(3D Model in Humanoid Reference by me! All else is Pinterest or her forge)
Hi! I made a model of one of my DND OC's a while back, but was never able to get around to making their therianthrope form aside from collecting a ton of references from pinterest. The TL;DR is: Briar was a member of an Uthgardt tribe in Faerun known for their lycanthropy, but over time, their wolfs blood became dilluted as outsiders were brought in, leading to shifters being born who couldn't fully become humanoid or lycanthrope, and were treated as social outcasts within the tribe. Briar, being a little more inquisitive and curious about the outside world, eventually found a solution to their own shifter nature--but in a hurry, hadnt completed their research, and had fallen ended up undergoing a bloodrite with a group of bloodhunters to give them the ability to fully shift. The only issue, is the blood provided wasnt werewolf blood... but werebat blood. With both beast bloods fighting, their fully shifted form is a walking horror, not quite wolf, not quite bat, and not quite human. Maybe they were never any of the three.
FULL BACKSTORY
Deep in The Lurkwood, south of the spine of the world, the Uthgardt tribe of the Gray Wolves still roams and preys on travelers and caravans that pass the forest. However, over the course of generations, a sickness has seeped into the tribe--in an effort to counteract inbreeding, many members of the pack would take wives from surrounding tribes and cities, turning them into werewolves before having children. This introduction of 'unpure' blood lead to the birth of shifters within certain families many generations down the line--immune to lycanthropy, stuck as half man, half wolf. These individuals would often be shunned within the tribe, only allowed to stay and hunt out of practicality, even if they would often fall behind their peers in terms of strength and capability.
While most would split off and attempt to integrate into society, one sought the acceptance of their tribe more than any. Briar, born to Thicket and Luciana Silverhair-an elvish captor their father had taken as a wife-Briar was a shifter. Fur fill ears and digitigrade legs, unable to manifest a shifted form beyond sharpened teeth and claws. Growing up shunned and spurred, they would eventually formulate a plan. They would sneak into the hoards treasure hoard, before things they deemed useless were sorted out and used as kindling or ruffage--looking for books, information. And after years, they would eventually find what they were looking for. A ritual that could bestow therianthropy upon anyone, that would allow existing lycans to better control their transformations, to shift at will instead of only when the silver of the moon fell upon them. With this knowledge in hand, they'd dissapear during a hunt, and flee south in the forest that bordered the Evermoore, where a group of people capable of performing the ritual could be found.
They had to prove themselves first. Met with apprehension, and confusion, they would undergo trials of combat, survival, tracking, and insight--and through much effort and bullheaded determination, they would pass and be welcomed into this groups circle. The Ritual was painful. Sharpened needles inserted at keypoints throughout their body, attached to cured intestinal bags and cords filled with blood while they were branded with runes for hours--it worked. However, the result was not what they had been anticipating. This group had not been werewolves, they had been werebats. Briars first transformation had been excrutiating, and wrong. Bones snapped and reformed, muscles restrung, and distinctly non-wolf features would grace an all too canine shaped body. A broad, wing tipped nose that folded up and back, large, ribbed ears, bat snout and wolf snouth battling and evenstually settling on a split down the central, capable of opening in two different directions. Patches of mange, excess skin with large patchy holes as if rotted away, an exceedingly emaciated frame that bristled with energy, pale blue, glowing mucus blender with their saliva, sweat, and blood that sparked at command. The werebat blood coursing through their system had hybridized with their wolfs blood, creating something all together new.
The, they didn't. Blinded by hope and excitement, they would rush home--bounding back the same path on all fours, awkward and clumsy underneath the light of the full moon. Back to the Lurkwood. They would arrive in the early hours of twilight, just as the sun would rise, and would tap against the window of their parents cabin, seeking their approval first. Instead, a scream would ring out and after moments of stricken, terrified confusion they would be chased out by the hunters of their tribe, until their transformation would wear off, unable to keep it maintained through the pain and fear. Upon discovering what this beast was in truth--the tribe would hold a council, and come to unanimous decision. Briar was now exile, never to return. For they had corrupted themselves, and unbenkownst to them, turned to a group of werewolf hunters for their transformation.
Now, Briar wanders the Sword Coast. Scrounging for food and shelter where they can get it, and hiding away from the full moon. They seek desperately to rid themselves of what they now see as a curse, even as they discover more of its potential and power. But the kinds of magic that fix such a break in nature are rare, and expensive, and what leads they have are too dangerous to pursue--delving into the Undermountain in search of its enigmatic creature to bargain for a cure was suicidal, turning to the divine to cure them of their affliction and rely on the fickle of whims of gods was just as likely to have them struck down then healed, and so they wander, grasping for clues whenever they can get them.