Werewolf (Mutt)

**Mutts** are the most common werewolves; they are humans who have been infected with lycanthropy through a bite or scratch inflicted by a transformed or transforming werewolf. A supernatural bond seems to form between a mutt werewolf and its maker, similar to that arising from the creation of vampires. They remain human 29 days out of the month and will possess heightened senses, strength and speed during this time. A few days prior to the full moon, these abilities are kicked up a notch, and on the night of the full moon, do they take on wolf form.

## Transformation

Werewolves have two different forms: their human form, in which they possess very few supernatural distinguishing traits from humans and their normal human personalities and mindsets are in control; and their wolf form, in which they are feral, monstrous, wolf-like beasts. Normally, werewolves transform into their wolf form at night when the moon is full, then revert to their human form the next morning, and remain in human form for the other 29 days of the month out of the full moon; although a solar eclipse can briefly force a partial transformation.

In most cases, the transformation from human to wolf form is extremely painful, especially for mutts. The morphological aspects of the transformation differ from person to person. The speed of the transformation also seem to vary slightly; werewolves who are transforming for the first time tend to transform before and slower than other werewolves who have transformed before. The more times a werewolf (mutt) has transformed, the faster the process is.

## Appearance

In human form, werewolves' appearance is entirely indistinguishable from humans'. In their wolf form, werewolves are large, bipedal, powerfully-built, wolf-like monsters; with yellow eyes, dark skin, long brown-grey hair, particularly powerful arms, wolf-like heads, and a hunched stance.

## Packs and Werewolf Society

Werewolves are social creatures and mostly operate within packs.

Characters have stated the following:

* Werewolf packs are made up of one alpha (male or female) and a group of Betas.

* The Alpha is the one who leads and makes all decisions that the entire pack follows. If a Beta challenges the Alpha for leadership, the Alpha must accept, but only if that Beta is a member of their pack. If a Beta kills their Alpha, the Beta then becomes the new Alpha.

* Pack membership is voluntary but failing to join leaves the werewolf weaker. Those who leave their pack or choose not to join a pack are known as Omegas.
* Pure Breds will often let Mutts into their packs, but if a Pure Bred is in a pack, it is likely that the Pure Bred will refuse to have a Mutt for an Alpha.

## Diet

Werewolves eat typical human food most of the time. As the full moon comes closer, werewolves may develop a craving for raw meat. While in wolf form, werewolves will eat any animal they can find, including humans and vampires.
When a newly-made werewolf reverts to human form after the transformation, they may regurgitate the dead animals they consumed overnight, but this subsides as the body adapts to the transformations (which may take years). This is one of the most unpleasant aspects of their condition for new werewolves.

## Population

Currently, there are roughly 800 000 werewolves around the world. 250 000 of these are estimated to be mutts, the rest are pure breds. This is because transformed werewolves are more likely to kill a human than to turn them.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Heightened Senses**: Werewolves can smell, see and hear far better than humans.

* **Accelerated Healing**: Werewolves heal quickly from most injuries.

* **Enhanced Agility**: Werewolves can jump, run, climb and react faster than humans.

* **Enhanced Strength**: Werewolves are much stronger than humans.
* **Disease/Illness Detection**: Werewolves can usually sense when someone has fallen ill, even before they do. This is believed to be related to their heightened senses.
* **Lie Detection**: Werewolves instinctively know whether someone's lying or not.
* **Possession Detection**: Werewolves can tell whether someone's been possessed or not just by looking at them.

### Weaknesses

* **Wolfsbane**: The effects of Wolfsbane vary depending on the type, amount and delivery method. It can cause hallucinations, weaken, render unconscious or kill werewolves.
* **Silver**: Silver is very harmful to werewolves; direct contact with silver burns werewolves in wolf form, and silver-inflicted wounds take much longer for werewolves to heal.

* **Mortality**: As they are living beings, it is technically possible to kill werewolves in mundane ways such as; decapitation, suffocation, bludgeoning, impalement; although werewolves are much more resilient against mundane methods of killing when in wolf form.
* **Other Werewolves**: Wounds inflicted by other werewolves, whether it's a scratch or a bite, tend to take longer to heal than ordinary wounds.

## Cure

If a werewolf kills his/her maker and consumes their heart afterwards, they are cured of their lycanthropy, though if the now-cured werewolf had turned others into werewolves before curing himself/herself, those werewolves will remain infected.

### Immunity

Descendants of Nyctimus are naturally immune to werewolf venom/toxins. Most werewolves are unaware of this, however, that there are humans out there who are immune.