Some werewolves, particularly those turned against their will, find their bestial state abhorrent. Hence they refuse to transform -- and can live their entire lives without anyone ever suspecting that their neighbor, teacher, or local priest is a lycanthrope.
Contrary to popular belief, victims of werewolf attacks don't usually turn into lycanthropes themselves. Most of them just turn into a bloody mess, and -- if one wishes to be unpleasantly veracious -- a pile of excrement. Only those who are bitten but survive the experience may become afflicted with lycanthropy. Fortunately, at least for the wider world if not for the individuals in question, that doesn't happen too often.
"Grandma, what big teeth you have!" -- Last words of a lycanthrope's granddaughter
Lycanthropes can sometimes draw on the strength, speed, and heightened senses of their wolf forms without changing. It requires considerable discipline though, since doing so brings the beast to the surface -- eager for release.
Werewolves have been known to shun their former peoples and live as beasts, sometimes amongst packs of natural wolves. There are rumors that a few have even found kinship with lupine beastmen.
Conventional weapons might knock a lycanthrope around, if wielded with sufficient strength, but they can't pierce the creature's hide. Fire, silver, or enchantments are needed for that.
At court, several nobles have demanded the passing of a so-called Lycanthrope Law, which would force West Krunans to turn in anyone suspected of being a werewolf, and command local authorities to execute proven lycanthropes. These aristocrats whisper that their adversaries only oppose the law because they harbor dark secrets...
Though humans and other beings afflicted with lycanthropy are still alive, they can often be found associating with the undead -- with whom they tend to have some affinity. After all, many of the living dead know what it's like to be shunned for their nature.
The full moon isn't required for a werewolf to transform. Nor does it necessarily force a lycanthrope to change, though its presence in the sky is said to make the beast more difficult to resist.
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