What exactly is it called?

[Moonraiser]

Okay, the main thing I am wondering is, has anyone given a name to the virus that makes a person a werewolf? Should it be called something? If so, what? I'd like at least a couple of names and if someone is feeling scientific, they could look up some stuff and come up with one that actually works.

Also, I'm pretty sure this has already been talked about, but I'm just throwing it out last minute.

What exactly is this 'virus'? Is it a virus at all? Rabies? Just tell me what you think.

Thanks!

[Vagrant]

You could name it akin to the way a lot of discoveries are called; in other words, the name of the person who discovered it, followed by a base descriptor.

Something like Bassinger's Loup Garou Virus, as a basic example. There are a few types of virus which have been named in this manner. Though you might want to go with something more enigmatic than that.

That said, great thread and an interesting idea to discuss, my Wolf!

[Wingman]

Well, it is called Lupus Venereus is what it's called in Ray Garton's book Ravenous.


As a possible alternative to a virus, it might simply be a chemical or substance present in something else, such as a plant or animal, which would explain only periodic transformations as it would take time for the stuff to accumulate inside someone. Or possibly either a parasitic or symbiotic organism akin to a Goa'Uld symbiont, or the thing from Scourge.

[Terastas]

Unless we're dealing with an alternative timeline scenario where the viroid is being studied thoroughly, anyone aware of the existence of the viroid would probably just give into habit and call it lycanthropy.

And yes, I'm aware that lycanthropy is a psychological disorder, so if exposed to the greater populace, the scientific community would probably distinguish instead between physical and psychological lycanthropy and name the viroid something to that effect.
Lupus. . . Umm. . . Physicallus. . . Or something like that.

[Aki]

Unless we're dealing with an alternative timeline scenario where the viroid is being studied thoroughly, anyone aware of the existence of the viroid would probably just give into habit and call it lycanthropy.

And yes, I'm aware that lycanthropy is a psychological disorder, so if exposed to the greater populace, the scientific community would probably distinguish instead between physical and psychological lycanthropy and name the viroid something to that effect.
Lupus. . . Umm. . . Physicallus. . . Or something like that.

I'd have to agree with that. I doubt unless there's been a big reveal or somethin' that it would have a proper name. It's probably just be lycanthropy or such, since I doubt many werewolves would have the means, skills or perhaps even motive to scientifically examine the virus.

[Terastas]

I'd have to agree with that. I doubt unless there's been a big reveal or somethin' that it would have a proper name. It's probably just be lycanthropy or such, since I doubt many werewolves would have the means, skills or perhaps even motive to scientifically examine the virus.

The only motive a werewolf would possibly have would be to *ahem* distance themselves from the negative associations attributed to words like "werewolf" and "lycanthropy."

So maybe every one in twenty werewolves would get a bee under their tail about being called a werewolf or a lycanthrope and remind everyone that the non-offensive term is ____________.

Of course, I have a feeling those other nineteen werewolves would tell that one in twenty where they can shove their political correctness.

Actually, any pack worth its salt would have second thoughts about infecting someone that hyper-liberal about political correctness to begin with. Those are the people that would be most likely to try and announce to the world that they are not monsters even if they have lycanthropy. A werewolf with that kind of attitude would be a liability to their anonymity, in other words.

[RedEye]

In the Wulfen Blood stories, the viroid that causes the Change, or "Crossing Over" is referred to as the "Lupus Inceptor Viroid" (Wolf Making/Creating Viroid).

'cause that's what it does.

I suspect that every writer has a pet name for it, even if the name is just "Fred"...

[Uniform Two Six]

See, that's my point. Bubonic Plague wouldn't have been such a big deal if they hadn't named it "The Black Death". Much too Stehpen King-esque. If they'd just called it "Fred" everything would have been cool.

[Wingman]

"I just caught Fred, woe is me!"
"Well, why don't you put him down then?"

[IndianaJones]

Lycanthropy can be a curse, a disease, a contagious virus, and a dark gift.

Vampires only have the embrace. Which is not contagious. You must put vampire blood on a dying human or an anthropomorphic animal whom they are loosing lots of blood or only have one pint of blood left or almost no blood at all. So they can be transformed into vampires.

[Scott Gardener]

In my storylines, it's referred as the "lycanthrope virus," complete with the scientific community complaining about how it's not technically a virus per se, but the name is stuck. There's several strains: "LV-CL," "LV-W1," and several others, each with equally cryptic letters and numbers that could just as easily be a home theater component or a luxury SUV. Of course, that's in part because lycanthropology began as underground research in the late eighties, with no real headway until just a few years from now, when werewolves go public. They named it "lycanthrope virus" before they knew more precisely what it was.

[Silent Hunter]

It really can be vart. It can be just some kind of magical curse with no name to some Scientific virus. Really like a lot of things with werewolves, it changes to fit the story. Sometimes having no name to what it is, having no knowledge of weather it is science, magic or both can really aid the chilling effect or mystery in a werewolf story. The audience does not need to have everything explained to them.

Take The Mist, the not a lot of detail was given on wht the monsters were, where they came from etc yet that aided the film and how scary it was. You never knew what they were and what they wanted but you saw what they could do and how they acted. It let the audience mostly fill in the blanks.

[Morkulv]

Since when did anyone confirm that it is supposed to be a virus? That sounds really lame to me. It sounds ripped from some really bad werewolf horror B-flick. I have watched some really s*** vampire-movies as well and there they also portrayed vampirism as a virus, so please don't do the same with werewolves.

The process of transformation should be activated by the person's DNA IMO. What this precisely is is not important, and that is what makes it mysterious. Werewolves are supposed to reflect a inner dark side of ourselves, and thats what supposed to make it scary. Knowing that its some sort of virus takes all the mystery out of it.

[Terastas]

It really can be vart. It can be just some kind of magical curse with no name to some Scientific virus. Really like a lot of things with werewolves, it changes to fit the story. Sometimes having no name to what it is, having no knowledge of weather it is science, magic or both can really aid the chilling effect or mystery in a werewolf story. The audience does not need to have everything explained to them.

There's two reasons it helps to know these things:

1) These are the kinds of questions people watching it at the movies or reading it in a book are going to be asking.
2) Even if you don't intend on revealing it, it helps to have a blueprint for your own reference to avoid inconsistencies and/or random plot devices.

I don't ever plan on revealing to my Night Life audience that my version of lycanthropy becomes dormant at the cellular level and can mutate into alternative forms during maturity, but I do have a werecat born into a family of werewolves. I don't ever plan on revealing exactly how that happened, but I still wrote it down for my own personal references.

But yeah, just because you as the author need to know something doesn't mean the audience needs to know as well. Part of what I love about the werecat is that it serves to illustrate exactly how little the werewolves know about themselves. They don't even know if its a virus or a curse, never mind the true nature of the virus and how it functions. Some of them freely admit that they don't have all the answers. . .

. . .and the rest of them just make crap up. Which is another thing I've had a lot of fun with in my writing. Every time a hunter, vampire and/or werewolf from a splinter pack drops a bombshell on the newcomer protagonist about the true nature of werewolves, one of his packmates can usually tell him what book, movie or web comic it sounds like they ripped it out of.

[Berserker]

Personally, viruses tend to make me think in medical terms about mutations, vaccinations, and cures, and I just don't like to get that scientific about it. The mystery is important to me; without it, the awe disappears, and the fantasy becomes mundane. In my last werewolf story, people described it as the "Great Change," the "Gray Walk," the "Rebirth," etc. etc. It's a phenomenon, almost like magic, and science fails it... thus it remains untamed, and it's beauty or terror becomes almost spiritual, as well as instinctual.

I think there's a strong tendency for modern writers to try and explain away mythology with science; biology or chemistry. Remember Lucas's dumb midichlorians as a way to explain the Force in Star Wars? The audience didn't want to hear that. If they had stuck with it, the importance of the Force would have been ruined. Zombies, Vampires, and all manner of supernatural forces get the axe as well. Why try and force fantasy to be science fiction? It doesn't need it; it usually becomes diluted and contrived by it. If it's to cater to the kind of people who need some kind of detailed explanation to understand something, then well... fantasy isn't for them.

[Terastas]

Personally, viruses tend to make me think in medical terms about mutations, vaccinations, and cures, and I just don't like to get that scientific about it. The mystery is important to me; without it, the awe disappears, and the fantasy becomes mundane. In my last werewolf story, people described it as the "Great Change," the "Gray Walk," the "Rebirth," etc. etc. It's a phenomenon, almost like magic, and science fails it... thus it remains untamed, and it's beauty or terror becomes almost spiritual, as well as instinctual.

I think the reason is because the modern werewolf image is of one that can turn others into werewolves by scratching or biting. It isn't necessarily confirmed to be a virus, but it does have some viral characteristics.

You could probably compare it to the AIDS virus in the sense that the symptoms are easily recognizable, but the virus itself has yet to be seen.

I can't speak for everyone that's ever written a werewolf story, but in my own personal writing, lycanthropy is only referred to as a virus because that's their best guess as to what it is. It's never actually been proven that there is such a thing as a lycanthropic virus, but they know whatever it is that makes them werewolves is infectious, so they assume a virus is the cause.

[Scott Gardener]

A virus is an easy explanation to come up with. In 1987, after having seen Teen Wolf and not much else, I started a daydream that would eventually become a novel, so many frigging versions later, and I decided then that it was a virus. That was on my own, without any suggestion beforehand and certainly no mention of it in vampire lore. Evidently a lot of other people came to the same conclusion, because it's a popular idea, and it's bloody unlikely that I started it myself. It's not the only explanation, but it's a quick and easy one, and it fits contemporary thinking and this particular time and place's culture.

I'm actually moving away from the "virus" word itself except as a description of it's behavior. Still, "von Neumann-replicating de-siliconized CZ nano-entity" is a bit wordy, and still not perfect, either at that.

[RedEye]

Why not just "Viroid", a "Virus-like" molecular bio-active structure that is too big to be a virus but too small to be a microbe...say something that is just barely under one lightwave across and thus optically invisible.
Not only that; "Viroid" saves a lot of explanation and discussion of function since it seems to be a unique structure that nobody knows anything about other than it makes people get all fuzzy and toothy and sometimes ruins their socialization skills.
Being unique saves a lot of explanation...

[Scott Gardener]

If it were shorter than one light wave cycle, it would have to be less than 400 nanometers, or 0.4 micrometers. I was going to go for a counterargument, but, dang it! You're right. Large viruses are about that size. Heck, a bacterium is only 0.5 to 1 micrometer in diameter. Note that while objects smaller than 400 nm may not be directly visible with light, they can still be photographed using electron microscopy. But, that gets expensive--universities often have them, but most hospitals don't, unless they're major centers doing cutting edge research.

[xxxwildwolfgirlxxx]

i heard it was a type of rabies :woof: