The limits of Regeneration

[Anubis]

I think we haven't talked about what the limits of the werewolf's regeneration abilities. I would like to know because regeneration is going to be important in my comic I'm currently writing.

I know we talked about werewolves can't regenerate their head or whole limbs.

But what about extreme soft tissue or even cellular damage. Like what if a werewolf gets radiation sickness, or gets strain of the "flesh eating virus."

Can a WW's regeneration abilities can restore organ function after multiple organs fail at once. When a werewolf is on some kind of extreme life support. (Doing all the functions of the organs that fail. IE move the blood, exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen, clean the blood and supply nutrients, ETC)

Can a werewolf regrow skin when it's removed? While on life support, and is in a take of amiotic type flluid?

[Midnight]

[Wulfur]

My look on it is that the regeneration ability of any werewolf would be dependent on the werewolf himself.
i.e. One werewolf might be better at regenerating from searious injury's and another might not have any better regeneration than a normal human being.
There may be a basic regeneration limit to most but I would asume some individuals would have better attributes than others in one or more things.

( Not the greats at explaining hope that made sence kind of half asleep. lol )

[Kaebora]

I think a werewolf can regenerate anything short of decapitation, lost limbs, and having major internal organs ripped out. You can't regenerate what isn't there.

[Silver]

This one, I think, is probably tricky. Everybody seems to have their own idea about regeneration. (And yes it's been discussed before. But, as I've said before, we need new discussions on things so we can get new perspectives. IMHO, of course).

Me, I think they should be able to heal a serious bullet wound in about an hour, a broken bone over night, small wounds that might take a couple of stitches, in minutes. That way, they are very hard, but not impossible to kill.


The normal way,



But that's also why I like silver. It's their weakness. And every creature, no matter how powerful, should have a weakness. If they can't die, they're boring. If they are invulnerable, how can you feel for them?

That's my vote.

[cumulusprotagonist]

And every creature, no matter how powerful, should have a weakness. If they can't die, they're boring. If they are invulnerable, how can you feel for them?

What about a charcter that dies but comes back several times? (Also the character is emotionally vulnerable/broken.) Could a weakness be a character trait or rather mental than physical?

[Anubis]

I personally think that they can regenerate anything as long they're given enough time and kept alive long enough.

Like if one gets radiation sickness if it was kept alive before it can start to heal

what i mean is that they can heal from extreme trauma like radiation sickness, or multiple organ failures if given enough time, but they die before they were able to heal.

The reason i asked cause one of the main characters (i will not say who) gets radiation sickness (i will not say why). He was put in a chemical induced coma as his body was being torn apart. Like his skin was rotting off his flesh, and most of his organs failed.

I was hoping if he was put on some sort of extreme life support to keep him alive until his regenerative abilities can kick in assisted by futuristic technology to help him heal. It'll take him over a year for him to be stable enough to be taken out of his coma.

[RedEye]

There's a difference between regeneration and re-integration. Regeneration is what happens to us all the time; we are injured and we heal. Were's would have a faster healing time, that's all.
In my story, it's due to a "type-R" cell, which is like a sort of mobile stem cell that is attracted to areas of injury by the differing chemical makeup of the area and the tissues therein.
Basically, regeneration is what happens when you cut yourself shaving. You clot and repair the damage under the scab. Were's do the same thing only a hundred times as fast (for example).
Radiation poisining to the degree you described runs into a problem there: regeneration takes energy, and when the energy available is gone, you either die or scar over. The character you describe has had so much damage that you aren't talking regeneration, you're talking re-integration; complete replacement of a lot of damaged material (like a whole body).
Sort of: Hang the nose from the ceiling on a string, and reintegrate the Werewolf underneath it ( sort of like hang a sparkplug from the ceiling and rebuild an engine around it). At some point, you run out of either energy, material to work with, or both.
Any being that could survive that much damage would be literally immortal, and Were's aren't; per decisions here in this very Forum.
There is only one immortal creature on this planet: the amoeba. The one under the microscope you're looking at grew from the original one, and effectively is the same creature.
Were-Amoebas? no, thank-you.

[Rhuen]

It all depends to me. If the werewolf is more akin to a wolf than no more than what a wolf could. which is impressive but nothing wolverine or Pain Killer Jane level.

Super regeneration should probably be reserved for more supernatural type werewolves or immortal ones.

while in most cases an invincible in this way character is less apealing to an audience for drama charaterisation can make up for that like Super-man, the Hulk, and Wolverine.

[Faolan Bloodtooth]

As a fellow writer, i'd say anything goes as long as you don't cheese it up or ruin it

But i'd say anything less than The Hulk and Wolverine style Regeneration is good

Laters

[Rhuen]

The real problem NOW with regeneration is everyone does it.

Wolverine
Sabretooth

were two early ones but now in movies and Tv... they have given this ability to

Godzilla
Hulk
Jason Vorhease (Friday the 13th #10 made him a regenerater rather than a zombie)
Pain Killer Jane
Naruto
and the list goes on.

[Anubis]

I'm not saying quickly or any thing

I'm saying it takes a really long time while on life support

[RedEye]

I'm not saying quickly or any thing

I'm saying it takes a really long time while on life support

So...Jack up a pair of ears, and grow a new Werewolf under them? Possible...but flip a coin as to whether the recovery would produce a sane Were'. Long periods of unconsiousness tend to make people nutzo when they wake up.
There would be the exercise problem: every day, the Were' would need to be physically exercised so tendons don't shrink and make fingers and feet unusable. There would be the energy requirements as well: Lots of food would be needed (Avg. Were' needs 50% more calories a day just to stay healthy, and those calories should be mostly protein: chicken soup won't cut it.)
If you're trying out that idea, why not try separation and cloning of some parts from damagerd cells, then reimplanting the healthy parts.
Now, there's one thing here that worries me: Radiation kills bones. Said bones may be absorbed by the Were's body before they can heal...
Ohh, a Werewol/Blob! It absorbs you and gurgrles at the Moon! Sort of like a giant tribble!

[LunarCarnivore]

Ok it depends, watever fits your story right? in my fiction, werewolves can heal most major wounds, because they are somewhat immortal, the lost limb thing doesnt come up much because they have dense bone tissue, making it hard to actually cut through. but no organ recovery if its ripped out, and silver overrides the regen process, meaning they heal silver at a normal rate. thats how i like it but its really up to everyon

[WerewolfKeeper3]

(hmmm, wil the computer crash again, if i type something?
Oh well
I was wondering something: Can radiation seal off vessels, artieries and capilaries?
I ask because i'm worried about lose in the were you speak of. If it was massive damage to his body, and unless it didn't take more than say, two minutes {don't know the rate of flow for your characters. Might be more, or less than humans} to get where he had to, and everything was done that had to be done to save him in that time, he'd bleed to . I don't know what radiation posioning would do to the body, but there might be a mutation in the body. Instead of healing normally, he may heal in a way that could kill him. Massive damage in those kinds of stories where the werewolf can't heal instantly, is almost always . But, as someoen else said, whatever your story needs, make it so. Their might be tech in your story, {Like in APPLESEED, japanese manga, anime and CG movie that came out in 2004. Guy had damage to 75% of his body, adn they saved him. Given, he was more machine than man after that, but...} that could save him, than maybe. I can see something like the amiotic fluid thing working. Have you ever thought of keeping his brain and whatever other organs that can saved, and just giving him a new body with those parts installed? {The Guy i speak of can still have kids, if you get what i mean.} Probably wouldn't work for your story, so ignore me on the tech thing. I would still worry about the lose, as massive damage as you suggest, may kill him. They could always bring him back. Could cryo-freeze his brain and heart to preserve them and let his body heal itself. There's just to many different ways you could go. Now i am really getting a headache. Thanks Anubis, for making me think. Ow, my head.)
Oh, i love watching him in pain sometimes. But he's right; if your weres healed themselves, like say amputating a leg or arm to save to rest of the body, or to heal over certain areas that are bleeding to conserve , its possible he could live. But rotting parts of the body? i've never heard of that before, so i can't be sure. But as he, and alot more will probably say, its your world. Do what you want with it. Good luck.

[punxnotdead]

This is how I see it. A werewolf can regenerate tissues and small limbs, but if they lose something like a leg or vital organs, it will not regenerate. Deep cuts, broken bones, and damaged organs can be healed quickly. Silver bullets or anything silver that pierces the skin takes longer to heal, depending on how long the silver has been exposed to the wound. The longer the silver remains in the body, the longer the wound takes to heal. If it's only a breif time, the a few hours. Also, werewolves that may fight amongst one another can kill or severely harm each other, but their wounds heal in a few minutes.

[Silent Hunter]

Though i'm in school and don't have time to make a full post i think that bullets, silver or not should be a challenge them. I mean they can bounce of flesh and bones, go through you, blast your brain etc. I really doubt that a Were could shrug them off quickly.

[Terastas]

Well, the brain would obviously have to have primary importance in the role of the body and regeneration somehow, so decapitation would have to be fatal. Since the most classical methods of infection involve blood, I figure the heart would also be a critical organ. The amount of damage to their hearts they could sustain to their hearts and still live I think would only be slightly higher than that of humans.

Anything else, however, I think could eventually be replaced by lycanthropy. Losing a body part or an organ doesn't erase it from your DNA, and since everything in the body is connected via nerves, arteries etc., there should be a point at which anything could regenerate.

The primary factor in my writing is not whether or not something can grow back, but rather whether or not a werewolf can survive until it does grow back. In the book I'm working on, for example, werebeasts can regrow lost limbs, but the process can take anywhere from two to eight years depending on how much of said limb is missing, and require routine checkups to make sure it is regrowing correctly.

For a werewolf trying to maintain anonymity in a 21st century hyperparanoid society, the necessary medical attention wouldn't be available, so a missing limb would be a big deal. And, needless to say, a werewolf that lost a critical organ wouldn't survive long enough for it to regenerate.

I know my take isn't the consensus, but anyway, there it is for ya.'

[Silent Hunter]

For a werewolf trying to maintain anonymity in a 21st century hyperparanoid society, the necessary medical attention wouldn't be available, so a missing limb would be a big deal.

Also people who are close to the said Were in human form would wonder(an understatment) how the person had lost his/her limb. Regrowing it would also be a huge eye opener. That loss limb may not kill you now but in the long term it could spell your doom.

[Terastas]

For a werewolf trying to maintain anonymity in a 21st century hyperparanoid society, the necessary medical attention wouldn't be available, so a missing limb would be a big deal.

Also people who are close to the said Were in human form would wonder(an understatment) how the person had lost his/her limb. Regrowing it would also be a huge eye opener.

*nods* That's part of the reason it wouldn't be available. The biggest reason, of course, is that said medical attention doesn't even exist right now, but they couldn't really take any substitutes today either. Anywhere they went, people would ask questions. A werewolf couldn't just show up for work one day with a bandaged stump and expect everyone to just back off when he tells them his story of losing it. He couldn't really go to the hospital either because they'd ask even more questions.

If they called in advance, they may even ask him to bring in the severed hand to see if it can be reattached. Imagine a guy walking into the hospital and asking if this could be reattached:


The only place they could really let it regrow in peace would be in the wild, so if they wanted it back, their only option would be to assume full wolf form, leave their human life behind, and hope it regrows as it should. Explaining why someone just disappeared on a whim would be difficult enough for the rest of the pack, but it would be even harder to explain why he just suddenly came back, so chances are a werewolf that went to the wild to regrow a limb wouldn't be coming back.

We could probably have a whole thread about the reasons why a werewolf couldn't let a limb regrow in today's day and age, but at any rate, if a werewolf could regrow missing body parts, they wouldn't be able to. It would take some hard fought acceptance from the rest of the world at large before anyone could truly know the full extent of werewolf regeneration.

[Silent Hunter]

but it would be even harder to explain why he just suddenly came back, so chances are a werewolf that went to the wild to regrow a limb wouldn't be coming back

Well people do go missing for years and can come back. Though uncommen its not rare. Maybe the were could claim that he/she wanted to get away/has no memory of the previous events/wanted a new life. A Were could also claim that he was kidnapped. All this though raises other questions on who, why etc. Plus to many people going missing and coming back raises questions too.

[Terastas]

Well people do go missing for years and can come back. Though uncommen its not rare. Maybe the were could claim that he/she wanted to get away/has no memory of the previous events/wanted a new life. A Were could also claim that he was kidnapped. All this though raises other questions on who, why etc. Plus to many people going missing and coming back raises questions too.

It could be done, but it would be a hard sell. That and, assuming they would have to spend a year at least as a full wolf, they might not be that keen on rejoining the rat race anyway.

[Aki]

Well people do go missing for years and can come back. Though uncommen its not rare. Maybe the were could claim that he/she wanted to get away/has no memory of the previous events/wanted a new life. A Were could also claim that he was kidnapped. All this though raises other questions on who, why etc. Plus to many people going missing and coming back raises questions too.

It could be done, but it would be a hard sell. That and, assuming they would have to spend a year at least as a full wolf, they might not be that keen on rejoining the rat race anyway.

Depends. They might be chompin' at the bit to get back to human life as well.

[RedEye]

Considering that Wolves are extremely competetive for position and importance in the pack, and aren't hampered by human ethics in how they advance themselves...I doubt that the Were would miss the "rat race" at all.

My take on this might be some sort of a "Retreat"; run either by other Were's or perhaps by Smoothskin "friends" where the Were' can take the time to heal as needed iin return for some minor work on said Werewolf's part.
Sort'a like Mission Wolf or Wolf International or one of the smaller Wolf sanctuaries...maybe not all of the Wolves are canines- there are segregated groups that don't regularly interact with the public...
That'd work for regeneration...

[Aki]

Considering that Wolves are extremely competetive for position and importance in the pack, and aren't hampered by human ethics in how they advance themselves...I doubt that the Were would miss the "rat race" at all.

Right. For some.

But I sure as hell know if I were a werewolf, lost my arm and had to hide out, I'd sure as hell want back after a year or two.

I am far too fond of buildings, AC, heating, my computer, games, and internet to live out in some woods for the rest of my life. Especially now that I have two limbs again, I can actually go back to playing video games and such.

And that's just nerds/geek/gamers like me. I imagine anyone who actually liked their job would be a least considering going back.

I prefer the whole best of both worlds approach. Stay human for a while, take off your weekends or something for wolfishness.