Werewolves

## Overview

Pregnancy lasts 9 months. Pregnancies are often difficult upon the mother in human form. Females can get pregnant in any form. They can have up 4 pups in a litter but usually 2-3. Birthing is painful (especially with multiples) as it is with humans, but werewolves cannot die during childbirth, so the fear of getting pregnant regularly and having large families is eliminated.

Unlike human children, werewolves grow much faster than humans, in fact, they grow 5 times faster than humans, but slow down when they get to be the size of a toddler. From there, they age normally. Wolf teeth form quicker than human teeth.

Those who were born as werewolves don't reach full 'wolf maturity' until they reach puberty, which is somewhere between the age of 11 and 14. When they reach that point, their body starts to change rapidly, their urges to transform start to show more and more, almost uncontrollably. At this point, they may only be able to partially shift, showing maybe only fur and fangs.

Just like normal teenagers deal with hormones and changes, werewolves deal with them as well, only they are intensified. The desire to mate, changes in voices, changes in physical size, and of course, the desire to hunt and feed (which can be easily controlled by ones will).

Until a wolf reaches the age of 20, their body will retain the gangly appearance of an adolescent. Likewise, a wolf will retain the age of a pup until they turn 12 years of age though their wolf body will gradually grow.

Wolf children age 1 month for every year old they are, this means their body will obtain the body of a pup until they reach twelve where they will then keep the body of an adolescent from twelve years to twenty years, whereupon the wolf will become a mature wolf in body. Children born as wolves resemble newborns at first, then retain the body of a three-week-old pup until they reach a year old as a human whereupon their body ages up to a month old. This repeats every year the wolf child grows until they turn 12 years old where they get the body of an adolescent. Despite the fact that the wolf resembles a three-week-old pup for the first twelve months of life, the wolf body quickly weans and learns to walk, run and eat meat though the meat must be torn into small enough pieces for the wolves to digest.

Females are in heat once a season from mid autumn to early winter. Their heat cycle lasts 5-7 days, during which the female will go through several wolf changes. The signs of heat as are follows:

* irritability
* Loss of appetite
* Swollen vulva in wolf form
* Scent change
* A female wolf in heat may end up wagging her tail, increasing her heat scent to her mate or available males in the area.
* Agitation, nervous or nesting-A wolf in heat may be more anxious or nervous when in heat. She may end up looking for a safe out of the way place that is secure to nest in by piling blankets/hides or stuffed toys in a comfortable area. This nesting behavior extends into pregnancy as well, when a pregnant female will begin looking for a suitable place to den and whelp her pups, usually away from the pack. Dens might be a hollow log, an old fox or badger den, a cave if available, underneath a house, or under a tree.
* Frequent urination in wolf form-A wolf may end up urinating more when she is in heat.
* Rise in body temperature-A lupine's body temperature is 106.5 F. This allows the wolf to survive cold weather places easily like the arctic regions. When a female is in heat, her body temperature climbs to 112.8 F, normally dangerous to humans but not to wolves. It often causes their skin to feel like it is on fire and burns off any medicine the wolf is given if injured. At the same time, a wolf's temperature may end up dropping if it becomes malnourished or is ill.

When a wolf transforms their bodies tend to break and reorganize itself. This means that skin bubbles like it is on fire, their organs change shape and their bones snap and break. While those who have been wolves for two decades can shift seamlessly without much problems it is not the case with half-bloods. The first shift for children and adolescents or those who have been a werewolf for less than a decade often have a harder time to transform. Shifting gets easier upon reaching their 21st year as a werewolf.

Children and Adolescents may find themselves shifting under stress or high emotions such as fear, sadness or anger. Children also learn to shift instinctively though it is extremely painful. Many children cannot survive the shift so they often die before they reach adolescence.

If the werewolf ends up switching on their wolf side, they retreat into the back of their mind. They are still aware of what they are doing but it is like an out of body experience where they are sitting on the side lines or watching from another dimension of what they are doing as a wolf. This isn't often done as they find it best, as have the scientists, to encourage the lupine to remain an active part, this is where the merging comes in. Some shifters, usually those that chose to join the facility, love the strength and power they possess as a wolf so much that they remain in a constant state of aggressiveness with some wolf traits bleeding through into their actions and mannerisms. Example is a bully may see the power of the wolf in them and their actions may go from simply shoving someone into a table to an outright brawl in the middle of the cafeteria that usually means someone ends up in the infirmary if not buried in the cemetery outback. Werewolves are able to turn at will and be aware of what they are doing or how they are behaving. The only time they will take a back seat is if they are new to the supernatural world, they are afraid of their wolf side, or they are hunting/fighting an enemy.

Rapid shifting is where a werewolf or Vaewolf repeatedly shifts into a wolf and back into a human. It tires the wolf out, the younger a wolf is, the faster exhaustion and fatigue will set in. Eventually a wolf's clothing will shred, up to 4 to 6 times of rapid shifting does the trick and from then on during a transformation, the clothing rips completely. Most wolves will either choose to be naked underneath or wear skintight clothing such as leotards (for women/girls) or bike shorts/tight shirts (males) or wetsuits.

Once a wolf reaches fifteen is when the danger of rapid shifting becomes less though can still happen, usually among pregnant teenagers or those who have given birth, especially if they sense a threat to their pups. A wolf is also able to fully shift form wolf to human without the full moon upon reaching this age. Werewolves and vaewolves’ wolf side is its own persona, representing the other half of the werewolf or varwolf, able to speak to its more human side and take control when it wants. Takes about two moons to fully form as a separate being, the wolf can either be dominant in nature or submissive in nature. Often the wolf’s dominance or lack of it is attributed to the human side but sometimes rare a submissive human can have a dominant wolf side and a dominant human could have a submissive wolf.

## Abilities

**Heightened Senses:** The werewolf has superhumanly the acute senses of sight, smell, and hearing similar to those of an actual wolf. Eventually olfaction becomes 100 times keener than that of a human, while hearing ends up quadrupled.

**Sight:** Werewolves see in color, not black and white. Werewolves can see with perfect detail in low-light conditions. They can see part of the infrared spectrum and thus detect the heat signatures of objects or people in total darkness. They have binocular vision as well and good peripheral depth.

**Smell:** They can smell other living creatures within 100 feet (when upwind) and follow a scent over nearly any terrain. If the werewolf has no Scent Familiarity to the prey, then he must get some. This involves acquiring possessions of the target that bears their distinctive scent. A werewolf who is mated can easily follow their mate's scent to their location as it acts as a honing beacon. A werewolf's sense of smell can be so refined they are able to detect emotions - anger or fear. They do this by picking up chemosignals - chemical signals that communicate emotion, which an individual can give off via their scent, allowing them to identify the hormonal changes that person exhibits, or has exhibited at specific locations in the past. They can also smell illness.

**Scent Familiarity**
There are five degrees of Scent Familiarity: Unknown, Encountered, Recognized, Familiar, and Intimate. The modifiers in parentheses are
• Unknown: You have never encountered this person's scent before. It is entirely new to you.
• Encountered: You have caught this scent a time or two before; while you may recognize it, you won't necessarily connect it with a person's identity. This is the level of familiarity if a werewolf has had occasion to get someone's scent by incident, or only a single time before deliberately. (Example: Someone encountered occasionally at coffeeshop or in a large class.)
• Recognized: The scent is one you've scented before, and can connect it to a person. This is the level of familiarity if a werewolf has had several occasions to get someone's scent, whether by accident or intention. (Example: Someone worked with on a school project, or played sports against.)
• Familiar: The scent is one that is very familiar to you, and you know it well. This is the level of familiarity if a werewolf has had multiple instances of more than casual encounters with the person's scent. (Example: A teammate you play sports with, or a housemate.)
• Intimate: You are extremely familiar with this scent; chances are good that you often smell of it somewhat yourself. This is the level of familiarity if a werewolf is extremely intertwined with someone's life. (Example: Lover, family, packmate.)

**Hearing:** Werewolf hearing is much better than those of humans. They can hear higher pitched noises than humans hear. Their ears sit on the top of their head like a dog's or wolf's which allows them to rotate. They can hear the sound of a heartbeat in a cave at a distance of 30 feet.

**Claws and Teeth:** A wolf's teeth are like shark teeth. They are always growing and replace easily after some time, ensuring the wolf is able to always hunt or fight. This lasts the wolf's entire lifespan. The only way a wolf's teeth won't grow back is if it is dead. The werewolf's claws are extremely sharp and tough, enabling them to rend through a variety of substances including fabric, wood, cinder block, and even some metals. Werewolves can also use their claws to crawl along walls at great speed in pursuit of prey.

**Accelerated Healing:** All wolves have accelerated healing. Werewolves can heal all but the most severe and fatal of wounds. Omega werewolves have the slowest healing times while alphas have the fastest healing times. Minor injuries such as cuts, shallow stab wounds, sprained muscles, and broken limbs will heal within moments, while more moderate wounds, such as stab wounds to vital organs, can take hours. The most severe injuries, such as multiple organ trauma and full-body burns can take days. The full moon, and especially super moons, can augment a Werewolf's healing ability to incredible levels. The Werewolf's accelerated healing ability also includes an immunity to all human diseases, and conditions as well as an extended lifespan and decelerated aging. Accelerated healing can be temporarily nullified or decelerated by certain means; for example, impalement through vital organs, exposure to electricity, fire, and/or substances that are known to weaken these creatures, such as Wolfsbane. This power can also be hindered by emotional barriers such as overwhelming guilt and lack of self-confidence, which can prevent some supernatural creatures from using powers at their full potential and can both hinder their ability to heal and potentially put the supernatural in question's life in danger. In addition to regenerating from the majority of wounds, the accelerated healing ability possessed by supernatural creatures can have other aspects as well, including: an immunity to most human diseases and conditions, a greatly extended lifespan and a decreased rate of aging.

**Empathy:** Being that werewolves' senses being so strong, they developed the ability to sense other's emotions through touch. With time this power grows stronger, this is used to sense a person's true intentions and if they are lying or not. At first this ability can be very annoying and hard to control, sensing everyone's emotions without meaning to. This ability can also be developed enough to absorb pain from someone.

**Superhuman Speed:** Werewolves can run and move faster than any non-supernatural creature and run at an extremely high speed, which causes them to become almost invisible to the naked eye to perceive their movements when they are sprinting or moving at full speed. Their speed is equivalent to that of a vampire.

**Superhuman Stamina:** The werewolf's musculature produces less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human, granting him superhuman levels of stamina. They can exert themselves at peak capacity for several hours before fatigue begins to impair them.

**Superhuman Agility:** A werewolf's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete. They can move, jump, climb, and run incredibly fast without difficulty or exhaustion.

**Lie Detection-**Werewolves are able to sense if you're lying or not by focusing on one's heartbeat and pulse.

**Infrared Perception-**They can perceive heat signatures. Living things appear yellowish-orange, dead bodies appear black, dying bodies appear red and surroundings are blue.

**Anla-**The werewolves' psychic ability which allows them to connect with nature, allowing them to view the past and present of an area as well as discover someone's whereabouts.

**Memory Transference -** Werewolves can transfer (give or take) memories by inserting claws into the nape of an individual's neck. This ability can establish mind-to-mind communication and, with practice, allow for memory manipulation or erasure.

## Weaknesses

**Blood Loss:** If a werewolf is severely wounded and bleeds out before they can heal, they can die.

**Broken Neck:** Breaking a werewolf's neck will result in instant death.

**Decapitation:** Decapitation will result in instant death for a werewolf.

**Fire:** Fire can kill a werewolf just as it can any mortal. It can also hurt them, though their regenerative cells allow them to heal burns much faster than an ordinary human.

**Heart Extraction:** Ripping a werewolf's heart out will result in instant death.

**Magic:** Werewolves are susceptible to the powers of witchcraft. This is inclusive of mystical objects. Multiple spells have been performed by witches against werewolves to cause several effects against them, such as slowing down or speeding up a werewolf's transformation on a full moon, inducing a werewolf transformation earlier than they would normally begin to change, telekinetically ripping a heart from a werewolf's chest, and cursing a pack of werewolves to be trapped in their wolf form at all times except for a few short hours during the full moon when they return to their human forms.

**Mortality:** Werewolves can die of old age and share many of the same weaknesses as non-supernatural beings (e.g. suffocation).

**Physical Trauma:** Minor physical injuries such as gunshots, stab wounds and broken bones will cause a werewolf pain and will also slow them down. Fortunately for them, this is only temporary, as they will heal completely within minutes. However, certain injuries, such as a slit throat or a snapped neck, have been shown to kill werewolves.

**Silver-**Hunters have developed a variety of ways to capture wolves or injure them with silver. Silver or any substance containing silver can harm werewolves, this is their biggest weakness. Packs may also use silver to keep omegas and insubordinate wolves confined or as punishment. Silver does burn and leaves scarring on the wolf that often does not heal for the average wolf; however in some cases of a really strong wolf such as a beta, alpha, or a wolf with strong resilience and constitution; they can heal injuries from silver. Silver cages tend to burn a wolf who tries to get out. Silver chains cause a burning effect around the wolf's joints or body, if it has the misfortune of being wrapped in silver chains. Liquid silver is extremely detrimental to wolves, it can easily render wolf blind if put in their eyes or burn holes in the wolf's mouth, tongue or even their throat if they accidentally or are forced to ingest it. Brands on a wolf that are made with molten silver, usually coated on an iron brand, will permanently scar and cannot ever be removed. An injection of silver nitrate can kill werewolves.

**Wolfsbane:** When ingested, wolfsbane causes a werewolf to become severely weak and feverish. Also, if a werewolf's skin is exposed to wolfsbane, it will burn them. A spiral of wolfsbane studded rope can keep a wolf in their wolf form, even after death. Wolfsbane can also serve to trap a wolf in their wolf form and render them unable to shift, this combined with silver cuffs or chains, works to both burn and poison the wolf at the same time. It also renders a wolf slow and extremely weak. A wolfsbane powder blown into the air causes hallucinations and suicidal tendencies for any wolf who breathes it in. Vapor of wolfsbane in a cannabis vaporizer can make a wolf unable to heal.

**New Moon:** The New Moon causes a wolf, no matter their rank, into a docile and tame state. The wolf is lethargic, their reflexes become that of a human's and their heightened senses and powers are drastically weakened. In essence, the new moon saps the wolf's energy and life force for that evening, resulting in them not being able to defend or protect themselves. Hunters are known to kill werewolves during this time or easily capture them should they choose. It is especially a vulnerable state for a child, however unlike with the full moon only affecting children 6+ years of age, the new moon affects all werewolves from birth to death. A child born on a new moon is usually a weaker creature than one born any other day of the month and is often a sub and usually an omega for life, occasionally a child born on a new moon will be a dom but they will never obtain the strength and health of a wolf born any other day of the month.

**High-pitched noises:** Loud, high-pitched noises aren’t fun for anyone. This is especially true for werewolves due to their enhanced hearing.

**Mountain Ash:** Creates a barrier that werewolves cannot cross. When used properly, Mountain Ash can form an impenetrable barrier to keep werewolves in or out. It can also modify their behavior - keeping them from “causing trouble”.

**Lunar Eclipse:** Werewolves are completely vulnerable during a total lunar eclipse. In this they remain humans and cannot turn into their half or wolf forms to defend themselves. It also saps their power

**Electricity:** The steady application of low amperage electricity will keep werewolves weak and in human form.

**Hecatolite (commonly known as Moonstone)-**Can block the effects of the moon and disrupt a werewolf's natural cycle of transformation. When combined with silver collars, traps the wolf in werewolf form and renders it tame, usually used by hunters and witches. Saps the wolf's powers and over time, the wolf can lose track of time that has passed and takes away their ability to speak mentally, their words coming instead out choppy and slow if a year or more has passed.

## Mating

Werewolf sex typically involves biting. It’s thought this is due to their feral instincts to help claim and reinforce claims on each other as well as make relations longer lasting. Typically occurs when mating as wolves.

## Ages

0-2 years:: infant
3-15 years:: child
16-25 years:: adolescent
26-100 years:: young adult
101-750 years:: adult
751-800 years:: elder