Werewolf
Basic Information
Anatomy
Werewolves are one of the most terrifying creatures you could ever encounter. They're vicious hunters, the soldiers of the apocalylpse, and yet, you've seen them in your day to day life. You might have even dated one. The key feature of what makes a werewolf a werewolf is their ability to shapeshift. They walk among us, seemingly ordinary humans with extraordinary abilities.
In their human form, there is nothing that will distinguish a werewolf from a regular human, visibly. They look the same. On the inside, they are far different. Their hearts beat faster, their core body temperature is higher, they have far more dense muscles, and far stronger senses. Their bones are more durable. Even a small werewolf can easily lift hundreds of pounds. Larger wolves don't bare challenging for the thousands they could lift.
In their wolf forms, it's a little more obvious. A werewolf can shift at will into one of two wolf forms. They can become a regular wolf, on four legs or an anthro wolf, on two legs. In either case, they grow far larger. Their feral form can see them grow to be anywhere from the size of a tiger to a large bear. Some can write this off as evolution or a trick of the eyes. In this form, they are anatomically identical to a regular wolf save for their size. They pad around on silent paws and stalk the woods at night, the same as their natural cousins.
The other form, the anthro wolf, has sometimes been called a Berserker. This form os a perfect fusion of wolf and man. They walk upright, anywhere from 7' to a towering 15' tall, giants among men. They ripple with power and killer instincts, but the human intelligence to outwit any prey. The exact state of their anthro form depends on their day to day lives. A buff man would grow into a monsterous beast. Someone more slender would be a slim wolf, cat-like in their flexibility.
In additon to taking on their wolf form at will, a wolf will be forced to shift on every full moon. They have no power over this. They will shift. The best they can do is delay it.
The process of shapeshifting is exceptionally painful. More frequent shifting will only cause additional soreness to develop over time. This stems from the wolves' healing powers being unable to keep up with the frequency of their changing form. It is advised to cycle between forms no more than three times in a day. There is no hard limit on this, but it will bring pain and discomfort.
Genetics and Reproduction
Werewolves are physically capable of becoming pregnant, but they are unable to deliver the baby. The baby is unable to survive the transformation on the full moon. Consequently, no werewolf is able to carry a child to term. Once one has become a wolf, traditional motherhood is off the table. Nothing yet discovered is able to change that.
As for the father, they are able to reproduce. The disease itself however, is not transmitted to the child. The offspring of a male wolf may inherit favorable genetics should they ever become a wolf, but they will not inherent their father's curse. In this way, werewolf families are almost entirely adoptive or rely on a female human to reproduce at all.
The species sole means of propagation is by turning living humans into werewolves. A wolf must bite someone, while in wolf form to infect them with the curse. The infectiousness of a wolf will vary by the time of month. They are most contagious in the days around a full moon, when their curse is at its strongest. At other periods in the month, a single bite is not likely to be sufficiently infectious to pass on the curse.
Growth Rate & Stages
Once infected, a person's body will fall comatose for up to a week in the days or even hours following a werewolf bite. During this period, they will typically experience significant pain if they awaken. Their soul is being ripped in two, their body remade on a genetic level. It is an unappealing process. Many report having nightmares in which they are hunted by a wolf, it is said to be the other half of their soul seeking vengance for the human half's folly.
After an infected person has awoken, they will be assaulted by their new senses. In urban environments, this is downright overwhelming. Even in the woods, it can take time to adjust to it. They will find themselves doing things out of instincts they never experienced before. They'll experience aggression when someone reaches out to shake hands. They'll long for physical contact, even be forceful about it. Their emotions will be heightened, a hair trigger is all it will take to see them snap at times. In many circumstances, murder will seem like a perfectly viable answer to any of their problems.
In the months ahead, one of two things will happen. They're experiencing a battle in their soul. They will either go mad or learn to coexist with their wolf soul. There is no middleground. A mad wolf tends to go on murderous rampages, eating people alive and wreaking havoc. Someone who's learned to control it, to manage their urges, will eventually integrate peacefully into human society.
Ecology and Habitats
There are no specific guidelines for where to find werewolves. They are common both in cities and the countryside. Perhaps the only guarantee is to find a rural area, barren of civilization on a full moon and pray they don't take interest in any human observers.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Werewolves eat the same food as humans, but they do eat a far greater quantity. The werewolf metabolism, even in human form, can easily burn 10,000 calories in a day. When left loose in their wolf form for a hunt, a werewolf will consume any wild game it can find. A lone wolf typically catches smaller prey such as rabbits, while the entire back might gather to hunt several dear on the night of a full moon.
Biological Cycle
Although outwardly human, werewolves do not have normal human cycles. They are prone to distinctly inhuman schedules. Like wolves, they tend towards being crepuscular, willing, even eager to be up at dawn and dusk, but little of the time in between. Many tend to be night-owls, staying up into the whee hours of the morning. They don't experience the same depression humans do when deprived of sunlght. The moon is as much their ruler as the sun.
The most important cycle in a werewolf's life is the cycle of the moon. In the days leading up to a full moon, wolves tend to get anxious, excited, and even cranky. It is at this point that their connection to the moon is strongest. Their bodies are being pumped full of the moon's energy, with the expected side effects of such significant biological changes.
As for their lifepsan, werewolves have no documented limit on their age. They tend to live longer than humans, but not as old as vampires. Most die of conflict before having the opportunity to die of old age.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Werewolves organize themselves into packs. These are essentially an adoptive family. The exact structure, nature, and function of that family varies by pack. In an ideal scenario, the pack will collectively look out for each other, under the guidance of a few select leaders of the pack. There is typically a mated pair that serve as the Alphas who lead the pack. Ironically, this behavior is not from the wolf half, but the human half.
The internal structure of a pack is all about unity and cohesiveness. A pack in a high functioning state is generally fairly friendly. Their members are often happier, fueled by their joint connections and the natural stress-relieving effect of their strength in numbers. They will freely move about, interact with each other, speak openly, and fluidly follow individuals when needed.
Less healthy packs will be snappier, angrier to outsiders. This can lead to a pack operated like a small kingdom. It creates excess stress within the pack. In some circumstances, this is tolerable in the short term, such as when the pack is being hunted (and must rely on specific, direct control of a leader-figure, regardless of how grating that may be). These packs tend to develop an over-defensive posture. This is a natural state for the werewolves, preparing themselves for an attack when stressed. Overtime, it can cause them to develop bad habbits.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Various vampire families are known to exploit werewolves as their own, personal army. This is a millenia old struggle that goes back to the origins of the werewolves themselves. It has been speculated that werewolves as they are known today, were created by vampires, a combination of magic and genetic engineering. This was to raise an obedient and easily controlled army.
In practice, the ability of a vampire family to control werewolves relies heavily on politics and that pack's individual leadership. Overtime, vampires have struggled to maintain control of packs. In many circumstances, the pack attains dominance over the vampires, flipping the typical script in how things are operated.
When being exploited, werewolves are ideal guards and soldiers. They are very nearly unkillable, experts at hunting, tracking, and killing. Given their numbers and the unity of a pack, they show a unit cohesiveness that no military has ever achieved. A vampire with control of a pack is essentially untouchable from all outside influences.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Werewolves have some of the keenest sense of any super natural species. They are able to see in the dark, even in human form. Their hearing allows them to detect prey, whether human or animal, from hundreds of feet away. With their sense of smell, they're able to hunt and track in nearly any conditions. These abilities are above even the best of canines in the natural world. It's a blessing and a curse.
The scents and sounds of human society are considered maddening to many wolves. It takes them time to learn to tune out humanity and to ignore every disgusting scent they come across. Most wolves would never set foot in a fast food joint for fear of gagging on the putrid grease no doubt layered thickly in the kitchen. The fine senses of a hunter were never meant for human society.
These enhancements persist in their human forms. A werewolf can act as an exceptionally well tuned lie detector. They can hear the change in your heartbeat, smell your seat and fear in the air. The moment something gets a reaction, a wolf will know about it. It's best not to lie to them.
An often overlooked, sensory capability of werewolves is telepathy. They are able to communicate telepathically wthin their pack. Wolves within the same pack can feel the feelings, pain, and thoughts of the others. They can see through each others' eyes, hear through each other. This capability is one of the keys of how a pack gets is strength. They act as one, close in ways regular humans will never imagine.
Civilization and Culture
Gender Ideals
Werewolves harbor no specific limitations or restrictions on orientation or gender. Historically, packs have been hunted by numerous religious groups. Consequently, most packs and the culture they passed forward, did not have much respect for the beliefs of religions and any guidance or limitations they or society at large placed on any form of love or self expression. There are numerous wolves in the LGBTQ+ community, who are freely and happily embraced within their packs, regardless of what course or romance their lives may have.
Genetic Descendants
Average Physique
Unlike vampires, werewolves bodies are not frozen in time. A werewolf will tend to develop a more athletic physique over time. This is largely attributed to the needs, wants, and desires of their wolf soul as well as their increased metabolism. Where a human will struggle to burn off the excess calories of a modern diet, werewolves can't help but to burn through them without end.
On average, a werewolf will have a slightly above-average-appearing musculature as compared to a healthy human.
In all other ways, a werewolf's physical form is as varied as humans. It is even possible, though difficult to have a more husky or overwheight werewolf.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Werewolf fur varies by region and ancestry. A large number of werewolves tend to be darker furred, with dark blown and black fur. This trend seems to be the predominant nature for the species. Some lineages of wolf however, have been traced to more regional origins. Wolves from the midwest US arel ikely to have red wolf fur patterns. Farther north, more arctic wolf patterns, including white fur are more prevalent in the population.
Regardless of the wolf-form's appearance, there is no impact on the human skin tones of the individual. Becoming a werewolf has no effect on skincolor and skincolor has no effect on a werewolf. This is a curse that impacts people of all races and origins equally.
That said, once a person has become a werewolf, their body will aggressively fight off anything in their body that is not 'human.' Their immune system will eradicate tatoos and devour medical implants. There are no unique markings on a werewolf's human form. It is possible to dye a human form's hair, but that will be lost at their next transformation.
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