Note: I'm going with my vision of the Vrika (the Wolf bloodline of my Pashunara race)
Genre: (Dark) Fantasy, allegorical, horror.
Forms: Six.
Human: As a human.
Great Human: Corresponds to Great Beast, a form developed mainly for seduction and for gaining the edge in a contest. Taller, rangier, kind of like that human-faced were Morkulv posted.
Gestalt (in the vernacular, Ugraruupa, "Fierce Form"): An even mix of human and wolf, with digitigrade legs, balancing tail and lupine head. Not necessarily scary-looking, but will look decidedly...agitated. Emotions will be right out there and matched with equal parts fiery intellect. They also look a little...edgy, perhaps even a little wicked, and very wise, like they know something you don't (they do).
Great Beast (Wolf): A larger, more imposing wolf. Maybe not like a dire wolf, but definitely larger.
Wolf: As a wolf.
Rakhshasa: Similar to the Gestalt at first glance but more like a Tibetan wrathful deity like Thags Yag, Yamantaka or the Daikinis. The Gestalt isn't necessarily frightening but the Rakhshasa is a nightmare: demonic, wild rolling-staring eyes, fire shooting out all its orifices, multiple arms and sometimes faces, no fur. Odd-coloured skin, like pure white, blue-black, green, crimson. Basically a little piece of hell walking around on earth.
Hair/Fur: Head and facial hair remains the same as in human form but fur everywhere else is as a wolf's. No hair on the balls of the feet/between toes and fingers/palms, but it's everywhere. Tends to be thinner on the inner arms, thighs and around the nipples. The fur would have whorls and cowlicks.
Claws: Obviously in Great Man, Gestalt and Rakhshasa, the claws on the hands are razor sharp, as are the dewclaws on the legs, but the claws on the toes are blunt. They can still hurt, because they're strong: it'd be like getting punched with baseball or sprinter spikes rather than slashed with knives or fleshhooks. Wolves can cat-kick when fighting if they're underneath and anything that can run at 40 mph can deliver a nasty kick.
Tail: Full and long enough to counterbalance. All forms except the human (naturally). Scent gland at the top near where it attaches to the haunches.
Born, bitten or other: Born, can be changed by magic, but I personally don't believe in bitten. In the Pashunara, everyone has it hardwired into their bodies to become a shapeshifter, the "talent" is triggered by certain prescribed conditions. Thus, a bite could trigger a t/f, but the bite itself isn't the causative factor. There's no virus transmitted, it's phenomenological.
Transformation engine: I envision it as a kind of reflex, spurred by extraordinary will, instinct and a little magic. If you could get a Vrika in Great Man, Ugraruupa or Great Wolf to hold still long enough, and take a sample of cells and genetically test them, it would still come out as human. Or wolf (I believe in wolweres).
Death: In light of the above, when the werewolf dies or has a body part severed, it would revert to the native form because the shift is a reflex and once the engine isn't going anymore, the body relaxes into its birth form.
Male/Female: Only the males are referred to as "werewolves." The females are "wolfwives."
Males become more muscular, but not bulky. Rangy and ripped. Boxy head, penis sheath and knot. Definitely not like Aaahnuld or Glenn Danzig (sorry, guys).
Females get slightly less curvaceous but retain enough. Their muzzles are narrower than those of males. Think more along the lines of athletic and energetic as opposed to Frazetta.
Sociality: The basic social unit is the Pyre, which is actually an extended family with a breeding pair and one or more offspring/siblings. There might be a few relatives of the breeding pair, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, et alia.
Breeding male is allowed to do what he needs to do to provide for and protect his Pyre. The Pyre comes before the Circle.
The breeding female can call for the rest of the Pyre to give her a portion of everything/anything they catch so her cubs never go hungry and she can keep her strength up. Should her mate fail in his defense then she's the last line of defense of the Pyre.
Wolves and humans care for their own, so a werewolf would stick by their Pyremates come hell or high water. "There are no orphans among the wolves," as they say. No-one gets left behind.
Two or more packs can set up treaties and thus form a Circle. Here we see a more human-like relationship: it's more like your hang-out crew and/or neighbours and for the most part, you're neutral to friendly. Antagonism happens but the general zeitgeist is amicable. For instance, another Pyre sees some prey moving through their territory: they take what they need, and call ahead to the next Pyre in the Circle, "Yo! Big herd o' deer coming your way! Send down your hunters!"
Language: The werewolf language comes in two forms: High and Low. Low is the sounds coupled with body gestures we all see wolves (and sometimes humans) do. High Werewolf is a purely pitched, sung language and can be done in any form, because it's a kind of pitched throatsinging and doesn't use labials, linguals and dentals. And yes, it can range above and below the human hearing threshold; humans can't hear it but if they're close to, say two to three feet away, or in contact with the werewolf they can feel the vibrations of the High Tongue. Not especially difficult to learn, but obviously there are the equivalent of "wordsmiths" and "pundits" and the equivalent of Usenet crawlers.
Magic: I can see werewolves using magic and performing rituals, but it mostly revolves around the senses, shapeshifting refinement and the natural elements of metal, water, wood, air, fire. They have ways of manipulating natural elements, like making fire explode, trees and undergrowth move to trip opponents, bodies of water crest, literally howl up a storm, freeze a human with eye contact and "stare into their soul," things like that.
Birth: Women give birth after nine months, wolves after sixty days. Babies and pups are delivered. Sometimes a woman will decide to go to wolf form and deliver that way, and deliver a baby, and vice versa: wolf b**** takes human form and delivers a litter of cubs. The body shifts around the womb which remains the same and doesn't shift, kind of like water flowing around a rock. Babies shifting with the mother? I tend to think not. It's a baby or a cub. Note: wolf cubs are *always* born in the caul.
Size: There are no fat werewolves. I'm sorry, it's not fatty bashing, but shapeshifting BURRRRRRRNNNNS calories right, left and centre, coming and going. So everytime you change, you burn more calories. Yes, you could go on a shapeshifting bender and lose twenty pounds in a week. I'd say for a full-body change at least 4,000 calories would be burnt, out-and-back.
Lifespan: With refinement of shapeshifting and some types of magic, the werewolf can heal injuries, purge poison/parasites/disease. Given the resources, a werewolf can continually rejuvenate themselves and thus, enjoy an indefinite lifespan.
Silver and the Moon: According to the Pashunara world backstory, the Vrika are at war with the Moon God and the touch of His flesh — silver — cancels out their Changing Fire. If a Vrika gets stabbed with a silver knife or shot with a silver projectile, for as long as the silver remains in his/her body *including residue,* their Changing Fire cannot rejuvenate their body. So in effect, silver is alchemical water cancelling out the Fire. For a young Vrika, say one who's only thirty chronological years old, this is no big deal, but what if it's a 350-year-old Pyre Mother or a 1,200-year-old elder? The touch of silver would mortify their flesh and rapid-onset necrosis sets in — yes, it would look like the vampires in Buffy getting staked and yes, it would be possible to kill an elder with one silver bullet. Kinda screwed but hey, war is hell. Fortunately, about the time they get to establish a Pyre, Agni gives the Pashunara area-effect arts so getting within shooting range of an elder is pretty much a matter of pure dumb luck. Go ahead and see if you can get off an accurate shot while that elder is cutting loose with a Bhairava scream!
The War with the Moon is also the reason Vrika howl at moonrise. They're warning their Circle and Pyre to get under cover: it's an alarum.
Senses: Everyone says that human senses are inferior to other life forms. In a state of nature, human senses work as well as anything else's, it's just that we've besotted ourselves with information overload. We live in a high-stim environment, even in the country. Have you ever taken a night hike? Sure, moonlight robs you of the red-yellow spectrum, but other senses compensate and allow you to function. It takes a bit of deprogramming and training, but we can do it, and it doesn't take that long, either. A human taken out of civilization and plunked down in the forest could learn to track prey within a couple days if not hours, if he cared to.
Wolves are crepuscular, meaning they're most active in the dusk-and-dawn hours. This is because their main prey, deer, keep the same timetable. Note also that both deer and wolves — and humans — can go nocturnal on full moon nights. Wolf and human senses in the same body wouldn't compete, it's not a case of "I can smell you a mile away, ha ha, I'm better than you!" or "I can taste the soil minerals that this chocolate was grown in, ha ha I'm better than *you*!" The senses would dovetail and back each other up in a redundant array. You'd have a creature that can smell you a mile away *and* pick out the band logo on your t-shirt.
Given their magical nature, I even believe werewolves could perceive ghosts and spirits naturally, especially in gestalt when they have the synergy of wolf and human to work with. It would probably register in the brain as another layer of detail and the werewolf might not be able to distinguish where the "real world" lets off and the "spirit world" begins.
Argh. Just looked at the clock. Damn, I wrote a bloody essay there! Time to wrap it up.