Beast lords and shapechangers

Since I've decided to make the beast lords a basic part of my setting's theology, that means I have to tie them with beasts and various related monsters. That includes beastmen, beastfolk, lycanthropes, therianthropes, and more.

The distinction between beastmen and beastfolk is arbitrary and the terms are often used interchangeably. When one does wish to make a distinction, it generally boils down to this: beastmen are chimerical combinations of human and animals features (e.g. centaurs, harpies, satyrs, etc), whereas beastfolk are anthropomorphic animals (e.g. catfolk, ratfolk, lizardfolk, sea devils, gnolls, etc).

Lycanthropes are humans or other humanoids suffering the affliction or blessing of lycanthropy. In my setting all diseases whether mundane or magical are caused by disease spirits a la Glorantha, a variation of which applies here. The disease spirits that cause lycanthropy are lycanthropic spirits and they behave a bit differently from other disease spirits, not the least of which being that they cause transformation into animal forms.

Antherians (from "antherion," a compound of an- + therian meaning "not animal") are intelligent beasts that may assume humanoid form as a racial trait, typically to infiltrate humanoid societies. (This concept appears quite a few times in real world folklore, such as the stories of fox fairies in China, Korea and Japan, the goblin spiders and raccoon dogs of Japan, hyena men in some African countries, deer women in some indigenous American cultures, and so forth.) Antherians cannot contract, carry or transmit lycanthropy; their innate animal spirit repels the lycanthropic spirit.

Therianthrope is an ambiguous term referring to 1) all shape changers that switch between beast and humanoid forms, or 2) antherians specifically (a usage originating from the 3pp Tome of Horrors, which introduced them under the OGL).

Zoanthrope is a synonym for therianthrope, referring to a man that assumes the form of an animal. For purposes of game setting world building, I will use the term to refer to humanoids that assume the forms of animals as a racial (or class) trait but are neither lycanthropes nor antherians. An example would be the Mhuinntir race from Legends & Lairs: Mythic Races, the Skinwalker race from Blood of the Moon, or the Weretouched archetype for the Shifter class in Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Wilderness. Like antherians, they cannot contract, carry or transmit lycanthropy.

Vermin hosts (introduced in Creature Collection II: Dark Menagerie under the OGL) are shape changers whose animal aspect are vermin like leeches, rats, roaches, and spiders. Although appearing similar to lycanthropes due to their assumed forms and ability to infect others, physically vermin hosts are actually swarms of vermin with a shared mind. I will treat them as a type of lycanthropy.

In the setting itself, most people are unaware of these distinctions and treat as shape changers as interchangeable.

All of these therianthropes may trace their origins to specific patrons among the beast lords, such as the lord of lycanthropes, the lord of vermin, etc.

In future posts I hope to explore the distinctions and ramifications further.