Shared: 11/04/2023
Updated: ---
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As I'm working on lots of concept art and story stuff for The Lycanthra Syndicate in my final semester of college, one of the things I've devoted time to fleshing out is the concept of lycanthropy as operates within the Iron Archipelagos and Lycanthra itself.
Historically and in myth, lycanthropes were at-will lupine shapeshifters who served alongside Lio in the theaters of war. They are not to be confused with her Laughing Wolves, which were sentient canines with abnormal smiling mouths, unnatural eyes, and extreme deciding power when it came to acts of justice, wrath, or war. While Laughing Wolves were direct manifestations of Lio’s justice and wrath (and she herself sometimes took the form of one), lycanthropes were more like her children or her own race of dedicated shapeshifters. They styled themselves after her, her methods, and her ideology, and eventually grew into their own Guild during the Revival and post-Revival eras. They were characterized as beings with an innate sense of strong, unbiased justice who wanted the best for all people, and the Guild's practices reflected that.
After the gods left in Era 5 and the Guilds disbanded, Lio's Wolves dispersed and became members of the general populace in [ x ] (and before that, in Adreoni, where some were stranded or living in during the split from [ x ]). Their descendants developed variations in their shapeshifting abilities, now designated "full-shift," "partial-shift," and "residual" Lionans. ("Lionan" is the most common term used for lupine shapeshifters in Broken Dimensions, not "lycanthrope" or "werewolf.")
Full-shift Lionans can shapeshift fully into a wolf or wolf-like creature. They retain their sense of self, morality, objectives, and human (or near-human) sentience while in their secondary form, and may retain enhanced senses or perceptive abilities while in their human(oid) form. All members of Lio's Guild would have been full-shift capable.
Partial-shift Lionans may be able to shapeshift part-way into a wolf-like form, but not completely. They often have enhanced senses at all times, which can lead to frequent overstimulation, but are still considered powerful near-humans due to their increased hearing, strength, and reflexes. Partial Lionans are usually direct descendants of one full-shift capable Lionan parent and either a non-Lionan parent of a residual Lionan parent.
Residual Lionans are descendants of Lionans who cannot shapeshift at all, but retain a Lionan’s usual enhanced senses and some inhuman features (wolf-like eyes, thicker/coarser body hair, pointed ears, dark fingernails, etc.).
Lionan Wolves in general do not experiences shifts based on the cycle of the [ x ] moon or any other moon. They are considered "at-will" shapeshifters, as mentioned earlier, meaning they can shapeshift whenever it suits their needs. Clothes tend not to shift with their wearer unless they are enchanted to do so. Lionan Wolves cannot bite someone to "turn" them, although this is a commonly believed myth that many Lionan's take advantage of.
Common myths associated with lupine shapeshifters in Broken Dimensions include the belief that a Lionan's lover or parent can turn them back should they go on a "rampage." Firstly, if a Lionan is "rampaging" you can be almost certain that they're doing it on purpose because someone pissed them off and/or was being disrespectful or cruel and the Lionan is calling them out on it or trying to bring retribution down upon them. (It should also be noted that a "rampage" can be anything from sternly and angrily confronting someone with words to full-on trashing a place because it was harming its inhabitants/customers/etc. Lionans themselves face a lot of misplaced fear and distrust that can and has culminated in racism.) Secondly, if a Lionan backs down because their lover or parent shows up, its because they know they fucked up and they deserve the verbal beat down they're about to receive from said loved one.
Another myth associated with Lionan's is that they have a strict internal hierarchy based on secondary sex characteristics that they don't even have. This stems from Era 2 and 3 misinformation, much of which started in fandom spaces and carried into real life after the Revival took place. Millennia have passed since then, and the misinformation still persists.
Lionans are also one of several races that are said to have innate hypnotic abilities, similar to those of some Tartarun species. Time and time again, Lionans also attempt to disprove this belief at large. Time and time again, they fail.
Lycanthropy in TLS is, ultimately, a background theme. Lycanthra took its name and practices from the myths surrounding Lio and her warriors and founded themselves on the idea of "impartial justice" that Lio's Wolves used to follow: the idea that everyone deserves respect, justice, and protection until proven unworthy regardless of class, creed, origin, or identity. They started out as a vigilante group fighting off the Mindbreaker Guild and slavers who came to the Archs to pick off the refugees and pioneers in early Era 9. Back then, their numbers were primarily made up of Lionans of all designations, although they opened their ranks to everyone once they rebranded into t he Lycanthra Syndicate officially (sometime in their first century of existence). They adopted their mascot, Lio's Laughing Wolf, straight out of ancient myth as well.
By Catie and Jason's time, lycanthropes in Lycanthra are associated with good luck—the last time the Syndicate was really "above water" was when fulled blooded Lionans were in charge—specifically: Kellan Alder, father of Charon and Verdan Alder, and grandfather of Wilson Alder. Kellan was the last full-shift Lionan to lead the Syndicate in the early 1900s E-10. Charon was a partial-shift Lionan, and Verdan was residual. Wilson Alder retained almost no Lionan abilities or genetic markers, and it was due to this that many Voaden citizens blamed him for the Syndicate's fall from grace in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s E-10.
This belief that Lycanthra's luck and success was based on the presence of Lionans in leadership continued into the early years of Jason and Catie's time as Co-Directors. They were met with intense skepticism early on, Jason being the non-Lionan son of Wilson Alder and Laura Deenheart and Catie being the estranged Lionan daughter of the full-blooded Davis family, an non-affiliated family. They were faced with more skepticism following Catie's resurrection as a ziojic, which in her case began to impeded on her shapeshifting ability until she ultimately declared herself partial-shift only. And yet, after working to improve and restore Lycanthra's image in the eyes of the public, they do managed to win over the Voaden populace. That does not mean, however, that the populace no longer believes in the mythical Lionan luck...
But other than that, Catie's lycanthropy isn't very relevant to the story, which is kind of funny. The story about a werewolf gang led by a werewolf and lycanthropy has almost nothing to do with the plot? Come on!
Here's some of my messy wolf studies from mid-October when I was developing some of this lore:
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