Lycanwings: a fan fiction/fan dragon guidebook

Lycanwing

Appearance and physical abilities

Lycanwings are medium sized dragons with dark scales, two legs, two wings, a smooth tail with no spikes, fur-like scales on their back and a long, narrow head. They use their clawed wings like front legs and walk on all fours most of the time, but they sometimes walk on their legs similarly to a human with their wings folded and held at their sides. The only physical difference between males and females is eye colour. Males have red eyes, while females have purple ones. They have sharp claws and a strong, venomous bite. They are quite quick on the ground and in the air and have lots of stamina. They aren’t very physically strong. They have a very strong sense of smell and can detect the smallest drop of blood from a kilometre away, allowing them to easily track prey from a long distance.

Normal behaviour

Lycanwings are quite shy dragons, rarely coming anywhere near humans. Most Lycanwing bites to humans are accidental. Their normal diet consists mostly of large mammals and occasionally fish. They will hunt livestock, but only if they can’t find any other prey. Lycanwings are stealthy hunters, ambush their prey, and are capable of planning, as they are quite intelligent.

Lycanwings tend to be more active at night, dusk and dawn, but they aren’t strictly nocturnal and are often awake during the day. They sleep around midday to avoid the hot and bright glare of the sun.

Lycanwings usually keep to themselves, either living in small family packs or staying solitary. A solitary Lycanwing will stay on its own unless it finds a mate and bonds for life. They aren’t friendly with dragons outside of their own packs, at best they will tolerate outsiders for a short time. Lycanwings almost always fight to the death and they hold grudges.

Venom

Lycanwing venom takes a long time to develop and it takes even longer for the dragon to learn how to control it. Lycanwing hatchlings hardly have any venom at all, it only starts developing after a few months. By the time they reach short wing stage, their venom is mostly developed, but the young dragons have no control over it and they inject their venom into anything they bite, no matter if it's a log or a live animal. Most Lycanwings learn to control it in early adulthood, when the venom is fully developed. As adults, Lycanwings can choose to use their venom, depending on what they’re biting.

If they're hunting or fighting large or strong animals as a pack, they often bite without venom. If that's the case, they will try to rip into their target to make it bleed and weaken it enough so they can take it down later. Solitary dragons use the same tactic, but they bite with venom.

The venom causes pain, swelling of the wound, dizziness, fatigue, confusion and fever. It usually doesn't kill directly, but it weakens the victim's immune system so that the bite-wound can get infected quickly. Lycanwings will continue to track the victim at a distance, waiting for the animal to collapse so they can go in for the kill.

However, the venom has another, more mysterious side affect, but it takes a few days for the symptoms to start showing. This only happens to humans, because a hunting Lycanwing would never let its prey live for more than a few hours, which is just long enough to weaken the animal. These symptoms are actually quite close to what the legends describe, but there is more to it. The victim will start to act a lot more aggressive, growl when they are angry and avoid other people. Their bite wounds will itch and hurt, even if the wound was treated. The closer to the full moon it gets, the more noticeable the symptoms become.

Full Moon

Lycanwings tend to hunt smaller prey throughout the month both day and night, but they do a big hunt on the night of the full moon. The reason they choose this night is because while they have dark scales to blend in with the night, their vision isn’t the best in the dark, so they use the moonlight to their advantage. They are much more aggressive on this night and are far more likely to use their venom when they bite.

Throughout the day before a full moon, the victim of a Lycanwing’s bite will become restless and agitated. At dusk, they will wander off and try to find somewhere far away from humans. When the full moon rises, they will transform into a Lycanwing. The first few transformations are extremely painful. By morning, the victim will turn back into a human form, now having become a shapeshifter.

Types of Shapeshifters

There are four types of shapeshifters:

Full-shifters, Half-shifters, Natural and Human Lycanwings. Every shapeshifter can be placed into two of these four categories. Full- and Half-shifters are opposites, and Natural and Human Lycanwings are opposites too.

Full-shifters were bitten by adult Lycanwings with fully developed venom. Full-shifters look like real Lycanwings when they are in dragon form.

Half-shifters were bitten by a young Lycanwing with partially developed, and so less effective venom. Half-shifters are never able to take on a full Lycanwing form, instead they only have dragon-like eyes, wings, a tail, fangs, claws and a few scales in dragon form. They can still walk on two legs when in dragon from, but on a full moon they use their arms and wings the same way a real Lycanwing would, as front legs.

Natural Lycanwings have had one or more distant Lycanwing ancestors and carry the gene inside them, which lies dormant unless the person gets bitten. Most Natural Lycanwings don't even know of their dragon side until they have been bitten. However, in most cases, they will enjoy their new-found dragon side and not want to return to their old human nature. Of course, they might prefer their human form, but they won’t want to rid themselves of their dragon form.

Normal humans that were bitten are called Human Lycanwings. They are the only Lycanwings that have a chance of being cured.

All Lycanwing shapeshifters have a mark on the palm of their left hand in the form of three black claw-marks. Unless they get cured which removes the mark, Human Lycanwings have the mark from their little finger to their thumb. Natural Lycanwings have the mark across the other way, from the index finger to the heel of the hand. Natural Lycanwings usually have dark hair and blue (female) or brown (male) eyes. These colours then turn into their Lycanwing counterpart colours when in dragon form, blue becoming purple, and brown becoming red. Human Lycanwings' hair and eye colour stay mostly the same when in human or dragon form, making them stand out. An example of this is a red haired, black eyed human becoming a red scaled, black eyed Lycanwing.

All Lycanwing shapeshifters can shift at will, though some prefere not to. They have to shift every full moon though. In that night, they behave a lot more like real Lycanwings, spending the night hunting. Any other time that they shift, they keep most of their normal personality.

All Lycanwings have the ability to use venom. If a half-shifter bites a human, the kind of Lycanwing their victim becomes is dependent on how developed their venom is. So a person bitten by an adult half-shifter can also become a full-shifter.

Cure

The cure or antidote for becoming a Lycanwing is an important fact that is almost always left out of stories, which means that most people think it's impossible to reverse the venom's effects. Only Human Lycanwings can be cured, but it isn't an easy task, as the cure isn't widely known.

If someone does know about the cure, that doesn't make the situation any easier. The venom’s effects are only reversible until the Lycanwings transform for a third time, three months after they were bitten. The cure can also not be taken on a full moon. The Lycanwing also needs to go vegetarian for a week before they take the cure, which must be drunk. Even if those rules are followed, the cure has lots of ingredients, tastes vile and causes pain to the Lycanwing while it takes effect.

The ingredients of the cure are:

Blood from the Human Lycanwing in both forms

Lycanwing venom

Wolfs bane (Warning: This is poisonous, so be very careful to use a very small amount!!)

Sunflower seeds

Garlic

Fire fern

Yaknog

Honey

Sugar

Lavender

Hot water

Lunar Eclipse

The lunar eclipse is a strange, hard and dangerous time for Lycanwings. Being a full moon, Lycanwings are forced to transform as usual, but there is much more to it. Lycanwings start reacting to it a week before the event happens. They start acting in ways that they normally wouldn't. The reaction is different for each individual Lycanwing, but in short effect is the same: Lycanwings go insane. Many Lycanwings get themselves into serious trouble on lunar eclipses, sometimes even getting themselves killed, as they can’t tell that they are in danger and so don’t or can’t protect themselves. No Lycanwing understands why this happens to them, but they always try to isolate themselves before the eclipse happens.

The only way to reduce the effects before the eclipse is for them to eat sage fruit. This helps them keep a clear head before, but not on the night itself. No amount of sage fruit or dragon nip will help then, they just have to make sure they are in a safe place before sunset.

Mind Control

Lycanwings aren't effected by their own venom in the same way as other animals, but they aren't immune to it. Instead, if one Lycanwing uses it's venom on another of it's own kind, it has a similar effect to the deathgripper venom mix that dragon-hunters use, making them very calm and obedient. Luckily, fighting Lycanwings usually don’t bite with venom. Only a very desperate Lycanwing will do so. When it does happen though, the loser will collapse and faint from the venomous bite. Sometimes, the loser will be too wounded and weak to survive. If they do survive though, they are bound to do their master's will until the venom wears off. Unfortunately though, most Lycanwings will take advantage of their new prisoner and kill them in one way or another.

Bite Madness

Bite Madness is a rare and dangerous illness that luckily isn’t infectious. Depending on what they're biting, and how often they use their venom, the venom production can go into overdrive, and then it becomes more difficult for the dragon to control when to use it. This affects the Lycanwing’s brain and makes it more aggressive and reckless. The sick Lycanwing will pick more fights and put itself in more dangerous situations, resulting in a higher risk of death.

If it has enough sanity to isolate itself or get help from other Lycanwings, there is a cure. The sick dragon needs to eat moon flowers on the night of a full moon. This can cause the Lycanwing to faint, but by morning it will be cured. The only problem is that moon flowers are quite rare and they need to be fresh when eaten, so preferably not picked. The sick dragon may also need convincing to eat the flowers, which can be very hard if it isn't able or willing to listen.

Moonstone

Lycanwings have another problem that they have to be aware of: moonstones. These shiny gems are very attractive to Lycanwings, even though these dragons aren't usually interested in other shiny objects, nor are other dragons interested in or effected by moonstones. These gems aren't very harmful to look at or touch, but that does increase the chance that the Lycanwing will try to consume the gem. If this happens, moonstones are highly addictive. They also make the Lycanwing highly aggressive and they will do anything for a moonstone. Without proper food, they will d.ie of starvation. The gem also weakens Lycanwings, so that they can no longer defend themselves.

The only way for a Lycanwing to return to normal is for them to avoid moonstones for a few weeks, maybe months. Even after that, they will still be fascinated by moonstones if they see one, but if they have any sense, they will try to get rid of the poisonous gem.