Werewolves

*This is the article about werewolves. You may be looking for the article about Pricolici, the werewolf-vampire hybrid and kind of creature Jean Chastel was.*

> "Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."
>
> -Old folk proverb

Werewolves, also known as lycanthropes ("wolf-men"), are humans with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature.

## Werewolves

A powerful werewolf preparing to battle a weaker one

### Notable Features

Wolf likeappearence, extreme strength, other abilities

## Origin

Werewolves, unlike vampires, are a relatively young species. In the 16th century, a scholer named Johann Georg Faust called on the Devil for great knowledge and magic powers after an attempt at suicide. In response, the Devil's representative, Mephistopheles, appeared to Faust and made a bargain with him: Mephistopheles would serve Faust with his supernatural powers for forty years, but at the end of the term, the Devil would claim his soul. Faust agreed, and during the term of the bargain, he made use of Mephistopheles in various ways. But when the term ended, the Devil damned him to forty years as a wolflike monster to pay his debt, creating the first ever werewolf. Afterward, Faust died and was carried to hell.

## Creation

Various methods for becoming a werewolf have been discovered. Drinking the rainwater from the footprint of a wolf or drinking from certain magical streams are very common methods of accomplishing the metamorphosis. Becoming a werewolf by being bitten or scratched by another werewolf is a rarer kind of transmission, as the victim was usually killed in the first place.

The curse can also be transmitted genetically.

### Transformation

A werewolf will be able to transform into their wolf form anytime after their first transformation, as long as the moon is out. The first transformation into a wolf is quite slow and painful for the human, as they are put through at least five minutes of intense pain during the transformation. The bones of the person will break and reshape in an unnatural manner as to shift to form a wolf skeleton, causing the person immense pain. Later, the person will grow excessive body hair and become feral as their eyes turn bright yellow and their teeth become fangs. In minutes, the human will become a wolf. After their first transformation, it will become all but painless and with enough transformations, they will learn how to enter into a much more hybrid form.

A werewolf will return to their human when touched by sunlight. In the day after the first transformation, the werewolf will experience muscle soreness.

Older, more powerful werewolves can transform much faster than younger ones, in seconds or even mere moments.

## Overview

### Physical Appearence

A werewolfs eyes will turn bright yellow when they call upon their powers, no matter what their original eye color was or what form they are in. As for their forms, a werewolf can take multiple, including:

* **Human:** They stay in their human appearence and look completely normal. Their powers are limited in human form, with only their physical abilities
* **Wolf:** They resemble a massive, yet still normal looking, wolf and have access to most of their powers.
* **Wolf-Human Hybrid**: A form only the most powerful of werewolves can access, they resemble a humanoid, bipedal wolf and have full access to their powers. They can choose to stay human sized, but still with immense power, or grow to inhumanly large sizes. The size to which they can grow is dependant on the power of the werewolf in question.

## Powers/Abilities

* **Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, durability**: Werewolves are physically incredibly powerful, their power only increasing depending on their form. In human form, a weaker werewolf is still capable of easily lifting over two tons, much more than a regular human. Older and more powerful werewolves can lift as much as ten tons in human form. While in their hybrid form, during a full moon, a young werewolf is capable of lifting over twenty tons, while stronger werewolves are able to lift over one hundred tons. Their strength also extends into the muscles of their legs, allowing them to leap, even from a crouch, roughly eighteen feet into the air. Their physical powers, like all of them, will only increase in power with the age of the werewolf.
* **Superhuman senses**: Werewolves have incredible senses of sight, smell, and hearing. They can see in the infrared spectrum and detect the heat signatures of prey even in complete darkness. They can smell other living creatures within 200 feet (when upwind) and follow a scent over nearly any terrain. They can also hear the sound of a heartbeat in a cave at long distances.
* **Claws and Teeth:** Both a werewolf's claws and teeth are extremely sharp and tough, enabling them to slash deep cuts into a variety of substances including fabric, flesh, bone, wood, brick, and even some metals. Werewolves can also use their claws to crawl along walls at great speed in pursuit of their prey. Their claws can also be used to absorb the power and life energy of other werewolves and therianthropes.
	+ **Infectious Bite and Scratch:** Werewolves can turn another person into a werewolf by biting or scratching them. Their venomous bite is also fatal to a vampire.
* **Healing Factor:** Werewolves are capable of regenerating damaged or destroyed areas of their body with much greater speed and efficiency than a human. While in any form, a powerful werewolf can heal fatal injuries that usually result in massive tissue damage such as bullet wounds, slashes, blunt force trauma, and severe burns completely and in an incredibly short amount of time. A young werewolf's healing factor is slower, and severe wounds will take as much as five minutes to heal, but lesser injuries can heal in seconds. The healing factor will only get faster at healing major injuries as the age of the werewolf increases.

### Weaknesses

* **Silver**: Silver, being pure, will burn a werewolf with just a touch and prevent any wounds from healing while in contact with it. If it enters the bloodstream, silver is extremely fatal to them. Exposure to it can also remove much of their powers. Blades or bullets can also be made from it as a weapon against werewolves, but if the silver doesn't strike a lethal area and is removed, the werewolf will regenerate. Their claws are also unable to cut through silver, even thin layers of it. In its liquid form, silver can easily render a wolf blind if put in their eyes or poison them if ingested.
	+ **Silver Nitrate**: An injection of silver nitrate directly into the bloodstream of a werewolf is extremely fatal.
* **Mercury**: Similar to liquid silver, werewolves are highly vulnerable to mercury. Exposure to it will only weaken a werewolf, but if it is poured into even a non-lethal wound, it will kill it in moments. If poured on a pricolici's cut-out heart and/or inside the mouth of its decapitated head. it will permanently prevent it returning, working similarly to fire.
* **Aconite**: Wolfsbane has powerful anti-evil properties against werewolves and shapeshifters and is used in a similar manner as garlic is used for vampires. It will make a werewolf sick and feverish if exposed to it. A wolfsbane powder also causes suicidal tendencies for any werewolf who breathes it in. If stuffed into a werewolf's head post-decapitation, it will prevent it from ever returning.
* **Fire**: Fire purifies, and can hurt or even kill a werewolf just as it would a pricolici, vampire, or any mortal being. It can also be used to destroy a werewolf's head and heart to prevent its return to life when killed.
* **Mountain Ash**: A werewolf can be contained in a barrier made of mountain ash.
* **Decapitation**: The act of fully seperating the head of a werewolf from its body will also result in death. Similar to the heart, the head must be burned seperately from the body to prevent it from returning. However, pouring mercury in its mouth or stuffing it with wolfsbane is also highly effective.
	+ **Broken Neck**: A werewolf will be instantly killed if its neck is broken.
	+ **Heart Extraction**: If the heart of a werewolf is removed, it will cause instant death. The heart must then be either quickly burned or have mercury poured on it, or the werewolf could return.

* **New Moon**: The New Moon heavily weakens a werewolf, no matter their power. It saps the werewolf’s energy and life force, resulting in them not being able to defend or protect themselves. The werewolf becomes slow and sluggish, their reflexes return to human levels, and their heightened senses and abilities are severely weakened. Hunters are known to kill or easily capture werewolves during this time as they are so weak during a new moon.
	+ **Lunar Eclipse**: Werewolves are completely vulnerable during a lunar eclipse. If a partial eclipse, their powers are only weakened similarly to a new moon, but a total eclipse removes their abilities entirely, unable to call upon their powers or turn into their hybrid/ wolf forms.

## Notable Werewolves

* Johann Georg Faust
* Jean Chastel (formerly)