Werewolf/Hemlock Grove

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|-|Werewolf=
Werewolves are a subspecies of humans who have the ability to shape-shift between human and wolf form. They transform and develop a wolf body inside of their own body; breaking out of their human flesh. The wolf that transforms back into a human will similarly shed their wolf body and allow the human body that is inside to come out. There are only three ways for a human to become a werewolf.
Werewolves can change whenever they choose, although they usually do so when a full moon is in the sky, whether it is day or night. Their wolf is connected to the phases of the moon, with its peak form being when the moon is full as its body becomes fuller as the moon does. If they transform without a full moon, they risk becoming a mentally and physically unstable; consumed by its condition until it dies from it.
Parts of the wolf body can manifest from the human body on the werewolf's will, though this usually happens when the wolf body is incomplete inside the human one. This too will risk them becoming unstable and insane, with their transformations being completely unstable as the wolf body will become independent of the human one and transform the human body involuntarily. The wolf will then be in control of the transformations instead of the human, causing the human to lose control of their own minds and bodies as well.
The more unstable these transformations, the more the wolf can appear without a full moon, though at the cost of the werewolf's conscious mind, which causes the wolf to emerge even from a werewolf's corpse. At this point, the werewolf has become a vargulf, which is commonly shown as having brightly colored and completely white fur as their condition progresses. The human form of a vargulf, should the vargulf ever take human form again, also has brightly colored and completely white hair, usually due to the stresses of their insanity.
== Known Werewolves ==
* Peter Rumancek (former, later a Vargulf)
* Hermila †
* Christina Wendall † (former, later a Vargulf)
* Nicolae Rumancek † (former, later a Vargulf)
== Origin ==
According to folklore, werewolves (also known as lycanthropes. loup-garous, or skinwalkers in some native legends) were created by witchcraft. It can be assumed that they have been around for many centuries, perhaps since the beginning of time. It would seem that werewolves that are part of gypsy groups. At least some werewolves can practice witchcraft and perform rituals, as seen when Peter once went into a trance to talk to Nicolae, who warned him against trusting upirs such as Roman, and also to safely transform into wolf form not during the full moon without becoming a vargulf. The wolf activating a transformation is called the Luna Rea, and activating it against the rule and phasing of the moon causes them to become physically and mentally unstable, as they become prone to violence, and later on, even murderous. Doing this too many times causes the wolf inside them becomes rabid and takes over a werewolf's ability to turn, as well as their minds, and overshadow the human traits and consciousness. This turns them into a vargulf.
Werewolves are seen to be connected physically and mentally to the pull of the moon and its phases; turning against the moon's phases strains the body and mind until the vargulf condition occurs.
== Becoming a Werewolf ==
There are only three ways to becomes a werewolf:
* 1) Being born a werewolf.
* 2) Being bitten by a werewolf.
* 3) Consuming water taken from the footprint of a werewolf during a full moon.
== Characteristics ==
It should be noted that werewolves and vargulfs can sense others of their kind, whether in human or wolf form. It is possible that it is the wolf bodies inside them that are sensing the other, which is why Peter said that he could sense the vargulf (Christina) inside him and could search for it with its senses. Usually, born werewolves are of Gypsy or Romanian origin, as Peter and other born werewolves in the show are shown to be of the Gypsy clan or Romanian descent. Also, born werewolves are shown to usually have upirs in their bloodline.
== Appearance ==
=== Human ===
Werewolves are indistinguishable from humans while in human form, though they typically have a higher percentage of body hair and or muscle. It is possible that the more unstable a vargulf becomes, the more their lycanthropy affects their bodies. For example, Christina's hair gradually turned completely white during her days as a vargulf (and she became insane), although some of this transformation might have been caused by her traumatic experiences with the corpse of one of her victims. It is said by Christina that if a person's middle and pointer fingers are the same length, it shows them to be a werewolf. Peter does, in fact, happen to have this trait.
=== Wolf ===
Werewolves in wolf form are cougar-or leopard-sized wolves with some bear characteristics in their build and with paws and similar to that of a bear or lion. Their forelegs also almost look like human arms. Each werewolf has a distinct form, which differs mainly in fur. So far in the series, yellow is the only werewolf eye color. The wolf's coloring does not necessarily resemble that of the human form, but if the hair of the werewolf changes like Christina's did, their wolf's hair would change accordingly. Also, other werewolves featured in the show have greener eyes, and some of them have whiter fur, while their human form had some streaks of white hair, or even having one eye brown and the other white. Vargulfs have less wolf-like characteristics, as due partially transformed werewolves, though that might only be during wrong moons or whenever a full moon is not in the sky. Their wolf form is as feral and as instinctively as a regular animal but with the memories and somewhat the personalities of their human form.
== Anatomy ==
Werewolves have a cellular structure completely different from humans, presumably more akin to that of a lupine than a human. Werewolves still produce waste and can become pregnant.
During a shift, a werewolf's' anatomy changes completely from human to wolf. As with their cosmetic features, werewolf anatomies are not normally influenced by their human form unless they are afflicted by the vargulf condition. The wolf form can partly transfigure to harbor the human body inside and then break into pieces like an egg or cocoon as a form of transforming back into human form.
Likewise, humans can partially transform and transfigure themselves to have physical traits of their wolf form, such as the claws, muscles, and even the head. This will break through the flesh, but it closes up without any signs of damage if the werewolf chooses to reverse the changes. The eyes can change color to match that of the wolf form, sometimes with the white of the eyes turning black.
== Powers ==
* Shape-Shifting - Werewolves have the ability to shift into wolves. They can use this power at will, however, they only use it during the full moon, or else they become mentally and physically unstable and rabid, both in human and wolf form. The transformation causes them to become weak and tired, almost like a hangover. If they were to shape-shift too many times without the full moon, they would turn into a vargulf, either immediately, if a full transformation is performed and not partial or simply over time. It is possible for a werewolf to utilize their transformation to heal themselves, either in human or wolf form, sometimes even from fatal damage, such as having one's face stripped of flesh to the skull, as transform back to a human form with no damage at all, as if their transformation effectively rebirths them each time they transform. Also, when a werewolf's wolf body is killed, such as Peter's wolf was killed by Christina's wolf, and seemingly died but came back as Peter's human form. Also, when Peter transformed his internal body into the wolf's and transformed the inside of his head into that of the wolf, he transformed back after his upper body developed open wounds from the transformation, along with his human head being reduced to a skin mask. These wounds immediately vanish as he transformed back and his wolf head retreated into his mouth, and his head was complete again. Also, the wolf can appear in several different ways, all of which are controlled by the werewolf. Peter partially transformed and made claws without paws come out of his wrists so that he could cut off his plastic restraints when he was a prisoner of the Caul. Transformation could be used to survive and instantly recover and heal from mortal injuries and severe mutilations, as Peter has survived being shot with arrows, being hit by a truck, having his face eaten by a vargulf and the fact that his transformations destroy his human body. Transformations can happen as fast as the user wishes, with Peter being able to transform in seconds as of Season 3, causing his human flesh to disintegrate off of him. Also, he can now make his irises become like that of his werewolf forms and even growl like his wolf form. Despite their ability to avoid death, they can die of suffocation, though vargulfs are immune to this as their corpses with transform involuntarily.
* Enhanced Strength - Transformed werewolves are shown to be stronger than half-upir. In their transformed state, they can easily shred human flesh or break their bones without effort. They are shown to overpower humans and easily rag-doll them, but can be fought off, such as when Roman held a transformed Christina at bay with an axe handle he shoved in her mouth. They are stronger than a regular wolf and other predatory animals and can shred a human in less than minute. A werewolf in human form can exert the same force of a regular human and can be beaten up to the point of needing medical attention. Peter could tap into his wolf, transforming his muscles, and enhance his strength for a minute or less. He used this to break the nose of a drug dealer that attack him. He only needed one punch to completely break it, with no effect to his body at all.
* Heightened Senses - Even in human form a werewolf possesses wolf-like senses and instincts; particularly their senses of smell and hearing, as well as being able to see in the dark. They're able to sense and smell things normal humans can't.
* Enhanced Speed - While in their wolf forms werewolves have shown to be incredibly fast that they often use to catch their prey. While in the woods Peter was able to move swiftly to catch his prey. Vargulfs seem to move faster than regular werewolves. An average wolf can run at one-third the speed of a car, but they are likely faster than an average wolf.
== Transformation ==
The turn is seen as a painful experience. The transformation normally occurs during a full moon. However, it can be triggered if the werewolf hears its other name. The first season showed that during transformation, the werewolf's bones break, its eyes are pushed out of the sockets by wolf eyes, paws tear their way through the werewolf's hands, and its teeth are a replaced set of canine teeth, as the wolf within reveals itself. The wolf body seems to be the human body under all the skin layers and surface tissue transfigured into a wolf-like body. Briefly, a transforming person's voice can change and become inhumanly deep and distorted as their vocal cords are transforming, though this rarely happened in the times that transformations were shown. At least in the first season, werewolves that transform and lose their human skin will eat their remaining human bodies shredded skin and outer tissues before moving away. For Hermila's transformation, her teeth became animal-like fangs; her nails became long claws, and her voice became deeper and deeper until it became only growling. Throughout her transformation, she was not mutilated at all by an internal wolf, showing there are differences in the way people turn and the transformation is not always the same. The new transformation in season 2 shows the internal part of the body up to the muscles separating from the human surface layering, with the inside of the body becoming the wolf body and the outside becoming more like a rubber-like, bloodless covering that sheds off and tears when the wolf transforms. However, Peter once did not transform with his skin peeling off, though there was only one piece of skin left on the floor where he had been shot with an arrow. It seems that werewolves do not always end up having their human anatomy mutilated upon transformation, though it may only be a small part of them that is mutilated or damaged in any way. In the second season, the body is shown to be broken open like a cocoon or chrysalis with the human body on the ground. Peter also It stays transformed for a whole night and possibly during the morning part of the day. Regarding transforming from wolf to human form, it has been described as "beautiful" by Roman; and events in Season 2 reveal that the person, when transformed into a wolf, actually resides inside the body of the wolf. This can be seen by Peter stroking a drug dealers face with a human arm which was coming out of his werewolf form mouth while another Peter's body was partially transformed with the head and bones only being transformed and his wolf's head was coming out of his human mouth while he was crawling on all four of his human limbs while a third hand was coming out of his wolf mouth. This was also shown when he being dragged out of his torn wolf body by Roman. Although this did not seem so in the first season, as there was no sign of the wolf body and it is assumed their bodies transfigured back into human form or that the wolf body dissolved somehow and all that was left was the human body inside. It is seen that in each transformation, the human body of the werewolf is regenerated and physically re-birthed after each one after their bodies are pulled apart from the inside. Right after each transformation, each body is capable of developing the others as part of it own, just as Peter did in season two and when he made their human hand come from his wolf head which in turn was coming out of his human body. It is possible that if the wolf body is damaged or killed, though not by any damage involving the head of the neck and a simple stabbing based wound, they revert to their human form and, therefore, regenerate their bodies and live in a body that was not damaged. When it transforms back to human form, the wolf lays down and begins to break apart and hatch like an egg or cocoon, releasing the human body.
The turns are aligned with the lunar phases, with the wolf's body being aligned with how much of the moon appears. If a werewolf turns, even partially, before their wolf is full, they will be become closer to becoming a vargulf. Fully turning once can make the conversion from werewolf to vargulf happen quicker, possibly right then and there.
== Feeding ==
Werewolves can digest normal food and drinks. However, in their wolf form, werewolves can digest anything a normal wolf can consume. This includes humans (and their own shed skin), animals, upirs, and other werewolves. Werewolves don't have urges or habits which involve killing and feeding from different creature, except perhaps or own shed skin. In season one it was stated that werewolves shouldn't eat or drink prior to transforming as the process affects the digestive system in some way (Peter was later seen vomiting at the start of his transformation).
== Psychology ==
Werewolves are predatory creatures and are far more brutal than their human appearance suggest. They are usually quick to temper whenever threatened or challenged. That can be enhanced by being afflicted by the vargulf condition. Like humans, they can control all their urges as easy as humans can while in wolf form this is true save for cases when the werewolf is a vargulf. It is easy to control themselves, so long as werewolves do not turn against their moon cycle and become a vargulf. Their wolf form is as feral and as instinctively as a regular animal but with the memories of their human form. Werewolves are capable of human emotions, such as compassion, love, and self-control. However, these are typically more intense than human emotions. Werewolves are less inclined to have inhibitions and are noticeably less shy and quicker to act upon what they feel, such as when Peter was easily seduced by Letha despite his intent to resist her, and his quickly-developed loyalty to her that extended to his wolf form, causing his wolf to defend her with his life. He also in a calm demeanor, broke the neck of his cat, saying that he new that the cat trusted him.
He wolf was willing to a defended Roman from Christina when he was unable to defeat her, even risking being killed by her to defend him. It seems that the personality and memories of the wolf can drive the wolf's actions as Peter's wolf acted on Peters desire to find the vargulf and tracked for it in the steel mill. It growled at Roman when he saw that Roman followed him during his hunt when he told him not to, though this was not entirely a threat display and simply a sign of annoyance. Lastly, the wolf instinctively defended Letha and Roman from Christina the way an animal would defend another of its kind. It even was willing to be killed by her to save them.
== Traditions ==
Among werewolves, the proper burial of a werewolf includes the decapitation of the body. This is done because if a werewolf's head is not removed upon death, they will come back at a later date, usually a week or less later, in a crazed state. They will even come back from rotting away like a corpse and die all over again, but they will return again. They will also transform repeatedly and at random from wolf to human form and vice versa, which causes a cycle of decomposition and regeneration every time they die, come back to life and transform between wolf and human forms. After dying at the hands of Shelley and being buried, Christina came back a day or more later in her grave and died of suffocation and or lack of sustenance, and decomposed again after that. At least a year later, Christina's rotted corpse finally broke free of her coffin and the ground. Upon her corpse's hands reaching the surface, she transformed into her white wolf form, as it seemed permanently changed to that white form while her regular hair changed back to normal color upon her first death.
== Aging ==
Werewolves age at a fairly slower rate than humans but still live a human lifespan, though perhaps they always become a bit older as they regenerate their bodies each time they transform and slow the process of ageing.
|-|Vargulf=
A vargulf (meaning "Rogue Wolf" in norse) is a physically and mentally unstable Werewolf. Unlike typical werewolves, a vargulf will kill its prey without eating it. A vargulf will eventually die from the disease or insanity possessing it.
The wolf is connected to the phases of the moon. Its body becomes fuller as the moon does, with its peak form appearing when the moon is full. If they transform without a full moon, they risk becoming a mentally and physically unstable werewolf that is consumed by its condition until it dies from it.
Parts of the wolf body can manifest from the human body on the werewolf's will, though this usually happens when the wolf body is incomplete inside the human one. This risks them becoming unstable and insane, with their transformations being completely unstable. The wolf body becomes independent of the human one and transforms the human body involuntarily. The wolf, rather than the human, takes control of the transformations, causing the human to lose control of their own minds and bodies as well. The more unstable these transformations, the more the wolf can appear without a full moon, though at the cost of the werewolf's conscious mind. It causes the wolf to emerge from a werewolf's corpse, should the werewolf not be decapitated beforehand.
At this point, the werewolf has become a vargulf, which commonly have brightly colored eyes and completely white fur as their condition progresses. The human form of a vargulf, should the vargulf ever take human form again, also has brightly colored eyes and completely white hair, usually due to the stresses of their insanity. This insanity could also mean the loss of human thought and the complete takeover of the wolf's feral and instinctive nature, though it may still retain the memories of its human self, as Peter did.
== Known Vargulfs ==
* Christina Wendall †
* Nicolae Rumancek †
* Peter Rumancek
== Appearance ==
Vargulf as just like werewolves when it comes to their appearance. They are much bigger than regular wolves—about as big as a tiger—with an almost bear- or feline-like build. Their eyes glow a bright yellow, though sometimes their eyes look blurred in color.
The fur of a vargulf mainly depends on of the color of their hair in their human form. Christina's vargulf form's fur was black at first, but the stress of her traumatic experiences, loss of her friends, and subconscious guilt and confusion over her wolf's actions caused her human and vargulf's hair to turn white.
A vargulf's teeth are all similar in size and are shaped like stalagmites, and they have more humanoid limbs. Peter's vargulf eyes had far a more blue-red look to them and had a darker yellow as did Christina's, both in the second season. They appear to have much more fur than usual, causing a "wilder" appearance.
== Transformation ==
When a person turns, the body up to the surface and all layers of skin begin to transfigure into a wolf body that literally rips out of their human bodies surface and skin layers. In the first season, their eyes pop out and are replaced with wolf eyes that glow yellow and their teeth fall out and replaced with fangs. The eyes do not fall out in the second season and transfigure along with the body under the human skin. Briefly, a transforming person voice can change and become inhumanly deep and distorted as their vocal cords are transforming.
When the vargulf has completed its change, the wolf then eats the remains of their human skin. A vargulf fully dies without having their heads are destroyed, or they will return from the dead, and while they can die inside the ground they are buried in and rot in their grave, but they will still be somewhat alive and transform into their wolf bodies, which will be normal and not rotted like their human body, which also rots again if they die again in their grave, as both the wolf and human bodies are constantly redeveloped and reborn from each other's bodies, which is why they can not die without their brain being severed or destroyed, as their brain drives both bodies to operate.
Vargulfs revert to their human form, their wolf bodies seemingly transfigured back into a human one instead of the human body having to be pulled out of the wolf body, or the human digging themselves out of their wolf body or the body dissolving or opening like a cocoon or chrysalis and rapidly decomposing, as suggested by the lack of any sign of the wolf body in season one when werewolves became humans again.
Since their transformations are unstable and uncontrollable, there are some points were the wolf will damage the human body of the werewolf from the inside at unpredictable times.
In the first season, it seemed that both werewolves and vargulfs turn back to human form without their wolf body tearing and turn back in 4 seconds, simply their wolf body literally changes into the human body in an unseen manner.
It was not shown if this changed in the second seasons, at least for vargulfs, as regular werewolves are now seen transforming back seemingly with their wolf bodies being a cocoon or chrysalis and their human bodies redeveloping, much like an embryo in an egg, throughout the time the werewolf is in their wolf body.
It is possible to have changed for virgules as well, though it might have been as maggots fed on Christina's corpse, seemingly eating off her wolf body and exposing her human body, that or her wolf body physically transfigured itself back into her human body, and Peter was inside his wolf body while he was transformed into a vargulf.
== Becoming a Vargulf ==
There is only one way to become a vargulf, by turning on another part of the lunar cycle other than the full moon. If a werewolf partly turns too many times or fully turns more than once without the full moon, they will become a vargulf, or will be at high risk of it if they transform or partially transform without a ritual that requires the destruction of their physical human faces. Their body and mind become misaligned as they do not feel the phases of the moon properly, as they normally can the moons phases.
The process of physical and mental degeneration is called distrugere, the Romani word meaning to be destroyed, spoiled, or burned away, or to ruin oneself. The wolf consciousness that a werewolf has will take over the werewolf, potentially permanently trapping a werewolf in its wolf body without any conscious control, or simply having the wolf develop an instinctual homicidal personality that the werewolf does not control at all.
== Cure ==
There is only one known way to turn a vargulf back into a werewolf, while in their wolf form, someone with extreme strength must open up and destroy the wolf body and pull the human body out of it.
== Death ==
When a vargulf dies, their head must be cut off or damaged past the brain before putting it into the grave. If this is not done, the vargulf will come back from the dead, seemingly as crazed as it was before. Christina was shown to have awoken in her grave a day after having her neck broken by Shelley, screaming in horror. 9 months later, her rotted corpse's hands emerged from the ground and her vargulf body came out of her rotted corpse. It chased Shelley throughout the night and day after, either due to instinct or that she wanted to avenge her death. Shelley could still fight her off smacked into the air and into a tree. She ran from her until her neck was crushed with a rock, and her head was severed.
Shelley picked up the head, causing the flesh still attached to the head from the body, to rip and tore it in half in anger. The flesh under what was once a neck started to bubble slightly and later on, her human body was found, still with white hair, and maggots eating away at the pieces. Some of her wolf skin was also found being eaten by maggots.
== Feeding ==
A vargulf kills their victims provoked or not. Meaning it could be a random kill. They will also kill who they feel antagonized them and will act on their subconscious feeling. When a vargulf kills they only eat some parts of their victims body but leave most of the body wherever.
== Powers & Abilities ==
A transformed vargulf's physical abilities seem greater than that of a regular werewolf, allowing them to overpower and kill animals, humans, and other werewolves. Shelley and a full upir, no matter the age, can more than easily overpower and kill Vargulf's, as Shelley killed Christina twice and Roman ripped open a vargulf's body to remove a transformed Peter from the body.
* Mesmerisation Resistance: Vargulfs can resist the mesmerizing of upirs because of their insanity there is not much to mesmerize.
* Shape-Shifting: Vargulfs can turn at will, though they will not consciously control it as they are mentally unstable.
* Enhanced Strength: Vargulfs only have their strength when they are in their wolf form, and then they can overpower almost every living creature and be at equal or nearly equal strength to that of a Full upir and that of Shelley. It can seemingly affect human strength as Peter was in a fist-fight with Roman and fought him on equal grounds, though Roman probably held back some of his strength to not kill Peter.They are more vulnerable in a fight with such species due to their quadrupedal bodies and being forced to lunge directly at their victims, leaving openings in their attacks. They would be equal in strength with upir and Shelley if it were not for their body shape and limited movement. Roman demonstrated this when he grabbed Peter's vargulf body by the jaws and torn it apart when it tried to attack. Shelley came at Christina from behind and picked her up, leaving her helpless as her neck was broken. Also, due to her non-humanoid shape, Shelleywas able to smack her aside while she was in mid-air after lunging at her. Shelley used a rock in a downward strike while Christina lunged at her, pushing her right to the ground and helpless while her neck was crushed and her head pulled off. Peter's vargulf fought Roman on equal grounds, with Roman's distraction by Destiny's ghost allowing Peter to tackle them both out the window, leaving Roman with several injuries and broken bones, allowing Peter to kill him by ripping out his heart.
* Heightened Senses: Vargulfs can see, hear and smell much better than humans.
* Enhanced Speed: Vargulfs' speed is increased when they are in their wolf form.
== Weaknesses ==
* Turning: Once someone has become a vargulf they are unable to control their turning. Each time it seems, their bodies can become more unstable and eventually leave transformation related injuries that can be fatal though they come back to life unless their heads are destroyed. It is possible they can be trapped in their wolf form permanently as their wolf becomes in control of its turning, but have no intellect to control it. They may turn back and have no memory of what they did in wolf form or only subconsciously know and believe something else. Christiana seemed to have developed a split personality from the vargulf condition, with her split personality controlling her wolf and stemming from her seeing others as promiscuous and sexually threatening to herself.
* Mortality: As they do not have enhanced healing factors, vargulfs can be killed any way a normal human can be killed. Although, they come back to life if their head is not destroyed or removed.
* Mercury: Mercury is a liquid that can burn the skin of a werewolf.
* Decapitation: If a vargulf's brain and head are completely or partly destroyed or even severed, they will be permanently destroyed.
* Non-Humanoid Body: Due to their non-humanoid shape and their lack of joints that provide the movement that humanoids possess, vargulfs are exposed at certain parts of their bodies, and be attacked from the sides or be picked up and killed. They are limited in their attacks due their quadrupedal bodies, which only allow them to lunge forward and slightly reach to the sides. They can, however, turn as fast as humanoids and can be overwhelmed and killed due to their predictable movements.
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