Werewolves.....physicals....and lab tests. (Blood tests)

[Fullmoonstar]

If the Were' was in Smooth, here's what I'd suspect:
Low Heart rate and Low blood pressure (not abnormally so). Higher than normal levels of Protein and Fat in the blood. An O2 sat. of 95% or higher.
The bones would be either mutated (shape) or highly calcinated (strong).
There would be probably 25 to 50 percent more Red Blood Cells.
I suspect there would be some odd-looking Leucocites (white blood cells) that were really type R- cells (Repair cells). Creatinine would be low, because of a twenty to thirty percent larger set of kidneys. (For Poison control as well as territiry marking)
Blood Chemistry would be similar to that of a high-endurance athlete.
And, in Figarou's case, there would be little yellow duckie shaped cells, just because he's Figarou....
All in all, I'd suspect that the bloodwork would be odd- but not really out of the ballpark odd, since Wolves have very much similar blood to us.

i think that RedEye is right...and i agree with some others too....but as a Werewolf i would not let a Doctor draw some of my Blood...just to make sure

[Silver]

OK, Scott, I'm a little confused. I thought hemophilia was passed through the mother but only affected males - it passed from father to daughter to son. The female is a genetic carrier that doesn't contract the disease. Never from father to son, but from mother to son to granddaughter - am I making sense here?

And male pattern baldness passes the same way, right? From father to daughter to son? I may have this mixed up. I know that very few women actually have it.

Anyway, that brings up an interesting subject. Would a genetic susceptibility (sp) to the WW virus be possible? If so, could it be recessive? Maybe skipping generations as so many traits are apt to do?
As for what a doctor sees, I have to agree with Scott, though I'm not a medical professional. I think it's quite possible that a superficial exam would reveal very little.

Other than the blood tests (which are required because I have funky blood), I think I could probably get away with a 'wellness' physical that I get yearly. I think most people would.

It's the serious injuries that you'd have to be careful off.

[Figarou]

Anyway, that brings up an interesting subject. Would a genetic susceptibility (sp) to the WW virus be possible? If so, could it be recessive? Maybe skipping generations as so many traits are apt to do?

I don't see why not.


I see it like this. There could be a few humans that could carry "part" of the werewolf gene. That human is not considered a werewolf because the gene is not complete. Where did "part" of the werewolf gene come from? Maybe the mother was a werewolf and only passed half of the werewolf gene. Or half of the gene was passed down for a few generations.

The more generations that pass...the weaker the werewolf gene.


Now...this will be "extremely rare." Someone with half of the werewolf gene mating with another human who also has half of the werewolf gene. The offspring could be a 100% werewolf. The werewolf gene doesn't have to be exactly "half." One could have 3/4 of the werewolf gene. But in order to be a werewolf....it has to be 100%

[RedEye]

You could even posit three different Werewolves.
Type 1: Pure Viral Were's: Shift is slow and done only at need. While they are the most numerous, they are also the weakest, since there is the risk of death when the Viral Form is transmitted.

Type 2: Part Viral, part genetic, next most numerous. They would probably be tribal in society; making the "Crossing" a thing of great ceremony. The Virus passes into a semi-prepared body (genetically prepared) and the danger of death is much reduced.

Type 3: Genetic Werewolves. Virus is unnecessary. They are the fastest shifting, and the most robust of Were's. They are familial in nature, and probably the most secret.

Through generations of Were's the Viral Were' could eventually beget the Genetic Were', passing through the three levels of Were'ness as generation begat generation.
While Type 1 and Type 2 Were's could "Cross Over" non Were' humanas into bewing Werewolves, Type three Were's would onlybe able to make Were's by genetic means: Were' + Were' =Were' child. Were' + Non-Were = 1 chance in 4 of Were', 2 chances in 4 of being a carrier, and 1 chance in 4 of no Were' genetic material being present.
This could make the Werewolf population much larger and still keep the actual number of Were's quite low. While there is always the Viral method, the Genetic Werewolf would be the Aristocracy of the Were' population, due to their speed of Shift and general Robustness.

Given the U.S. Population of 250 Million, there could be as many as 10 million Were's of all three types present (4%) in the U.S. population.
Probably only half, or fewer, would know what they were: Were'!
This could make for some extremely interesting interactions.
Very possibly, the Government would employ Were's in security measures, in return for their being protected and kept secret. It wouldn't be that difficult.
And anything that would risk exposure, such as a motion picture being made about non-monstrous Were's, would be discouraged.
Makes one think....

[Kaebora]

I think ya'll are on to something.

[Fullmoonstar]

[Figarou]

You could even posit three different Werewolves.
Type 1: Pure Viral Were's: Shift is slow and done only at need. While they are the most numerous, they are also the weakest, since there is the risk of death when the Viral Form is transmitted.

Type 2: Part Viral, part genetic, next most numerous. They would probably be tribal in society; making the "Crossing" a thing of great ceremony. The Virus passes into a semi-prepared body (genetically prepared) and the danger of death is much reduced.

Type 3: Genetic Werewolves. Virus is unnecessary. They are the fastest shifting, and the most robust of Were's. They are familial in nature, and probably the most secret.

Through generations of Were's the Viral Were' could eventually beget the Genetic Were', passing through the three levels of Were'ness as generation begat generation.
While Type 1 and Type 2 Were's could "Cross Over" non Were' humanas into bewing Werewolves, Type three Were's would onlybe able to make Were's by genetic means: Were' + Were' =Were' child. Were' + Non-Were = 1 chance in 4 of Were', 2 chances in 4 of being a carrier, and 1 chance in 4 of no Were' genetic material being present.
This could make the Werewolf population much larger and still keep the actual number of Were's quite low. While there is always the Viral method, the Genetic Werewolf would be the Aristocracy of the Were' population, due to their speed of Shift and general Robustness.

Given the U.S. Population of 250 Million, there could be as many as 10 million Were's of all three types present (4%) in the U.S. population.
Probably only half, or fewer, would know what they were: Were'!
This could make for some extremely interesting interactions.
Very possibly, the Government would employ Were's in security measures, in return for their being protected and kept secret. It wouldn't be that difficult.
And anything that would risk exposure, such as a motion picture being made about non-monstrous Were's, would be discouraged.
Makes one think....

Heh...I've heard of this stuff before.


The human that was bitten to be a werewolf is quite numerous. The passing of the gene through mating is extremely rare. Thats probably why only part of the gene gets passed on to the offspring. (Maybe a tiny part)


A full genetic werewolf can pass the full gene to the offspring. So this means the chances are greater even if the other mate doesn't have the werewolf gene.

[RedEye]

You could even posit three different Werewolves.
Type 1: Pure Viral Were's: Shift is slow and done only at need. While they are the most numerous, they are also the weakest, since there is the risk of death when the Viral Form is transmitted.

Type 2: Part Viral, part genetic, next most numerous. They would probably be tribal in society; making the "Crossing" a thing of great ceremony. The Virus passes into a semi-prepared body (genetically prepared) and the danger of death is much reduced.

Type 3: Genetic Werewolves. Virus is unnecessary. They are the fastest shifting, and the most robust of Were's. They are familial in nature, and probably the most secret.

Through generations of Were's the Viral Were' could eventually beget the Genetic Were', passing through the three levels of Were'ness as generation begat generation.
While Type 1 and Type 2 Were's could "Cross Over" non Were' humanas into bewing Werewolves, Type three Were's would onlybe able to make Were's by genetic means: Were' + Were' =Were' child. Were' + Non-Were = 1 chance in 4 of Were', 2 chances in 4 of being a carrier, and 1 chance in 4 of no Were' genetic material being present.
This could make the Werewolf population much larger and still keep the actual number of Were's quite low. While there is always the Viral method, the Genetic Werewolf would be the Aristocracy of the Were' population, due to their speed of Shift and general Robustness.

Given the U.S. Population of 250 Million, there could be as many as 10 million Were's of all three types present (4%) in the U.S. population.
Probably only half, or fewer, would know what they were: Were'!
This could make for some extremely interesting interactions.
Very possibly, the Government would employ Were's in security measures, in return for their being protected and kept secret. It wouldn't be that difficult.
And anything that would risk exposure, such as a motion picture being made about non-monstrous Were's, would be discouraged.
Makes one think....

Heh...I've heard of this stuff before.


The human that was bitten to be a werewolf is quite numerous. The passing of the gene through mating is extremely rare. Thats probably why only part of the gene gets passed on to the offspring. (Maybe a tiny part)


A full genetic werewolf can pass the full gene to the offspring. So this means the chances are greater even if the other mate doesn't have the werewolf gene.

Actually, what I was quoting (.25-.50-.25) is Gregor Mendel's ratio on recessive genes. Admitedly, they were for snap-deagon plants; but the ratios hold true in most other cases.
If the If the Geneset for a Werewolf were of the WW + Ww, the you'd get a much lower activation of the potential genetic material...which would probably be the case.
WW = Were' dominant Ww= Were' recessive. You'd need all four W's to be uppercase for the Were' geneset to kick in.
Now, if the offspring were actually Were' but never realized it; as in never got into a shift situation, you would have a lot of Were's simply not manifesting thru ignorance. (After all, how many people would be able to figure out what the trigger for the shift would be, if it weren't adrenalin?)
When you consider the number of genes in the human genome (30K+), finding the two or so that were the Werewolf markers would be rather an expensive and unrewarding task. We don't even know which geneset makes red hair yet.
So, the bite Werewolf is the most likely.
You don't suppose that the Genetic Were's would be Immune to the bite, do you?

[Scott Gardener]

The idea of one single "werewolf gene" is such scientifically off-base that you're better off going with a magic explanation.

Lycanthropy is extremely complicated. You're taking one animal described by 46 chromosomes worth of information and turning it into another, described by 78 chromosomes worth of information. You can shave off 90%, but you still have 8 chromosomes worth of differences to cross. Even factoring out filler, you have about one chromosome pair worth of information to fill--thousands of genes. That's just to describe a wolf, not to get you into that form. Figuring out shapeshifting would probably be harder than making a wolf. I would postulate that you would need to add in a bunch of whole chromosomes or add in something else that serves the same purpose--certainly a heck of a lot more than one single gene.

If you go with a magical explanation, you could have one gene that makes the magic work, I suppose. But, often times, the purpose of magic is a plot device to avoid having to explain the science or to get around science problems, like mass changes or sudden death from cerebral herniation.

[RedEye]

That's why I refer to the little beastie that supposedly transfers things as a Viroid, rather than a Virus. It would act like a Virus, but it would be big enough to see with visible light, not only an Electron Microscope.
And as for a single Gene business: it wouldn't be the whole enchilada, it would be what told the enchilada whether it was beef- of wolf. The switch, as it were.
That way, there could be up to, say, 50% of the general population carrying the instructions encoded genetically into them, but only the ones that got Fuzzy and Toothy had the "on" switch.
There are several genetic diseases that work that way.
Actually, thinking about it, that would make "Viral" were's more likely. You don't need all the transformational information, and the Wolf as well as the Human template to be carried in the virus; just the code that turns it on.
The Werewolf data is on the Genetic "Hard drive"- the Virus just carries the access code: probably a .bat file to activate it.
Mix in several types of Wereforms; all sleeping until the specific Activate code is received.
That way, concievably, a Werewolf could make a Were-cat. All that was carried was the "on" button. What turned on would be due to the genetic history of the individual.
This bears thinking about.

[Scott Gardener]

OK, Scott, I'm a little confused. I thought hemophilia was passed through the mother but only affected males - it passed from father to daughter to son. The female is a genetic carrier that doesn't contract the disease. Never from father to son, but from mother to son to granddaughter - am I making sense here?

And male pattern baldness passes the same way, right? From father to daughter to son? I may have this mixed up. I know that very few women actually have it.

You have it right. A disorder can be spread by the mother but affect male children. A gene on the X chromosome is spread this way. Red-green color blindness is another example. These disorders are caused by a defective, non-functioning gene. A male only has one X chromosome, since he got a Y chromosome from his father. If that X chromosome has a defective gene, he has no working gene and thus inherits a disorder. Since women have two X chromosomes, one from each parent, the disorder only is expressed if both chromosomes have the defective gene. There are a few women with baldness, color-blindness, or hemophilia, but they're much rarer than guys with the same problem.

[Silver]

Yes, I've met two women who were color blind and one that has male pattern baldness. So I assume they are very rare. BUT they exist. So something that shouldn't exist (born were) might exist in a very very very rare circumstance. About as common as those two women.

I've ALWAYS thought that there had to be three - the bitten, the born, and the 1/2. I can't go into things right now, but it's been a concept of mine in games for a long time. In a society as small as a Were's, there are bound to be Borns who mate with Bittens. In a human dominant society there may be stratas based on birth. But in wolf society, as I understand, you are what you make yourself. So no one would really care.

And I've always thought that about .05 percent of the population would be Were's. Of those, .01 would be Born. Still, that's over 12,000 Borns. Too many for me. Can't say why....


They would be the ones to change easiest, be the most complete Gestalts (the whole is better than the sum of the parts). They'd have to be careful of in-breeding, though. Too many resessive genes.


Anyway that's how I've always seen it.

The rarest, and the best, of course, is Fig.

[Moonstalker]

If talk about magical things, some equipments could show strange readings but of course it is just a malfunktion in the equipment itself.

Biological way: doctor wonders the test results and commands you in the further tests or makes a phone call in the secret goverment which of course makes it all secret, the blood samples will be taken into custody and the patient will be put under surveillance.