WEREBEAR (OLD)

[ryslighelpers]

◉ NAVIGATION ▼

WEREBEAR

BASIC INFO Werebears are half-man, half-bear creatures that transform at night and will not change back until they see the sun. When not transformed, they retain most of their normal human appearance. MANDATORY CHANGES ● Werebears must take on all the mandatory changes (plus whatever optional ones the player desires) once the sun has gone down, and during Fog days. They will not change back to their human form until they have seen the sun. ● Werebears retain most of their normal human appearance when not transformed during the day. However, a few minor physical traits such as a tail, extra hairy arms or bear ears may still manifest even in their day form. ● Upper and lower canine teeth elongated into sharp fangs. ● Bear-like furred ears. ● Fur on the back, shoulders, and arms. ● Very large, clawed hands and feet with pads on the bottom. ● A larger size. Transformed Werebears will be roughly 1.5-2 times the size of their human selves. ● Increased strength. Werebears are much stronger than a normal human could ever be. ● Sharpened senses. Werebears have a keen sense of hearing, sight, and smell that combined make them very formidable hunters. ● Vulnerability to silver. Silver will burn the skin on contact and can cause severe injury or even death if the Werebear is shot or stabbed with something made of silver. ● Post-transformation fatigue. While Werebears are very energetic in their bear forms, they tend to have major fatigue when turning back to human form. Thus, they tend to be nocturnal. ● The need to feed on human flesh. Werebears are omnivores and can eat pretty much anything, however, they'll need meat to keep their energy levels up. This need may be satiated by accepting it from others, but more often than not, the Werebear will be compelled to choose their own targets for a fresh kill. ● A strong hunting instinct. When Werebears are hungry, they will develop the urge to chase prey down. Werebears usually hunt by striking their prey with their huge claws to knock them down, then biting them in the neck to finish them off. [back to top] OPTIONAL CHANGES ● Any psychological changes are welcome! Feel free to pull from real world myths, canon creatures of this variety, or any other source! ● A fog form. This is an exaggerated version of their monster form that appears only during the fog and is a chance to make your monster more "horrifying" during the fog. ● Travel form: the ability to shift into a full bear form at any time. In this form, the character will look like a normal bear and will be able to travel faster. However, they will also be more vulnerable. ● A Werebear may have bear-like features or markings while they're in their day form as long as there's a significant contrast between their day and night forms. ● Fur on any other part of the body. ● Bright yellow eyes. Other eye colors may manifest in a Werebear on occasion, but yellow is most often seen. ● The rest of the teeth elongated into fangs. ● A bear tail. ● Longer arms for the ability to run fast on all fours. ● Any number of bear-like facial features, ranging from mild to fully ursine. ● Superhuman climbing ability, enabling them to scale trees and tall buildings. ● Increased awareness of their surroundings, including weather patterns, layout of nearby terrain (caves and underground structures included), as well as instinctive knowledge of which plants are edible and poisonous. ● Skinchanger abilities. By using this ability, the Werebear can shift back to their human form, even during the night, for up to an hour. Their bear fur and hide will be left behind after the transformation, which they can either hide or wear like a fur coat. They will keep all of their Werebear strengths, defenses, and abilities in this form, but will be drastically weakened if the fur is damaged or destroyed, or if they don't reunite with it within the hour. This ability can be used once per day. ● Moments of high emotion can cause the Werebear to partially or fully transform into their night form, depending on the intensity of the emotion. Transformations due to high emotion can only last continuously for an hour, and will cause heavy strain on the monster the longer it continues. ● A territorial instinct. The Werebear, in bear form, will feel a deep connection to the area they've selected as their territory, and may become enraged when others invade it without getting permission. [back to top] ALLOWED SPECIES Bears, Pandas, Red Pandas, Opossums, Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, Tree Kangaroos, Koalas, Wolverines, Badgers, Raccoons, Martens, Fishers and Skunks are allowed. Think in the subfamilies Melinae, Mellivorinae, Taxidiinae and Guloninae. Similar creatures from a character's homeworld are also allowed. [back to top] ARTWORK Artwork generously donated and submitted by players as an example of this monster in various forms. This can give you an idea of what you can do with this monster. Want to donate? Submit your own August Night form (slightly nsfw) by Avali Craig Boone Normal form by Rachel Normal form by Usagi Grace Nakimura Day and Night forms by Groove Juno Steel Night form by Luc Kain Highwind Normal form by Carbon Night form by Carbon Travel form (with additional wings from Mana) by Carbon Fog form (with additional wings from Mana) by Carbon Oliver Hampton Night form by Harry Night form by Luc Transformation and travel forms by Ash Trish Una Day form by Pinch Night form by Pinch [back to top]

SKIP TO A SECTION ♦ BASIC INFO ♦ MANDATORY CHANGES ♦ OPTIONAL CHANGES ♦ ALLOWED SPECIES ♦ BONUS IMAGES MONSTER LIST ♦ Common Monster Traits ♦ Arachne ♦ Demon ♦ Faerie ♦ Gargoyle ♦ Goblin ♦ Harpy ♦ Kelpie ♦ Lich ♦ Manticore ♦ Merperson ♦ Minotaur ♦ Naga ♦ Nephilim ♦ Nymph ♦ Pooka ♦ Shade ♦ Simulacrum ♦ Slime ♦ Troll ♦ Vampire ♦ Waldgeist ♦ Werebear ♦ Werewolf

◉ MEME◉ OOC ◉ NETWORK◉ MAIN◉ NAVIGATION▲

Comments

(frozen comment) QUESTIONS

[ryslighelpers]

Have a very specific question in mind? Here's some questions that have been asked in the past!

FIRST OFF:

Why does this page read "(old)"?
As part of the big July 2023 Bestiary revamp, we chose to change the Werebear's transformation mechanic, to further differentiate them from Werewolves. Werebear players at the time were given the option to either accept the new mechanic, or keep the old one. Any Werebear accepted into the game from that point on, however, must follow the new Skinchanger mechanic.

Oh, I must've lost my way. Do you have a link to the new Werebear page?
We sure do!


MONSTER ABILITIES:

So the change to full Werebear isn't just a full moon thing? This happens every single night?
Correct! And it lasts 24/7 when the fog is out, as well.

Is the transformation very physical and painful, or is it more of a smooth, painless magical girl transformation?
Player's choice.

What happens to my character's clothes when they transform?
You can decide if they need to buy new clothes all the time (ie tearing every time they change) or if their clothes incorporates or disappears until they turn back.

Changing back to human form only happens when they see the sun? So what if they're underground, or in a room with the windows blocked?
Then they'll be stuck in their Werebear form.

Since Werebears transform at night, do they transform all at once with their first change, or can they still undergo a few minor changes for the first few months until the mandatory change time limit is reached?
It's up to you! Feel free to have your character either explode into full Werebear that very first night of the transformation log, or spread the changes out over time.

The travel form of bear is not limited to night time, right? Werebears can do this during the day too?
Correct!

Can I have some more information about the Skinchanger ability, and how theft/destruction of the skin will affect the Werebear?
We interpret the Skinchanger ability clause to imply that the fur left behind is a literal fragment of the Werebear. If it were to be damaged or destroyed, their superhuman abilities would suffer, too. Think of it like a crippling injury. By destroying the bear part of the Monsters, they would be reduced to human-level capabilities. Suffering heaviness and flu-like symptoms as a consequence would be a great way to play it. Along these lines, since destroying or stealing the coat would work like a heavy injury, it would take until the Fog to heal completely and reunite with the coat (unless it is recovered from the thief).

When it says the Skinchanger ability it only lasts for up to an hour, does that mean up to an hour of separation? Does the hour still apply if the Werebear continues to wear the fur (or hide) like a fur coat?
The one hour timer begins to tick away the moment the Werebear uses this ability and takes on human form. From that point on, the proximity to the skin has no impact on the ability's duration.

Do the Werebear abilities only function when the character is in their Werebear, bear and/or skinchanger forms? Or do these abilities still apply even during the day when they're in human form?
That choice is yours to make. They're certainly allowed to have those abilities in human form, but if you want to make your Werebear even weaker as a human, you can do that.


MONSTER BODIES AND CHANGES:

Can Werebear players play around with the whole hibernation thing? Like being unusually groggy/short tempered until spring, tempted to den up for days on end and such?
Yes, you may.

Bears have good night vision, so what about Werebears?
They too can have good night vision, and this falls under a Werebear's sharpened senses. It wouldn't do a Werebear much good if they weren't able to hunt effectively using their senses at night, when they take on their monster forms!

If a Werebear is killed while transformed, will the corpse remain transformed even after daybreak, or will the corpse shift back to human when the sun comes out?
When you die, your corpse remains as the form it was in right before death. So if a Werebear was killed in night form, they would stay that way even when the sun comes out. Please also keep in mind that a monster's body will disappear when it is resurrected.

How would an eclipse affect a Werebear?
Eclipses are rare in Ryslig, and would only be seen as part of a plot. If such an instance were to occur in the future, details of how it affects monsters will either be included in the OOC information, or you can raise it as a question.