Werewolves

A werewolf,  is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse and/or lycanthropic affliction via a bite or scratch from a werewolf, or some other means. This transformation is often associated with the appearance of the full moon.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND WEREWOLVES

Wolves are natural hosts for the lupine parvovirus, or LPV, the virus responsible for werewolves. The virus contains two mutations that distinguish it from other parvoviruses. Wolves transmit the virus to humans through a bite, and so werewolf occurences closely mirror wolf populations. Hunters and fur trappers have always been common victims. There is a fear that wolf recovery programs in the United States will result in an increase of werewolves, especially in suburban areas.
As you may know, a virus is a protein shell that attaches itself to a cellular membrane and injects its genetic material into the cell. In effect, the virus takes over the cell and uses it as a factory for viral proteins. LPV is different from most viruses in that it doesn't destroy its host organism; rather, it transforms it.


TYPES OF SHIFTING

1) Physical Shifting

Bilocation Shifting - This is a rare form of P-Shifting. In it, the human body becomes completely rigid, and a wolf materializes by it. The wolf contains the essence of that human.

Classical Shifting - It is a painful process during, and sometimes before, the Shift as the human slowly morphs into wolf shape.

Molecular Shifting - This is an almost instantaneous Shift. The actual event is painless, though the werewolf may feel some discomfort leading up to it.


2) Mental Shifting

In my opinion, an M-Shifter can't properly be called a werewolf, but for the sake of completeness, I'll include them here.

Astral Shifting - The Shifter becomes a wolf during a kind of daydream.

Aura Shifting - A common form of M-Shifting, this is when a human being takes on a wolfish mood.

Non-Shifting - A human feels a deep connection to wolves but has never experienced any other kind of Shift. Of course, he may later on.

Persona Shifting - Think Dissociative Identity Disorder. Yeah, it's kind of like that. The person has a human personality and a wolfish one.

Sense Shifting - The person has at least one wolfish sense, such as hearing, eyesight, etc.

RANKING OF WERE WOLVES

The Alpha
the leader of the pack is called alpha and is the one in the community with the highest rank. Where one male and one female fulfill this role, they are referred to as the alpha pair.

The Beta
Second in rank, the beta helps the alpha with decissons as well as some other pack activities. With the pressence of the alpha gone, the beta will usally take over.

The omega
The omega wolf is one or more wolves, male or female, that occupy the lowest position in the pack hierarchy.The omega role is more pronounced in captive packs where that individual can not disperse and is forced to live with the pack.

FAMOUS FOLKLORES


Lycaon the King

The story of Lycaon the king explains how werewolves first came into the world.
Lycaon was a very fierce and cruel king.  His cruelty was legendary. When the powerful God, Zeus heard of his mischievous actions, he decided to come down to see for himself.  To his surprise the truth was worse than what he had heard.   Zeus went at once to meet with King Lycaon. When Zeus revealed himself at Lycaon's kingdom, Lycaon's servants got on their knees to pray. Lycaon however did not believe that Zeus was a god and made a plan to test him. Lycaon planned to kill him. If he was a god he would survive but if he wasn't then he would die. First he invited Zeus to a feast that he had prepared himself. The feast was human flesh from an innocent messenger that he had killed. Zeus, since he was a god knew at once what was happening and was furious with Lycaon’s cannibalism. As a punishment Zeus turned Lycaon into a wolf. Lycaon's entire body changed, only his eyes were human.




Peter Stumpe

One of the famous stories from Cologne, Germany was about a man named a Peter Stumpe who lived in the late 1500's.
Peter Stumpe practiced witchcraft since the age of 12 and had given his soul and body to the devil.  In return the Devil granted him a wish.  Stumpe's wish was to be able to turn into a animal cable of attacking people.  The Devil gave him a belt that would turn him into a werewolf when he put it on and back to a human when he took it off.  With this "gift" Stumpe began his killings.  He would attack people in wolf form and turn back into a human so no one knew that it was him.  The number of killings grew and he continued to get away with it.  His luck soon ran out and he was caught by a group of suspicious hunters.  He confessed to the killings and to possessing the magic belt from the Devil.  But the belt itself was never found.  Stumpe was tortured, his arms and legs were broken off and he was beheaded and burned on October 28, 1589.  Now a monument stands in the town of Bedburg, where Stumpe was executed.  It has the torture wheel, where his body was broken, wooden figures of all the people he had killed, and Stumpe's head on top of a stake.




The Beast of Le Gevaduan

This tale takes place in a mountainous region in France called Le Gevaduan where the people lived off of cattle herding.
These cattle were mostly watched by children.  The first person killed was a young girl who was watching a herd of cattle and did not return home.  The villagers  went out looking for her and found her dead body and her heart torn out.  Many other followed and families began to keep their children home because they feared for their lives.  Then a peasant women reported that she had seen a weird looking creature that walked on two legs like a human but had a pig like snout and was as big as a donkey.  No one believed her until another man named Jean-Pierre witnessed the creature himself.

News quickly spread to King Louis the XV and he immediately sent a group of soldiers to find and kill the animal.  They came upon the animal and they killed it.   But they were wrong because the killings continued.  The King sent the soldiers out a second time but again the soldiers failed and the killings continued.  The third time a group of hunters were determined to kill the creature, especially Jean Chastel who would not rest until he killed the animal.  He even brought a rifle full of silver bullets, that were known to kill werewolves.  The group of hunters met up with the creature and Jean Chastel shot two of his silver bullets.   One piercing the werewolf's heart killing it.

The description of this animal is unclear and we only know that it was a "strange-looking wolf, with close-cropped ears and unusual hooflike feet." The animal was buried but no actually knows where.  The only remaining evidence is Jean Chastel's rifle at the church in Saint Martin-de-Bouchaux.




Egyptian mythology

In 1990, Werewolf researcher Hugh H. Trotti offered a highly original explanation of the Werewolf myth.  He noted that the ancient Egyptian cult of Anubis, whose priests wore a wolf-like mask representing this jackal-headed god of death, eventually became established in Rome where Anubis became known as Hermanubis.

By the 1st century AD, moreover, many statues of jackal-headed humans representing Hermanubis had been erected there.
Accordingly, as suggested by Trootti, Germanic troops recruited into the Roman armies who saw preists of Hermanubis wearing their lupine masks, and who also observed the jackal-headed statues would certainly have remembered and referred to them long after the fall of the Roman empire.
In turn, it would not be difficult for distorted accounts of these priests and statues to give rise in time to stories of men who could transform into wolves.