A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

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A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Flier »

Recently, I read an article that said scientists are able to grow body parts by taking cells from the desired parts and puttting them in a certain chemical or enviornment that ecourages them to grow into the same body part they were taken from. (Sorry if that sounds confusing :? )

But this made me think. Would it be crazy to say werewolves have certain 'chemicals' or hormones (kinda like the one scientists use to grow body parts) in them that cause them to shift? I mean, humans have hormones in them, some of which cause growth spurts when they are teens. It may not be a fast process in humans, but they still do 'grow and change'. Isnt that what a werewolf would do when the shift? Just at a much faster rate and much more furry. So maybe when a werewolf wishes to shift, this chemical or hormone would be released, causing rapid cell growth.They would grow new parts (a tail), become larger in size, and certain body parts would change shape or position. And, when they wish to shift back to their human form, they would just shed the cells they grew. Its not that crazy, because we shed thousands of cells everyday and then our body grows new ones.

Also, this certain hormone would be trainsmitted to a victim when they are bitten, causing their transformation to a werewolf by altering their d.n.a.. It is possible to alter your d.n.a., so why couldnt this happen to werewolves? It also means that Bitten werewolves wouldnt be weaker than the Pure-blooded, because they share the same d.n.a.. The only difference between them would be that one was born a werewolf and one was not. Infact, I believe this could make bitten werewolves more powerful in some cases. If a certain person was bitten multiple times, they would have more of the hormone in their bloodstream, causing them to be more wolfish than a Pure-blood.

I am sorry if this whole thing is quite confusing. It all came to me few nights ago and I just had to share it! :D I would very much appreciate it if someone told me if they see any flaws in this idea, or if its just plain dumb. I am working on a book and have been searching long and hard for a scientifically possible way to explain how werewolves change so I can finish it. I really hope you like my idea, because if its not too horrible, this is what I will use.
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by ABrownrigg »

THAT is what this place is all about.. Very interesting insights.. :)

:D
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Volkodlak »

Flier wrote:Recently, I read an article that said scientists are able to grow body parts by taking cells from the desired parts and puttting them in a certain chemical or enviornment that ecourages them to grow into the same body part they were taken from. (Sorry if that sounds confusing :? )

But this made me think. Would it be crazy to say werewolves have certain 'chemicals' or hormones (kinda like the one scientists use to grow body parts) in them that cause them to shift? I mean, humans have hormones in them, some of which cause growth spurts when they are teens. It may not be a fast process in humans, but they still do 'grow and change'. Isnt that what a werewolf would do when the shift? Just at a much faster rate and much more furry. So maybe when a werewolf wishes to shift, this chemical or hormone would be released, causing rapid cell growth.They would grow new parts (a tail), become larger in size, and certain body parts would change shape or position. And, when they wish to shift back to their human form, they would just shed the cells they grew. Its not that crazy, because we shed thousands of cells everyday and then our body grows new ones.

Also, this certain hormone would be trainsmitted to a victim when they are bitten, causing their transformation to a werewolf by altering their d.n.a.. It is possible to alter your d.n.a., so why couldnt this happen to werewolves? It also means that Bitten werewolves wouldnt be weaker than the Pure-blooded, because they share the same d.n.a.. The only difference between them would be that one was born a werewolf and one was not. Infact, I believe this could make bitten werewolves more powerful in some cases. If a certain person was bitten multiple times, they would have more of the hormone in their bloodstream, causing them to be more wolfish than a Pure-blood.

I am sorry if this whole thing is quite confusing. It all came to me few nights ago and I just had to share it! :D I would very much appreciate it if someone told me if they see any flaws in this idea, or if its just plain dumb. I am working on a book and have been searching long and hard for a scientifically possible way to explain how werewolves change so I can finish it. I really hope you like my idea, because if its not too horrible, this is what I will use.

nice explonation this hormone should be wery strong but i think after being bitten it would be sleeping after first change it would go in pasive state and in active when changed into WW and if WW(human form) would go to hospital because of severe injury doctors will find this hormone and there come a problem.
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Flier »

Thank you! Im glad someone doesn't think I'm a total nutter! :D
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Scott Gardener »

It's kind of a given that, if we're going with a science-based shifting method (as opposed to a Magical Mystery one), hormones and biochemical messengers will be involved in the process--and probably more than one. It's how the body does a lot of more mundane things, like fight-or-flight versus resting state (adrenaline/epinepherine and norepinepherine), hunger/satiety (messengers off the hypothalamus in the brain), menstrual cycles (FSH and LH, in women), and so forth (thyroid hormone, cortisol, and insulin/glucagon, the list goes on).

To make things even more interesting, one can also consider how hormones relating to shifting ties into the rest of these hormone systems, and how an imbalance in one can set off the others. Thus, a werewolf who is very hungry could have a harder time staying human, or a werewolf who is angry could have Dr. Banner/Incredible Hulk issues. (Even better if one's wolf form has light yellow-green eyes...)
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Meeper »

If memory serves me well, the growth spurt of puberty uses growth plates, which fuse and stop growing when the growth spurt (puberty) is finished. If new growth plates can be made in the skeleton, and if they can be made to function at an accelerated speed, you might get something out of it. I don't know if they can be made to create things like a snout though, because they simply add length to limb bones or make plates of bone larger to the best of my knowledge, I don't know if they could grow shapes, but certainly, stick a growth plate in the jaws you might get a human equivalent of an elongated snout.

An idea I've been toying with is material deposition from a liquid medium, what I mean by that is if you create a kind of fluid filled abscess where you want some new bone/tissues to go, and have materials (similar to platelets and whatnot in the healing processes) clump together to build up mass into new anatomical features, that's something which might get you a new tissue structures quickly, such as a tail, ears, paw pads, bone would be tough, but cartilage and connective tissue is probably doable, I don't know about muscle. It won't happen in seconds, and probably not minutes either, it may take hours, but it's still a big leg up over months/years.

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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by outwarddoodles »

Flier: I absolutely love everything you wrote! Sounds a lot like how I've come to perceiving the mechanism of lycanthropy.

There's genetic research that has discovered/beginning to understand how certain genes turn on and off throughout our lives. Some genes, such as the ones that drive the hormones through puberty, are timed to turn on/off at a particular time. Many others switch due to our environmental circumstances. I really love that this aspect of genetics has emerged -- it means there's ways to sort of change your genetics (to an extent) and turn on those "lucky" genes that lucky healthy people get.
:D

Digression aside: I imaging that, in lycanthropy, the genes are switching on/off a lot like how you described the hormones signalling the change.

However, I imagine that hormones wouldn't necessarily be the carrier of the werewolf infection as much as virus-like bodies would be. Viruses inject cells with their own RNA to manipulate the cell into making copies of the virus -- so couldn't we theoretically spread the genes through a host of viruses infecting the cells? (If you think about it, would that make werewolfism like a kind of cancer?)
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Volkodlak »

i was thinking im not expert on this our cells are capable of multiplying so if this virus or bacteria change our DNA so when you trigger the change cells will start to multiply very fast.

lets look at foot that will become longer cels start multiply and modify our leg to final design but when you revert back some cells will die and body will discart them

if that kind of change is in play there will probably be very fast healing to
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Scott Gardener »

Having cells that multiply really quickly is far harder, more risky (oncogenesis, i.e. causing cancer), and more unprecedented biologically than simply having compacted cells already in place. All the cells needed to make a tail could theoretically fit into the same area as the human coccyx, if one pumps out most of the volume. The cell nuclei would already be in place on "standby mode," and would activate, pulling in mass towards them from other sites of the body.

I also figure that the body's normal connective tissues and muscles would have to have either modified contractile properties or the ability to break down and rebuild very quickly. The first would be easier biologically, so I would expect this to be more of the case where possible. Bone, however, would require dissolving through a lot of the mineral that makes it hard. Human bone does stretch just a little, a few millimeters in some places. But, doubling or tripling in length or squashing down to nothing would require inventing some new kind of physiology.

A werewolf would look human while in human form, but in terms of histology, (that is, at the level of cell tissues) a lycanthropic person would have some pretty distinct features.
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Volkodlak »

how do you then add weight too WW?
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Scott Gardener »

Changing weight with a shift immediately throws us out of bioloby-only, and into magic, quantum physics, and other more advanced or out-there explanations.
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Volkodlak »

Scott Gardener wrote:Changing weight with a shift immediately throws us out of bioloby-only, and into magic, quantum physics, and other more advanced or out-there explanations.
we are talking about becteria or virus strong enough to rewrite our blueprints so it could be done
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Uniform Two Six »

No. An increase in weight during a shift violates a basic law of physics called the Law of Conservation of Energy (or Mass, if you prefer). Aside from a fusion nuclear reaction (in which an extraordinarily tiny mass can be converted into energy), neither mass nor energy can be created or destroyed -- ever. Ergo, if it's creating mass from thin air, then it's violating the laws of physics -- so, yeah, magic.
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Volkodlak »

Uniform Two Six wrote:No. An increase in weight during a shift violates a basic law of physics called the Law of Conservation of Energy (or Mass, if you prefer). Aside from a fusion nuclear reaction (in which an extraordinarily tiny mass can be converted into energy), neither mass nor energy can be created or destroyed -- ever. Ergo, if it's creating mass from thin air, then it's violating the laws of physics -- so, yeah, magic.
im not fond of magic but WW are supernatrual creatures so i will accept magic if its only responsible for weight gain and noting else.

i think that when WW trigger the switch: part of our DNA responsible for our growth during early years become active again and with help of virus and magic start too changing our body into something else only thing that i think will stay mostly the same are brains with exception of Cerebellum(little brains).Cerebellum will need to adopt to new sensory input and 4 leged motion.but brains will need to become smaller and difrently shaped without losing anything.

DNA is the tricky one we have 23 pairs of chromosomes wolf has 39 pairs so how many pairs has WW?
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Terastas »

Flier wrote:Also, this certain hormone would be trainsmitted to a victim when they are bitten, causing their transformation to a werewolf by altering their d.n.a.. It is possible to alter your d.n.a., so why couldnt this happen to werewolves? It also means that Bitten werewolves wouldnt be weaker than the Pure-blooded, because they share the same d.n.a.. The only difference between them would be that one was born a werewolf and one was not. Infact, I believe this could make bitten werewolves more powerful in some cases. If a certain person was bitten multiple times, they would have more of the hormone in their bloodstream, causing them to be more wolfish than a Pure-blood.
This is the only part I would disagree with. DNA does not really need to enter the discussion.

But beyond that, I believe you have the right of it. The shift would have to have something to do with hormones and the body's general chemical composition, and the most basic assumption would be that it involves the hormones associated with growth and maturity becoming active again.
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Volkodlak »

Terastas wrote:
Flier wrote:Also, this certain hormone would be trainsmitted to a victim when they are bitten, causing their transformation to a werewolf by altering their d.n.a.. It is possible to alter your d.n.a., so why couldnt this happen to werewolves? It also means that Bitten werewolves wouldnt be weaker than the Pure-blooded, because they share the same d.n.a.. The only difference between them would be that one was born a werewolf and one was not. Infact, I believe this could make bitten werewolves more powerful in some cases. If a certain person was bitten multiple times, they would have more of the hormone in their bloodstream, causing them to be more wolfish than a Pure-blood.
This is the only part I would disagree with. DNA does not really need to enter the discussion.

But beyond that, I believe you have the right of it. The shift would have to have something to do with hormones and the body's general chemical composition, and the most basic assumption would be that it involves the hormones associated with growth and maturity becoming active again.
i think if we gona talk about virus/bacteria and a little magical based WWs DNA will change but i think furder you are from original carrier weaker you are.
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Scott Gardener »

Here's an excerpt of something I've been working on over the last few days, which I think applies to the topic at hand:
-----

Lycanthropy is a complex subject, and designing rules that maintain internal consistency are essential to good storytelling, especially if your use of werewolves in art or writing is more than brief. Folklore is rich in different means of portraying various shapeshifters, sorcerers, and beings that can to varying degrees be categorized as werewolves. Modern popular culture has produced more contemporary archetypes and some almost stereotypical assumptions. Various subcultures, benefitted by role-playing gaming, the Internet, and alternative lifestyles, have also reinvented lycanthropy, in some ways taking it back to its roots as a way of connecting with subconscious ancestral memories.

Advice for fellow writers and artists: Science versus magic:
Writers and artists working with werewolves in depth have to make numerous decisions along the way. One of the first is the degree of realism to employ:

• Hard Science: With this approach, the goal is plausibility. Werewolves have to be believable, and the creation process attempts to resolve most or all of the more immediate problems associated with transforming a human into a wolf or wolf-like creature.

• Magic: With this approach, details can be deferred. Rules of consistency are needed, but explanations that square with familiar science are not required. Werewolves can grow in size when shifting, clothing can disappear and reappear, or werewolves can walk on ceilings. Lycanthropy can be explained specifically as a magic phenomenon, or it can alternatively be explained simply as “being what it is,” no other explanation offered.

• Comic Book Physics: In this middle ground, some efforts are made to resolve lycanthropy with familiar basic rules of reality, but explanations may not necessarily be compatible with rules of physics or biology as understood by experts. In this approach, growing in size might be possible and can be explained as some sort of quantum mechanical energy-to-matter effect.

These categories are not necessarily fixed points so much as locations on a gradient scale:

Hard Science...........................Comic Book Physics.............................Magic
<-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

Note that many novice and even more sophisticated writers’ works inadvertently fall into the realm of comic book physics in spite of aspirations towards hard science, due to misconceptions and erroneous assumptions about the way the laws of biology, chemistry, and physics work. For example, a common explanation for werewolves feeling compelled to shift on full moon nights is based on the premise that: 1: the moon affects ocean tides, and 2: a mammalian body is composed of 80-90% water, and therefore it must follow that the moon’s gravity must have some significant and special tugging effect. While technically correct, the significance of this effect is minimal on bodies less massive than the moon or 70% of the Earth’s surface; at the scale of a 150-200 pound werewolf (or even a 500 pound monstrous behemoth werewolf), the gravity of other people, trees, and buildings become significant influences as well.

My werewolf model: my version of a lycanthrope virus:

I have strived for a hard science approach, deciding early on in the creative process to aim more for science fiction than fantasy. (This is at least the case with stories set in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The same storyline features heavy use of comic book physics later on, in the form of telepathy, psychokinesis, and a whole speculative branch of physics devoted to the astral plane.)

My initial creative process was back in 1987, when I was fourteen years old. The storyline has gone through numerous revisions, and I revised and improved a number of details, but I kept many of my original ideas, some of which required very little work to stay plausible. (Granted, other ideas were blatantly off and have been dumped along the way.)

I decided, as many writers independently have likewise done, that lycanthropy was made possible by a virus that could be spread from person to person. I knew that humans have 46 chromosomes worth of DNA, but I had no idea how many wolves had. (The answer, by the way, is 78 chromosomes, with about 90% of the material duplicating human genetics, leaving about eight chromosomes worth of difference.) I figured that the process of shapeshifting would have to be inordinately complicated, requiring massive amounts of genetic instructions as well—putting wolf DNA into a full-grown human would just make a human-shaped wolf with a human-shaped brain, human memories, and at best a propensity towards hypertrichosis and a short life expectancy. I came up with an arbitrary final figure of 80 chromosomes--the original 46 human plus 34 additional chromosomes to cover both wolf DNA and whatever it took to make shapeshifting happen.

I also concluded that such a virus would be far too complex to occur naturally. Someone or something had to engineer it. Given that humans were nowhere near that level of genetic engineering, I invented an alien civilization to do it. I decided to create something very out-there and unfamiliar--no Spock ears or green skin, but instead a civilization of living crystalline forms with a completely alien biology and motivations that were cryptic at best for humans to understand, and very little interest in negotiating with humans about what we want out of life. Humans and wolves were both source material for use in their experiments.

I learned along the way about wolves’ 78 chromosomes and temporarily boosted my virus to an arbitrary and larger 132 chromosomes. I then learned that no known real-world virus is even composed of chromosome-based DNA. Chromosomes are complex structures consisting of both DNA and support proteins, including histones, telomeres, and numerous other complicated structures not found in any known virus. Viruses are generally small and simple, consisting of segments of DNA far shorter than most chromosomes, plus a few proteins, mostly in the form of an outer container. The largest known virus that affects humans is a pox virus about the same size as some of the smallest known bacteria. A lycanthrope virus, therefore, would arguably not be categorized as a virus at all, but rather as a new category of something else, but something that behaves like a virus (or perhaps a nanite von Neumann machine) in how it replicates itself. By the early to mid-1990s, I dropped the idea of a super-sized virus-like entity lugging around the full 78 chromosomes worth of wolf DNA, and reverted back to my original 80 chromosomes in a werewolf cell nucleus, meaning that the lycanthropy virus-like vector consists of 34 chromosomes worth of DNA, most of which is compressed into an off-state, as well as numerous complex support structures, all of which can be built fairly quickly on demand using molecules readily available within and around most human cells.

Today as a board-certified physician I still have no idea how much DNA it would take to manage shapeshifting, building and replicating the virus-like agent, but I still consider my above extrapolations from my college days acceptable.
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Morkulv »

Most of the bones-structure of a wolf is simular to ours, but in alot of cases located differently. For example, the shoulderblades of a wolf (or dog, and cats too I think) are closer together and pointed upwards at an angle. The bones in the hands and feet are very simular to that of a wolf or dog's paw (although I imagine a wolf's paw being bigger then a dog's), but my main corcern with anatomy would be the collarbones. These bones are exclusive to primates, so if you were to shift to complete wolf form it could form a problem.

Then again, if a werewolf changes into hybrid form it would be fine, since it would still swing his arms / front paws around like a human.
Scott Gardener wrote: I'd be afraid to shift if I were to lose control. If I just looked fuggly, I'd simply be annoyed every full moon.
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Volkodlak »

Morkulv wrote:Most of the bones-structure of a wolf is simular to ours, but in alot of cases located differently. For example, the shoulderblades of a wolf (or dog, and cats too I think) are closer together and pointed upwards at an angle. The bones in the hands and feet are very simular to that of a wolf or dog's paw (although I imagine a wolf's paw being bigger then a dog's), but my main corcern with anatomy would be the collarbones. These bones are exclusive to primates, so if you were to shift to complete wolf form it could form a problem.

Then again, if a werewolf changes into hybrid form it would be fine, since it would still swing his arms / front paws around like a human.
i agree with you Morkulv, but i think there is one more problem and thats our brains they will need to be reshaped at best scenario at worse scenario changing size.

As for changing bones shape and size i got an idea but im not expert at this and idea is kinda dump:

bones are made of BIG number of cells lets take for example foot it has 100 cells(number is small so it will be easier) before being biten after that number rise to 190 cells, but on outside it look the same because cells are squeezed together.When body gives the order squeezed cells start to expand too their original shape cousing bone to change size and shape.Organs and tissue same idea
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Morkulv »

The shifting brain is a problem too, indeed. However, I think the most 'logical' explanation would be to leave that part of the skull alone. Shifting your skull to that of a wolf would otherwise mean instant lobotomy. :P

I personally have no problem with a lot of the bones and anatomy remaining humanoid as well, but that goes against what most people's common idea of a werewolf is.
Scott Gardener wrote: I'd be afraid to shift if I were to lose control. If I just looked fuggly, I'd simply be annoyed every full moon.
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by ABrownrigg »

Oddly enough Freeborn deals with this too.

Within the universe there is a werewolf disorder.. very rare called Kazinski's syndrome.

Something like lupus for werewolves.. very messy, and can cause random transformations, partials, but not in any kind of organized fashion like a normal shift. i.e. your skull can change shape, when the brain doesnt.. heart can alter within without the other organs shifting.. just a hand just a foot.. one eye.. can be bloody, messy.. and highly painful..

.. but.. its 'very' very' rare
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Meeper »

Virus detail:
Why stop at one virus? Forget the singular plague like roots, a multiple virus/bacteria/pathogen approach to infection give more wiggle room for plot and such.

Off the back of splitting up the contagent into multiple components, the problem of where werewolf/wolf genetic material comes from (if too big to be stored by the virus) can be addressed similarly, biting can inoculate with more than just a separate virus, werewolf's own body cells contained in saliva, plaque?, blood, skin cells rubbed off from the gums, all contain some genetic material which could be the another piece to the puzzle.

The question of hiding genetic material inside a virus...why bother? When you can hide a virus so easily in a cell, perhaps among the DNA chains? Within the cells as HIV does I if I'm not mistaken. Once the cell is deposited from the werewolf, into the new host, the host immune system will attack the foreign cells and try destroy them, this might release all the components required to infect the new host.

Transformation detail:
The brain is a tough problem, but I've been worrying about nerve damage as well, the brain stem is responsible for a bunch of stuff that goes on in the body, the spinal cord speaks for itself too, but the nerves spread all through the body are no slouch either. These are basically the main sticking points I have with a full involuntary transformation right off the bat, I'd have thought the extent of transformation would be something you grow into, obviously story and plot have to have their say, but when pushing "A scientific approach" stretched nerves do not a happy werewolf make in my opinion. This is among the reasons why I'm all for a werewolf actually getting smaller during a transformation, not larger, as seems to be so popular, size will come with time,older werewolves will be bigger werewolves than new werewolves.

On a more specific note, while nerve stretching would, even with enhanced healing abilities outside of a comic book, make a werewolf not exactly the power house of terror we want it to be, what you can do is reposition things, the best example of this is during the skull transformation, wolf eyes are set further apart than human eyes, growing the bone width between the eyes will put more space between them, but the eyes can swing with it quite harmlessly on the eye stalks without having to do anything special to preserve the optic nerve, other than adapt to subtle perceptual changes, which the brain is surprisingly good at already. Most of the transformation would probably have to play nice with the nerves like that, otherwise I fully expect a werewolf with seriously numb bits (read: what of the tail?.

*Edit* Ha ha, I can see it now "How do you know he's a new werewolfe?" "His tail is limp. We call new newbie werewolves Limptails" :P

That's all I got for now.

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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Morkulv »

Smaller werewolves? No, sorry I can't accept that. :P That also goes against werewolves being powerfull beings as well.
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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Meeper »

Morkulv wrote:Smaller werewolves? No, sorry I can't accept that. :P That also goes against werewolves being powerfull beings as well.
Think of it more in terms of like a crash diet rather than comic book size differences. Mostly the loss in size would, in my view, come through essentially weight loss that would need to be weighed, or have a keen eye to see, burn some fat, burn some muscle, excrete some water, maybe even lose some bone density, come out the other end maybe 15-20 pounds lighter, lean and hungry, but not 70 pounds lighter and 12 inches shorter, which agreed would be as bad as being 12 inches taller and 70+ pounds heavier.

This ties in with older werewolves being larger werewolves, it would be like comparing two slightly different breeds of dog in terms of size in shifted state, an old werewolf would lose a pound or two when they shift, maybe gain a little muscle and bone density, lose some water, and lose a tiny bit of fat. Also in regard to "growing into" the shape shifting, nerves! I was pondering if nerves for things like a tail (or ears, etc.) grow more and more with each shift, till eventually there's a full network of nerves for a tail that stay between shifts, bunched up at the base of the spine while in human form, for the most part undetectable through casual inspection by a physician or doctor, perhaps making the human form particularly sensitive in that area, but easily glossed over, the nerves would, when the tail grows, take up their place within the tail and serve their function, but be lacking in the newly turned werewolf, I still think "limp-tail werewolves" would be an interesting little idea to flesh out the werewolves as a race that's been around for a while, knows it's own kind, etc..

Just kicking about the idea.

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Re: A scientifical way to explain how werewolves shift?

Post by Trinity »

Morkulv wrote:Smaller werewolves? No, sorry I can't accept that. :P That also goes against werewolves being powerfull beings as well.
Ah the wonder that is perception!

Just because a werewolf might be smaller doesn't make them less powerful. Some people are surprised at how strong and tenacious some of the smaller working dogs are. They are powerful in their own ways. They may not be hulking brutes like dobbies or rotties, but size does not always equate to true power.

However, due to media, and our personal perceptions, the ideal of "power" often tends to be "bigger, badder, more mean". Especially in America. I've seen some lean dudes who could kick a 6 foot five inch brute to the curb. Why? How? Their muscles are slightly different because their metabolism is different.

Whip-cord like bodies are just as strong and the thicker, heavier sort - just in slightly different ways. The thinner body also has a lower center of gravity, better flexibility in general, and slightly faster reflexes. Could the brute body type be trained to be faster and more flexible. Sure. But naturally the two types have two different kinds of power.
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