Lycanthropy

The blessing of lycanthropy was created in collaboration by Lassus and Sanabit and gifted to a tribe of early midwestern humans. The tribe soon split into different families based on what animal they were capable of transforming into and ultimately most families went their own ways. Currently, numerous families of lycanthropes exist in secret around Paral, though they are still slowly dying out.

Though lycanthropy is heritable, the descendents of lycanthropes and non-lycanthropes have invariably less animalistic transformations than their blessed parent. This gradual decline has resulted in the breeds known as shifters, who can only transform occasionally and weakly.

Lycanthropy is also transmittable via a special ritual now forgotten to all but a few families. The ritual can make a lycanthrope out of any of the northern races, and can make one type of lycanthrope into the same type as the one performing the ritual.

Though it is easier to transform at night, and under a full moon, pure-bred lycanthropy is under the lycanthrope's conscious control at most times, with a few notable exceptions.
 * Sleep and unconsciousness: While sleeping, lycanthropes drift between their two forms, taking animal form during REM sleep
 * Celestial events: Lycanthropes become forced into human form during the time near lunar eclipses and are forced into beast form during the time near solar eclipses.