Comprehensive Guide to
Lycanthropy-1:
Teir'Lorn Clan
By Risa Reed
Illustrated by Phoenix Grimm
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission. For permission, visit facebook.com/risareed.
Copyright © 2015 by Risa Reed
Graphic design copyright © 2015 Phoenixink, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Reed, Risa.
Comprehensive guide to lycanthropy-1: 1st edition / Risa Reed.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
The Comprehensive Guide to Lycanthropy-1 is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
[1. Werewolves—Fiction. 2. Wolf etiology and biology—Fiction. 3. Human diseases and viruses—Fiction. 4. United States—Fiction. 5. France—Fiction. 6. Germany—Fiction.]
FIRST EDITION
Exterior book design by Phoenix Grimm
Author's Note
What was once a fun little glossary intended to be featured in the beginning of my new paranormal romance series The Tier'Lorn Clan, grew into a compact comprehensive guide, equipped with illustrations and a Book 1 chapter reveal. Simplicity is nonexistent.
Introduction
Lycanthropy-1: curse or disease?
Some may ask the intergalactic web (Google), is lycanthropy a curse or is it a disease? In other cases (most), the real question is, will lycanthropy produce an immortal hunk of a male with incredible pecks?
This is a guide made specifically to explore the L1 werewolf. Whether or not it is a disease, curse, or smut device, will be for you to decide.
But really, is lycanthropy a curse or is it a disease?
Well, it’s neither. It's an inheritable virus commonly referred to as a disease, though operates as an independent virus strain. As well, Lycanthropy-1 acts recessively. Those born of it by natural breeding live approximately 1500 years with notable symptoms.
Symptoms include:
Canidae transmutation (human transformation into the wolf form)
Enhanced physical strength
Excessive appetite (generally raw intakes)
Expressive aggression
Heighten and driven libido
Innate sense of loyalty
Unbeatable big heart
Those infected via bite, scratch or open wound contact through either of the ejection points, contracts the virus on separate intensity levels.
Bite symptoms include:
(Eventual) Death
Disorientation
Extensive blood clots in blood vessels
Extreme vomiting
Memory loss
Nausea
Scratch symptoms include:
Disorientation
Nausea
Temporary paralysis
It's important to note, while werewolves are immune to the consequences of the bite and/or scratch, no other specie has reported immunity.
Common phrases for the virus are: L1 (Lycanthropy-1), S1 (First Strain), strained (of the virus), and―most modernly― “a one-wolf” (of the virus), werewolf (of the virus).
[Note: PEB is a human organization dedicated to the studies and extermination of all preternatural creatures. The 1500 year lifespan is according to recent studies through PEB's database and resources. This study was conducted in '01 by Hank Fairman. The study is up for debate due to the relative youth of the specie.]
Section 1 - Where did it originate?
Origins
Common confusion surrounds the origins of the werewolf.
The first signs of the virus was documented in Alsace, France 1676. However, the case subject contained infectious symptoms, not that of inheritance, and died in the infirmary before the case study was completed. Thus, the true origin is rather vague.
Between 1676 and 1871, the reports of Lycanthropy-1 began to escalate erratically by both inheritance and infection—in Malaysia, then Greenland. Over the timeline, the dramatic distance of the virus grew as well. So much so, that tracking the disease became a game of guess and check, and eventually, a lost cause.
As was popular in that epoch, another reason the virus held so few studies was because of the culling habits of man against the unknown. Populations in France, Germany, Malaysia and Greenland alike formed hearty hunting parties wearing ironclad and weaponry heavily plated with iron, believing—to a rather true extent—the eradication of the werewolf would solve the infections spreading. They were not aware it was not airborne until the late 1900's, but by then they had already slain thousands, some innocent of the virus. It was this very reason for which many werewolves fled to states in fear of their and their offspring's safety. This was marked in its infant history as La Pluie de Sang or The Rain of Blood [the blood rain].
The cause of the origin's location confusion is due primarily to the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine in 1871. It was then the symptoms were displayed most startlingly across both regions, creating a blur upon a blur in study of lineage and provincial origin.
Many assume the virus originated with the Frenchmen solely because the mass majority of those who displayed infectious symptoms were German. This alone rose the question, was the virus intentionally forged in the name of France's warfare or was it a sheer act of mother nature?
Mother Nature
As generations of werewolves were born in modern day, diluted became the myth of a creator, science popularized. The genetic virus was seen as nothing more or less than just that, a genetic virus.
But those born of yore who remember the solemn days of The Rain of Blood remember as well, Nayla, the riddled mother of all werewolves.
However, with every belief comes many paths.
Some believe her to have existed on a plane entirely separate of man, where werewolves ran free amongst one another, unafraid. In this, she was always seen as the absolute ruler of them all, her strength and beauty unmatched. Some say it was the challenge of alpha position from a subordinate that began the spread, when Nayla reluctantly damned them all to Earth. This runs parallel with Biblical religions.
Some believe she once walked among man and one captured her heart and she, his soul, and thus she wished to make another that held the soul of man and the heart of wolves. The darker version tells it as her lover having become obsessed with her immortality, imprisoning her until she gave him the bite of unending life. Both versions end with Nayla unwillingly delivering the bite onto her lover. And there was not death, but life. There was not weakness, but strength. In both versions they rejoiced and performed intercourse, delivering the first born werewolf.
But the most universally believed is one quite simple. It is said that Nayla is no more than a child whose mind neither expands nor ebbs, her powers greater than all of life. Some say she created the werewolf as a lifelong companion for herself and it brought her great happiness. This she wanted to share with mankind. To do so, she would make a werewolf and bestow them onto Earth.
This they named Nayla's Trinity. One mate, one friend, one lifelong companion made specifically for another. But most just call it fate.
No one knows which holds true, but all believe Nayla to have passed pieces of her heart to each and every one of her children so that they too would know the greatest passion.
Common Culture
Today's L1 werewolve
s almost always conform to a common culture.
Clan title. Pack size. The two most important attributes that make up any werewolf pack.
A clan's title is a mark of pride created by the alpha or starter of the clan. It is not a derivation of any known human or interspecies language. It is a chosen title, absent of underlying meaning.
A title, old or new, is seen as a prideful thing among many. Some werewolves of today live to build a title and a lineage that would capture fame before their deaths. But to popularize a clan title, there needs to be numbers, which leads us to the next important attribute. Pack size.
There are five roles within a pack. The alpha, the beta, and the three guardians. Each are explored more thoroughly within the next segment.
You will seldom find a werewolf pack running with less than a quantity of five and will close to never find one alone. This is primarily due to their measure of safety, believing it is found in numbers and an innately programmed need to group among others of their specie.
Even so, a pack is not restricted to wolves. Many a times, other species may join the pack through ceremonial marriage or the initiation ritual.
This initiation was adopted—and since discernibly altered—from Norwegian clans in the 1700's. Then, it was necessary for the initiate to be older than fourteen years, set to adequately endure the trials (especially if they were not of the werewolf specie). All existing members of the pack were required to attend the initiation for marking purposes.
One mortar of the alpha's blood would be imbibed by the initiate as a symbol of loyalty to the pack.
Then each member were to make open-wound claw marks along the initiate's spine as a symbol of loyalty to the new member.
Afterward, the initiate received their nihn, a necklace made of magical metal, forged specifically for the new member. On this necklace hung a pendant of sorts and careful masonry of a wolf whose image reflected the male and/or female werewolf.
Lastly, the initiate became an official member by swearing the oath, “I, [birth name] of [clan name], am a wolf of Nayla. Through her, my heart beats. I have seen that she is of [clan name], thereby this clan is of me, and I am of it. I swear to abide by her, where blood reigns and defines,” on Nayla's Tome.
Typically celebrations were carried out in honor of the pack's expansion. Feasts were held for seven days, the pack's residence lit with howls and ruckus and festivity. Some view initiations as “a fruitful time” due to the carnal nature the werewolves indulged more frequently than was usual.
For the most part, this initiation practice remains unaltered. The age has been decreased to ten years, those below exempt from a true title until they came of age (unless born of two full pledged members). It was the more radical practices of dominance which became excluded from common culture. Where the Norwegians typically bedded the initiate, male or female, modern clans have found the practice to conflict with many existing modern day morals and mates.
[Note: In the solemn hour of The Rain of Blood, a tome was born of vague hands, those who spoke of Nayla and her will. It was neither definite nor abstract, but logical: Nayla’s Law. Commonly engraved into stone is the English verse, “My clan is my blood, their blood is my blood. My mate is my mate and they are my blood. Through me are they of the clan. Never will their blood spill by my blood.” The conclusive meaning of this line suggests that no werewolf of a common clan are allowed to spill the blood of another clan member’s mate.]
Adoption into a pack through a ceremonial marriage is most common with mated individuals, whereby one is an existing member and the other is not. If an individual is married into the clan through an existing clan member, this grants rite of passage. The initiation ritual is not necessary.
The ceremonial marriage itself remains a simplistic proposal. The male or female of the pack would gift their nihn to their respective mate. The clasping of the neck piece around the other's neck unified the marriage.
But that's just pack expansion talk. What about the true culture of the werewolf? What is it like to live with a werewolf?
Simply put: there will never be a dull day.
From infancy to adulthood, werewolves are busy bodies. Today it’s uncommon to find a mellow werewolf pup unless traced back to the original bloodlines. Though werewolves are always born in human form (due to sexual activity and gestation only being possible in human form), most parents shift their baby into pups to get them active early. This is done by bringing the infant to an upset state through mild pain or repeated agitation. Once the baby transform into its primary form (the wolf), parents encourage the pup to indulge in many challenges early.
Werewolves are both human and animal and will behave as such indiscriminately. That means it is not uncommon to find them sleeping in dirt holes while in human form or watching television, paws crossed, on your sofa.
They are perfectly content indulging in intercourse throughout the day, running wild in vast acres at night amongst the pack members, watching over their property and sleeping no more than three to four hours a day. If not this, they are hunting for food, if not that, they are typically fond of talking about anything and everything.
Werewolves are highly sociable and do not shrink in the face of new things. This often gets them into fun and dangerous predicaments, but their wily nature never fails to bring them home safely.
Pack Status
The tendency to travel in packs derived from the traditional roles seen throughout history. Alpha. Beta. Three guardians.
Alphas are the pack's leader and commander. It is his or her duty to provide sanctuary and structure for and to the pack members. It is his or her duty to ensure the pack is stable physically, mentally and emotionally. It is his or her duty to assure there is no mistake in who is pack alpha. It is his or her duty to assert dominance where dominance is due. The pack alpha handles all regulatory function of the pack and the society it inhabits.
Betas are the pack's secondary enforcers and successor to the position of alpha should death or incapability befall the current pack alpha. They always remain mentally and physically stable in the event they must take the role of the alpha. They must remain up to date on all activity within the pack to report to the alpha. They must not be of a bias heart. They must understand and remain unemotionally involved with the fact that should the alpha have a pup, that pup is in line of becoming alpha.
Guardians are the pack's watchers. They are most commonly lean in stature, tall in human form. Werewolves most often inhabit massive amounts of land and live in more rural or mountain landscapes. Navigating these terrains quickly and efficiently are vital. Guardians, despite the name, are not honed specifically for fighting, but specifically for alerting. It is their duty to alert the rest of the pack of impending dangers. Their lithe form allows for speed. As well, a pack hosts three guardians for distance, posting guardians in a pentacle formation about the territory. Often, the distance between one guardian and another play a critical role in a werewolf's nightcall range, or his or her's ability to alert the other guardians.
[See Section 4 Functions for nightcall definition.]
The lone werewolf is seen as a bad omen due to the belief that werewolves were made to group among others. Often, it is not questioned why the werewolf is alone, only that it was a forsaken destiny. Interestingly so—and contradicting—it used to be that no lone wolf could be rejected if seeking a pack, but this sympathy has bled from the generations the more welcoming a lone wolf into the pack brought about violence and havoc.
With that said, if you bring a werewolf home, know their history within the pack and before the pack. This can largely determine if you'll come home to find your house torn to shreds or dinner waiting for you at the table.
Section 2 - Lycanthropy-1 vs. Wolf
Lycanthropy-1 vs. Regular Wolf
What is the difference between the L1 and the L2 werewolf and why is it relevant? For a proper comparison, we must first delve into the
contrast of the common wolf and the L1 werewolf.
We've talked about the inner culture and pack status of the L1 werewolf, but what about their appearances?
L1 werewolves are large, beautiful creatures with a mysterious allure in both their psyche and image. But some of their traits are not seen in the common wolf.
Figure A shows us the difference in height. The L1 werewolf is 8 + inches taller than your average wolf. That means the L1 werewolf can grow anywhere from 34 to 40 inches at the the withers as an average.
Figure B shows what used to be in popular demand in Greenland. The L1's paw. It was seen as a protection charm, believed that if you had one in your home, you were impervious to the virus. Why is that? Well, take a look yourself. The L1 werewolf has noticeably massive paws that usually delivers the killing blow/s to its victim and used to be said to host magical protection fields.
Whereas the common wolf has a kind body-paw ratio, the L1 werewolf's paws are thicker and not proportionate to the limbs' bone mass.
Figure C shows what is usually the first telltale sign of the L1 werewolf. Its ears. The common wolf has stout, pointed ears whereas the L1 werewolf has “cupped” ears with two elegant curvatures toward the pyramid arch.
Figure D shows the subtler differentiation of the L1 werewolf and the common wolf. If you were to look closely, wolves have diagonal, ovate axises for the eyes. Almond-shaped may be a frequent description. But the L1 werewolf's eyes are hooded in both human and wolf form.
This small trait in itself caused a claim of “ethnicity” throughout the werewolf community. This same claim was also cause of many other nationalities to be either torched alive, beheaded or shot dead on the spot with bow and arrow when bypassed by the wrong mass during The Rain of Blood.