Werewolves

"*Honest word? You catch even the slightest whiff of a Varúlfur nearby; run. Or pray. Neither will do you much good.*"
 ― Isaiah Grimm, Head of the Corvus Conclave

**Werewolves** are a rare breed of rabid creatures renowned for their feral tastes and ravenous appetites. They were once mortal, cursed with a malediction that causes them to take monstrous form and enter a frenzied rage driven by terrible hunger. Neither animal nor man, werewolves take the worst of both species: the savagery and primal instinct of wolves, and the ruthlessness and cruelty of mortalkind. They are most active at night, especially when the moon is nearing full, and will hunt any foolish mortals that dare enter or threaten their domain. Apex predators in every way: fast, strong, agile, resilient, and cunning, there is rarely an opponent (beast or otherwise) that can match them. Few can claim to have bested one, and fewer still have lived to tell the tale.

Even outside of their supernatural speed, strength, and regenerative capabilities, werewolves are fearsome foes to face. Their claws can cut straight through steel and flesh like a hot knife through butter. They can leap great distances, even whilst carrying prey in their jaws, and their fangs are long and jagged, capable of biting clean through even the toughest armour. Thick matted fur protects them from injury, and even when a blade pierces this protective layer, they suffer little injury from normal weaponry. They only have one weakness: an aversion to silver, and it is said the only way to truly kill a werewolf is to pierce its heart with a weapon plated in such metal.

## Variants

### Varúlfur

Varúlfur (*Sceída:* "Wolfwalker") are werewolves in their true forms, when the blood curse has fully taken hold and transformed them into their final shape. The transformation from svúlblod to varúlfur is long and painful, and few survive it. Those that do, find themselves permanently in their new forms, having lost all mortal thought or reason. Their curse drives them to kill and feed, and in turn they empower the curse further with every hunt. No stories exist of varúlfur being freed from their curse, and most experts agree that the curse is simply impossible to break once it reaches this point.

Varúlfur do not age in the traditional sense. Instead, they live forever in eternal hunger and torment, eager to feed on mortal flesh to abate their starvation if only for a moment. With each successful feeding they grow in size and ferocity, claiming the strength of their prey for their own. In the territories they roam, they draw to them packs of predators that seem instinctively drawn to an alpha predator, particularly lesser wolves and similar beasts. The pack will show signs of respect to the werewolf, leaving fresh kills at the entrances to its lair, or driving prey towards it and cutting off all possible retreat to watch their alpha take the kill.

Only one varúlfur did not become so by passage of blood: the fabled "Wolf King", the original werewolf. Legends say they still stalk the wilds far from all civilisation, devouring man and beast alike, and even other varúlfur that cross its path. No sightings have ever confirmed these stories as anything more than myth.

### Svúlblod

Svúlblod (*Sceída:* "Bloodcursed") are those mortals that have managed to escape a varúlfur's grasp, but were bitten in the process. Their survival is short-lived, for if the varúlfur could not claim them, the blood curse would. Symptoms manifest quickly. Hallucinations, paranoia, and agitation at first, followed quickly by bouts of frenzied anger and violence, and a strange aversion to running water. Within days, the afflicted falls into feverish delirium, spitting blood and foam, plagued by violent nightmares. Most do not make it past this point, and succumb to the illness after a short while.

Those that survive the fever seem to have fully recovered. The symptoms disappear, and their lives seemingly return to normal. However, over the next few months, they will begin to display strange behaviour. Most commonly this will manifest in sudden bouts of instinctual animalistic behaviour. Often, they will vanish into the woods for days on end, returning bloodied and worn, and have been rumoured to go running with wolf packs on their hunts. Eventually, if there is no treatment, they will be compelled to hunt and kill any mortals unlucky enough to be nearby, making no difference between friends or foe. Once the afflicted has eaten the deceased's hearts, they enter the final stage of the process. By nightfall, they will find the nearest comfortable location to serve as a den, and once there transform overnight into their final forms, a difficult and exceedingly painful process that takes the entire night. By dawn, the svúlblod has become a fledgling varúlfur, and joins the eternal hunt.

In order to prevent the transformation, a svúlblod must be cured before it reaches the final stage. Most easily, the curse can be purged via certain shamanistic rituals in the first stages, before the fever takes hold, and some reports say that even certain medicine can abate the curse. After the fever, the process is more difficult, but not impossible, requiring more potent magic or exorcisms. Once a svúlblod becomes a varúlfur, they are beyond saving.

## History

Wolves, by and large, are a mainstay in many myths and legends. Some stories speak of great hounds that will devour the sky at the end of all things. Others speak of benevolent wolfpacks watching over those favoured by the gods. In either way, they are often associated with Luthien, the Eventide, who is said to have a particular fondness for the beasts. Wolves in turn belong to the night, howling their calls to the deity whenever the moon is high.

In old folklore, it is said that the first werewolf came into being when a huntsman killed a great wolf that was particularly close to Luthien's heart. Enraged, the deity cast a blood curse on the huntsman, turning him into a savage beast that would forever stalk the wilds in insatiable hunger, hunting down and destroying those that sought to do the same to the deity's beloved creatures. Be that as it may, no true origin point for the curse has ever been found. It is most commonly transferred by wounds from a varúlfur, but in the rare cases where a svúlblod reproduces before the curse fully claims them the malediction can pass down through generations, manifesting at random and spreading through entire bloodlines.

Some stories suggest that werewolves are in fact shapeshifters, that can change between mortal and monstrous form at will. In some cases, the change is unwitting, happening automatically on the full moon, or when the mortal is particularly enraged. These stories are generally dismissed as myth, since werewolves have been observed to lose all sense of mortal being after their initial transformation is complete, and can never return to their original forms.