I think we're all missing the point that werebears would be called Ursathropy, not lycanthropy.

In the real world, yes, but "Lycantrhopy" is the umbrella term for all forms of therianthropy.

I'd be more than happy to never see them in Skyrim.
Why the sudden obsession with werebears? We have werewolves, not to mention the werewolf perk tree. Isn't that enough?

Adherence to lore.

Werebears are supposed to be in Skyrim. The books on Lycanthropy tell us as much. To not pay attention to those things comes off as incredibly lazy.

What's the point of creating mythology for the land if you're not going to follow it?

I'll doubt they will add werebears because if they do they people will start asking for all the were-creatures like a endless cycle, add one thing and people will ask for more.

I wouldn't expect all werebeasts unless we were playing a game set in all of Tamriel. But seeing as how we're in Skyrim, and Skyrim's supposed to be home to werebears, yes, I expect there to be werebears. To me it's like playing Skyrim only to find that there aren't any Nords beside the one you decided to play as, despite this being the Nord's homeland.

This dlc was sold as dawnguard vs vampires, but if you ask me the Betrayed stole the show with a little were-wolf on the side along with the face changer.

It's hard to say what Beth will do, but I wouldn't rule were-bears out. I mean, almost everything else from the gamejam video got in!

1. I haven't seemed to have a problem with dragon numbers sinces I killed Alduin.
2. Because dragons are in skyrim only and would never ever be able to fly over mountains?

I find no use for werebears. We already have werewolves for warriors, vanilla vampires for rogues, and vampire lords for mages. Why unbalance it?

What? You realize that Skyrim is a role-playing game and a great many characters will never become vampires, because they perceive them as evil? Lycanthropy and vampirism are in no way connected to your class. Even if they were, a typical rogue don't benefit from vampiric powers at all.

It's not about balance, it's about variety and being faithful to the lore. The "use" for werebears is that they would increase immersion and enjoyment from playing the game.

Lemme just put it this way:

Imagine Elder Scrolls VI came out, it took place in Elsweyr and the Khajiit were like "the moons? What about them? They look pretty and...what? Worship them? WTF I don't remember ever doing that."
That's werebears for Skyrim. Not as massive as the moons are for the Khajiit, but still significant enough to leave us scratching our heads.

Just use ring of Hircine. After u turn back, re-equip it, then turn again. Unlimited transformations. Also, I thought the werebears thing was a joke due to the dovabear video. Are werebears real in Skyrim lore?

Yep. According to the book "On Lycanthropy," the werebear is the most common variety of Lycanthrope in Skyrim.

Technically, they're also supposed to be in the northern parts of High Rock, Morrowind, and Cyrodiil as well, but Skyrim's their main location.

Well in Cyrodill they'd really be were mountain lions, not actual lions.

I like dragons..

Here's the thing according to the book "On Lycanthropy" They have werebears in Skyrim. Yet the author never encountered one. He spent his life studying lycanthropes and he never found a werebear. Now this book was written for daggerfall and yet we can encounter no werebears in daggerfall. (despite being able visit their supposed hunting grounds). The Skyrim book "Lycanthropic Legends of Skyrim" the author was going to Skyrim to see if the "rumors or werebears were actually substantiated."

I submit that werebears never existed, The legends of werebears "spun out of some wild retelling of a particularly vicious, but mundane, bear" as Lycanthropic Legends of Skyrim suggests. The lore in skyrim is written as "in universe" so its allowed to be flawed, its allowed to be inaccurate and its allowed to be written by authors who present popular folklore as fact.

The absolute fact remains we could vist Werebear territory in Daggerfall (when On Lycanthropy was written) and yet no werebears could be found. So I can only conclude they never existed and the author like many took popular belief and presented it as fact.

*DLC can not reference eachother nor can it be patched on the consoles. However, if the werebear references the original werewolf for its abilities, feeding, howling, etc. The lycanthropy perk tree in Dawnguard could reference it.

What's the point of putting interesting ideas for them not to be expanded on? It seems peculiar that werebears would be the only lycanthropic variety listed that doesn't exist, especially if the existence of werelions, werevultures, werecrocodiles, and weresharks aren't really disputed, and werewolves and wereboars have been seen in game. On Lycanthropy's author admits he never came across wereshark or werebear, but has been assured that the former certainly do exist by his peers (who I imagine would be similar to the author of Lycanthropic Legends of Skyrim). It seems out of place that this one variant would be the one they choose to make unreal, while other lycanthropes (one of which sounds far less intimidating) are proven to be real.

Good point, if any lycanthrope was gonna turn out to be fake, it'd be the Wereshark, it's the most ridiculous.

I'm not saying its the only varient mentioned that doesn't exist, the wereshark might not exist either as the author is simply assured they exist its not anymore proven real then the werebear. Aside from the obvious bears and boars I'd say we can only confrim the existence of werevultures as they are referenced as real in two sources.

But that still leaves us with the overhanging question: In what way does not having these variants of Lycanthropy enrich the world? How is their absence better than their presence?

I highly doubt the people of Bethesda sat down, looked at their lore and said "Do you know what would really make this game series a better experience? If we took all these ideas we'd written, and decided not to implement them. Werebears don't exist. Never did. Immortal Blood's interesting vampires were all an elaborate ruse. Isn't this idea just the tops?"

It seems much more likely that they copy/pasted the werewolves and vampires from previous games (albeit, watered down slightly) because they were in a hurry and not thinking things out accordingly in order to meet the 11/11/11 deadline, the same reason other things (such as the Civil War questline) are the way they are.

Or we can't, since wtf it doesn't seem to matter what's in the lore at all anymore.


I'm more than certain that, had they simply had werebears in place of the werewolves we have, everyone would be satisfied.

In what way does having every source be infallible enrich the world? If some legends are true and some are false you can be surprised. The book in the elderscrolls series are fallible because real people are fallible and that enriches the world. To enrich the world with lots of reading material they just write stuff down and leave the door open as to whether or not it's true.

If they had to implement everything they wrote down in a "in-universe book" we'd have a lot less reading material to enrich the game. The game is filled with lots of conflicting sources and books on information. On Lycanthropy itself claims that werewolves don't have to kill innocent people to survive. Yet gameplay in daggerfall where the book first appeared says otherwise.

I'm not saying every in-game book has to be 100% accurate at all times. You can have ghost stories, or romance novels, or any other genre in these games not be based on truths.

Conflicting reports on history depending on the author's point of view and bias are great. Scary stories that exist only to be scary stories are wonderful. But to have something like this be false with nothing addressing it is a mistake.

If they really wanted us to go "Welp, I guess werebears were made up after all," I have an easy quest they could have made to do so: In Falkreath, there's a man raving about a werebear he saw. He gives you the information (for a few septims if you don't pass a speech check) and you go off looking for said beast. After going to where he says and finding nothing, you go back to get some answers. His daughter or wife or barkeep or whatever listens to you and then laughs in your face about it, saying he's always drunk and telling tall tales. When you ask the guy about the werebear, he (clearly drunk off his rocker) tells you that you can find mermaids at the Eye of Mara Lake or some other location to show that he is clearly unreliable. Quest completed, you now have reason to doubt the existence of werebears, and you got a good laugh.

Misinformation is fine as long as there is something in game that addresses that misinformation, either overtly or discreetly.

I give a [censored] about Dragons

Werebears were encountered in the book "The Infernal City" which is canon.