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Wererat


A wererat is a therianthropic creature in the shape of a rat. The term is a neologism coined in analogy to werewolf, used in the fantasy or horror genre since the 1970s. The concept has since become common in role playing games and fantasy fiction inspired by them. Were-rats are commonly portrayed as sewer-dwelling scavengers and opportunistic thieves. Brad Steiger has written about wererat sightings in Oregon, mostly by children.

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the wererat is one of several different types of animalistic forms. They are classified as "lycanthropes", despite the fact that the term reflects a lupine, or wolven, form. In the Oriental Adventures supplemental sourcebook, they appear as the Japanese mythological creatures, the Nezumi; these "ratlings" as they are often called by humans, are a race of bipedal ratlike humanoids. They are also found in various games inspired by or based on Dungeons & Dragons such as Legend of the Five Rings, NetHack and Neverwinter Nights.

See Ratkin for wererats in White Wolf's "World of Darkness" role-playing setting (1995).

Another example of wererats can be found in the Kamigawa plane of Magic: The Gathering, a race of bipedal ratlike humanoids called the Nezumi.

In the Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game, wererats are one of the species of werebeasts that dwell in the Darkest Heart, a magically corrupted forest found in the southern region of the Land of the Damned. Wererats, along with many other werebeasts, are relatively unheard of in the Palladium world outside of the mysterious Land of the Damned.


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