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The Plot:
You have four paths to choose: lycanthrope/lycanthian, werewolf, human, or hunter.
Whichever you choose can be your downfall or the beginning of something exciting and new. Of course, you can always be a little of one or two, but that's for special occasions only.

Path One:
You are a Lycanthian, otherwise known as a lycanthrope or wrongly-deemed "werewolf". You have the ability to shape-shift into a wolf (a bit larger than the average male wolf), but your clothing only changes with you if you are wearing all natural clothing. It's not just a full moon either, you can change at will to your wolf form, and at night, you and your pack may all rest together and shift forms back to human in your sleep. It's the good life, save for the hunters after your life if you happened to have chosen the wrong place to live, and the disputes between werewolves don't really do too much good either. You may live with or by a pack of actual wolves and your technology and surroundings are more that of the Inuit and Native Americans. The only things that a human can kill you with are: silver bullets, cutting your head off, or stabbing in the heart (or burning, drowning, or poisoning). If you are young or weak, however, werewolves, regular bullets, or one of the forms above may kill you.
Transformations will come to you after puberty.
Lycans are less vulnerable to silver than werewolves and can be around it and touch it without feeling extremely ill as werewolves do. If they are shot/stabbed/etc with it, however, they will most likely die if it doesn't get out of their bodies quickly.

For a human to become a lycan, s/he has to go through a ritual that will transform him/her into a lycanthrope, but not a full one, of course. Those who have been transformed via the ritual will only have half of the power of a regular lycan and can be killed more easily. Lycans generally do not allow werewolves to enter their society and become lycans.

Path Two
If you choose to be a werewolf (there is a difference from that and the lycans). You can be killed in the same matter and are actually more hunted and elusive than the lycan. You normally are a rogue because lycans wont accept you into their clans, but most are fine with that. Despite that, you may find a place among other werewolves, despite how vicious it gets after the full moon arrives. Of course, due to your unpredictable nature and turning into a wolf during the full moon (though you still can become a wolf at night or other times if you can control* it -- unless there's a new moon). Werewolves are more prone to madness and attacking both humans and their own kind, though being a werewolf gives you more acute senses than even a pure blood lycan (mainly since you're more animalistic).
Werewolves are affected greatly by the moon cycles, gaining their powers or losing them depending on the moon's fullness (meaning a new moon will render you weak in senses and abilities, keeping you from transforming; a full moon will force your transformation and will likely make you vicious and uncontrollable, very emotional in human form). Sometimes, werewolves are more like humans in their wolf forms and can hunker almost to standing on their hind legs, though most appear to be ravenous wolves with human-esque anatomy. Werewolves can look like an almost hairless wolfish creature without a tail when they're inexperienced, weakened by the moon's cycle, or just can't control their transformations, or they can look almost like full wolves but with shorter tails and more human-like features.
((Think Van Helsing's werewolves and Harry Potter's werewolves.))
You must hit puberty before making transformations, though as a werewolf, the cycles of the moon will still affect your behavior.
Werewolves feel ill by just being around silver. Silver is like a toxic poison to them and even touching it can make them very sick. If it gets into their system, they will surely die.

It is much easier to become a werewolf, as only the passing of blood between a werewolf and a human (or lycan, in some cases) can spread the "disease". Human-turned-werewolves will often only have half of the traits of a regular werewolf, sometimes not as affected by the moon cycles and silver. However, their power is diminished from what a werewolf normally has, and sometimes, their beast forms are more human like than not.

*Werewolves must be well-experienced to control their transformations, and only strong adults with the ability to focus their willpower are able to control a full-moon transformation. Even then, there's no chance of complete control or stopping of a transformation during that time.
If a werewolf's blood is less pure (half human or lycan) then control can be more possible, but for a full-blood, the above statements will always apply.

Path Three:
You are human. You can either know a lot about lycanthians and werewolves or nothing at all, it just depends on what you do. You can hate them and send the hunters, not know or care about them, or try to protect them. Your choice. Of course, if you ever wanted to become one of the lycans, you'd have to marry one, then enter in a special ceremony so you may be transformed, or if you wanted to become a werewolf -- you'd need to have their blood in your system. But remember, once you become one, you may never turn back.

Path Four:
You are either a rogue beast-hunter, hired or just after a bounty, or a member of a large group of hunters that works to kill and sell parts or live beasts. Either way, you kill or capture werewolves and lycanthropes for a living and may even go after the packs of native wolves within the mountains and deep forests. Your strategy can be based on group or single hunting, trapping or exterminating, targeting only lycans or only werewolves, or taking down the beasts by their human or beast forms. Just be careful of the law and some of the beasts that will go after you if you try to eliminate their kind -- seems they don't take kindly to that.

~

The Setting:
You live on the border between lower Alaska and Canada near or in a wild game reserve or just forestry and wildlife. Either more in the cities surrounding the lands, out in the country, or within the wild itself.
The time period is current, despite the hunting and lifestyles have been kept to the down-low. Not much is known about these places, and most that live there tend to keep it that way to keep away snooping strangers.