This is the place for discussion and voting on various aspects of werewolf life, social ideas, physical appearance, etc. Also a place to vote on how a werewolf should look.
Or, we can start abbreviating. VLGM, CPV, LGMF, TV-LIO, or DVD+RW?
In my world, they started calling it a virus even though the scientists themselves knew (once they knew about it, that is--once their showing up in public killed the skeptical scientist bit) that it was really more complex a form than a simple clump of RNA stuffed in a protein capsule. The explanation "virus" was easier to convey to the lay public, who in 2012 aren't much smarter or better educated than they are now in 2005. It avoided a lengthy crash course in genetic biology and biochemistry just to make a point that it was a contageous thing unlike anything else. "Virus" was close enough. And, the name stuck. So, it's in my storyline known as the "lycanthrope virus," even though it's actually a chimera of an alien unicellular organism (that ordinarily forms complex multicellular constructs using crystalline shells) and a genetically engineered eukaryotic cell vaquely similar perhaps to the head of a sperm, carrying with it compressed DNA that when uncompressed form 34 chromosomes worth of information. (I left a lot of leeway--the wolf/human difference could be covered in 4 or 6 chromosomes. Shapeshifting, regeneration, and designing a virus that could infect every cell and not kill the host would take a lot of work. That, and my aliens are worse than Microsoft about bloated inefficiency.)
Taking a Gestalt approach, since it's the "in" thing...
DVD+RW is an acronym for:
DVD+RW is a Virus-like DNA Reader / Writer
Can't think of any good reason for the '+,' though.
Anyway, it is not uncommon (in English, at least) to see something with a name that doesn't represent its true nature (i.e. Mountain Lion). I think the term virus is close enough; I could see it being used to describe lycanthropy, even if it is not technically correct.
I agree that the change should require a genetic factor as well as a viral catalyst. I've always favored the explanation in WOLF, with the understanding that it would require a werewolf bite, not just a wolf bite.
Oh yeah, and I'm new, sort of. I joined way back, faded away, and came back when I saw the progress the Pack has made.
Chew...chew chew.....chew chew chew!
Got to love chewing things. Chew a friend, chew a duckie, chew a rump, ugly mailman, dirty rug!
Chewy Chew...Chew chew chew!
...Just stay away from trains. They will hit you worse than thrown duckies
JonathanBaine wrote:Chew...chew chew.....chew chew chew!
Got to love chewing things. Chew a friend, chew a duckie, chew a rump, ugly mailman, dirty rug!
Chewy Chew...Chew chew chew!
...Just stay away from trains. They will hit you worse than thrown duckies
I'm not so sure about that... I actually find it less fitting. The definition you gave is a rather loose one.
The prefix 'patho-' actually means 'disease,' and invokes a sense of suffering. A pathogen is an agent that causes disease. Pathology is the study of disease. Neuropathy: a neurological disease (-pathy is the suffix form of patho-). Someone who is pathetic is just sad...
Can we PLEASE stop arguing over what to call it? Virus will do just fine. Nothing in the English language that can accurately describe it will make it sound pretty or have good connotations. I don't want to see this place take the Shifters.org route and start making up words, or "coin a term" as they like to put it.