Werewolf

Werewolves are a subspecies of humans who have the ability to shape-shift between human and wolf form. They transform and develop a wolf body inside of their own body; breaking out of their human flesh. The wolf that transforms back into a human will similarly shed their wolf body and allow the human body that is inside to come out. There are only three ways for a human to become a werewolf.

Werewolves can change whenever they choose, although they usually do so when a full moon is in the sky, whether it is day or night. Their wolf is connected to the phases of the moon, with its peak form being when the moon is full as its body becomes fuller as the moon does. If they transform without a full moon, they risk becoming a mentally and physically unstable; consumed by its condition until it dies from it.

Parts of the wolf body can manifest from the human body on the werewolf's will, though this usually happens when the wolf body is incomplete inside the human one. This too will risk them becoming unstable and insane, with their transformations being completely unstable as the wolf body will become independent of the human one and transform the human body involuntarily. The wolf will then be in control of the transformations instead of the human, causing the human to lose control of their own minds and bodies as well.

The more unstable these transformations, the more the wolf can appear without a full moon, though at the cost of the werewolf's conscious mind, which causes the wolf to emerge even from a werewolf's corpse. At this point, the werewolf has become a vargulf, which is commonly shown as having brightly colored and completely white fur as their condition progresses. The human form of a vargulf, should the vargulf ever take human form again, also has brightly colored and completely white hair, usually due to the stresses of their insanity.

Known Werewolves

 * Peter Rumancek (former, later a Vargulf)
 * Hermila †
 * Christina Wendall † (former, later a Vargulf)
 * Nicolae Rumancek † (former, later a Vargulf)

Origin
According to folklore, werewolves (also known as lycanthropes. loup-garous, or skinwalkers in some native legends) were created by witchcraft. It can be assumed that they have been around for many centuries, perhaps since the beginning of time. It would seem that werewolves that are part of gypsy groups. At least some werewolves can practice witchcraft and perform rituals, as seen when Peter once went into a trance to talk to Nicolae, who warned him against trusting upirs such as Roman, and also to safely transform into wolf form not during the full moon without becoming a vargulf. The wolf activating a transformation is called the Luna Rea, and activating it against the rule and phasing of the moon causes them to become physically and mentally unstable, as they become prone to violence, and later on, even murderous. Doing this too many times causes the wolf inside them becomes rabid and takes over a werewolf's ability to turn, as well as their minds, and overshadow the human traits and consciousness. This turns them into a vargulf.



Werewolves are seen to be connected physically and mentally to the pull of the moon and its phases; turning against the moon's phases strains the body and mind until the vargulf condition occurs.

Becoming a Werewolf
There are only three ways to becomes a werewolf:


 * 1) Being born a werewolf.
 * 2) Being bitten by a werewolf.
 * 3) Consuming water taken from the footprint of a werewolf during a full moon.

Characteristics
It should be noted that werewolves and vargulfs can sense others of their kind, whether in human or wolf form. It is possible that it is the wolf bodies inside them that are sensing the other, which is why Peter said that he could sense the vargulf (Christina) inside him and could search for it with its senses. Usually, born werewolves are of Gypsy or Romanian origin, as Peter and other born werewolves in the show are shown to be of the Gypsy clan or Romanian descent. Also, born werewolves are shown to usually have upirs in their bloodline.





Human
Werewolves are indistinguishable from humans while in human form, though they typically have a higher percentage of body hair and or muscle. It is possible that the more unstable a vargulf becomes, the more their lycanthropy affects their bodies. For example, Christina's hair gradually turned completely white during her days as a vargulf (and she became insane), although some of this transformation might have been caused by her traumatic experiences with the corpse of one of her victims. It is said by Christina that if a person's middle and pointer fingers are the same length, it shows them to be a werewolf. Peter does, in fact, happen to have this trait.



Wolf
Werewolves in wolf form are cougar-or leopard-sized wolves with some bear characteristics in their build and with paws and similar to that of a bear or lion. Their forelegs also almost look like human arms. Each werewolf has a distinct form, which differs mainly in fur. So far in the series, yellow is the only werewolf eye color. The wolf's coloring does not necessarily resemble that of the human form, but if the hair of the werewolf changes like Christina's did, their wolf's hair would change accordingly. Also, other werewolves featured in the show have greener eyes, and some of them have whiter fur, while their human form had some streaks of white hair, or even having one eye brown and the other white. Vargulfs have less wolf-like characteristics, as due partially transformed werewolves, though that might only be during wrong moons or whenever a full moon is not in the sky. Their wolf form is as feral and as instinctively as a regular animal but with the memories and somewhat the personalities of their human form.









Anatomy
Werewolves have a cellular structure completely different from humans, presumably more akin to that of a lupine than a human. Werewolves still produce waste and can become pregnant.

During a shift, a werewolf's' anatomy changes completely from human to wolf. As with their cosmetic features, werewolf anatomies are not normally influenced by their human form unless they are afflicted by the vargulf condition. The wolf form can partly transfigure to harbor the human body inside and then break into pieces like an egg or cocoon as a form of transforming back into human form.

Likewise, humans can partially transform and transfigure themselves to have physical traits of their wolf form, such as the claws, muscles, and even the head. This will break through the flesh, but it closes up without any signs of damage if the werewolf chooses to reverse the changes. The eyes can change color to match that of the wolf form, sometimes with the white of the eyes turning black.

Powers

 * Shape-Shifting - Werewolves have the ability to shift into wolves. They can use this power at will, however, they only use it during the full moon, or else they become mentally and physically unstable and rabid, both in human and wolf form. The transformation causes them to become weak and tired, almost like a hangover. If they were to shape-shift too many times without the full moon, they would turn into a vargulf, either immediately, if a full transformation is performed and not partial or simply over time. It is possible for a werewolf to utilize their transformation to heal themselves, either in human or wolf form, sometimes even from fatal damage, such as having one's face stripped of flesh to the skull, as transform back to a human form with no damage at all, as if their transformation effectively rebirths them each time they transform. Also, when a werewolf's wolf body is killed, such as Peter's wolf was killed by Christina's wolf, and seemingly died but came back as Peter's human form. Also, when Peter transformed his internal body into the wolf's and transformed the inside of his head into that of the wolf, he transformed back after his upper body developed open wounds from the transformation, along with his human head being reduced to a skin mask. These wounds immediately vanish as he transformed back and his wolf head retreated into his mouth, and his head was complete again. Also, the wolf can appear in several different ways, all of which are controlled by the werewolf. Peter partially transformed and made claws without paws come out of his wrists so that he could cut off his plastic restraints when he was a prisoner of the Caul. Transformation could be used to survive and instantly recover and heal from mortal injuries and severe mutilations, as Peter has survived being shot with arrows, being hit by a truck, having his face eaten by a vargulf and the fact that his transformations destroy his human body. Transformations can happen as fast as the user wishes, with Peter being able to transform in seconds as of Season 3, causing his human flesh to disintegrate off of him. Also, he can now make his irises become like that of his werewolf forms and even growl like his wolf form. Despite their ability to avoid death, they can die of suffocation, though vargulfs are immune to this as their corpses with transform involuntarily.








 * Enhanced Strength - Transformed werewolves are shown to be stronger than half-upir. In their transformed state, they can easily shred human flesh or break their bones without effort. They are shown to overpower humans and easily rag-doll them, but can be fought off, such as when Roman held a transformed Christina at bay with an axe handle he shoved in her mouth. They are stronger than a regular wolf and other predatory animals and can shred a human in less than minute. A werewolf in human form can exert the same force of a regular human and can be beaten up to the point of needing medical attention. Peter could tap into his wolf, transforming his muscles, and enhance his strength for a minute or less. He used this to break the nose of a drug dealer that attack him. He only needed one punch to completely break it, with no effect to his body at all.




 * Heightened Senses - Even in human form a werewolf possesses wolf-like senses and instincts; particularly their senses of smell and hearing, as well as being able to see in the dark. They're able to sense and smell things normal humans can't.


 * Enhanced Speed - While in their wolf forms werewolves have shown to be incredibly fast that they often use to catch their prey. While in the woods Peter was able to move swiftly to catch his prey. Vargulfs seem to move faster than regular werewolves. An average wolf can run at one-third the speed of a car, but they are likely faster than an average wolf.



Transformation
The turn is seen as a painful experience. The transformation normally occurs during a full moon. However, it can be triggered if the werewolf hears its other name. The first season showed that during transformation, the werewolf's bones break, its eyes are pushed out of the sockets by wolf eyes, paws tear their way through the werewolf's hands, and its teeth are a replaced set of canine teeth, as the wolf within reveals itself. The wolf body seems to be the human body under all the skin layers and surface tissue transfigured into a wolf-like body. Briefly, a transforming person's voice can change and become inhumanly deep and distorted as their vocal cords are transforming, though this rarely happened in the times that transformations were shown. At least in the first season, werewolves that transform and lose their human skin will eat their remaining human bodies shredded skin and outer tissues before moving away. For Hermila's transformation, her teeth became animal-like fangs; her nails became long claws, and her voice became deeper and deeper until it became only growling. Throughout her transformation, she was not mutilated at all by an internal wolf, showing there are differences in the way people turn and the transformation is not always the same. The new transformation in season 2 shows the internal part of the body up to the muscles separating from the human surface layering, with the inside of the body becoming the wolf body and the outside becoming more like a rubber-like, bloodless covering that sheds off and tears when the wolf transforms. However, Peter once did not transform with his skin peeling off, though there was only one piece of skin left on the floor where he had been shot with an arrow. It seems that werewolves do not always end up having their human anatomy mutilated upon transformation, though it may only be a small part of them that is mutilated or damaged in any way. In the second season, the body is shown to be broken open like a cocoon or chrysalis with the human body on the ground. Peter also It stays transformed for a whole night and possibly during the morning part of the day. Regarding transforming from wolf to human form, it has been described as "beautiful" by Roman; and events in Season 2 reveal that the person, when transformed into a wolf, actually resides inside the body of the wolf. This can be seen by Peter stroking a drug dealers face with a human arm which was coming out of his werewolf form mouth while another Peter's body was partially transformed with the head and bones only being transformed and his wolf's head was coming out of his human mouth while he was crawling on all four of his human limbs while a third hand was coming out of his wolf mouth. This was also shown when he being dragged out of his torn wolf body by Roman. Although this did not seem so in the first season, as there was no sign of the wolf body and it is assumed their bodies transfigured back into human form or that the wolf body dissolved somehow and all that was left was the human body inside. It is seen that in each transformation, the human body of the werewolf is regenerated and physically re-birthed after each one after their bodies are pulled apart from the inside. Right after each transformation, each body is capable of developing the others as part of it own, just as Peter did in season two and when he made their human hand come from his wolf head which in turn was coming out of his human body. It is possible that if the wolf body is damaged or killed, though not by any damage involving the head of the neck and a simple stabbing based wound, they revert to their human form and, therefore, regenerate their bodies and live in a body that was not damaged. When it transforms back to human form, the wolf lays down and begins to break apart and hatch like an egg or cocoon, releasing the human body.

























The turns are aligned with the lunar phases, with the wolf's body being aligned with how much of the moon appears. If a werewolf turns, even partially, before their wolf is full, they will be become closer to becoming a vargulf. Fully turning once can make the conversion from werewolf to vargulf happen quicker, possibly right then and there.

Feeding
Werewolves can digest normal food and drinks. However, in their wolf form, werewolves can digest anything a normal wolf can consume. This includes humans (and their own shed skin), animals, upirs, and other werewolves. Werewolves don't have urges or habits which involve killing and feeding from different creature, except perhaps or own shed skin. In season one it was stated that werewolves shouldn't eat or drink prior to transforming as the process affects the digestive system in some way (Peter was later seen vomiting at the start of his transformation).

Psychology
Werewolves are predatory creatures and are far more brutal than their human appearance suggest. They are usually quick to temper whenever threatened or challenged. That can be enhanced by being afflicted by the vargulf condition. Like humans, they can control all their urges as easy as humans can while in wolf form this is true save for cases when the werewolf is a vargulf. It is easy to control themselves, so long as werewolves do not turn against their moon cycle and become a vargulf. Their wolf form is as feral and as instinctively as a regular animal but with the memories of their human form. Werewolves are capable of human emotions, such as compassion, love, and self-control. However, these are typically more intense than human emotions. Werewolves are less inclined to have inhibitions and are noticeably less shy and quicker to act upon what they feel, such as when Peter was easily seduced by Letha despite his intent to resist her, and his quickly-developed loyalty to her that extended to his wolf form, causing his wolf to defend her with his life. He also in a calm demeanor, broke the neck of his cat, saying that he new that the cat trusted him.

He wolf was willing to a defended Roman from Christina when he was unable to defeat her, even risking being killed by her to defend him. It seems that the personality and memories of the wolf can drive the wolf's actions as Peter's wolf acted on Peters desire to find the vargulf and tracked for it in the steel mill. It growled at Roman when he saw that Roman followed him during his hunt when he told him not to, though this was not entirely a threat display and simply a sign of annoyance. Lastly, the wolf instinctively defended Letha and Roman from Christina the way an animal would defend another of its kind. It even was willing to be killed by her to save them.



Traditions
Among werewolves, the proper burial of a werewolf includes the decapitation of the body. This is done because if a werewolf's head is not removed upon death, they will come back at a later date, usually a week or less later, in a crazed state. They will even come back from rotting away like a corpse and die all over again, but they will return again. They will also transform repeatedly and at random from wolf to human form and vice versa, which causes a cycle of decomposition and regeneration every time they die, come back to life and transform between wolf and human forms. After dying at the hands of Shelley and being buried, Christina came back a day or more later in her grave and died of suffocation and or lack of sustenance, and decomposed again after that. At least a year later, Christina's rotted corpse finally broke free of her coffin and the ground. Upon her corpse's hands reaching the surface, she transformed into her white wolf form, as it seemed permanently changed to that white form while her regular hair changed back to normal color upon her first death.











Aging
Werewolves age at a fairly slower rate than humans but still live a human lifespan, though perhaps they always become a bit older as they regenerate their bodies each time they transform and slow the process of ageing.