This story revolves around the wonderful world of Fable 3, and the even more wonderful Mr Finn. I, unfortunately, do not own the Fable franchise, and that is my disclaimer, so all is done, thank you :D Enjoy
Growing up, children all over Albion were told stories of Heroes and the monsters they fought, and among the worst were Trolls, Harpies, and Balverines. The first two were easy enough to avoid, you just wouldn't wander into a swamp if you had an ounce of common sense. The latter, however, was far more difficult to avoid, and possibly the hardest to kill off if you ever encountered it.
Balverines were creatures of night, creatures of darkness, and certainly not something you'd want to cross on an evening stroll... because you probably wouldn't make it back alive. For these reasons, Balverines were feared among man, and most other sentient creatures. Hobbes, Beatles, and the few Hollow Men that had a brain cell clinging on.
They were the plague of Albion, and those with enough common sense would steer clear of them by any means, and for damn good reason.
It was common knowledge that if a Balverine was in the vicinity then you would find yourself dead, or severely inconvenienced. If a Balverine felt threatened, it was highly likely that who or whatever threatened it would find itself dead. Point blank. There were no ifs or buts, you'd just find yourself having your throat ripped out, and anyone would tell you that it's unpleasant, though they've never actually experienced it. And there you'd be, dead as a doornail.
There was the argument though, that if a Balverine only bit you then you wouldn't die. No, because in that instance you'd have to go through the seemingly horrifically painful transformation to become a Balverine yourself. Some argued that it would be better to live, even if your mind was warped and twisted and you'd kill your loved ones on sight without a second thought. Others said they would rather die than face that horror, which in general was the shared opinion when faced with that conundrum. Most would rather just not have to face a Balverine.
There was a myth that there was a link between man and Balverine, going back as far as the Old Kingdom. In ancient times there was a creature named the Balvorn, which was much more vile and savage than a Balverine. It feasted upon thousands of humans at a time. There was only one man who survived its attacks, and that man became the first Balverine. And as they say, after that, the rest was history. Everyone knew of the beasts, everyone knew of the terrors you'd encounter if you ever met one, and they knew what happened after that.
That one poor bastard went on to bite and infect more humans, and now the overwhelming numbers of the beasts was terrifying almost everyone in every community.
As the beasts had derived from humans, and in most cases were humans that had been infected, there was the inkling that there were perhaps links between man and beast, and there would be some way to overcome the monsters.
These links only had to be found.