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Rodere (WereRats)

Unlike the Lukoi or the Pard, the Rodere (or Were-Rats) tend towards a more varied social structure. The only real formal office is that of the head of the local rat pack (sometimes known as a 'plague of rats' or a 'swarm of rats'), the Rat King/Queen. Any other rank is up to the whim of the present monarch.

As with every other lycanthropic pack or any other support group, there is no real method for "tradition" to be passed down from old shifter to new shifter other than word of mouth and peer-pressure. As such, it is not unheard of for some packs to eschew the "traditional setup" and go with their own method of organization (EG: Perhaps where the leader(s) is/are chosen annually by the pack? Perhaps no clear leader, with the pack's actions decided by majority vote? Perhaps a triumvirate, where there are three leaders of equal political power?). As with all shifter packs, whatever is "right" and whatever is "wrong" is purely based on what the pack's leader decrees, up until the leader is deposed for their unpopular views.

Given that most lycanthropes gain a few instinctual traits of the animals they shift into, rats often (but not always) have a split in behaviour based on gender. Female rats tend to be highly inquisitive and full of curiosity, sometimes leading to a downfall aspect of deficient attention span. Male rats tend to be, quite frankly, lazy; your standard male rat would like nothing better to lie around with food and drink in reach. In Rodere, this would translate to a couch potato watching TV, living off of delivered pizza and beer. Fortunately, this isn't always the case. Another trait often carried over is that dominance is established by who grooms whom, with the groomer ranking over the groomed (the opposite of most primates). This often sublimates into higher-ranking Rodere deciding what the lower-ranking wear for makeup, hair-styles, perfume/cologne, clothing, etc..

Obviously, if anything carries over from the rat-form, it's generally just mental/social traits. Although a normal rat (and a were-rat in critter-form) can fit through anything their head can fit through, can't vomit, et cetera.. by default, a were-rat in human-form can't do the body-squish nor are they incapable of vomiting.

Possibly due to how well mundane rats work with humanity, Rodere show natural aptitude in being able to shift on demand (although with no particular resistance against forced shifting due to stress or the phase of the moon), to shift into the halfway 'ratman' form, and to communicate with their mundane rat brethren. When in rat form they run about 7'-8' long (note, half of that is just the tail, so the body is about 3.5'-4' long), and stand between 16" and 18" from ground to shoulder (standing on all four legs).

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