Other Werecreatures....

[Silverclaw]

I was wondering, say that other wereanimals existed in the Freeborn universe. Would, say, a weretiger also shift with the full moon? Would silver affect them at all? How would they differ from, and have in common with werewolves?
I demand discussion!

[Spongy]

Hmm...I really don't know. But from what I know, somewhere in religion (I think mostly catholicism) it says that werewolves are from hell..and since silver is a "holy metal" it works against them...I don't think there is any mention towards other werecreatures. But I'm going to go ahead and say yes, silver does harm them.

As for the full moon thing...sure why not. I really have no thoughts to back this one up.

[MattSullivan]

Werechickens shift only at dawn LOL

[Terastas]

The full moon has a sort of psychological affect on humans in general, so I imagine the impulses that trigger a shift in werewolves would have a similar affect on any other sort of werekin.

I'm not a big fan of the whole "holy element" description though, but if you accept that, it would depend on the origins of the alternative shifters. Personally, I prefer the "nitrate poisoning" definition, in which case I think it would harm all werekin the same way it would hurt uninfected humans.

There would always be differences. One thing you would definitely need to consider is that werewolves are the base werekin, therefore a werecat or a wererat may assume "werecats and wererats exist, therefore werewolves must be real too," while a werewolf may assume that there are only werewolves. As such, an alternative werekin may take the discovery of a werewolf pack in stride, while the werewolf pack may be just as surprised to learn of the existence of alternative werekins as a human would be to learn of the existence of werewolves.

Immediately upon said discovery, the pack would hold a meeting to discuss whether the alternative werekin could be trusted, whether or not he should be included in the pack, what else might differ between werewolves and the other werekin in question, etc. There would be tension between werewolves and other werekin because of all the unknown elements the alternative werekin presents them with; while they may know how to handle rogue werewolves, there's no telling what they could expect from a different kind of werekin. To the contrary, an alternative werekin might see the werewolves as being paranoid and untrustworthy due to the distrust the pack has shown in him and become solitary.

What would ultimately unite them, however, is their common ground, namely the fact that both are "monsters" in the eyes of the human majority and must maintain a sense of anonymity in order to live a peaceful life. An alternative werekin would effectively become the black sheep of the family in the sense that, while they would be wary of their differences, necessity would require some cooperation at the very least.

[Kelpten]

Well, what if the werekin was solitary by nature? Most felines assemble only to mate, and then the female raises the young and then goes back to being solitary. They'd scorn being in a pack, saying that anything that had to rely on others was weak.

And the Catholics said that wolves were demonic because they were the primary preditor in Europe. If they were in another part of the world, they'd just chose something else. But a werejaguar in ancient South America would have been reviered as a God, so not all cultures hate the shifter.

I also talked to my boss at the wolf shelter. She says that wolves, as well as people, react to the full moon because it offers more light and we can see better. I know, way for me to rob the magic out of werewolves, but you can pretend I never said it .

[JoshuaMadoc]

I'll always be against the "NOOOOOO, ANYTHING BUT SILVER!!" thing. If it'll really hurt werefolk, those werefolk might as well be zombies. Add to that that silver does actually heal in liquid form, though not as fantastical as media portrayals. If anything, silver should be more of a healing item, if not a performance amplifier that can be dangerous if it's overused, or some sort of charm.

So i'm getting increasingly confused as to why there's so many people still sticking to this major cliche. Seriously, guys, when are you going to break the walls of that glass house? Or is this some kind of unavoidable fad?



I can't say much about polyanthropes apart from wolves... My life has revolved around werewolves so much that i don't have time to read into other types, unless i can come up with some snazzy idea that doesn't involve electrical jolts to organisms inside the body that causes transformation. Sorry to disappoint.

[Rhuen]

all cultures have their werebeasts, usually predators, but others are out there. as well as other animal shape shifters. I like the idea of putting all sorts of these things in the same world together, so long as its not meant to be a horror world (in which case other werebeasts would rob the werewolf of its spotlight) nothing says mood killer like a werewolf on a rampage only to piss-off the much larger and stronger were-tiger which commences to thrash the werewolf about like a rag-doll.

If these behave like their animal counter-parts then truthfully only a few groups would really be social (and in those cultures seen as such) although oddly enough the traditional (folklore) werewolf was solitary, but being more modern we could see a pack behavior with the myths being created by insane humans or rogue werewolves.
Lions and Hyenas also have were beast counter-parts and these are social animals, as are dolphins (Amazon Dolphin has a werekin) and seals in Ireland and Scotland areas "Selkie".

But most are solitary such as leopards, tigers, foxes, other big cats such as cheetahs and Jaguars also have were-beast counterparts, and bears.

However its important to note that in all these cultures the only ones trully seen as man-eating monsters were werewolves and werehyenas.
Most others were seen as the minions of gods or their descendents mixed with humans (and often as such gave them other powers) which is why in their cultural context its not uncommon for them to have other powers. Such as werejackals being able to see the dead and command necromantic powers or weretigers be even stronger than natural tigers and have fur that is as strong as metal and claws which can slice through a sword.
While we expand on the werewolf to make it stronger, in those cultures' fictional mediums its often the reverse to make them weaker so the heroes in their movies and such stand a chance.

[Terastas]

So i'm getting increasingly confused as to why there's so many people still sticking to this major cliche. Seriously, guys, when are you going to break the walls of that glass house? Or is this some kind of unavoidable fad?

I think it's because there's a difference between fine-tuning the age-old rules and completely contradicting them.

The whole myth that silver kills werewolves had to come from somewhere after all, and even if it was just made up on a whim, it's the definition that most people are familiar with; people will naturally assume that silver hurts a werewolf, but we can dismiss the whole "holy substance" definition and redefine it as something a little more down to earth, like nitrate poisoning.

It would be another thing entirely to say "no, werewolves aren't hurt by silver. In fact, it heals them." Unless you have a boatload of backstory to explain how the myth that silver hurts werewolves came to be, nobody in your audience is going to discard fifty years of tradition and accept the exact opposite as the definition at the drop of a hat. There's a point where if you rewrite the definition of a werewolf too much, it stops being a werewolf; I believe turning silver from a hindrance to a restorative would be doing such.

[Kaebora]

So... what about werehares?

[Figarou]

I was wondering, say that other wereanimals existed in the Freeborn universe. Would, say, a weretiger also shift with the full moon? Would silver affect them at all? How would they differ from, and have in common with werewolves?
I demand discussion!

There is already one here.

http://www.thepack.network/thepackboard ... php?t=2447

[Silverclaw]

There is already one here.

http://www.thepack.network/thepackboard ... php?t=2447

Ah...mkay. Though that one seems to question if other werecreatures could exist along with werewolves. This thread is more of like, if they are around, how are they similar/different from a werewolf.

[Kelpten]

Not all cultures display werewolves as good but not bad either. Like kitsunes, who were notoriously tricky, or weredolphins that seduced women. They weren't bloodthirsty beasts, but they weren't exactly helpful either

[JoshuaMadoc]

Not all cultures display werewolves as good but not bad either. Like kitsunes, who were notoriously tricky, or weredolphins that seduced women. They weren't bloodthirsty beasts, but they weren't exactly helpful either

You didn't mention the kitsune who became lovers and wives who bore children, and the kitsune who help other people.

[Terastas]

Not all cultures display werewolves as good but not bad either. Like kitsunes, who were notoriously tricky, or weredolphins that seduced women. They weren't bloodthirsty beasts, but they weren't exactly helpful either

That's another thing you'd need to ask: Whether or not the alternative werekin are different species, or just a different variation of lycanthropy.

In the Noctem series I'm working on, the werewolf nation includes minorities of kitsunes and selkies (among other things), and though the minority races often claim to have no problem with werewolves, they are quick to point out that they are not related physically, historically or culturally.

In another one I'm working on, the first werecat's mother and father were both werewolves, so the fact that he should have been a werewolf leads to even more confusion as to how to deal with him.

So you'd have to define how closely related werewolves and the other werekin are before you could define how the two relate with each other, as well as how much is known about each other.

[Kelpten]

How tragic it would be if a werecat gave birth to a weremouse. But I'm sure maternal love would conquer instincts! Wouldn't that make a cute story?

[Terastas]

How tragic it would be if a werecat gave birth to a weremouse. But I'm sure maternal love would conquer instincts! Wouldn't that make a cute story?

The thing is that, regardless of what kind of werekin mother and son are, both of them are still half human. That said, if a werecat's son did turn out to be a wererat, I think it would be treated more like one of God's bad jokes than a tragic turnout.

"This is my son. He's a wererat. Story of my life."

[JoshuaMadoc]

Would it be a pitiful sight if someone contracts... um, "polyanthropy", and, of all the types, becomes an earthworm, a snail, an octopus/cuttlefish/squid, or a box jellyfish?

[MoonKit]

Always gotta add in the wereferrets.

And they would travel in their own little "businesses" and leave the rest of the animals alone. And they would be a band of very cute thieves who will steal your socks if youre not careful.

[Terastas]

Would it be a pitiful sight if someone contracts... um, "polyanthropy", and, of all the types, becomes an earthworm, a snail, an octopus/cuttlefish/squid, or a box jellyfish?

Well geez, there have to be limits somewhere. I seriously doubt there would be any invertebrate werekin.

[MattSullivan]

Were portuguese-man-of-war :p

[Kelpten]

What?! No wereameba or weremushroom?

[Terastas]

Man, and I thought I'd gone far out of line. My general rule of thumb when writing is that all werekin have to be mammals, so the furthest from the original I've ever deviated was a werekin wallaby. . . And even then, I don't really plan on confirming that this character really is a werewallaby -- he just gets nicknamed such because he's 4'9 and escapes his captors by jumping across the rooftops.

A half-man, half jellyfish. . . That'd probably look something like that clone that was begging to be killed in Alien: Resurrection.

[MattSullivan]

I keep telling you guys....Were-Kangaroos! *boing boing boing boing boing kick!*

[RedEye]

Gotta remember here, unless we're ignoring the conservation of matter and energy business; these Were-creatures would have to stay somewhere around Human size and weight.

Thus: Were-Jellies would be huge, compared to nature. Wereferrets would be about the size of cougars and probably would be completely defeatable with tummy-rubs.
As for Were-Hares: Try any Playboy club...

[Rhuen]

alterante werebeasts, just check out BloodyRoar.
Everything from a werewolf, weretigers, a wererabbit (in fact the werewolf and wererabbit have a relationship going on) to freaky things like a giant werebeetle and a werechimera.

As for invertibrates, give a bug lungs and it could reach six feet in height. Just look at the giant centipede of the carbinerferious period "it didn't have lungs but the O2 level was comparible to having them" (a time when the earth had much more oxygen than today so land invertibrates could get huge).

mammals are the norm but alternatives are possible, especially if the cause is magic, heck even mix species like human and wolf is far enough off possible to really need magic honestly.

But the general rule of what makes it a werebeast rather than a changling type deal is size, roughly human sized and mixed features (even if its just a few like eyes and speech).