PA's Creature Lore

So, we've decided that the werewolves heal more quickly than normal (at least until more evidence is given in the other direction). If there's anything else that needs to be discussed regarding them (or other creatures), I'd like to suggest we do it here so it's in one neat little place and can be talked about without running through someone's thread (lol, Sorry Bella).

Yeah, sorry.

I'm honestly just speaking from the way I've been RPing them the whole time.

The way I've written is this -

Werewolves always have a slightly more sensitive sense of smell, hearing, and even taste. They have very hardy bodies, as they have to undergo so much transformations. Weaker willed werewolves, or aggressive werewolves like Fenrir Greyback, might also suffer from aggression.

Prior to a full moon, a werewolf might feel twinges as the wolf inside "stirs." This can range anywhere from aches, from shooting sensations, sudden increases in senses or, for weaker human bodies, full blown pain.

The transformation itself is bloody painful. Like - rip out of you skin painful. But once it's done, the wolf is out. A wolf on wolfsbane may find that their human self almost has a small amount of consciousness within the wolf body - VERY LITTLE THOUGH. Under wolfsbane, just your average wolf. Without it, savage hungry beast.

The transformation back is usually not one the human is aware of. The way I've written it, usually the wolf transforms into the unconscious, naked human. When they wake up, the least they feel is achey everywhere. Obviously, any wounds they suffered as the wolf remains. I think that their super human healing probably doesn't come back until they've recovered from the full moon. Some recover within the day, some need more time.

I've written that every werewolf has a slightly different experience, in that the wolf and the human bodies are always different. Also, each full moon can be a bit different, depending on the "strength" of the moon, or if the wolf is feeling particularly eager or aggressive.

The only reason I'm putting so much effort into this is that if all of this is suddenly debunked, then I have tons of characters with threads that are completely invalidated.

Point taken, Jack, and that's always painful. I'm guessing what we will eventually come to is something that will mean some shifts in our thinking for a lot of us.  For example, what you're describing, if it were adapted in full, makes massive changes in some of my own characters because I've done it completely differently.  And therein lies the problem--when we arent on the same page.

But I'd encourage you to consider those things as evolutions of not just those characters but of PA as a whole.  I'm sure that my own characters will have to go through some growth as well, so I do understand what you're saying. Hopefully its not a complete "re-do" for anyone.  I'd really like to avoid that.

I don't know that it necessarily invalidates those threads or those characters.  As the site has grown and changed, though, we've had to be willing sometimes to "turn the page" and do things a bit differently for the betterment of everyone.  

As I said, though, I'm hoping that we can avoid anyone having to feel like their entire character and the effort thats been put into that character is being just abjectly scrapped.

Right... so where do we start the compromise? I don't know any other versions.

i honestly will need more than doing this off the top of my head.  its time for me to head to bed b/c i need to be up at 5 in the morning.  so, let me make sure i'm giving it my best though--which just really isn't going to happen at bedtime. lol.

i really wouldn't want substantive changes of any sort to be rushed anyway.  i'd rather they be thought out and done as well as we know how to do them.  

i do have some scattered ideas, but i don't want to just toss them out without more research and not without them being more thought out. i'll try to have those thoughts put up in a day or so.

I'm at work. I assume this is stemming from my reply to addie. I wrote the original werewolf lore and it was based off HIV info plus my own experiences with epilepsy.

I think this thread is suffering a bit of assumption bias. Can we call it that?  Like you shouldn't all be trying to write your weres the same way. If you conform to the description in the lore, you should be good to go regardless of how creative you get around the edges. That's why I wrote werewolves don't have heightened senses in human form no matter what they tell you. It allows creative freedom for characters like jack's while still imposing a limit.

The lore was written as a description of lycanthropy not a prescription of how to rp a werewolf. Just use it as a jumping off point.

As to why werewolves have slower healing times...  It's a virus. They heal slower which gives their blood longer to get somewhere it shouldn't which also accounts for why they scar so easily. The virus wouldn't be effective (on a biological level as a virus, not as a trope) if it didn't spread

Also the post about veela traits needs editing while we're talking species. If a trait is genetic, you either have it (and it's dominant) or you don't. There shouldn't be a dilution of veela ability perfectly corresponding to heritage unless you're into eugenics

Regardless of individual werewolves reacting differently, like Jack suggested - which is obviously entirely valid, we do need a general, set lore for writers who are new to this. So, actually, we do need this to be sorted out. We have several members who don't understand how to write creatures because we have not explained them well enough. So once we come to come conclusions, either me or Khaat or perhaps Eli can write up the list and post it for them.

However, it's been decided that the site is going to follow the common lore regarding the fact that werewolves heal more quickly, unless you can provide us proof from Rowling's interviews or direct text evidence of it, since the site is going to maintain Canon as well as possible. A metaphor should not define all aspects of something so universally accepted.

I've always written Ariel at the extreme end and as though the werewolf and the man are competing for the same body and in Ariel trying to keep out the wolf, he gets ill in a big way. It doesn't help that he's particularly melodramatic about the whole thing away. I've never really seen him as healing particularly well because of the relationship he has with the 'other half.'

As it is, maybe we could make it so that every werewolf has to have x, y and z traits ... like really innocuous ones that obviously they would have and then possibly have a selection taken from the wiki and what JKR has said about it that we feel personally is more ambiguous or is more interpretation but, yeah, if we can agree on what 'makes a werewolf' in the most generic sense then we can set that down and then it'll be about being open to interpretation.

How much strength do you guys write them as having in wolf form? Just as a general sort of curiosity point.

That's actually how the lore outline is supposed to work, Amy.   That's why it was clinical and didn't have anything about things like packs until Jack edited it.  Because packs are a social order; they have nothing to do with the actual disease.

Okay, so Addie, you want to have a fast-healing werewolf.  That's what's known as the pop culture interpretation.  In folklore, they work as I've described.  You can go on wikipedia and check for yourself.  It's also closer to the way Professor Lupin is described in the books.  Saying something is Canon and using a capital C doesn't actually make it accurate, I'm sorry.  And part of pop culture isn't the same as universally accepted.  Draco/Hermione is part of pop culture too.


Personally, I'm not fond of most of the werewolves on this site, so I don't care what you decide.  I originally posted in Bellla's thread because (a) I wrote the original werewolf lore so I assumed I'd know what I'm talking about - apparently I'm gravely mistaken - and (b) her character's a neurosurgeon, so a werewolf transforming in front of him could easily be mistaken for a seizure... until it wasn't.

ETA:

Also, no. I'm really sick right now. Until someone tells me different, I'm going to assume I'm the only one in this conversation who's almost died four times (actually been revived four times). So actually, I'm probably the only person here who can actually speak from experience when it comes to things like "rip your skin off painful", or how one has to take care of themselves living with a chronic illness at times when things are superficially normal.

You could ask my advice, but instead you've decided to tell me how wrong I am.

Okay, let's take a step back. This is in no way directed at you or any illness you are facing. This is about the site being cohesive and having a set lore that less experienced writers can use to learn how to play those creatures. It isn't about you being wrong so much as the Admins having made a decision because it betters the way the characters can be written. No one is after you in any way, and to make it quite plain, some of us - myself specifically - were not aware that this related to something you experience. So this is in no way an attack on what you feel or deal with in your life. However, it doesn't really help to bring that in when we don't all understand it, as you've said. We can't understand, so it is difficult to expect us to. Werewolves, as a race, would deal with their own version of pain, because that is what their curse entails. No two diseases will feel the same, and while metaphors are helpful for figuring the rhetoric with which to write those scenes, it is hard to give them a 1:1 ratio and call it done, too.

I don't disagree that pop culture can be wrong, but we are going with what most of the world believes because it will make it easier for new players, and will keep the site a place where people know the rules and aren't constantly sending me PMs about whether or not they're doing it wrong. It shouldn't be about wrong and right, but rather about getting to write and getting to have fun with it. If the quick healing is what more people understand, it's what we'll go with.

I'm not disagreeing, either, with the idea that the werewolves would have to deal with the fact that they're liable to turn any time the moon bloody well says so (because, frankly, I'd be pissed if I had to deal with it), so if it makes sense for them to hurt lots before or after or all the time, then by all means. It doesn't seem to matter, though, if they all experience it differently. Stronger werewolves perhaps don't feel it as much, or heal more quickly than, say, newer ones or ones who are coming off of the changing. It makes sense to me that ones who have just dealt with the full moon would be much slower, response-time wise to injuries.

However, it's been decided that the more rapidly-healing werewolves fit within this site's intended world, and it coincides with what more people believe, so to make things more accessible for other writers, we need to go with that. I realize it may not be right in every realm, and that people will choose to write it differently depending on their characters' strengths (as mentioned above), but we need a baseline, and this is our best one.