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okay, so just what is the difference between a Lycan and a Furry? where is the dividing line?

well, lycanthropy refers to the ability for a human to turn into an animal, according to folklore a wolf, upon a full moon

a furry, is just something covered in hair. it doesn't necessarily have to be a transformed human

I am sooo lost, ive never heard of a furry?

A very good question although I don't have an answer hopefully one will be given to shed some light on it . I wish to know myself.

could a fake wolf-man at a freak show be considered a furry?

A furry, inho, is a furrvert, aka a person with a fetish for dressing up as an animal, for whatever kink/reason they have. A lycanthrope, tho perhaps used as a term of describing a therian, seems morseo to me based off fictional movies or stories...to say therian describes any person who is associated with any anima, unlike werewolf, being based on wolf.

thank you for the light to my question.

lycanthropy come from a ancient greek god called lycan , he pissed zues off and got turned into a wolf, another version is the delusion of a human that thinks they are a werewolf

LOL!!Thought I'd NEVER see that word in here!
-FURRY-
Is a human that loves to dress up in animal furs..or maybe false fur,and act like an animal..any kind.And do kinky things.heehee.
Sometimes they may really N' truely think that they ARE the animal they pick.
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Now..a werewolf..is a human that changes..actually changes in form into a wolf.Just a wolf.No other animal.

Well to set something a little straight,I am part Lycan, but no i cant shapeshift,originally Lycanthropy was deemed a mental illness,once again,Hollywood being itself,gave us such fare as the Wolfman,which i happen to enjoy very much,but no we dont think we can change into a wolf anymore than we vamps can change into a bat,moores the pity

A furry? *scaratches head* ive heard of fury but never furry....
Okay never mind. I just went to a website looking up "furry" & apparently the answer i got was that a furry is someone like kermit the frog or mickey mouse....No laughing at me please! I swear im not fibbing....Now i really am confused about the whole furry thing... *sigh*
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/furry/faq/section-3.html

i am going to have to agree with hells guardian. there is so much of a diference it is not even funny. no most of us cannot shapeshift, and it doesnt have to be on the full moon either. the fact of the matter is a lycan and fury is just as it has been said in earlier post. every answer has been correct.q

I must say < I agree with most people, I have never heard of a furry, a most educational thread.

I have heard and seen pics (in the wild world of BDSM and fetishes) of people who dress up like animals and pretend to be an animal for that night...but simply for fetish purposes. I've never heard it termed "furry" though, so Im not sure on that.

But lycanthropy is quite the interresting subject. Even though lycanthropy is derrived from psychological problems/aspects of the human mind, it has nothing to do with a person literally morphing into an animal.
But I honestly believe waaaay back in time, through native american practices and rituals..it may have very well been possible for some kind of physical change.

But I don't see how lycanthropy can be strictly associated with psychological problems...considering every person can and will act like an animal at times... if a wolf is backed into a corner and threatened, it will use it's only means of defense..(teeth) If a human is threatened enough (like in a fight) and has no weapons on them, wouldn't that person when fighting bite, scratch, do anything they can to protect themselves, just like the wolf? I'd say more than likely the person would.

So maybe I have psychological problems, but I know, just like a wolf, I wouldn't hesitate to bite the heck out of someone if I dont have any weapon on me for defense. So I guess that makes me crazy? lol

There was an episode of CSI that showed people who were furries and it is a kink thing they would get into what is called a fur pile and "skritch" each other

oh my...i don't think I quite ever made that connection....therian to furry.....
frighteningly close....

Well if a furry is someone that has a fetish for dressing up as a animal, then the different is pointedly vast in my opinion.

well this is the first i heard of a furry in this sense. Furry userly pertains to something with fur over their body....

A furry is someone whose mental image of themselves is a humaniod of some form of animal. Mostly mammles (thus the fur), but some may view themselves as dragon furries or other mytical creatures. Most furries I know are some form of cat or dog (puma, wolf, coyote, etc)

Sometimes this is just "played out" by wearing animal ears on their headbands and wearing doggie collars.. sometimes it goes so far as them dressing up in mascot outfits of various animals.

Most furries I know are homosexual or bisexual. I think it's an alternate way of thinking of their sexuality.

I get the feel that lycan does not come down to sexuality, that it is merely animalistic urges..

Animalistic urges,... hmmm

i agree with Hells Gaurdian , raging animalist tendencies comming out and im gett a hair rasing urge to kill

A costume. Some Furries feel that when they dress like that, they ARE that creature, which is Lycanthropy. Some and MOST do it as a sexual thrill (but then again they ACT as these animal). Kind of like when people who do the whole vampire thing. And buy white contacts, and the false dental prosthetics to "become" a vampire. It's what the person who is doing it wants it to represent.

hmmm - not really surprised how few of you have heard of Furries - i hadn't heard of it myself until a year or tow ago when it hit the newspapers. apparently a British soldier claims to be a Satanist, and wishes to be recognised as such. he also admitted to being a Furry who dresses as a squirrel.

it's not just a fetish though. many Furries are inspired by anthropomorphisation as portrayed in Manga, anime, and even Disney cartoons. these creatures are basically animals with human attributes, which on the surface may seem to be the exact opposite of Lycanthropy - but in truth is it really the opposite? in both cases it is a human who associates himself (or herself) with an animal. the legends of Lycanthropy (and other animal / human shapeshifters) have their roots in shamanism, where a shaman would dress up as an animal and imitate the behaviour of an animal in order to evoke the spirit.

i know some people prefer to cite rabies or mental illness as the root of the myth, but i feel that is too dismissive.

Lycanthropy Vs. Furry.
I guess the best way to put it- Lycans, at the full moon or perhaps at will (not a lycan myself so going by hearsay) will change, longer fangs, more hair, sometimes a very BIG transformation, lust for blood/feeding on flesh. Typical horror story stuff. Kind of an animalistic vampire, but they lose touch with their humanity and humanoid self and we...simply fall from grace.
Furry's on the other hand are Fetishists.
People who dress up, or are into people who dress up as animals.
I don't think there's any feeding or bloodlust here.
I think a Furry might find a lycan falling into their kink catagory, but it would probably end really short when the lycan decides to eat them.

Well in order to define the question at hand one must look towards the definition of the two words in question.

Lycan: Is the latin term for Wolf brought about through the mythology of a King Lycos who feed the gods a human and was thus cursed to take on a wolven form.

Furry: An apparent subculture of individuals who believe that they have simmislar aspects or can transform into some sort of human/ animal hybrid.

Ok, but what is the difference between a Furry and a Skinwalker? Or what is the different between a Skinwalker and a Therian. Now what is the difference....

Skinwalker: Are seen mostly as Bezerkers who wore the skins of animals into battle with the belief that they would gain some attribute of the animal whos skin they wore.

Therianthrope: Those who believe that they posess attributes of or can transform into any variety of animal not just limited to the wolf as with Lycanthropy.

You were off a lot on the Skinwalker. A skinwalker is a native american myth. A Medicine woman who was guilty of her own greed was punished by having to transform into a wild beast, usually a dog or wolf.

Well a lycon is a werewolf and a furry is a person with a fetish for dressing up in animal outfits to bring out their inner animal.

okay - i've thought some more on this, and i'd like to change the tack ever so slightly. how does this all tie in with gods and mythic beasts? many of the egyptian gods are depicted as humanoid, but with animal heads. i think this is relevant, because the werewolf myth grew from the pagan practice of wearing the head (or a mask) of an animal and then behaving in some way like that animal in order to awaken the spirit of that animal within the shaman.

now compare this to the subculture of the Furry. it is not just about having sex whilst dressed as an animal. most furries are officianados of cartoon and anime characters that are part animal part human. a more didely known example might be the characters from the disney version of Robin Hood - in fact human / fox hybrids are amongst the most popular furries.

i dont think it is just a kink - i think it is drawing from a common archetype. we can see the same sort of thing in greek mythology, with human and animal hybrids - such as the minotaur, the satyr, the centaur etc.

even werewolves come in different forms. there are those that are half wolf / half man - like in the old universal movies. there are those that transform into a normal wolf, those that transform into a giant wolf that can sometimes stand on two legs, and those that dont transform at all - some just behave like a wolf, and some dont even leave their sitting position, but project their consciousness into a living wolf. that poses the question - is a werewolf a man possessed by wolf spirit, or a wolf possessed by a man?

also, why does a erotic motivation automatically make it dismissive? the same is not true for vampires. a lot of people calling themselves vampires are just into it for the erotic aspects, bdsm, bloodplay etc. as i see it, the major divide between those into vampirism and those into lycanthropy, is the eroticism - almost as if werewolves are rejecting sex. i dont wish to generalise, and my experience may be way off here, but i do notice that tendency. am i wrong?

ditto furry? lol at Erick... know something about it?

one has human dna the other dosent

prove it. if a lycanthrope can actually physically change his form, he no doubt does this by restructuring his DNA - but it would have to be human DNA to start with, else he would not look human. personally, i think the lycanthrope does not physically change, but projects the persona of the wolf so strongly, it is how he is percieved.

i dont really know about lycans. i never really ever heard of them until i saw underworld

Karnstein raises an interesting idea. If a person cannot genetically change into a wolf then they might be projecting that persona so strongly they are percieived as a wolf...

I have never thought of this matter in quite this way. Genetically we know that mutation takes a long time. But, if a disease mutates the gene it can happen in an instant.

Therefore, is it not possible that lycanthorpes have genetically mutated due to a disease that causes moon based changes in their appearance, demeanor, and behavior?

Just a thought!

ok idk what a furry is nor do I care

lycanthropy is a medical term where the person believes they become a wolf physically, shapeshifters actaully believe in changing to their respectful animals, and therians believe they have certain qualities or characteristics of an animal let's say maybe a wolf as an example

a furry sounds kind of silly so please to confuse the four is not acurate

nightfang - that is very dismissive, not to mention judgmental. the main difference between a furry and a werewolf / lycan / shapeshifter as far as i can see is that the furrie's obsession is rooted in sex. that happens to be one of nature's strongest urges and motivations. that and the fact that they haven't convinced themselves that they have turned into an animal, and so act out their fantasy using costumes - but that is precisely what shamans and medicine men do - where a costume or animal skin and act out a part.

as much as i would like to believe it, i cannot accept that a being can physically transform from human to wolf and then back again. i
would like to believe it - truly, but its too much to swallow.

Karn,

How many large groups of those that classify themselves as lycans, have you been around? It is very carnal and sexual with them. Highly. Almost as a necessity.

as it should be. i'll be honest, the only lycans / werewolves i have "met" are on this site - i've never met one in real life. but it is something that fascinates me, and i think you have really proved my point - or at least begun to answer it.

Definitions of lycanthropy on the Web:

* (folklore) the magical ability of a person to assume the characteristics of a wolf
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

* In folklore, Lycanthropy is the ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a wolf. The term comes from ancient Greek lykanthropos (λυκάνθροπος): lykos ("wolf") + anthropos ("man"). The word lycanthropy is often used generically for any transformation of a human into animal form, though the precise term for that is technically therianthropy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycanthropy

* Clinical lycanthropy is a psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusional belief that the affected person is, or has, transformed into an animal. It is named after the mythical condition of lycanthropy, a supernatural affliction in which people are said to physically shapeshift into werewolves.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycanthropy_(clinical)


All taken from: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=g8V&defl=en&q=define:lycanthropy&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title


Definitions of Furries on the Web:

* Furry fandom is a subculture of the science fiction and fantasy fandoms. Members of the furry fandom, known as furry fans or simply furries, particularly enjoy media that involves anthropomorphic animals: that is, fictional animals with human traits (such as walking on two feet, talking, wearing clothes, living in houses, etc.). Such media includes popular animated cartoons, comic books, and stories and novels.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furries

Find definitions of Furries in: English German all languages

Taken from:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=h8V&q=define%3AFurries&btnG=Search




So what appears to be the real difference is that Furries are more of fetish/wanna-be's.
Whereas, Lycanthropes appear to have more of a...substantial grounds for a following

Lycanthropy is a man that changes to Werewolf. Furrys are completely a different thing and really not comparable to werewolves. Werewolves legion has been handed down for centuries. Furrys are people that dress up in furry costumes and perform there sexual fantasy's.