Okay, so here's how werewolves work, as I've envisioned it here. They are people, frequently some parts elf and human though they could be a mix of any number of races that are not partially animal in appearance already (so, there aren't centaur werewolves, for example). A werewolf is actually part wolf not only in body and mind, but in spirit; one becomes a werewolf by actually combining their person-spirit with a beast's spirit (that of a dead wolf), and once a person is fully a werewolf the two souls have so completely become one that they cannot be separated--hence, there is no cure for "lycanthropy" as such. A person born of a werewolf becomes one at birth, and the spirits are joined at that point; this is what Lir is. A person who isn't a werewolf can become one by being bitten (specifically bitten, not scratched or beaten up or whatever) by a person who is already a werewolf. This "marks" the person, acting as an open invitation for a wolf spirit to enter and join with them. However, these spirits are not powerful enough to enter a person mature enough to have an established personality most of the time, only on the full moon. The full moon being, incidentally, the time at which the spirits of wolves are at their most powerful. A person who has been bitten, but has not yet "joined" with the wolf spirit due to not experiencing a full moon since then, can be "unmarked" by someone who has the right kind of magic and knows what they're doing, but the beast spirit isn't very happy about being "invited" and then "rejected", and typically leaves behind some small deformation of the person (like one of their arms being permanently covered in fur) as it leaves. A person who has been bitten and "unmarked" in this way can never become a werewolf.
Once a person is a werewolf, their magic is different, because magic is tied to the spirit and their spirit is fundamentally different from how it was before (or would have been if they weren't a werewolf). Their magic takes on a silver light, and is replenished by the light of the moon; hence it is called "Moonlight" with a capital M. This is the same energy that allows them to change shape in the first place, and it also happens to react violently with silver for some reason, causing silver that comes into contact with a werewolf to burn their skin in proportion to how much of such magic the werewolf has--hence, the more powerful one's magic as a werewolf, the more silver hurts. Your average werewolf has enough Moonlight to change form and be mildly burned by silver; Lir is not your average werewolf in this regard.
There are a lot of different sorts of people who are werewolves, and some of them worship other deities, but all of them to some extent worship or feel they owe something to the goddess of the moon, Luna. Originally, lycanthropy was not the "blessing" they consider it to be today, but rather a curse put on a relatively small group of people by a mean-spirited, capricious goddess, exiled from the other gods. These people were basically worshipers of nature, wanting to lead simple lives free from civilization as humans usually view it. The goddess wanted to show them just how horrible nature truly was, and cursed them with the form of wolves and an insatiable appetite for human flesh. Some of them gave in to this hunger completely, finding murder and cannibalism pleasant. Others participated unwillingly, and cried out to the gods for help. Luna responded by giving the latter party more balance to their nature, allowing them to take on human form again, and broadening their appetite to include meats that were less amoral to hunt.
So werewolves in general worship Luna, and a particular forest is regarded as the main temple of the moon goddess. It's not a normal temple, as there aren't any buildings; it's a sacred forest, and the priests and priestesses there are all werewolves. Other peoples are free to visit, but watched closely and warned to show reverence. The way that new priests or priestesses of Luna come about is that packs of werewolves who consider themselves devout will send any child with a noticeably high potential with Moonlight to the sacred forest for training. After being raised there until they are adults, such children are sent out into the world on the Maq Vinar, a journey where they are meant to find their purpose. One who returns after many years, having gained wisdom, becomes a priest(ess) of the sacred forest, while those who hold to Luna's teachings while continuing to wander the world are wandering priest(esse)s of Luna. Those who become apostates on the journey are generally not well-liked, shall we say. So in case it wasn't clear, this is the journey that Lir is on. It's less about spreading the teachings of the goddess, and more about spreading her goodwill, by doing things like righting wrongs and healing the hurt and sick, promoting the preservation of nature, etc.
The "accursed ones", the werewolves who eat people, are of course not worshipers of Luna, and are regarded by the "good" werewolves as monsters that need to be put out of their misery--and the world's--to say nothing of the bad name such people give werewolves in general. Unfortunately, they tend to be larger, stronger, and generally harder to kill than normal werewolves for some reason, likely having to do with the goddess who created the curse in the first place.
