Editing Wereshark

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[[File:wereshark fanart PF.jpg|thumb]]
'''Weresharks''' are, obviously, a breed of [[therianthrope]] where you have a human who turns into a shark. Despite the general lack of popularity of aquatic adventurers and monsters, they've got a long appearance in [[Dungeons & Dragons]] (with inevitable [[Pathfinder]] counterparts), and even [[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]] has them.

==D&D==
Weresharks have been a part of [[Dungeons & Dragons]] for a fair while, and are considered a "generic" [[therianthrope]], with noted presence in both the [[Forgotten Realms]] and [[Ravenloft]].

In 2nd edition generic lore, weresharks are described as brutish, cruel and arrogant aquatic therianthropes that can assume the form of 20' long great white sharks. Usually human men in their base form (because human men tend to be the ones who fish and sail, and thus put themselves at risk of being attacked by these beasts), a wereshark's humanoid form is often hideously scarred or maimed due to the devastating effects of a shark bite, but its shark form is unblemished even if their humanoid form has lost limbs. Selfish and individualistic, they are also fiercely territorial, staking claims on sunken ships or undersea caves and defending them to the death. They often plunder these areas so they can use the treasures found for their own gain above the waves. Typically, a wereshark is only found accompanied by a school of normal sharks, and these sadistic brutes enjoy wounding foes to provoke a feeding frenzy in their "entourage", sitting back and watching as their prey is torn apart before scavenging for any loot that might have been left over. When they do attack directly, they prefer to go for the legs, or simply swallow their prey whole - their bite attack does 5d4 damage and lets them automatically swallow man-sized or smaller creatures if the wereshark's attack roll beats the victim's [[THAC0]] by 5+. They may sometimes ally with other weresharks, priests of evil sea gods, or the sahuagin, but ultimately they are usually too individualistic to be found in numbers.

Talking of [[sahuagin]], that same 2e generic lore notes that "there are also persistent rumors among the sea-dwellers of sahuagin weresharks that are treated as holy warriors and a larger than any known human weresharks (12 Hit Dice)". The [[splatbook]] "Monstrous Arcana: The Sea Devils" goes into detail about sahuagin weresharks and establishs two things.

Firstly, wereshark therianthropy is highly respected amongst [[sahuagin]], and a sahuagin wereshark can expect a considerable promotion in social status (though females who become infected are prohibited from breeding, for some reason). In contrast, on the rare occasions that a sahuagin contracts [[seawolf]] strain therianthropy, they are forced to flee for their lives. Both forms of therianthropy are highly incompatible with sahuagin biology; sahuagin weresharks die within 200 years of contracting the disease, which admittedly is better than the 75 years to live that a sahuagin seawolf gets.

Secondly, sahuagin will go out of their way to c apture non-sahuagin weresharks alive and use them as elite combatants in their gladiatorial arena. If a wereshark survives in the arena for 3 years, they are considered blessed by [[Sekolah]] and officially adopted into the community, though they are treated more like a favored pet than an equal.

"The Sea Devils" also establishes that the wereshark has a "sharkwere" antithesis, like the [[werewolf]] and the [[wolfwere]]. Known as the [[nawidnehr]], this creature is bigger, fiercer and nastier than the wereshark, and the two absolutely ''hate'' each other, fighting to the death on sight.

==Pathfinder==
Appear in Pathfinder, and even have a [[skinwalker]] lineage related to them.

==World of Darkness==
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They're called '''Rokea''' and are almost always born to female sharks, generally having very little to do with the human world.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
wereshark PC4.jpg|1e
wereshark 1e.png
wereshark City of Splendors 2e.png|2e
wereshark RR4.jpg
Wereshark MCAV2.jpg
wereshark PF.jpg|Pathfinder
frosty wereshark PF.jpg
</gallery>

{{D&D-Therianthropes}}
[[Category: Monsters]]
[[Category:Therianthropes]]