The Cerave

Owned By: Fire
Race: Shifter
Species Name: The Cerave (Sair-a-Vee)
Lifespan: Unknown. It is thought that the normal lifespan for a King/Queen is 30 years, an Assistant can live 25 years, and an Other can live 15-20 years if not killed or eaten. Maturity comes at 5 years old for all types.
Types/Ranks
King/Queen
-Appearance: These are the biggest Cerave. They are about the size of a full grown mastiff with a height between 27-35 inches at the withers and a weight between 175-200 pounds. All Cerave have the appearance of wolves although they really are parasites. In their wolf form they can be any color but they must have bat wings. In their parasitic form they look more like mangy strays with blue fur and Medusa like fur on their head. Their once furry tails turn very demon like. Although these rulers can have any color eyes, in their parasitic form their eyes turn a shade of red.
-Powers: The King and Queen can turn into a mammalian predator of their choosing. In this form, they can infect others. All their freakish attributes are hidden from those they infect. The King and Queen are the only ones who can breed true Cerave. All Cerave have one power similar to mutants. However, to fully exploit their powers they need to infect the animal that they can turn into. There is only one King and Queen in a pack.
-How to Kill: It is a lot harder to kill the King or Queen as they have stronger minds then the other two types. The only way to kill them is in their predator form.

The Assistants
-Appearance: The assistant type Cerave have a weight between 75-95 pounds and a height between 24-26 inches at the withers. They share the same general look in both wolf and parasite form but for some differences. The assistants can be any natural color but they can have any color markings. Their eyes can be any natural color in wolf form but must be orange in parasitic form. Thought to be a bred cross between a King/Queen and an Other, they have one bat wing and one feathered wing.
-Powers: They can turn into a large herbivore like an elephant, giraffe, wildebeest, or something like that. The Assistants are sterile. Their main job is to take care of the King, Queen and pups and there are usually one or two of each gender in a pack.
-How to Kill: The Assistants are very susceptible to depression and anxiety. Because of this many assistants are driven to suicide instead of actually being killed.

The Others
-Appearance: The Others are the smallest of the Cerave with a weight between 45-60 pounds and a height of 21-24 inches at the withers. The only differences are that these Cerave have feathered wings and their eyes are yellow when in parasitic form. They must have natural colored fur and eyes in normal form.
-Powers: They have very limited powers. They can turn into a small prey animal like rabbits, rodents, and other small creatures usually finding themselves to be dinner. They only have the power that they had before they were infected. Since the Others are not true Cerave but merely an infected member of a different species, they are not sterile and can produce young. However, due to serious birth defects most of the time, the young very rarely make it past their first year. There can be any number of these in a pack.
-How to Kill: The simplest way? Eat them when they are in their prey form.
Personality: Being half parasitic and half their animal of choice, they can survive without a host for a period of time. However, to continue to have good mental and physical health they must infect something. They firmly believe that lust is the root of all evil and so will usually flirt their way into infecting a host. The Others seem to be infected with Rabies for the first week and then finally become somewhat sane. The Assistants, being born and not infected, have less mental health issues but as stated, are prone to depression and anxiety. The King and Queen are the only ones who are truly sane. Unfortunately sanity comes with a price. Although quite smart, they are only as strong as the last host they infected. They run from neutral to dark. A “light” personality Cerave will get eaten without a second glance. The King and Queen Cerave are extremely cannibalistic and will often eat the Others and the Assistants depending on the predator they turn into. Very rarely do they actually hunt outside of their own pack. It is usually the smallest/omega of the pack that will get eaten first. The females in all types tend to be more aggressive.
The Infection: So how do they infect a host? A bite, a scratch, and even a lick can infect. If an animal is bitten their whole body becomes infected and they become an Other. If they are scratched or licked, that area that had been touched becomes infected. It is not uncommon for a normal wolf to get a demonic tail or a blue patch of fur but be otherwise normal. Sometimes it will even clear up like a disease. These do not become an Other and remain as they were. The Others usually do the infecting. Once infected, the Others will often leave the host to infect another after the initial week.
History: Once upon a time a normal pack of wolves came down with symptoms similar to Rabies. Some got the “Furious” form with aggressive tendencies and the common mad type symptoms. Others got the “Dumb” form with depression and anxiety. However, 3 weeks later, all signs of the disease disappeared. Those with the furious form developed bat wings and those with the Dumb form developed feathered wings. Soon blue fur and the Medusa hair along with their tail soon developed. Before long the Furious form infected wolf infected a fox. The other could only infect a rat. It was then that the Bat-winged wolves split up and became Kings and Queens. The Others went with them. The King and Queens bred true while the Others gave birth to defective pups. Somehow it was decided that they needed stronger Assistants to take care of them. So in the night, a King mated with a female Other and the young actually survived. With the ability to become large herbivores and with one of each wings, they began their long slavery to the rulers. Soon word got out that a pack of wolves had survived rabies and had turned into monsters. And soon after that they were dubbed the Cerave.
*Note* Cerave can ONLY infect Mammalian species (Mammals). This also means they can ONLY turn into a mammal, whether it be a large herbivore, a small prey animal or a predator. The only animal they can infect successfully is the animal they turn into. All other animals will not get fully infected and will heal. The blue fur can be any shade of blue and Kings and Queens can be any color imaginable in their non-parasitic form. Any male predator can become the King as long as the Queen accepts him and allows breeding. Queens are chosen by birth.