Supernatural Species - Werewolves
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Supernatural Species of the Dark World - Werewolves

Werewolves (or  Wolves for short) are a near-extinct supernatural shapeshifting species of individuals who unwillingly transform into large, fearsome, and extremely hostile wolves on the night of the full moon. Even in their human form, werewolves possess superhuman physical prowess, though not to the same level as a vampire, and their abilities are not as powerful compared to those they possess on the full moon while transformed. These creatures are the most dangerous enemies of vampires due to their venomous bite, which is lethal to them. Werewolves are also hardwired to kill vampires on sight in their wolf form, though they still hunt human prey whenever there are no vampires to kill.

A person can only be a werewolf if they are born to at least one werewolf parent; werewolves cannot be turned by bite or scratch as is commonly believed in folklore. Furthermore, the werewolf gene must be "triggered" by taking the life of a human, either intentionally or by accident, in order to gain access to their enhanced abilities (such as superhuman strength, speed, and accelerated healing) at the price of transforming into a wolf during every full moon. It does not matter if the kill was accidental or intentional, premeditated or out of self-defence-- if a werewolf causes the death of a human, their werewolf gene will be activated. Difficult-to-control anger and aggression are common personality traits in even those werewolves who have not activated their lycanthropy, therefore the likelihood of them losing control of their tempers and inadvertently triggering their werewolf gene by accidentally killing someone is quite high.

While some werewolves prefer to keep to themselves and keep their beastly natures hidden, most seem to aggregate themselves into packs and residing in areas isolated from general human society so they can run free on the full moons without fear of hurting or killing anyone.

Code of Loyalty: Unlike vampires, werewolves have an unwavering sense of loyalty, and will often bond with other werewolves they meet. They form packs and work with each other as sort of an extended family. The bond of loyalty between werewolves is so strong that while changed under full moons, the only beings they do not attack are other werewolves (regardless of whether or not they have activated their werewolf gene). This code does seem to extend to werewolf-vampire hybrids, as well.

Physiology

Food: Like normal humans, werewolves can and often do eat human food if they wish. However, because they turn into ferocious beasts during the full moon, they are carnivores. When in wolf form, they can feed on human or vampire body parts and organs, but they are not required to ingest them in order to prolong their existence, like vampires must do with blood. Many wolves try to avoid attacking and eating humans by locking and chaining themselves up. Some will even ingest wolfsbane to weaken themselves.

Appearance: Werewolves in their wolf form are quite similar to natural wolves, although unlike natural wolves, werewolves have glowing yellow, topaz, or orange eyes, wicked fangs, and a much more feral and predatory appearance. They can also be distinguished from regular wolves by their displays of supernatural strength, blurred speed, and size which is comparable to fully grown humans. The fur color of werewolves differs from one to the other (e.g. Tyler Lockwood's fur color is dark brown, Mason Lockwood's is white and grey, Jules' is light brown with a hint of white, and Hayley's is white and brown). Werewolves appear the same as any other human during the rest of the month and functions the same way aside from their enhanced abilities of speed, strength, and healing.

Super Strength: Werewolves possess supernatural strength that makes them far stronger than true immortals, supernatural hunters and humans. Even untriggered werewolves possess great strength that exceeds past the limitations of humans. While in wolf form, their strength is amplified to a degree that can either match or excel that of non-original vampires, which allows them to easily overpower and kill a non-original vampire. When in groups, they can overwhelm an Original.

Super Speed: Werewolves are much faster than immortals, hunters and humans. They possess this ability both in and out of transformation with an animalistic quickness. However, the power is faster at night than in the day, due to the moon's presence, and their speed increases greatly when the werewolf is transformed during the full moon, appearing almost as blurs moving very quickly. In werewolf form, they can use this ability to chase down their prey of choice; vampires, by catching up with them and even out running them.

Super Agility: Werewolves possess superhuman agility. Either in wolf or even in human form, they have demonstrated that they can move, jump very high, climb, flip and run incredibly fast without difficulty or exhaustion. They can also jump down from incredible heights with almost gravity-defying grace.

Super Durability: Werewolves can take far more trauma than humans without nearly as much discomfort or injury, however, not as much as vampires.

Accelerated Healing: Werewolves possess superhuman regenerative abilities, meaning that if they are physically injured, their bodies will heal rapidly. Like vampires, werewolves can heal from the most grievous of injuries, even in human form, albeit more slowly in comparison to vampires. However, unlike vampires, when it comes to fatal injuries such as a broken neck, they stay dead.

Superhuman Senses: Werewolves have extremely keen and heightened senses of smell, sight, taste, hearing and touch inherent in all canines, but because they are supernatural and have powers that exceeds their normal wolf counterparts, their senses are more enhanced. Some older and more experience wolves have the ability to sniff out vampires and taste herbs like vervain or wolfsbane in food and drinks where the flavor would typically mask the taste and smell of the herb.

Lycanthrope Enhancement: Werewolves are able to make their eyes glow when angry or threatened, but only for a short amount of time. When a werewolf is furious or feels threatened, their anger increases all their power and abilities for a short period of time, which allows them to access some of the power of their wolf form to give them an edge.

Werewolf Bite: A werewolf's venom is lethal to non-original vampires. While an Original vampire cannot die from the venom, they are not wholly immune to the effects of the bite. For non-Original vampires, the venom acts as a poison of sorts that will enter the bloodstream and deliver the toxin throughout the body, producing discomfort and weakness. All vampires who are bitten will ultimately develop uncontrollable hunger that progresses to delusions, hallucinations, rabid rage, and dementia. After that point, non-original vampires will finally die. Klaus' blood is the only known thing that can cure a werewolf bite.

Immunity to Silver: Werewolves are immune to magic bonded to silver. Weapons made of silver might wound them, but the wound still heals at supernatural rates and will not be fatal to them.

Weaknesses

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

Fire: Fire can presumably 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.

Magic: Werewolves are susceptible to the powers of witchcraft. This is inclusive of mystical objects and dark objects. It is unknown if a Siphoner can siphon the magic from a werewolf, though it has been proven that a Siphoner who has become a vampire-witch hybrid can siphon the magic of a werewolf bite in order to cure them of its fatal effects. 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, as well as inducing a werewolf transformation earlier than they would normally begin to change.

Mortality: Werewolves are considered to be mortal and therefor can die of old age and share many of the same weaknesses as non-supernatural beings (e.g. suffocation). As to whether they can succumb to conventional illnesses like the cold or the flu, or terminal diseases like cancer is unknown, but improbable.

Wolfsbane: Just like with vampires and vervain, if a werewolf ingests wolfsbane, it will cause them to become severely weak and feverish. Also, if a werewolf's skin comes into contact with wolfsbane, it will burn them.

Other Things To Know

Pregnancies: A female werewolf who is carrying a child will not turn during a full moon, as this is nature's way of protecting the new life of the child growing inside of her.

Moonlight Rings: A moonlight amulet is a piece of jewelry with a black kyanite gemstone enchanted by witches to allow werewolves to control their transformation, thus sparring them the need to turn every month on the full moon. It was first believed that in order for moonlight amulets to function properly, they have to be enchanted by a witch on the night of a full moon. However, it was later shown that the witches under Esther's control did not need the full moon for their amulets to be effective. For example, the first batch of moonlight amulets made in the modern day were crafted by Genevieve, who led Niklaus Mikaelson to believe that she was making them for Hayley Marshall and the rest of the Crescent werewolves. However, it was revealed that she had actually double-crossed Klaus and tricked him into allowing her to use his blood to bind the spell, since he can control his own transformation as a hybrid; because of this, the wearer of the amulets is given the power by drawing on Klaus' own strength, weakening him whenever a werewolf calls on the stone to prevent their transformation on a full moon.

The second batch of moonlight rings were crafted by the French Quarter Witches under the orders and supervision of Esther Mikaelson while in possession of Cassie, a Harvest Girl's body. Esther was the one who originally invented the spell for the stones and did not need Klaus' blood for the rings to work. Unlike the first amulets which were set in gold rings, these new ones were set in silver.

Unification Ceremonies: is a ritual performed by a werewolf shaman on two Alphas of different packs to join them and their different powers as one. As werewolf packs possessed different strengths, the packs would marry their Alphas through the Unification Ceremony and make their combined packs stronger as a result. The powers of a hybrid can also be passed down to the pack through this ceremony.

• First Step: Trials: The two betrothed share of trials. The first of all is that of fasting, followed by major trials of purification that ends with the exchange of all the secrets with one another after smoking blue calamus root.
• Second Step: The Wedding: The actual rite is to be officiated by a shaman of the werewolves. The newlyweds are tied hands as in pagan ceremony of hand-fasting, with a ribbon and flowers. The two then hold up a candle while saying their votes marital and then lit a candle placed on the altar thus activating the power-sharing with the rest of the pack.
• Addition Step: Submission To the Dominate Alpha: Alphas may decide to give up their status as alpha, recognizing the future groom as the dominate alpha to be eligible for shared powers in the ceremony. This requires that the abdicating alphas do a blood vow. This part of the ceremony is called the Anointing of the Alphas.
• And Finally: The two married alphas must live as a couple in order for the ceremony to work.

The Crescent Pack: Are the only group of werewolves except for Hayley Marshall, whose werewolf curse is in reverse; they are trapped in wolf form and only transform into human forms for a few hours during a full moon. This curse was placed on them by Celeste Dubois. Due to how much time the Crescent Pack has spent their lives in wolf form, they have gained much more control over their actions than other werewolves.