Werewolf

Official artwork

## Reference

**Werewolves** are technically a disease, not a cryptid. They first appear in Pocket Apocalypse.

## Appendix Entry

**Werewolf** (species varies). Werewolves are not a species: they are the victims of a disease, lycanthropy-w, a form of therianthropic rabies which causes uncontrollable transformation, neurological dysfunction, and eventually death. Pity them, and avoid them at all costs, or their fate may be yours.

## About

Lycanthropy is a virus that humans and mammalian cryptids can catch through fluid transfer, usually when someone is bitten by an infected individual. Therianthrope biologists have theorized that it began as a rabies-like disease within the shapeshifter community that mutated to be contagious to non-therianthropes. Being infected does not always result in becoming a werewolf; four in five victims will recover completely. There is a treatment that may improve those odds, but it has a high fatality rate and must be administered early in the incubation period.

The incubation period lasts several days, during which the infected should remain isolated for the safety of themselves and those around them. If they succumb to the disease, there is no known cure and the new werewolves will live short, painful lives of up to ten more years.

The newly infected werewolf may go up to six months before their first transformation. Most werewolves fall into a twenty-eight day cycle of transformation, but it is not actually tied to the moon. Once established, they are able to transform at will but may then cycle uncontrollably between their full-wolf and halfway forms.

### Appearance

Werewolves have three primary forms. The first is physically identical to their original species. The second is physically identical to a wolf. The third an in-between form, eight to ten feet tall, and highly dangerous.

## In the Series

### Pocket Apocalypse

A werewolf outbreak in Queensland, Australia brings Shelby Tanner home to her family, accompanied by Alex Price as a visiting werewolf expert. The Thirty-Six Society of Australia, and particularly their leader Riley Tanner, do not understand the disease and so make numerous mistakes in regard to quarantine procedures and containment strategy. Alex, too, is misinformed on werewolf intelligence and does not realize that a werewolf which has survived past its first several transformations can retain its human consciousness.

Ultimately, they identify and kill the rogue werewolves, and create a containment strategy for the potentially infected.

## Characters

* Cooper - ringleader of Australian werewolves
* Blithe - Patient Zero in Australia
* Chloe Bryant
* Mick
* Trigby
* Donny
* Albert
* Deb
* Gabrielle Tanner (cured by a wagyl)
* Riley Tanner (potentially cured by treatment)

## Trivia

* Most common in large mammals; it is extremely rare for anything under ninety pounds to survive and transform into a werewolf
* There are other strains of lycanthropy, turning victims into other predator animals.
* Species with nonmammalian biology are immune, including but not limited to Cuckoos and wadjets.
* Werewolf pack behavior is largely influenced by the original species the werewolves are comprised of. For example, a new pack made from humans will exhibit classic "alpha" behaviors because pop culture has treated that like "normal" wolf behavior, despite the science to the contrary.
* The strain of the change on bodies not adapted to it, as therianthropes are, typically leads to organ failure in werewolves that survive that long.
* Aeslin mice in the Price-Healy colony can identify the scent of infection soon after exposure to the virus.

## In Popular Culture

"Were" mean man, making "werewolf" literally translate to man-wolf. "Lycanthropy," referring both to the ability to transform oneself into a wolf and to the act of so doing, comes from Ancient Greek. Werewolves are widespread in European folklore, though they can also be found in Asia and the Caribbean. Details vary widely; werewolves may be bitten, cursed, or hereditary depending on the storyteller.

Werewolves are popular in urban fantasy, particularly as sympathetic characters and protagonists. Notable works include Harry Potter, Twilight,
Women of the Otherworld, the Mercyverse, and
Anne Bishop's The Others.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.dictionary.com/browse/werewolf
2. ↑ Appendix Field Guide: Book 4
3. ↑ Pocket Apocalypse, Ch. 8