Post by Vierlyn on Jan 20, 2011 9:26:27 GMT -5
The werewolf is a very rare and deadly creature. Wolves are dangerous by nature of being predators, and man is even more dangerous because he can lie and reason. The loups-garoux are not inherently evil (as many of them argue vampires are), but they fear discovery from both human-kind and the bloodsuckers because their numbers are so few. They live in small groups, struggling to hide their existence from the world in general. But on cold, dark nights, you might hear the howl of a creature that is most certainly not a dog, and whether you believe in the wolfman or not, you'll hurry home a little quicker.[/blockquote]
Anatomy, Physiology, and Reproduction[/b][/u]
The werewolf is a unique creature. Not one really knows if they evolved from wolves or humans...or perhaps came into being some other way. Regardless of the truth of their origins, none of them have any difficulty taking either a fully human or fully wolf form. All of their forms are almost always healthy, fit specimens. Their human appearances come in all variations of hair color, eye color, skin color, and bone structure. There is no known correlation between hair color and the color of the fur of a werewolf's bestial form. The same goes for eye color. A blond-haired, blue-eyed human might shift into a black-furred, brown-eyed wolf. This is a very good survival trait, since bright yellow eyes and white hair on a human would be a rather undeniable indicator that the person in question was not quite what he seemed.
Werewolves prefer to spend most of their time in either human or wolf form, for the sake of fooling the neighbors into thinking they're normal if nothing else. The older, more experienced ones have the ability to shift just about any part of their body without affecting the others, but this takes quite a bit of concentration and effort. It is more comfortable for them to transform into their half-form, also called the battle-form by many. This form stands between one and two feet taller than their human form and is bipedal, though it is possible for a shifter to drop to all fours for extra speed. The head is mostly that of a wolf, though the lips and eyes are more expressive. A loup-garou in this form has the same pelt and eye coloration as he does in wolf form. This form does possess a tail (unless the werewolf in question has, for some reason, chosen to withhold this part of the transformation), with helps him balance on his digitigrade hindlegs. The fingers of his hands retain their human proportions, but the fingernails become sharp claws and the palm and fingertips are padded, like a wolf's. In the battle form, it is possible for the werewolf to handle human speech, but he will often use only short phrases or one-word replies since it's much harder to get words out around an oddly-shaped tongue and sharp teeth. Most pups have to be taught how to speak properly in this form, as it is not a skill that comes naturally to many. It should be noted that a werewolf must shed his clothes before transforming or they will likely be shredded...or strangle him. It can take a young werewolf up to three years (but no less than a year) to master his transformations. During that time, he will often transform partially or completely with little or no warning and must be hidden by a clan or family (or very understanding human parents) until he gains control of his body.
No matter what form he's in, a werewolf with have better-than-human senses. In wolf form or battle form, his sense of smell will be on par with the most sensitive of bloodhounds and he will be able to hear the heartbeat of his prey if he listens closely. His range of hearing will also be wider, and he will be able to hear things much higher- or lower-pitched than a human could. In human form, these senses are not quite as good, but a loup-garou can still hear a dog whistle and smell things that a normal human being cannot. A shifter's sense of taste is also subtly different, and he will crave the taste of red meat even when wearing human form. The taste of sugar, alcohol, and breads will not draw him quite as strongly as they do other people. This preference for rare steaks is one of the ways werewolves might be spotted, particularly pups before their first shift.
Werewolf pups almost never know what they are until that first fear-filled change hits them after puberty. Only one of the parents needs to be a werewolf (the other may be human or wolf) for the child to carry the trait, and the child of a werewolf will also be a werewolf about 75% of the time. Some argue that the likelihood of the child carrying the gene is higher in werewolf-to-werewolf pairings, but the validity of this argument has yet to be ascertained. Despite the high possibility of the child being born a shifter, werewolves are very rare due to the dangerous lives they lead. Vampires hunt them to make the drug Red Snow and most werewolves never make it past the pup stage. When a female werewolf discovers she's pregnant, she must be very careful not to damage her child. After the first three months of pregnancy, she must assume the form she was in when she mated and stay in it until her child (or children) is born. Failure to follow this strict rule usually results in miscarriage, but may result in deformation or mental retardation of the babies. While it is possible for two werewolves to mate, it is not possible for them to conceive in their half-forms.
There is another way to create a new loup-garou, and that is through the bite of a mature werewolf. If a human is bitten by a werewolf and survives, he or she may become one of them three months later. This is not a guaranteed result, however, and it is far more common for a human to die from blood loss, infection, or vampires than it is for them to reach the end of those three months before their first change.
Behavior[/b][/u]
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All of the intelligence of a human and all of the instincts of a wolf are a werewolf's to command. This makes them very dangerous, and simultaneously makes it very difficult for them to fit in around normal humans and normal wolves. A loup-garou will begin to feel that he is not normal shortly before puberty. As a human, he will begin to hear and smell things his classmates cannot. As a wolf, he will realize that he understands much more than his packmates do. He will also begin to feel twitchy and out of place. The first time a loup-garou changes, it is a total shock to his system, and some change in the middle of a group at the worst possible time. It is both a blessing and a curse that the first change usually brings a kind of bloodthirsty madness with it, for it often eliminates any and all witnesses to the event. Almost all pups have a very hard time adapting to their new senses and instincts, and a small number of them even choose to commit suicide rather than live their lives as "freaks" or "animals".
The behavior of a family more closely follows the normal outline of human civilization. A clan typically exhibits more wolf-like qualities. While families tend to solve their problems with democracy, clans are wont to fight over disagreements. All werewolves are a little more open about sexuality and other desires of the body than humans are, but are more reserved about such things than pure wolves. There are very few far-reaching werewolf "rules", but almost all families and clans are very strict about two things: you must not reveal what you are to any non-werewolf unless it is to kill him or her and you must not eat humans. This second "rule" is somewhat flimsy and very difficult to enforce, and some of the stupider and crueler werewolves revel in hunting the "puny naked rats". This almost always comes back around to bite the fool in question, though, so most shifters don't bother taking the chance.
Social Structure[/b][/u]
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Wolves are one half human and one half wolf, and neither species is prone to extended bouts of solitude. Like their wolf cousins, the loups-garoux prefer to live in large groups, and the more cynical claim that this has only become more of a fact since Red Snow was invented. The life of a lone wolf is one fraught with peril; only the strongest, smartest, and fastest manage to live long on their own. One mistake, however, and even if the shifter in question gets away he might not survive his next encounter.
Historically, werewolves have lived almost completely in large groups known as families. Very few outsiders are able to join an established family, and those who try often have to perform feats of great bravery, loyalty, and strength to prove themselves worthy. They almost never (if ever) accept bitten werewolves into their ranks, the old-timers claiming that a bitten werewolf's blood is less pure than a born one's. In an effort to prevent inbreeding in such a close-knit group, members of a family will often mate with outsiders--either wandering lone-wolf shifters or ignorant humans and wolves. This works particularly well for the females of a family, as they can immediately cut ties with the fathers of their children after conception. It is not so easy for the males of the family, and they need to win their children in custody battles, get the mother to give up the child, or steal them away. Humans are never informed of the true nature of the family, and many would-be parents have been left depressed and empty by a werewolf who cares only for the offspring they can provide. It happens from time to time that a child is born to a female human and the family loses track of it. It is only years later, when the child undergoes his or her first change, that the mistake is realized. Families are typically led by the males, either a father or a grandfather, though no one even thinks twice if a respected female takes over the leadership after a death. A family takes it's name from the surname of the family itself. Families are generally very old entities, and any werewolves who manage to get themselves "adopted" by a family are made to change their names to reflect their new blood.
Modern days have seen a rise in the number of werewolf "clans". A clan is fundamentally different from a family in that it rarely contains more than one or two blood-related members. Most of the members of a clan are bitten werewolves, shifters who decided to leave their family, or those who were driven out of a family due to trouble-making. A clan is much more like a true wolf pack than a family could ever be. Its leaders almost always follow wolf pack structure, with alphas, betas, and one or more omega wolves. There is no inherited birthright in a clan. Only the strongest and smartest is fit to lead, and if there is any kind of contention over that leadership, any member of the clan is free to challenge the alpha or beta. Typically, clans are small entities of six or seven members. They have been known to reach upwards of twenty to twenty-five werewolves, however--yet another sign that times are troubled and the families have far less sway over their young than they once did. Sometimes, if a clan gets big enough and blood ties begin to grow, it might settle down and become a recognized family. This happens fairly rarely, however, as most members of a clan are hesitant to give up the freedom (and wildness) of the more nomadic clan lifestyle. A clan generally takes its name from the werewolf who founded it--the first alpha--but at times clans have been known to take more flowery, less traditional names for themselves, especially if most of the members are very young. Some clans populate their ranks only by picking up the discarded members of their species, but some have been known to "sow their seed", so to speak, and return years later to pluck the fruit of their unions. This is, perhaps, better than trying to raise one's young in the middle of what might half the time be a pack of wolves and the other half the time look like a very dangerous gang, but it is a much ruder awakening for a young man or woman who has just changed for the first time to find him- or herself in the middle of a clan than it is to settle into a family. Often, when he is taken into a clan, a werewolf changes his name to symbolize the cutting of ties from his old life. Sometimes he'll use a different human name, and sometimes he'll use a deed name, such as "James Whitehowl" or "Razor". It all depends on the shifter in question.
Abilities[/b][/u]
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There are an awful lot of superstitious beliefs about werewolves, and only some of them are true. Every survivor of a werewolf bite is not fated to become one of them. As far as anyone can tell, there is no correlation between severity of the bite to likelihood of becoming a shifter. Even if the werewolf "infection" actually takes to the human in question, he or she is far more likely to die from the initial damage than to survive the intervening three months between bite and first transformation. A bite is the only known way to contract lycanthropy. Kissing, having sex, or giving blood will not pass the curse-gift to anyone else. The three-month period, during which the infection matures, is more a general guideline than a hard and fast rule. A closer guesstimate is around eighty days, though there have been cases where the bitten human transformed as early as one month after a bite and as late as six months. These cases are very rare, however. Contrary to popular belief, the first time a werewolf changes does not have to be during a full moon, or even at night.
That first time, the human-turned-werewolf (or born werewolf reaching puberty) in question will begin to feel very sick as his body attempts to adjust to the sudden rapid acceleration and alteration of the body's processes. Colors will go a little dull and the senses of hearing and smell will peak sharply, often resulting in a painful headache. The human in question will also begin to give off a slightly more canine scent, which normal humans will pick up on subconsciously. New instincts will also kick in, not the least of which is the urge to go curl up someplace dark and deserted. It is perhaps entirely due to this one-time urge that more humans aren't brutally murdered whenever a werewolf transforms for the first time. After the first change, the pup's senses will calm down a little, sinking back to more acceptable (though still inhuman) levels. Subsequent form shifts will not hurt, as after the first time, the loup-garou's body will have adapted to it. It will take the pup around a year to come to terms with his new abilities and to gain the means to control them. Until then, he will transform at random intervals with little or no warning into any one of his three forms and will be unable to change back until the random urge to shift strikes again. Only the first transformation robs the werewolf of his intelligence, however, so during that year of confusion, he need not worry about accidentally killing anyone.
Though werewolves display a marked preference for meat, humans are not their preferred prey. The old story about a werewolf seeing a pentagram in the palm of his next victim's hand is rubbish, though the superstition about silver is at least partly correct. While the metal isn't exactly a poison to the loups-garoux, it is not good for them, either. Injuries made with normal bullets or blades will heal at a remarkable rate (what takes a human a month to heal will take a werewolf only a week and the werewolf will suffer less scarring), but wounds made with silver weapons will take the werewolf the same amount of time to heal as they would take a human. Wolfbane has no real place in werewolf reality; it neither induces lycanthropy nor cures it. Along with their amazing ability to heal about four times as fast as a human, werewolves possess unusual strength, speed, and endurance. These factors vary for each individual, but most werewolves in battle form can lift hundreds of pounds, sprint at around forty miles per hour, and run for an entire day if they have to. In human and wolf forms, the werewolf will not be able to accomplish all of these things, but he will still be stronger and faster than a normal human or wolf.
History[/b][/u]
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No one knows how the werewolf species first came into being, but there are many theories. Some say they evolved from wolves. Some say they came from humans. Still others say that the first of their kind was the bastard child of a human woman and a wolf father. Yet another theory states that the wolf god, Yusef, reached down one day and touched a number of children, both human and wolf, and they found themselves able to switch forms at will. There is no evidence to substantiate any of these claims, and most werewolves expect that the arguments will continue until the end of the world.
However they first came into being, werewolves are generally accepted as being a younger species than either humans or wolves. Still, they have been around for a very long time, evidence of their existence still gracing the walls of the tombs of Egypt and other ancient cultures. Most of the loups-garoux claim that their race is, at least, older than that of the vampires, but no one can say for certain since the founders of both races have been long since forgotten in the sands of time. There was never an official agreement, but for the most part, vampires only inhabited the densest parts of cities and towns, while the werewolves stuck to tiny municipalities and the untamed wilds. It was simply in each race's nature to avoid one another, and the only time arguments over territory really arose was when vampire feeding grounds overlapped with werewolf breeding areas. Before the advent of Red Snow, most of the tension between the two races had to do with old grudges over unchanged pups lost to hungry bloodsuckers.
In the 1920's, however, that all changed. Red Snow was discovered, and the werewolves' and vampires' grudging apathy towards one another disappeared in a flash. Hundreds of werewolves were kidnapped and murdered in the course of the first week and, terrified and panicked for the first time in their history, entire families went into hiding. Many didn't just hide; they ran. To this day, there are rumors of certain families of werewolves living deep in the Rocky Mountains, running across the steppes of Asia, and slinking through the jungles of Africa. Those that stayed banded tightly together and fortified their locations. Certain towns and areas of a few of the larger cities (London, Paris, and others) became known as hot spots by the human race, and unexplained blood baths erupted in these areas on a weekly basis for years. Eventually, the storm settled as the number of vampires killed began to reach the number of werewolves who had been slaughtered for their bones.
Years passed and nothing changed. Both werewolves and vampires are long-lived species, and each was willing to keep gripping their weapons, baring their teeth, and waiting for the other side to let its guard down. This is still the situation now, with vampires hunting werewolves whenever they can and the loups-garoux taking down any vampire who comes within reach. There are rumors amongst both species that the bones of a virgin werewolf make a more potent batch of Red Snow, but no vampire scientist has ever stepped forward and verified this as fact, so the shifters only know for certain that vampires tend to hunt the very young members of their species. Still, rumor or not, no few young werewolves make it their mission to lose their virginity young, just to be sure. This hardly keeps vampires from attacking them, but at least the bloodsuckers won't get the satisfaction of making an profit if they do manage to kill them, weather the rumor is true or not.