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Description

    Spawned from the many conversations I would have with HodariNundu , so prepare yourselves this is gonna be a long one (but well worth it).
    Werebeasts, in general, have been a part of human history for a long time, edged in legendary stories, folklore, and mythology. Many of them mean to strike fear into the hearts of normal people while others are revered as gods. Some of the lesser-known ones from across the world are Werehyenas, Weredolphins, Werequolls, Werepythons, and Werecrocodiles just to name a few.
    Out of all of them, the most popular of them by far is easily the Lycanthrope, more commonly known as the “Werewolf”. Which, if we’re being honest, is everywhere and it’s unfortunate because there are so many other werebeasts just as cool if not cooler that deserve the spotlight as well. The thing with Werewolves is as much as they get all the attention Weretigers are arguably much cooler in my opinion.
    The legend of the Weretiger spans many cultures all across Asia and yields a beast far more complex than your typical werewolf. The Weretiger is a mythical creature unlike any other, and there are various kinds, many of them are closely linked to ghosts, the Undead, and deities even depending on the culture so it’s no surprise they’re basically invincible.

Here’s some interesting info he was kind enough to share:

  In very ancient Indian scriptures there are references to a tiger god, and later this god evolves into Lord Shiva himself. This is something they rarely mention when discussing Shiva but apparently, he used to be a tiger god of the jungle in his origins and there were always two a male and a female, they went through different names and there are records of where they lived the caves, the mountains were they hunted weretigers in one way or another are usually descended from them.
  Power-wise they are way beyond what you'd expect for werewolves, for example, it's not just turning from man to tiger and back for starters, they are nearly impossible to kill they will rise from the grave like vampires sometimes, they do so under different, discrete shapes, then "evolve" into their old weretiger shape they have the power to enslave the spirits of the people they kill so that they will guide them to more victims and warn them of danger in southeast Asia they also have the power to possess people or to transfer their essence or consciousness into material objects and people who touch those objects may become cursed or possessed. There are stories of the Tiger God himself leading his armies into battles armies which include not only weretigers or tigers but also panthers, crocodiles, sharks, demons, ghosts, and all sorts of other frightening beings. There's even a record of the tiger's generals' names and appearance.
  In the Aceh province of Sumatra, where weretigers were said to abound it was said that anger was the one emotion that could trigger a weretiger's transformation they were naturally ill-tempered creatures.
  There are legends about there being three kinds of weretigers, the orange ones, white ones, and black ones, and in some cultures even grey ones, which were said to be the most ancient and powerful. I imagine these could have had different colored eyes…
One thing they do have in common, however, is that weretigers always leave five-toed pawprints unlike a real tiger's which leaves four toe prints.
Weretiger types include:
The Tjindaku are the Sumatran variant
They are a bit vampire-like in that they love sucking blood and their favorite meal are the heart and liver of people. and they can´t enter a home unless they're invited first
The Keimi are from India
They tend to be expert sorcerers but the more they transform into tigers the more savage they become until finally, they can get stuck in tiger form or in a hybrid form. they are a bit more sophisticated in their taste in food tho, as they're often portrayed kidnapping women so they can cook for them, cause they get bored of eating only raw flesh
The Matchadu are also from India
From the Garo Hills region. they are at perpetual war with humanity and commanded by a particularly enormous and fierce weretigress which is their queen, and who used to be worshipped as a goddess the caves where they lived are still there, supposedly, but they were defeated by human armies during the XIX century IIRC, and they scattered and blended in among people now they're just waiting to be numerous enough to attack again
The Harimau jadian are from southeast Asia, Malaysia and so on
These are also very warlike and are commanded by a huge, extremely powerful weretiger who can shapeshift not only from man to tiger and back but also into cat form, so he's very sneaky. He commands an army of weretigers and protects an ancient enchantress who lives in a sacred mountain, and is at constant war with another weretiger warlord
  Now back to me, this last type called the "Macan gadongan" is of Javan folklore, so Indonesia, etc.

He left this one out so I did research on my own and found that this one was a tiger with a man's spirit and that this spirit could leave whenever asleep. Also, it is said that those who are were-tigers have a smooth upper lip without the dimple in the middle and that they can transform at will using magic or can do so under the darkness of night without knowing it.

I'm sure there are many more mysteries about the Weretiger yet to be discovered, such a creature with such rich folklore definitely deserves a spot in the greater public. Hopefully, in the future we can have more stories to tell in literature and later movie adaptations within the media featuring these guys in them because they're very fascinating.

  So yeah hope you enjoyed that, as for the drawing this depiction resembles the Indian Keimi and Matchadu. I used a typical breechcloth because I’m creative like that, and there are supposed to be 5 digit toes for the hind feet but I didn't know that at the time of drawing it.

If you wanna know more ask Hodari he's got plenty of pent up knowledge about them, all very interesting.

Description

    Spawned from the many conversations I would have with HodariNundu , so prepare yourselves this is gonna be a long one (but well worth it).
    Werebeasts, in general, have been a part of human history for a long time, edged in legendary stories, folklore, and mythology. Many of them mean to strike fear into the hearts of normal people while others are revered as gods. Some of the lesser-known ones from across the world are Werehyenas, Weredolphins, Werequolls, Werepythons, and Werecrocodiles just to name a few.
    Out of all of them, the most popular of them by far is easily the Lycanthrope, more commonly known as the “Werewolf”. Which, if we’re being honest, is everywhere and it’s unfortunate because there are so many other werebeasts just as cool if not cooler that deserve the spotlight as well. The thing with Werewolves is as much as they get all the attention Weretigers are arguably much cooler in my opinion.
    The legend of the Weretiger spans many cultures all across Asia and yields a beast far more complex than your typical werewolf. The Weretiger is a mythical creature unlike any other, and there are various kinds, many of them are closely linked to ghosts, the Undead, and deities even depending on the culture so it’s no surprise they’re basically invincible.

Here’s some interesting info he was kind enough to share:

  In very ancient Indian scriptures there are references to a tiger god, and later this god evolves into Lord Shiva himself. This is something they rarely mention when discussing Shiva but apparently, he used to be a tiger god of the jungle in his origins and there were always two a male and a female, they went through different names and there are records of where they lived the caves, the mountains were they hunted weretigers in one way or another are usually descended from them.
  Power-wise they are way beyond what you'd expect for werewolves, for example, it's not just turning from man to tiger and back for starters, they are nearly impossible to kill they will rise from the grave like vampires sometimes, they do so under different, discrete shapes, then "evolve" into their old weretiger shape they have the power to enslave the spirits of the people they kill so that they will guide them to more victims and warn them of danger in southeast Asia they also have the power to possess people or to transfer their essence or consciousness into material objects and people who touch those objects may become cursed or possessed. There are stories of the Tiger God himself leading his armies into battles armies which include not only weretigers or tigers but also panthers, crocodiles, sharks, demons, ghosts, and all sorts of other frightening beings. There's even a record of the tiger's generals' names and appearance.
  In the Aceh province of Sumatra, where weretigers were said to abound it was said that anger was the one emotion that could trigger a weretiger's transformation they were naturally ill-tempered creatures.
  There are legends about there being three kinds of weretigers, the orange ones, white ones, and black ones, and in some cultures even grey ones, which were said to be the most ancient and powerful. I imagine these could have had different colored eyes…
One thing they do have in common, however, is that weretigers always leave five-toed pawprints unlike a real tiger's which leaves four toe prints.
Weretiger types include:
The Tjindaku are the Sumatran variant
They are a bit vampire-like in that they love sucking blood and their favorite meal are the heart and liver of people. and they can´t enter a home unless they're invited first
The Keimi are from India
They tend to be expert sorcerers but the more they transform into tigers the more savage they become until finally, they can get stuck in tiger form or in a hybrid form. they are a bit more sophisticated in their taste in food tho, as they're often portrayed kidnapping women so they can cook for them, cause they get bored of eating only raw flesh
The Matchadu are also from India
From the Garo Hills region. they are at perpetual war with humanity and commanded by a particularly enormous and fierce weretigress which is their queen, and who used to be worshipped as a goddess the caves where they lived are still there, supposedly, but they were defeated by human armies during the XIX century IIRC, and they scattered and blended in among people now they're just waiting to be numerous enough to attack again
The Harimau jadian are from southeast Asia, Malaysia and so on
These are also very warlike and are commanded by a huge, extremely powerful weretiger who can shapeshift not only from man to tiger and back but also into cat form, so he's very sneaky. He commands an army of weretigers and protects an ancient enchantress who lives in a sacred mountain, and is at constant war with another weretiger warlord
  Now back to me, this last type called the "Macan gadongan" is of Javan folklore, so Indonesia, etc.

He left this one out so I did research on my own and found that this one was a tiger with a man's spirit and that this spirit could leave whenever asleep. Also, it is said that those who are were-tigers have a smooth upper lip without the dimple in the middle and that they can transform at will using magic or can do so under the darkness of night without knowing it.

I'm sure there are many more mysteries about the Weretiger yet to be discovered, such a creature with such rich folklore definitely deserves a spot in the greater public. Hopefully, in the future we can have more stories to tell in literature and later movie adaptations within the media featuring these guys in them because they're very fascinating.

  So yeah hope you enjoyed that, as for the drawing this depiction resembles the Indian Keimi and Matchadu. I used a typical breechcloth because I’m creative like that, and there are supposed to be 5 digit toes for the hind feet but I didn't know that at the time of drawing it.

If you wanna know more ask Hodari he's got plenty of pent up knowledge about them, all very interesting.