What if werewolves are aliens?!

[Ookami-kun]

Let me ask you guys - how would you interpret werewolves as if they are aliens?

Here's how I'd do it - there's a planet where evolved upright lupines exist (think of Earth having evolved upright primates), and are basically advanced. They are studying humans, so they developed some sort of technology that allows them to blend with humans by "hiding" their real self, although radiation from the moon carried by the reflected light of the sun destroys this technology.

[Blue-eyes in the dark]

that could make some sense.

[Kzinistzerg]

... But the more powerful blast of the sun doesn't damage their technology? Where do they live? Underground?

[Ookami-kun]

As I said, the moonlight affects them because the radiation form moon rocks get carried over... right?

[JoshuaMadoc]

If werewolves were really aliens, i would kill myself.

[Morkulv]

Werewolves aliens? Thats rediculous.

Furthermore, I will never see humans as primates. Human genetics is far beyond that of primates (and always was).

The werewolf is a human creation, although not in a bad way. It is a creation and creations can be used in your advantage. The idea was to blend human and lupine genes and traits, and although that is not a possibility in the physical realm, in essence they blended.

[Lycanthrope]

I believe there was an animated series with such premise. Various mythical monsters were in fact extraterrestials. I won't recall the title even if my life depended on it, though...

[Anónimo Juan]

Star Trek + werewolves = this.

[RedEye]

The light we get from the Moon is Polarized, while the Sun's light isn't.
Still; using that basis would mean they were visible to anyone wearing Polaroid Sunglasses during the day...

[Ookami-kun]

True. But then again not everybody is wearing them... right?

Wow... I must say, this is like talking to people who are open-minded, but only to if the subject is along with their taste. o_O

[Scott Gardener]

It's an interesting proposal, but the more you try to explain it, the more you run into people like me pointing out why it wouldn't work. It's a bit of an uphill battle. But, I wouldn't dismiss it completely. (I can't speak too badly of the idea, since my werewolves were genetically engineered by aliens, and some of them, being created away from Earth, count as aliens themselves.)

Highly evolved wolves could happen naturally on a near-identical copy of Earth, in which out of 4.6 billion years of history, only the last two million or so years went a little differently. But, having wolves re-evolve from scratch somewhere else is pretty improbable. If you absolutely have to have that explanation, then you could pull it off, but the wolves would have to have a pretty advanced technology indeed, as they'd have to have travelled from well beyond the borders of the known universe before you get into enough planets for the laws of probability to become approachable. A parallel universe would be a bit more plausible. Come to think of it, a parallel universe could work pretty decently.

As for the moon, that's much trickier. The Moon does not produce radiation. It reflects sunlight, but if the light of the full moon causes shifting, then light from even a crescent moon should have some effect, and cloud cover or stepping indoors should aleviate the shifting force. In my very early drafts of my own works twenty years ago, I went with a gravitational explanation--the pull of the moon and the sun in opposite directions. But, in retrospect, I couldn't manage the biology of the explanation, so I ended up tossing it. (My werewolves don't have to shift on full moons at all, except for a few with a neurotic psychological compulsion based on the belief.)

A highly advanced energy being that can assume many forms, including human and wolf, could be mistaken for a werewolf. But, it wouldn't be the same, since "werewolf" implies human and wolf as the main elements of form. (We don't consider Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or the Wonder Twins to be werewolves.)[/code]

[RedEye]

There are the Cyantian Chronicles; where this idea is addressed fully.
Essentially, all the "Furs" on Cyantia are the result of gene-splicing between Terran animals and Humans; thus creating a Human-Wolf mixture that doesn't shift, for example.

Since they are Terran stock, but on another planet with the capability of visiting Earth-would that make them aliens? Dunno-they're from another planet; but originally were Terran creatures. So; Aliens or not? It's an open question.

[Midnight]

Still; using that basis would mean they were visible to anyone wearing Polaroid Sunglasses during the day...

I've actually seen a film (I think... it may have been a mini series all played at once) with a similar plot to that. Except it involved aliens, not werewolves. Wasn't a great film but it was an interesting idea.

There are the Cyantian Chronicles; where this idea is addressed fully.
Essentially, all the "Furs" on Cyantia are the result of gene-splicing between Terran animals and Humans; thus creating a Human-Wolf mixture that doesn't shift, for example.

Since they are Terran stock, but on another planet with the capability of visiting Earth-would that make them aliens? Dunno-they're from another planet; but originally were Terran creatures. So; Aliens or not? It's an open question.

Just read through the archives of that series a couple of months back... was quite impressed by it. Interesting mix of species represented as well, including really obscure ones like tree kangaroos.

There's an actual shifting werewolf in one of the stories... he's an interesting character, also I think he's Earth native, not Cyantian.

Tried following one of the links on the comic pages because they're apparently also available in dead-tree form, but couldn't find out how much they'd charge for shipping to foreign countries (plus, they probably wouldn't accept foreign cheques anyway). Rassum frassum comic companies that won't work through Diamond...

[Aki]

There are the Cyantian Chronicles; where this idea is addressed fully.
Essentially, all the "Furs" on Cyantia are the result of gene-splicing between Terran animals and Humans; thus creating a Human-Wolf mixture that doesn't shift, for example.

Since they are Terran stock, but on another planet with the capability of visiting Earth-would that make them aliens? Dunno-they're from another planet; but originally were Terran creatures. So; Aliens or not? It's an open question.

Well, if we define Alien as "not of Earth", then no, since they're not only of human stock, but spliced with Earth animal stock, they're totally "of Earth".

[RedEye]

There are the Cyantian Chronicles; where this idea is addressed fully.
Essentially, all the "Furs" on Cyantia are the result of gene-splicing between Terran animals and Humans; thus creating a Human-Wolf mixture that doesn't shift, for example.

Since they are Terran stock, but on another planet with the capability of visiting Earth-would that make them aliens? Dunno-they're from another planet; but originally were Terran creatures. So; Aliens or not? It's an open question.

Well, if we define Alien as "not of Earth", then no, since they're not only of human stock, but spliced with Earth animal stock, they're totally "of Earth".

They were "of Earth" two thousand years ago. Today, they consider themselves as "Cyantians" and Terrans are "Aliens" on both Cyantia and at the Mars Academy. If they travel to Earth, they view it as an "Alien" world, full of strange Furless critters called Humans.

Certain types of Cyantians are cross-fertile with Humans (the Plantigrade ones)-although their Human ancestry and cross-fertility is NEVER brought up.
So-they consider themselves "of Cyantia" not Earth, even though their original genetic stock came from Earth. The question remeians open: Is the answer genetic or cultural or mental?

[Dreamer]

It's an interesting proposal, but the more you try to explain it, the more you run into people like me pointing out why it wouldn't work. It's a bit of an uphill battle. But, I wouldn't dismiss it completely. (I can't speak too badly of the idea, since my werewolves were genetically engineered by aliens, and some of them, being created away from Earth, count as aliens themselves.)

Highly evolved wolves could happen naturally on a near-identical copy of Earth, in which out of 4.6 billion years of history, only the last two million or so years went a little differently. But, having wolves re-evolve from scratch somewhere else is pretty improbable. If you absolutely have to have that explanation, then you could pull it off, but the wolves would have to have a pretty advanced technology indeed, as they'd have to have travelled from well beyond the borders of the known universe before you get into enough planets for the laws of probability to become approachable. A parallel universe would be a bit more plausible. Come to think of it, a parallel universe could work pretty decently.

As for the moon, that's much trickier. The Moon does not produce radiation. It reflects sunlight, but if the light of the full moon causes shifting, then light from even a crescent moon should have some effect, and cloud cover or stepping indoors should aleviate the shifting force. In my very early drafts of my own works twenty years ago, I went with a gravitational explanation--the pull of the moon and the sun in opposite directions. But, in retrospect, I couldn't manage the biology of the explanation, so I ended up tossing it. (My werewolves don't have to shift on full moons at all, except for a few with a neurotic psychological compulsion based on the belief.)

A highly advanced energy being that can assume many forms, including human and wolf, could be mistaken for a werewolf. But, it wouldn't be the same, since "werewolf" implies human and wolf as the main elements of form. (We don't consider Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or the Wonder Twins to be werewolves.)[/code]

Somewhat ironic, seeing as the werewolves in your novel were created by aliens. Bit different than what's being described here, but hey.

[Aki]

There are the Cyantian Chronicles; where this idea is addressed fully.
Essentially, all the "Furs" on Cyantia are the result of gene-splicing between Terran animals and Humans; thus creating a Human-Wolf mixture that doesn't shift, for example.

Since they are Terran stock, but on another planet with the capability of visiting Earth-would that make them aliens? Dunno-they're from another planet; but originally were Terran creatures. So; Aliens or not? It's an open question.

Well, if we define Alien as "not of Earth", then no, since they're not only of human stock, but spliced with Earth animal stock, they're totally "of Earth".

They were "of Earth" two thousand years ago. Today, they consider themselves as "Cyantians" and Terrans are "Aliens" on both Cyantia and at the Mars Academy. If they travel to Earth, they view it as an "Alien" world, full of strange Furless critters called Humans.

Certain types of Cyantians are cross-fertile with Humans (the Plantigrade ones)-although their Human ancestry and cross-fertility is NEVER brought up.
So-they consider themselves "of Cyantia" not Earth, even though their original genetic stock came from Earth. The question remeians open: Is the answer genetic or cultural or mental?

On one hand, I wanna disagree, on the other, disagreeing would be like saying any American who isn't a Native American isn't an American because he's the descendant of European colonists.

Curses.

I think, then, the question is not answered with a single answer. Culutrally, they are Cyantian, but genetically, they are Terran.

Heh. Maybe once humanity establishes colonies on Mars, we'll have "Martians" for real.

[RedEye]

Then, too, the thought that some little gray guy could turn into a Werewolf is just a bit funny...

[Scott Gardener]

Dreamer:

Somewhat ironic, seeing as the werewolves in your novel were created by aliens. Bit different than what's being described here, but hey.

I'll be the first to admit the irony. I've had to backtrack and re-explain a number of things through the years. That's one of the reasons why my novel's current draft is labeled "version 70.4." I've had to drop both silver and full moons--my werewolves in the first few versions of the story, imagined as a series of daydreams some 20 years ago, were affected by silver and the full moon. Both got dropped, as they didn't square well with either old legends or my own need for fulfilling a sense of plausibility. I was worrying about regeneration more recently, until I read about real-world "super mice" that could indeed regrow severed toes and earlobes. That elicited some cheers from my inner biologist.

Some bits of trivia:

My novel's first version was imagined around May of 1987; I was fourteen years old at the time. I was terrible about checking facts then; I decided that wisteria was wolvesbane, and that's why I was allergic to it--in my first 49 versions of the story, I was myself the lead character. (I changed the name of the lead character from my real name to "Scott Fenris" in the early 1990s, and to "Scott Gardener" about two years later, feeling that "Fenris" was too much a coincidence.) My character shifted on a full moon because of a gravitational effect, and at one point I pictured government agents with a hand-held device that could replicate this effect.

One plot device I had in early versions was that becoming a werewolf activated the brain in such a way as to make one a very fast learner and somewhat psychic. I did this as a way of getting around my character's being on the run instead of finishing high school. The idea was dropped and left on the shelf of "silly early draft ideas" next to the flying van from version nine until fairly recently, when I revisited it as a reason for aliens to make werewolves in the first place--to create a being with the force of will of a human but the innate psychic ability of another mammal. It's still, admittedly, bending contemporary science past the breaking point, but at least with psionic abilities and the paranormal, I feel I'm working with phenomena people have actually experienced, rather than Noveling Under the Influence.

But, from the enough about my ego trips, already department:

The degree of importance of scientific plausibility varies with genre. If you're aiming for a superhero type approach, for instance, then coincident parallel evolution isn't a problem. If you're doing a soft sci-fi, you might want to throw in at least a quasi-explanation, such as parallel universe or quantum distance jumping--maybe they were looking for the closest planet with wolf-like forms, and they found Earth--wolves on the brink of extinction because of humans. They figured they could infiltrate the human species and either repopulate wolves or just flat out get revenge--or both, with two conflicting sides, maybe. If you're wanting to do hard-core sci-fi, with obsession with plausible accuracy and scientific support, then get ready to do a lot of rewrites.

[MoonKit]

Biker Mice From Mars anybody? They had those Cat creatures too. Surely theirs a rival planet with wolf/dogs.

Sounds like a good story plot though....could be a little cheesy.