What if?

[Silverclaw]

I was just thinking, what if different wereanimals exsisted? Would they have 'the were virus' thing like WWs do? It say a werelion bit a werewolf in a fight, would a whole new virus be introduced into the WWs system? Would said werewolf turn into some kindof weird half lion-half wolf thing; mutate, die, or what? Maybe the WW virus would block out and destroy the new werelion virus.

[Kzinistzerg]

if figure that the wwolf virus wouild already have attacked, so there's a few possibilities i see.

1) ww lives
- with new virus dromant
- with half wolf, half lion form
- with a wolf AND a lion form
- nothing happens
---- virus is chased out bg yww virus
---- virus simply can't 'attach' to the dna or cells or whatever

2 ww dies
- new virus aatcks cells with ww virus (become a genuinely malevolent virus)
- new virus clogs the regenration system
---- ww dies rom bite bcause can't heal
---- ww dies next time the body is injured/ goes thru drastic change/strain
- next time he transforms invoulintarily, he keeps switching between ww and wl and exhausts self

tht's essentially the possibilities i see.

[Aki]

I think the virus just wouldn't take hold, myself. *shrug*

[Terastas]

I think the virus just wouldn't take hold, myself. *shrug*

This is what I would have said to be the most likely scenario as well. Assuming there is an incubation period before any form of lycanthropy becomes active and that any form of lycanthropy can protect against other viruses in the system, the invading form of lycanthropy would not be able to properly become active in the body before it is cut short by the already present form.

The only way he could carry both would be if the invading form became dorment instead of being eliminated, in which case it would only be evident if he passed it on to someone else, in which case his dorment version of lycanthropy could have just as much a chance of becoming the new werebeing's form as his active version.

[Scott Gardener]

In my storyline, polytherianthropy occasionally happens, but it's rare. Usually the first infection prevents other infections.

In cases of someone bitten by several different lycanthropes at the same time, there is mosaicism--that is, different cells contain different individual viruses, as both sets of viri infect the person at the same time, responding to each other's hormones and messenging compounds to coordinate the invasion just as one's own. Mosaicism usually only works if all infecting virus types are similar.

A mosaic has one virus per cell, and all are essentially the same type. (For example, someone assaulted by a werewolf pack, with multiple bites from different individual werewolves. The different mix of viruses are all copied and spread throughout the body, though individual virus types are concentrated around the sites of the original bites. The person's bite is itself infectious with a mosaic mixture of several lycanthropic viruses, though some of them may have swapped genetic material with each other..)

A polytherianthrope has several viruses occupying each cell. Most of the time, this doesn't happen, as explained above. When it does, the person is infectious with both or all virus types, but anyone bitten is at higher risk for sudden death than with a single infection. The polytherianthrope can shift into a variety of hybrid forms--look at some of Goldenwolf's more exotic paintings, and you can get some ideas.

[NarnianWolfen]

In the Anita Blake series, weres can't catch the disease twice. If a werelion bites or tears up a werewolf or vice versa, then it's just cuts and bites. The lycanthropy disease is already present, and there's no difference between a werewolf and a wererat/tiger/whatever, just its 'flavor'. Its monster form. And some strains are harder to catch than others. Wererats and werewolves are more common, and the big cats and other species are much more difficult to catch. I don't think the forms would mix or change.

[Apokryltaros]

In the Anita Blake series, weres can't catch the disease twice. If a werelion bites or tears up a werewolf or vice versa, then it's just cuts and bites. The lycanthropy disease is already present, and there's no difference between a werewolf and a wererat/tiger/whatever, just its 'flavor'. Its monster form. And some strains are harder to catch than others. Wererats and werewolves are more common, and the big cats and other species are much more difficult to catch. I don't think the forms would mix or change.

What about that guy, Chimera?

[Renorei]

Well, there are frequently multiple strains of the same virus out there in the world, right? I know for a fact there are a lot of strains of HPV. Can a human contract more than one strain of the same virus? I think the answer to this question is the answer to the question above.

However, if I was a movie director or novelist, I would make it so the werecreature could have additional forms b/c of the new virus, or make them some sort of cool hybrid/chimera looking thing. Not some ugly, deformed looking asymettrical beast, but a very cool looking animal that looked like an ideal cross between the two gestalt forms and two full-animal forms.

[NarnianWolfen]

What about that guy, Chimera?

I don't think I ever saw him. I've only read up to Obsidian Butterfly.

EDIT: And on mixed gestalt forms...and hybrids in general...I don't like them much. No Wolf-Eagle-Buffalo-Bear-Tiger-Lion-Sheep crosses for me.

[Scott Gardener]

I also figure that the more forms of therianthropy you already have, the harder it is to catch any more. Most of the already rare polytherians have two strains. Three or more are either in hiding, deliberately engineered by an advanced technology, or just urban legend.

"Really, there's no such thing as weretigerdolphinfalconlions."

"Right. Before 12/10/12, they said that about werewolves."

[Celestialwolf]

the WW virus would block out and destroy the new werelion virus.

Yep, because the werewolf virus is the most powerful and infectuous anyway, and that's why there are many more werewolves than say weretigers (though there are still very few of each relatively speaking). And once one type of shifting abitlity is present, no more can be added/combined, etc.

All the above is my opinion.

[Shadow Wulf]

I personaly dont think there can be a hybrid unless like in underworld the person has some special gene, If you already been bitten buy a werewolf and have been a werewolf for months or years it would have already took over your whole body completely and will fight off other infection. But If you were bitten by a werewolf and a werelion at the same night, you could die in the process sense the two cells will try to fight for ther cells of the bodies, or the person can turn into a hybrid but it will more likely be deformed somewhat. I guess its just a matter of tug of war.....

- If you were bitten by a werewolf 3-6 hours earlier of being bitten by a werelion, the werewolf virus would have already have most of the body infected and will try to attack the werelions virus.
- If you were bitten exactly the same time, then this is where you have a much more chance of dying sense the two virus are trying to take its form but are to busy battleling each other and cause an intense fever I can imagine.

This is just my theory, but I think a werewolf is the Alpha virus and all other were creaters are a decendants of werewolfs.

[23Jarden]

That hybrid from underworld looked sorta like that kid from the X-files movie his eyes were black. Except the hybrid either had greyish black skin or fur. IDK a muzzel or a tail would've been nice I mean he really just looked like a funky vampire.

[Xodiac]

Here's an scenario...

What if there's only one Were virus? What you become would depend on your own genetics. Thus one person infected might become a weretiger, another might be a werewolf, another a wereemu. Situations like the one you mention would be impossible - it'd be like contracting AIDS twice. Sorry, old bean, already got it! Of course, this would lead to weirdness like being bitten by a werewolf and turning into a werehorse, but it would certainly be an interesting twist.

[Scott Gardener]

Interesting premise, but you wouldn't want DNA to explain it, unless you're designing a virus that packs a bunch of different animals at once, making for a "Noah's Ark" virus that is stuffed with several thousand chromosomes worth of info, and big enough to make macrophages look like dinky little ribosomes.

Human DNA describes humans. All humans are 99.99% similar to each other, ignoring X and Y variants and aneuploidies, such as Klinefelter's (XXY) or Down's (Trisomy of 21st chromosome). The minute difference that creates personality traits that we associate with other animals is not from being closer to that animal; I'm not a therian because I'm genetically any more wolf than the rest of you. From a genetic standpoint, my pet Blot is closer by a longshot; she's practically there. So is the little "Yo Quero Taco Bell" chihuahua.

Great story premise. But, if you want to explain it, use something else besides just DNA.

DNA could be a starting point, as a seed for tying into something else--maybe the virus contains DNA that builds in essence a nanomolecular transdimensional portal that draws in additional DNA from the most appropriate animal, based on a reading of brain patterns. The virus could act like the Quicktime installer, that is itself only 450 kB, but downloads 25 MB worth of info and installs the features you select. This explanation throws in hypothetical physics, but it's doable.

[outwarddoodles]

Or posibly the virus collects information from different things, such as say it was carried on a misqutoe and that bug bit a dog, thus the virus collects dog information and then it bites a human, inwhich the human gets that information. Just the virus taveling around, where ever it is not just bugs, and collects different DNA from wher it has been and disposited in the next creature it enters. Some may be dominate and thus there may be different types of weres out there, or maybe even polytherains.

That made no sense at all. Sorry, I have a talent for stupid babbling.

[Scott Gardener]

John Carpenter's The Thing comes to mind--one of the all-time grossest things ever put on film. Certainly gives one the heebee jeebies.

[Short Tail]

mmmmm good movie scary concept though

[bloodwolf_345]

I would assume the new virus would align with the wolf and both forms would be able to be used, however, if a Werelion were to bite a Weretiger, the Weretiger could incorporate the lion into a shift, whereas the wolf couldn't. It is the same deal as breeding, a canine and a feline cannot breed. *Side note: The combined strength of a werelion and a weretiger in the same form would be unmatched by an entire pride of either the werelion or weretiger.

[Kzinistzerg]

OR you would get a wereliger. Or whatever half-breed you want.

My own universe goes with-

you need a receptor to get th virus, receptor is determined by genetics. receptor is yes/no.

you gewt the virus via transmission. virus stays alive in body forever. being bitten and getting virus does nothing without receptor. virus is the same for evryone and does not mutate.

once you have the receptor, and have been infected with the virus, your animal side is determined by hwat youm are- similar to the daemons in the Dis Dark Material trilogy. your animal side can change what it is quickly or slowly, based on how you change. if it changes slowly, it does so usually unnoticeably, similar to how hair color changes over time. if it does it at a medium speed, it's noticeable if someone is looking for it, and the were expiriences difficulty shifting during the change. if it changes quickly. the wewre can't shift at all untill the animal form has completely change, or the change in the animal form slows down.

in order to change fully, you have to WANT to be a were, or at least not resist it, or not be scared of it. shifting is a psychological thing; if you don't want to, you don't have to.

[Apokryltaros]

in order to change fully, you have to WANT to be a were, or at least not resist it, or not be scared of it. shifting is a psychological thing; if you don't want to, you don't have to.

Then what about that big song and dance production everyone has about people forcibly turning into monsters by the light of the full moon, ready or not?

[Kzinistzerg]

Ummm... they dance a lot? Note- i said it was that which my own universe uses. Some don't; in Morrowind you transform every night, for some it's one way, for others theres no phys TF but just a mental one. We've all got opinions.

[Terastas]

Another possibility might be that all lycanthropic variations are the product of the same syndrome, but variate depending on how they mature.

I was thinking about how a large consensus on this forum is that lycanthropy only becomes active durring puberty. I wasn't a big fan of this definition at first, but what I was thinking is that, maybe when an individual is born with lycanthropy, they are born with dormant primitive lycanthropy which matures alongside the individual. In other words, the genetics involved in werewolves, werecats, wererats etc. are all part of the same virus, but as it matures, it becomes more finite in its variation.

By that definition, whenever a werekin infects another via bite/scratch/etc, the recipient recieves the same wereform as the transmitter since s/he is being infected with a developed form of lycanthropy, but someone born with lycanthropy inherits a dormant version which may variate from the form of their parents depending on their own unique genetics and development.

It just might appear that there is only one variation of lycanthropy (werewolves) at first glance because most werekin today were infected, and even individuals that are born with lycanthropy are still most likely to inherit the form of their parents. By that definition, it'd only be when lycanthropes were permitted to gather in a community that "sub-variations" would appear.

[Renorei]

Heh heh, I really like that premise, Terastas. I'd actually love to hear the story of the very first weretiger/werelion/werebear/wereanything in a group of werewolves. I could just see the jaws dropping when the kid TFed for the first time. Now that would be some good drama.

[Wolveblade]

Well I think if there were real werewolves..and did reveal themselves normal people would ban together grab guns, stones, pitchforks, knives ect. and hunt it down and beat it to death. Even if it was innocent of any crimes. Sad to say the Frankenstein movies were correct in that respect.


it would be cool to see a were tiger or were lion