Shifters

"Shifter" is kind of a broad term. Anything that changes itself from one thing to another is considered a shifter. These things are tricky and hard to figure out. It all depends on what kind of shifter you're dealing with. Not all of them are evil, but usually they're not exactly good. They all end up in their situation for different reasons. Some shifters are born the way they are. Other ones go through some kind of change. Really, it's hit and miss.

Werewolves are people who were unfortunate or stupid enough to get bitten by a werewolf. It's also called lycanthropy. Once you get bitten by a werewolf you become one yourself. Every month when the full moon rolls around, you grow claws and fangs and get a craving for some human flesh. This ain't Twilight. Lycanthropes don't turn into wolves or big hulking beasts. It's more subtle than that and hard to spot if you don't already know what you're looking at. In human form, a werewolf will usually have no idea what they did as a monster. The rest of the month, a lycanthrope walks around like a normal person. They have jobs, friends. You know, the usual.

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Skinwalkers are people who turn into animals. It's easy to confuse them with werewolves, so be careful. The biggest difference is skinwalkers can turn whenever they damn well please instead of waiting around for the full moon. Oh, and skinwalkers make complete transformations into animals instead of just growing fangs and claws. If a person gets bitten by a skinwalker they become one, too, and they turn into the same animal as the thing that turned them. Some are good, some are bad, and some are ugly.

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Shapeshifters can turn into other people. They copy stuff they see. Someone walking down the street, an actor on TV - whatever. Most of them have to shed their skin and lose their teeth to transform - nasty as it sounds to look at. Most shapeshifters are evil by nature. Once in a while you find a rare one that's somewhat harmless. Even those ones shouldn't be trusted, if you ask me.

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