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 'I'm looking forward to two fantastic monthly events now. One of which turns me into a vicious monster and the other one into a were-cat".
Werebeasts are creatures that can transform between a human (or at least humanoid) form and an animal or animal-like form. They are also known as "werecreatures" or "were-animals". The prefix "were" comes from the Old English word "wer", meaning "man". The technical term for this is therianthropy, from the Greek words for "beast" and "man". The better known lycanthropy comes from the Greek words for "wolf" and "man", and should only be used for werewolves. Such creatures can be found in the mythology of many cultures, and the myths have inspired the frequent use of werecreatures in modern Speculative Fiction, particularly Fantasy and Horror.
By far the most common form of werebeast depicted in fiction inspired by European folklore is the Werewolf, but many stories use other animals as the basis of their werebeasts. Some of these are inspired by real world mythologies and others are purely the invention of the authors. Other than wolves, potentially dangerous predatory mammals such as cats, panthers, lions and bears are the most frequently depicted werebeasts (due to their Rule Of Cool). However, many other types of creature has been used as the basis of a werebeast. Sometimes authors use normally harmless creatures as the basis of a werecreature for the sake of Rule of Cute or Rule of Funny. Some works will even use extremely unconventional ideas such as werecars. It should also be noted that while werebeasts normally have humanoid shapes as their default form, sometimes a work will reverse the order and make a werebeast an animal that transforms into a human. The wolf version of this is sometimes called a "wolfwere".
Werebeasts often have variations and characteristics similar to those listed on the Werewolf Analysis Page. For more information see The Other Wiki Therianthropy page— Katie McBride, The Wotch
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This page is the Super Trope for all therianthropes. The preference for examples on this trope is for creatures explicity called "were", however very similar cases of human-animal transformation can also be listed, if the nature of the character or creature is strongly linked to a specific animal species. Creatures that can turn into any sort of creature or multiple types of creatures should not be listed here, but on the pages for Voluntary Shapeshifting or Animorphism.
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alternative title(s): Therianthrope; Therianthropy; Therianthropic; Werebeast; Werebeasts; Werecreature; Werecreatures; Wereanimal; Wereanimals; Therianthropes; Were Cat; Were Rabbit; Were Whatever; Our Werecreatures Are Different; Theriantropes
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