Symptoms and Cures for Lycanthropy

To understand the concept of Shape Shifting and to introduce some sort of platform that our storyline(teaser) could possibly construct around, we decided that we needed to look at the transformation process of a lycanthropy sufferer. Luckily there are stages. Three Infact. And here is what they are in short summary.

STAGE ONE:
Once someone becomes infected, they enter the first stage of the disease.
- None if any symptoms , normally mild-flu symptoms
-Lasts until the first transformation
-Physcological symptoms

STAGE TWO
-Those Infected cannot control their changes. It occurs whether they wish it to or not.
All transformations occur as the result of some Trigger Event.  - stereotypically the moon.
-High degree of animal like behavior
-The infected's body adapts to the disease within itself
-Transformations become less painful
-Acceptance to disease allows distinguishing features of shape shifted features

STAGE THREE
-At this point Lycanthropy can no longer be thought of as a disease, but more as a symbiotic partner of the subject
-The subject has gained the ability to change form at will.
-Still susceptible to his unique trigger event

There are traditionally 3 European methods of curing a werewolf, medicinally (usually via the use of wolfsbane), surgically or by exorcism. However, many of the cures advocated by medieval medical practitioners proved fatal to the patients... oops!

Other methods for curing werewolves from around the world include:

Sicilian Arabs
- striking the victim on the forehead or scalp with a knife - also slightly fatal.
- piercing of the werewolf's hands with nails.
Less extreem answers...

Germans
- In the German lowland of Schleswig-Holstein, a werewolf could be cured if one were to simply address it three times by its Christian name.

Danish
- Danish belief holds that simply scolding a werewolf will cure it.
Conversion to Christianity is also a common method of removing werewolfism in the medieval period, but this is the only time religion seems to be linked to werewolves. (religion was a very important aspect of cluture during the medieval period across Europe.)