so-random example, also have a pretty strong aversion to any type of dog meat, even if it is part of their (human) cultural heritage. Pretty much, if the animal in the therian isn't naturally a cannibal then the likelihood of the therian turning cannibal with the Bite is pretty low. It's about half and half if their animal is cannibalistic, and then we're talking the animal form. It takes either a lot of cultural conditioning or a very broken psyche to turn human-cannibalistic.

Moving on to the second biggest myth: you can only catch therianthropic viruses from the were or animal forms. I regret to inform you that if you honestly believe this, you are currently taking a trip with the Gullible-R-Us Travel Agency. The blood contains the virus no matter what form the therian is wearing. Strangely enough, though, the only instances were therianthropy was transmitted during sexual intercourse involved sadomasticism. Current research indicates that therians heal too fast for their blood to leave their skin during "normal" intercourse and the virus does not show up in any other bodily fluids.

The third myth up to bat is that weres die young because therianthropy makes you age like your animal. This is a no-yes-no myth. The first "No" is that therianthropy actually slows down the aging process. In older folks who find themselves Bitten, some of the aging process is actually reversed. The "Yes" comes into play because the first decade of a therian's change is pretty traumatic. It's gotten better now that therians are no longer subject to extermination orders, but the strengthening of instinctive responses isn't always a good thing. Having loud noises startle you into the middle of a busy road isn't exactly going to help you out live your grandchildren. The second "No" involves Ascension.

A therian Ascends when he's learned to make the magic of his curse answer to his Will. Most of the time he learns to do that by forcing the primitive Beast to submit to his civilized Self. Doing so greatly increases his life expectancy, but by dominating the Beast the Ascenders lose the Beast's protection against other therianthropic strains and can find themselves with a second Beast if they get Biten again. The Navitchi, on the other hand, are Ascenders who have mastered their magic by embracing their Beast into their civilized Self – and the normally course is for the Navitchi to Ascend two, three, or even four times. The example that comes to my mind is the difference between learning how to ride a horse with bit and saddle (Dominants), learning how to jump with the horse while you're riding bareback (Ascenders) and learning how to trust the horse to take you through the middle of a heavy forest with lots of sudden, step drop-offs on a moonless night while wolves howl their hunting song nearby (Navitchi).