Twine Encyclopaedia: Werewolf (Eodea)

Eodean Werewolves are basically people like you and I.

: 4.1. Stay!

1. What Eodean werewolves are not

Contagious. That is, this is not lycanthropy you can catch when bitten, but they are a separate species.
Mindless killing machines when shapechanged. A werewolf will keep their human-like personality, basically, but when in wolf-like shape instincts become more important and rational thinking and planning more difficult.
Supernaturally strong and nearly impossible to kill. As a by-product of their chapechanging wounds may have slightly less effect or heal slightly faster, but the difference to a healthy human is not great.
Allergic to silver. That's vampires.

2. Moon

Werewolves are tied to the most prominent moon. (Eodea has seven of the darn things, but, I'm talking about the silver one here.) Generally speaking the wolf-like side is stronger around fullmoon, to the extent that many werewolves cannot help changing to wolf-like shape around fullmoon. Conversely, around newmoon the human-like side is stronger.

In addition to that, they have a sense of the moon, which gives them an accurate sense of time and direction.

If a werewolf were to travel to other worlds, they would need to get used to its moon. The time this process takes depends on many factors, including lenght of month and number of moons, but will not be less than a month unless the cycles coincide very closely. During that time the werewolf will feel disorientied and probably generally miserable. If there is no moon (or none with a regular cycle), that'd be bad.

3. Physiology

3.1. Human-like shape

In size they fall into the medium of human races (Daaren is very tall for his kind). All haircolours found in humans are possible. Eyecolours are usually light brown, blue or grey; green and amber occurr rarely, dark brown or black not at all. Usually a human cannot tell they are not dealing with one of their own kind just from sight (in other words: no darn pointed ears!!)

Werewolves' smell is subtley different from humans'; animals with good noses will recognise it as "not exactly human, possibly predator" and act accordingly. However, pets/livestock that are placid around humans are more likely to be somewhat nervous than breaking out in panic.

The inborn shapechanging talent can be detected by spells/artifacts/senses that identify magic.

Their sight is different from humans', most notably the colour sight. Blue appears grey, purple/violet brown, and all colours but red are washed out. On the other hand they have good night vision (and eyes that reflect light... anyone with a dog or cat will know the effect.) Their sense of smell can be superior to humans', but is on average only slightly better; usually a perceived big difference is caused by werewolves paying more attention to it. The same applies to hearing.

3.2. Wolf-like shape

Werewolves are bigger than terran wolves; the jury is still out how big normal Eodean wolves are supposed to be...

4. Metamorphosis details

A werewolf who did not even try to control their metamorphoses would end up spending 1-2 weeks of a month in one shape, and the remaining 3-2 in the other, depending on disposition and surroundings. The change itself takes a few minutes, and is slightly painful - but more on the lines of muscle aches than horrible agony.

However, most werewolves do practise to control it. For civilised werewolves it is considered normal to be able to change anytime, excepting fullmoon and newmoon nights. It is possible not to be in the right shape in those nights, but it would take constant concentration. The speed of the metamorphosis itself can be quickened with practise, too.

Many werewolves also learn to hold an intermediate shape, which provides a better balance between wolvish senses and human-like clear thinking.

Wounds will not disappear, but usually a bit of sped-up healing will happen when the werewolf changes. This can even make the difference between a fatal wound and "can be survived if immediate care is provided", but that would take a very good control and a lot of effort from the werewolf.

4.1. Stay!

A metamorphosis takes some effort, so a very exhausted werewolf cannot change, in either direction.

Restraining a werewolf so that they would injure themselves seriously if they changed shape usually motivates them to stay as they are, if at all possible.

The dwarves have found that an iron choker with certain runes can keep a werewolf from changing. Elementarist magic favoured by humans can do the same with spells designed to stop shaping of flesh and/or bones. These two methods can even stop a metamorphosis in progress.

Someone interfering that way is a painful thing indeed for the werewolf in question. It's supposedly somewhat worse than being skinned alive, because it lasts longer, but it's generally not deadly on its own. Werewolves consider it pretty much the worst that can be done to them, so if the werewolf survives and/or others find out, it's likely to be deadly for the culprit, eventually.

When a werewolf dies, the body will stay in the shape it was at the time.

unsortet notes

Inter-species crossbreeding (with both humans and wolves) is possible in a very limited way: pregnancy is even more dangerous than usually, offspring are more likely to be stillborn, disabled or malformed (and will always be barren, if they survive) - and therefore among sane werewolves taboo.
Eodean vampires' magic is also tied to the moon, but diametrically opposed. Mixing the two is a baaaad idea - when a vampire infects a werewolf, that's where you get the insane, nearly unstoppable monsters from. (Or from rabies, with less spectacular, more short-lived effects.)