Dorian Silverbark

Wolfskins are people who have inherited a form of Lycanthropy they can control. Allowing them to turn in large bipedal, white furred, and blind beast forms. They are prized as soldiers and mercenaries, although they are rare and face some prejudice for being doglike in their behaviors. Their wolf ears and tails tend to showcase their emotions plainly. The Wolfskin are a tribe native to Astor. Their coordination as a pack alongside their immense strength makes them an incredibly dangerous to approach, even for the most skilled warriors. They also have exceptionally strong sense of smell, allowing them to easily discern people even from a distance or out of sight. This also makes them incredibly difficult to ambush. The Wolfskin are, however, occasionally targeted by poachers for their rare fur, and encounters with these poachers have caused the tribal Wolfskin to view other outsiders with suspicion. Some Wolfskin are scavengers and some people can get sick fighting them due to diseases found in the meat. The Wolfskin tribe is much like a real wolf pack, living as a unified family of many individuals, though not necessarily tied by blood. Additionally, the concept of a pack is very important to a Wolfskin. They consider an adventuring party, their friends and comrades, the community the live and serve in, and any of their blood families and equivalent to a pack. And they are extremely protective of and have certain ingrained behaviors as part of being in a pack. Wolfskins generate two different forms of saliva with different effects. Their tongues produce a saliva that numbs pain and promotes cellular regeneration. It can heal although the potency is reduced by the amount of air it comes into contact with. Thisbis why packmates tend to literally lick each others wounds when they find refige. Their fangs on the other hand have saliva glands that can generate a burning sensation and slow blood clotting. They can control how much saliva they generate from their fangs at will. Wolfkin are also capable of speech while transformed. Dorian once described a pack as meaning: Family. Safety. Friendship. Shared resources. Trust. The right to lead me, and care for one another. Or even a home. Like other chimeric races, Wolfskins can breed with Humans, resulting in half-breed children who retain the transformative abilities of their Wolfskin parent. Young Wolfskins will struggle to control themselves after transforming until taught better. Older Wolfskins will stay nearby and enforce pack hierarchy to keep them in line until they learn control. Teaching control usually starts with helping them learn to speak while transformed. After which their conscious mind will naturally start asserting itself. Wolfskins experience heat cycles as part of their mating habits. But they are private about disclosing information about them to outsiders. They tend to either find a mate and hole up somewhere, hire a sex worker to serve as a mate for the duration, or avoid contact with other species during their cycle. This is not because they can't control themselves, but because they know their habits and needs during that time might be considered indecent by others. So they hide away to avoid the social stigma.