Introduction[]
Were-Hunters are a race of shapeshifters. There are two types of Were-Hunters: Katagaria and Arcadian.
Katagaria have animal hearts, which means their base form is animal. Born as animals, they can only become humans at puberty when their magical powers are "unlocked." The Katagaria are very mistrustful of the Arcadians, because they believe humans are often deceptive. Katagaria follow the law of kill or be killed, preferring to attack when they feel threatened as opposed to waiting to be attacked themselves. The Katagaria only kill to defend themselves, their pack, or their territory.
Arcadians have human hearts, which means their base form is human. Born as humans, they can only become animals at puberty when their magical powers are "unlocked." The Arcadians feel that the Katagaria need to be closely monitored and controlled so as to prevent them from being emotionless animals capable of killing without reason.
Whenever a Were-Hunter is injured, knocked out, sleeping, or dead, it turns into its base form.
Origins[]
There was a King of Arcadia named Lycaon, who had a very pretty Apollite wife named Mysene. She bore him two lovely sons. The king didn't know about the curse until he watched Mysene die a very painful death on her twenty-seventh birthday. He didn't want the same fate to befall his two sons, so with the help of Dagon he combined the DNA of animals and Apollites. He picked only the strongest and most feared, creating the first Were-Hunters.
His experiments succeeded in circumventing the curse. Instead of living only twenty-seven years, they now lived for close to a thousand. Choosing the most powerful of the animals on which he had experimented, Dagon blended Lycaon's son Eumon with a dragon and Linus with a wolf.
For defying the will of a god, the Fates demanded that Lycaon kill his sons as punishment. When he refused, the Fates cursed the new race saying,
| “ | They will spend eternity hating and fighting until the day when the last of them breathes no more. | ” |
–Night Play, page 3 | ||
Whenever Lycaon blended an Apollite with an animal, he ended up with two new separate beings: one with an animal's heart and one with a human's. Thus the Katagaria and the Arcadians came to be. Those directly descended from King Lycaon took the surname of Kattalakis.
Patria[]
There are twelve different groups of Were-Hunters. One representative from each Arcadian and Katagaria patria sits on the Omegrion.
| Patria | Animal |
|---|---|
| Balios | Jaguar |
| Drakos | Dragon |
| Gerakian | Hawk, Falcon, Eagle |
| Helikias | Cheetah |
| Litarian | Lion |
| Lykos | Wolf |
| Niphetos Pardalia | Snow Leopard |
| Panthiras | Panther |
| Pardalia | Leopard |
| Tigarian | Tiger |
| Tsakalis | Jackal |
| Ursulan | Bear |
Mating[]
Mating is not a joke for the Weres. Nor is it something to be taken lightly. Having a Mate is more than about having sex. Those who have found their Mates have them for life. They are their soulmates that the Fates have chosen. Unmated Weres can have sex with anyone they want, but once they find their mate they can only be with that mate.
For some Were species, mating involves a hunt or chase. The female must have reached maturity and be ready to receive the male. For some, it is just the divining of the proper pheromones. Then all of this animal instinct has to be weighed against the two Weres as humans, with all the pain and emotional baggage that goes with that. Once the soul mates have discovered each other, beautiful Greek scroll-markings burn themselves into the palms of the male and female after they have sex. The markings mirror each other exactly, showing parental lineage and the ancient cipher can only be read by another Were. It looks a bit like a delicately detailed henna tattoo.
The couples that have such marks must be careful as each will carry the scent of his or her mate. This complication has put a Were in mortal danger more than once. Once an enemy has pegged a Were, that Were will be tracked by his/her scent. A Were’s scent is the one thing he cannot change or hide with magic. Once the mating marks appear, the couple has three weeks in which to consummate the mating–an act over which the female has total control. She is the one who must decide whether to take her partner into her body and accept him as a mate. If the female doesn't want the male for whatever strange, selfish, or stupid reason, then the Fates have declared that they must live out the rest of their very long lives without another mate. This means neither side will be able to bear children until the other dies.
Those are only the Fates’ laws, however. The clan laws are not so benevolent. They are strict about who and what they will allow into their patria, Fates be damned. In certain Arcadian groups, punishment for a female mating with a despised Katagaria male is that she be “given” to the unmated men of the clan. Few women survive such a punishment.
Now, once mated, there are two classifications of how strong the bond between each couple could possibly be: claimed mates and bonded mates. Claimed mates are together until one dies; then the other has a chance to one day be mated again. Bonded mates bond their life forces together. When one dies, the other dies, unless she is a female with child and the male is killed first. She will remain alive until she gives birth to the last child, then she will die and be reunited with her mate in heaven.
Powers[]
- Teleportation
- Telepathy
- Time Jumping
- Shields
- Telekinesis
- Shifting into an animal or human
They have a weakness to anything electrical. Depending on how powerful it is and what it is it can kill them by force shifting them between human and animal over and over again until it stops, or Ash stops it, or they die.
Were-Hunters also possess the ability to transfer their powers into other beings. This is something frequently kept quiet, as it is done so by sacrificing one's own abilities, thus weakening them.
Kinds of Arcadians and Katagaria[]
Aristi: A rare breed of Arcadian with the ability to wield magic effortlessly, Aristi are the most powerful and considered gods in the Arcadian realm.
Exoristos: Exiled Were. No member of the exiled Were's former patria is allowed to even speak his name.
Grand Regis: The representative of either the Arcadian or Katagaria species, which means that there are two Grand Regis per species, one for the Arcadian half, and one for the Katagaria half. It should be noted that there are only 23, because all Arcadian Jaguars are extinct, due to their angering Savitar.
Regis: The leader of each individual Were-Hunter pack.
Sentinels: Arcadian warriors chosen by the Moirae. Equivalent to the Katagaria Strati, they hunt Slayers and True Slayers.
Slayers: Katagaria that lose themselves to their animal impulse and attack Arcadians. They are hunted down by Sentinels and are often disliked by brethren Katagaria for their violent nature.
Strati: Katagaria soldiers who seek out rogue Arcadians to fight. Some Arcadians refer to all Strati as Slayers. Strati are the Katagaria equivalent of Sentinels.
Tessera: From the Greek word for "four"; term used for a group of four Were-Hunters sent out to hunt others of their kind.
True Slayers: More violent and vicious than a normal Slayer. They, like Slayers, are hunted down by Sentinels and are often disliked by brethren Katagaria for their violent nature.