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My Werewolves Are Different! A different take on lycanthropy.

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Ookamikun This is going to be so much fun. (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
This is going to be so much fun.
#1: Mar 3rd 2011 at 9:26:11 PM

Sadly most people seem not to put lycanthropy in a social level - simply giving them as a "bunch of people with shape-shifting powers".

How's this? Werewolves have already been ingrained in the society - and are actually quite plentiful. They keep their secrets known only to fellow werewolves, but never to normal humans... so the person you know might actually be a werewolf! Each country (somehow tied to the UN?) has a secret department (where the world leader is apparently informed about their existence... or not?) where werewolf and werewolf-human relations are handled (e.g. establishing a hospital or hospital department that handles werewolves, etc.). They existed for many years, and even are the ones responsible for creating the werewolf "fantasy" to prevent people from investigating deeper.

These werewolves, who become anthropomorphic rather than "feral", shapeshift quite fast, some in a blink even. It may take a while to master shapeshift quickly, so they are taught when they are young. Transforming also heals human-induced injuries. They can raise their heels to a "digitigrade" form of stand for more speed but less control. They have extended hearing and smell. They have improved stamina and durability. They have improved strength to boot. With that said, it doesn't take silver to kill them - as they are living creatures after all - they're just durable. With that said, an injured werewolf will have a tough time to shift to a human form because the lupine injuries affect the shifting process.

Why transform? While physical training is carried over on both forms (e.g. training to run fast while werewolf will carry to human form and vice versa), heightened senses, etc. aren't. Wound healing is also a plus, although injury obtained while in werewolf form cannot be healed via shifting. There also have been cases where trauma could be so strong that it prevents shifting back to human form.

Human-werewolf relationships can be problematic. Normally, a werewolf-werewolf relationship will have its offspring manifest werewolf shifting at an early age. Human-werewolf offspring will result with the offspring having a 50% chance of being a werewolf or not, or will be a werewolf, but has an unknown age of manifestation (though usually puberty is the "limit" for waiting). They also have trouble shifting fast, unless they train. Of course, it's not difficult for them to integrate.

Stuff like this is the reason why each country's "Werewolf Department" have werewolf and werewolf-human relations handling the job. Some hire a group of specialized werewolves stopping incidents which may link to werewolf secrets, or stopping criminals who may in fact be werewolves, or those whose target are werewolves.

NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#2: Mar 4th 2011 at 6:10:44 AM

The more people you're hiding, the harder it is to maintain The Masquerade. If you're talking about millions of people worldwide (including small children!) then it's going to be impossible to keep under wraps. Even relegating it to crackpot conspiracy theorists is going to be ridiculously difficult — someone's gonna get a cell phone video of someone in wolf-form (or worse, actually capturing the shifting process) and that'll be the end of that. Okay, maybe one or two incidents could be glossed over, but with enough people involved, it'll be repeated consistently over years, and eventually people will get wise to it.

What might be better is to have a sort of semi-masquerade. People know that werewolves exist but not who werewolves are. That would let you keep most of what you were talking about without running into quite so many Willing Suspension of Disbelief problems.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Ookamikun This is going to be so much fun. (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
This is going to be so much fun.
#3: Mar 4th 2011 at 6:17:34 AM

Actually, that's why the government firm exists!

They can pass off sightings as some random mad fursuiter or something, and make weird transformation sightings some sort of pay or such. Werewolves are taxpayers too, after all.

NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#4: Mar 4th 2011 at 6:22:48 AM

That would work on a small scale, but depending on what you mean by "actually quite plentiful", it probably wouldn't really hold up over time. One or two incidents people will be willing to write off as having a "reasonable explanation", but if the same sort of thing keeps happening year after year (which it inevitably would, with a large enough werewolf population), the truth would come out eventually. The only possibly workaround I could think for it would be a Weirdness Censor of some sort.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Zolnier The Odd Lad from A suspiciously dull shop Since: Apr, 2009
The Odd Lad
#5: Mar 4th 2011 at 6:22:53 AM

So are werewolves told the identity of othe werewolves? Do they often marry amongst themselves? How unified are they?

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.
Ookamikun This is going to be so much fun. (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
This is going to be so much fun.
#6: Mar 4th 2011 at 6:27:28 AM

[up][up]Well they are plentiful, but at the same time they only show their lupine form when they really need it and when they know it's super safe to do it (e.g. cleaning your house with the windows all closed).

[up]Generally speaking they probably wouldn't know if someone is a fellow werewolf unless they asked, but there have been humans who keep werewolf secrets (like say, the mother of a protagonist who is married to a werewolf now missing).

Zolnier The Odd Lad from A suspiciously dull shop Since: Apr, 2009
The Odd Lad
#7: Mar 4th 2011 at 6:30:33 AM

So why are they kept under wraps?

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.
NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#8: Mar 4th 2011 at 6:33:12 AM

[up][up]My point is that if there are enough of them, they will be found out eventually, no matter how careful they are. In modern society, information spreads too quickly to keep something under wraps unless it's extremely rare or extremely tightly controlled. (As in, one-in-a-billion rare or locked-up-in-a-secret-government-facility controlled.)

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Ookamikun This is going to be so much fun. (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
This is going to be so much fun.
#9: Mar 4th 2011 at 11:50:08 AM

[up][up]Humans (in general) aren't really one of those species who tend to react positively to stuff like this.

[up]Hmm true. Now you made me think about it...

RickGriffin (Time Abyss)
#10: Mar 19th 2011 at 9:54:53 AM

Before you even consider make a setting with a Masquerade, you need to ask yourself the following:

  • What do they gain by the masquerade?
  • How would they even manage it?

I've generally found that The Masquerade is often more trouble than it's worth. The thing is, it can work for the wizards in Harry Potter, but that's because they have the MEANS to keep it a secret. Werewolves are overtough humans; they do not have the means to wipe minds. Even if you say "government did it" it gets ridiculous if you're talking about a body of people larger than the Delta Force. (Unless the Government also has magic or supertech, at which point you're sort of diluting the setting concept)

Even if we ignored this (and lets face it, many settings do), we still need to ask what the Government really gains by participating in this. It would somehow suggest that werewolves were valuable enough to keep secret, but why and for what purpose? Just becomes there can be social issues does not mean a masquerade is needed, and even if they did not every country would handle it the same. In fact, I imagine several would INSIST on handling it differently out of spite for an enemy country.

As bullet points:

  • In Harry Potter, the wizards have a masquerade that arose out of centuries of having separate cultures. The wizard world is basically a hidden world behind ours. Saying "the world governments got together and did this" is not equivalent, unless there were an EXTREMELY good reason and an EXTREMELY good method of doing it.
  • Social issues are not a good reason. Hiding ST Ds from public knowledge only makes them become more rampant. Hiding contagious superpowers moreso, X-Men notwithstanding.
  • Given that there appears to be no flaws to being a werewolf, there's no reason for them to be social pariahs. Werewolves were persecuted in centuries past because that was BASICALLY their interpretation of SERIAL MURDERS. If there are many werewolves, having the masquerade is MORE of a problem than social integration, because with the former, it only breeds more suspicion. With no masquerade, they'd become just another kind of human with obvious benefits.

Diamonnes In Riastrad from Ulster Since: Nov, 2009
In Riastrad
#11: Mar 20th 2011 at 8:09:46 AM

The way I see it, there's not much of a point to The Masquerade in this case. If werewolves lack an insatiable urge to kill and eat humans like in the old myths, why would they need to be masqueraded? Consider this: How many teens and young adults do you think would love to know a werewolf? answer: ninety per cent or more. The fact is, people are not typically superstitious gits like they used to be. The problems affecting werewolves would be less 'torch 'n' pitchfork mob' and more like modern racism: not very common. In modern society, racists are chastised more than those they hate. There might be a few years of [[HSQ 'holy shite!' shock]], but after a while that would fade and anyone who hated werewolves would be looked at like a backwoods dipshit.

edited 20th Mar '11 8:10:36 AM by Diamonnes

My name is Cu Chulainn. Beside the raging sea I am left to moan. Sorrow I am, for I brought down my only son.
Zolnier The Odd Lad from A suspiciously dull shop Since: Apr, 2009
The Odd Lad
#12: Mar 21st 2011 at 7:58:39 AM

Yeah I also think your setting doesn't really suit a masquerade.

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.
Ettina Since: Apr, 2009
#13: Mar 24th 2011 at 7:44:35 AM

Seconding the idea that fear of human reactions isn't a reasonable reason for a masquerade. In medieval times, yes. But they'd have to be awfully out of touch not to notice that we've gotten a lot more tolerant lately. Combine that with it getting harder and harder to keep a secret, and sooner or later werewolves (particularly the younger ones) will decide it's not worth hiding any more.

If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.
Wolf1066 Crazy Kiwi from New Zealand (Veteran) Relationship Status: Dancing with myself
Crazy Kiwi
#14: Mar 24th 2011 at 2:04:53 PM

I also wouldn't buy the idea of a vast pan-governmental conspiracy of silence - traditionally it's been impossible to get competing governments to consistently adhere to terms of treaties, never mind expect them to all work together to hide werewolves from the public at large...

Whether or not the werewolves in question posed a threat or were completely safe around humans, not all governments would buy into it - for different reasons depending on how dangerous (or not) werewolves are to the community at large and how usable those werewolves are in the areas of warfare, espionage and other extremely-useful-to-the-government stuff.

If werewolves could in any way be used as weapons (and it's hard to see how someone capable of turning into something fast, strong, sharp-toothed and hard-to-kill, with regenerative powers, could avoid being used as a weapon) then the race to reveal their existence to the world would be short and swift. We're talking a major piece of exciting propaganda, here.

The only way a masquerade would work is to have it policed by the werewolves themselves - and they would eventually fail, even if their numbers are very low, as communication and cameras become more advanced and accessible. Sooner or later a screw-up's going to happen and get found out.

Far sooner than later if they pose a threat to human society due to uncontrolled frenzy or rage.

And the moment their presence became known, many (not all) governments would want to use them.

Even if you tried to pitch it that werewolves are each individual government's "dirty little secret" for special ops, it would not take long (especially if you are using werewolves of your own and know what to look for) to discover that other governments are also using them and we're back to their propaganda value.

"Look, the enemy is using monsters to attack us." "Look, we have supersoldiers on our side."

Probably both from the same government on the grounds that "Our Werewolves Are Different".

If they don't pose a threat, it would only be a matter of time, as other posters have said, before they decide humans can cope with the truth and "out" themselves.

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