A little background

Now, anyone who has written a book or short story knows that the ideas for the book change as you go along, scripted or not. Minor or major, they do occur. What I am listing here for you are my first thoughts on the history of lycanthropy. I like to read historical things, and I was trying to make this sound real. Enjoy.

For as long as there have been lycanthropes, there seem to have been people born to deal with them. In the beginning of these records – around 300 b.c. – they were pretty much indistinguishable between ‘real’ werewolves, and were hunted and killed in the same fashion. Around 236 a.d. it was observed that there were some people with many traits of a werewolf without actually becoming a werewolf. They were called the ‘Chosen of God,’ given the same strength or senses as a werewolf with none of the terrible side effects. As they were first recognized in the village of Norov, Russia, they were called the Norovites, eventually turning into two versions, the Norovites and Norites. For centuries both strains worked together in a ‘bonded pair,’ meaning that together they formed the equivalent of a single werewolf, and fought them on equal footing.

As the Norovites pulled together and honed their skills, the werewolf population began to dwindle. It was thought that the werewolves were on the verge of extinction in the early 20th century, when it was discovered to be caused by a mutating virus. By that time, the second strain of Norovites, the Norites, had fallen out of favor with the general populace. The Norovite strength was seen as a great thing, while the Norite sensory capabilities were seen as strange. Norovites started working without the other half of their ‘bonded pair.’ The Norites, with only their senses to guide them, disappeared from the written records in the early 1800’s. Their last known use in catching werewolves was in 1826, where a ‘bonded pair’ from a religious sect tracked down werewolves and tried to ‘convert them to normalcy.’ They were annihilated.

The Norovites and their extinct counterparts are both highly resistant to the lycanthrope virus, or Hensen’s Disease, as it is now known today. Each has two genetic markers, one for the resistance to the disease, and then a gene that turns on either a dominant or resistant trait. The dominant gene gives the bearer great physical strength like that of a lycanthrope, increasing their muscle to body mass ratio and even increasing their running speed. The recessive gene, to the best of current knowledge, gave the bearer the senses of a werewolf, including a keen sense of smell that was utilized in tracking werewolves. It is not known for sure if there were other senses, but many historians believe that they also could attract werewolves, giving off a pheremonal scent that mimics the smell of fear.