AHHHHHHHHHHH SILVER

[Wingman]

yes, if they can find a silver that stays a liquid.

Well, the silver needn't be a liquid, as long as it's been broken down into small enough bits, which are going to have to be pretty small if you want it to get into the bloodstream.

[blackwolfhell]

exactly! The only thing is, silver could kill humans as well because its a contaniment in the blood stream. people would get hurt from internal bleeding.

[Scott Gardener]

Silver is not as expensive as one might think. As of March 27,2009, just after stroke of midnight Pacific U.S. time, it goes for $13.54 an ounce. This price is subject to market fluctuations, but it's absolute peak during a short-lived market rally last year it went for little more than $20 an ounce. One troy ounce of silver is slightly more than can be found in an old U.S. silver dollar, enough to make not one but several bullets. Werewolf hunters can acquire 99.9% pure silver from coin dealers in the form of bullion coins for just a slight premium above the market spot price. (If purity is important, Canadian silver "Maples" are 99.99% pure silver.) I would expect dedicated werewolf hunters to have other expenses far bigger than the cost of silver bullets on their balance sheets.

The medical usefulness of colloidal silver as an antibacterial is controversial at best. One strange side effect: It can turn your skin blue.
http://ifitandhealthy.com/colloidal-silver-blue-skin/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOL8-qIYemg
(OK, just kidding on the second link.)

Silver can be toxic in high amounts to normal people. But, a makeshift attempt to inject a genetic-standard human (i.e., not a werewolf) with colloidal silver would likely do more harm from bacterial sepsis or thrombo-embolic catastrophies such as a stroke or pulmonary embolism.

Getting silver to stay in liquid form is a chemistry trick that's outside my off-hand knowledge, though the vampires in Underworld seem to have gotten that down, so any lycanthropes out there should be wary of any pale icy-eyed women wearing skin-tight rubber.

[blackwolfhell]

Well, I heard about that...

[Terastas]

Silver is not as expensive as one might think. As of March 27,2009, just after stroke of midnight Pacific U.S. time, it goes for $13.54 an ounce. This price is subject to market fluctuations, but it's absolute peak during a short-lived market rally last year it went for little more than $20 an ounce. One troy ounce of silver is slightly more than can be found in an old U.S. silver dollar, enough to make not one but several bullets. Werewolf hunters can acquire 99.9% pure silver from coin dealers in the form of bullion coins for just a slight premium above the market spot price. (If purity is important, Canadian silver "Maples" are 99.99% pure silver.) I would expect dedicated werewolf hunters to have other expenses far bigger than the cost of silver bullets on their balance sheets.

Still, it's not the acquisition of silver that's difficult; it's the actual production of the bullets that would be a royal pain. Silver jewelery sells for ten to twenty times more than the actual silver in it is actually worth for a reason; it's a pain to work with. Finding silver is easy, but finding someone that can melt it into bullets and will do so without any questions is not.

Getting silver to stay in liquid form is a chemistry trick that's outside my off-hand knowledge

Not really. The trick isn't turning silver into a liquid -- it's mixing silver particles with a liquid. Colloidal silver is essentially silver particles mixed in with purified water. The bullets the vampires in Underworld were essentially just casings filled with a liquid mixture that broke open upon contact with the target. The fluid sort of oozed like jelly though, so they probably substituted water with a lubricant like RedEye suggested earlier.

The only other possibility would be to substitute silver with mercury, another favorite of medieval alchemists that would be even more hazardous than silver to anything that came in contact with it. Either way, it wouldn't literally be silver in liquid form.

[Gevaudan]

The only other possibility would be to substitute silver with mercury, another favorite of medieval alchemists that would be even more hazardous than silver to anything that came in contact with it. Either way, it wouldn't literally be silver in liquid form.

In other words, don't go near a guy holding a bunch of old thermometers.

[Terastas]

Silver can be toxic in high amounts to normal people. But, a makeshift attempt to inject a genetic-standard human (i.e., not a werewolf) with colloidal silver would likely do more harm from bacterial sepsis or thrombo-embolic catastrophies such as a stroke or pulmonary embolism.

I'm embarrassed I didn't think of this earlier, but that could be why werewolves are attributed to have a weakness to silver. What just occurred to me is that, since we typically think of the shift as being fueled by adrenaline, shifting could potentially put some additional strain on the werewolf's heart and circulatory system, which you could argue would put them at a greater risk of a heart attack, stroke, etc. Anything that would put a normal human at such a risk (like colloidal silver) could therefore put a werewolf at a greater risk.

Though I suppose by that definition, silver would only be (additionally) lethal to a werewolf in gestalt form that had recently shifted. And it would still be overkill if you ask me.

Seem plausible?

[Wingman]

I'm embarrassed I didn't think of this earlier, but that could be why werewolves are attributed to have a weakness to silver. What just occurred to me is that, since we typically think of the shift as being fueled by adrenaline, shifting could potentially put some additional strain on the werewolf's heart and circulatory system, which you could argue would put them at a greater risk of a heart attack, stroke, etc. Anything that would put a normal human at such a risk (like colloidal silver) could therefore put a werewolf at a greater risk.

Though I suppose by that definition, silver would only be (additionally) lethal to a werewolf in gestalt form that had recently shifted. And it would still be overkill if you ask me.

Seem plausible?

That's how this web serial does it, the werewolves tend to die young due to the strain of transforming. A born werewolf seems to have a shelf life of about 20 years, if they're lucky, and a bitten werewolf has a bit longer than that.
It's some good stuff there, I advise reading it.

[Sheekaka]

Why has this thread turned into a discussion on which weapons and delivery systems work? Are we now trying to become werewolf hunters? I think this thread has deviated from the original subject too many times.

[Aki]

Why has this thread turned into a discussion on which weapons and delivery systems work? is we now trying to become vampire hunters? I think this thread has deviated from the original subject too many times.

Because it's relevant to the topic (silver and it's effects on werewolves)?

(Also: I'm LOLing so damn hard at this April Fool's Day word filter. KILLER BROCCOLI)

[Ember]

In my personal universe, the werewolves heal approximately seven to eight times faster than normal humans (resulting in fatigue and/or unconsciousness after severe injury), unless the wound is inflicted by a weapon made of pure silver, in which case the rate of healing is just a tad slower than that of a human and may be accompanied by a fever, but wouldn't actually kill the werewolf unless it were a wound that would kill him anyway, such as a bullet in the head or a knife through the heart. I haven't really thought about it much, so I don't have an intelligent reason, really; this is just my gut reaction. I sort of feel that silver is more toxic to werewolves (or any other sort of werecreature) than it is to humans, but only if introduced to the bloodstream or kept in contact with the skin for a very long time (say, a day or two). So silver jewelry isn't a great idea, but it isn't immediately a problem either. Also, my weres are immune to almost all poisons; colloidal silver is one of the few substances that can kill them, and it will do so within a day if injected into the bloodstream, but will merely make them ill if ingested.

[WolfeGuardian]

Even though I love werewolves and mostly study only them I have no clue but in my opinion I don't think of them dying by it just more of like an allergic reaction to it but thats my opinion

[berylwolf]

The notion of using silver as a 'kryptonite' to WWs was introduced to stories and early movies to give an interesting twist to the whole WW genre. In literature, almost every powerful entity has a weakness, no matter how invincible that character may seem. It would be logical to assume silver was used to be the one stopping force to kill a WW, as a way to help make the legend so popular, as it is today.

To actually believe silver has anything to do with a defining weakness for WWs, compared to how it impacts any other carbon based life form would be rather silly. Then again, we're all a little silly being on this forum to being with!

PEACE!

[blackwolfhell]

thanks for that! Your a real pal! Yeah, I always thought silver was a weird weakness. It made no sense

[Terastas]

To actually believe silver has anything to do with a defining weakness for WWs, compared to how it impacts any other carbon based life form would be rather silly. Then again, we're all a little silly being on this forum to being with!

That's the thing, isn't it? It is silly to believe silver would be hazardous to werewolves, but then again, so is believing in werewolves period. Most people don't really give werewolves half a thought, so when people see them in the movies, they accept them as fictional and buy into all the other fictional facts provided about them (including their weakness to silver), and chances that if they were to meet a werewolf in real life, that would (at least temporarily) snuff out all senses of common logic with them and they would at first assume everything they read in books and/or saw on TV.

Sort of like how people always seem to assume that a tyrannosaurus won't attack you if you don't movie because they saw it in Jurassic Park. We don't know if that's true or not, but then again, we don't expect that we'll ever need to know something like that, so if we actually did somehow encounter one, chances are that how we respond to it will involve what we remember from those movies.

Misinformation is better than nothing, I guess you could say.