I'm going out on a limb with this one, but do you think werewolves by this definiton might be reminiscent in numbers and in behavior of the Pack forum?Arania wrote:I personally agree with Vuldari as far as frequency goes - werewolves would be RARE, much less than one in a million. Only because wolves are social animals and would probably seek eachother out would you have packs at all, and the numbers would probably be few overall. I think it grounds the storyies in reality more, and suspension of disbelief. Once someone becomes a werewolf it would't be like Oh! Look at this big secret underworld society I've been missing out on! It would be something special and unheard/unbelieved of. A few others out there close enough to share your secret with.
Bear with me on this comparrison I'm trying to make. First of all, we've got 300 visitors to this forum that are registered -- Bwana only knows how many lurkers this site attracts. Going back on the no-longer-functioning characters page, the Freeborn pack had seven members, so if you figure that's the average size, there'd be enough werewolves to have a pack in every state just on this website alone.
But while there's a lot of us, are numbers are spread out. Of the top fifty posters, only five of them are in the state of Texas (didn't count anyone that didn't specify on the list, so sorry if there's more than that). Then apart from those, you've got one in Pennsylvania, one in Minnesota, one in Massachusetts, a couple in Ohio, a few more in California, etc., and who knows where Apok, Silverclaw, Silverpaw and many of the others are from. So while there's enough registered users for there to be a noteworthy demographic in any city, our numbers are spread out further than just this country. Every now and then we may run into each other and make friends (A-kon), but though there are plenty of us, the distance apart makes us feel more like loners.
So anyway, if you're still reading this: A) I'm impressed, and B) That's sort of what I figure real werewolves would be like; plenty of them out there, but between the need for secrecy, isolation and their personal demons, most werewolves would stay reclusive from each other. After all, it's not like they could just ask anyone if they know what it's like to be a werewolf. Werewolf or not, if you were asked such a question, you'd first question the person's intent. Then if you were a werewolf, you might suspect that he's on to you, deny the alligations and possibly attempt to silence him, and if you weren't, you'd wonder why he would ask such a completely random question, in which case the werewolf that asked the question in the first place will have just accidently exposed himself and wonder if he'll suddenly need to silence you.
So anyway, that's my consensus. It's widespread enough in lore and common enough in modern legend that there could be quite a few of them, but realistically, the majority of werewolf lifestyles would be lonely ones.