It’s been quite a while since I last posted anything
here due to the hustle and bustle of my daily life. In the blink of an eye,
warm autumn weather has given way to the cold days of upcoming winter (at least
in this part of the globe), so if the temperature outside your cozy homes is
around or below zero degrees Celsius, I hope that you are and will continue to
keep warm.
Click here to view Anne Rice's Wolf Gift on Amazon.
But enough introduction! Some two weeks ago, as I was
going about my own business in a media store, my eyes were caught by a pyramid
of books on whose covers I noticed the picture of a wolf and of course the word
itself contained in the titles. And as we all know that’s enough to trigger my lycanthropological
curiosity. At first, I thought that it
must have been another example of those novels that seem to have surfaced
recently on the waves of the popularity of vampires that shall not be named,
but still I couldn’t resist coming closer and examining it. And it’s a good
thing I did, because when I saw who the author was, I put the book straight
into my shopping basket.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Anne Rice, the author of Gothic vampire novels known as the Vampire
Chronicles – which, among others, include the famous Interview With the Vampire – has come back with a brand-new novel,
this time about werewolves! Will she manage to engage us once again, like she could in her works about vampires? Perhaps we are now witnessing the publication of what will become in the future a basis for the screenplay of a Hollywood movie, like in the case of the mentioned Interview... and The Queen of the Damned?
For me it is a return to Gothic motifs – old, dark
houses, mysterious death, the promise of family secrets and a monster of
supernatural powers as the protagonist – which I used in the "Vampire Chronicles" and "The Mayfair Witches". – Anne Rice
The back cover blurb of my Polish translation of the
novel reads as follows (in my translation):
Cliffs overlooking the Pacific, a beautiful mansion
against a sequoia forest backdrop. A young journalist gets an assignment – he
is to write an article about the extraordinary mansion. A chance meeting of two
people and an idyllic night is interrupted by a brutal attack. The man is
bitten by a beast which he cannot even see in the darkness… Soon, he undergoes
a terrifying, but also strangely appealing change. He is fascinated by his
newly-acquired power, but also anxious. He finds love when he is least
expecting it, but above all else, he tries to unravel the mystery which has
changed his fate. Why and how was he given the wolf gift? The journalist
embarks on a difficult journey full of temptations in order to discover his
new, dual nature: of a man and a wolf.
So there you have it. I haven’t been able to read the
book as of yet, because I have a lot of other reading at the moment, but when I
do, I’ll make sure to drop a few lines about my impressions right here in this
post. In the meantime, I hope I’ve managed to whet your appetite for this new
piece of writing, so when you have a chance, drop by your nearest book store or
order the title through the internet. Also, feel encouraged to visit Anne Rice’s
official website at www.annerice.com
Since I am now part of Amazon’s Affiliate
program, you can directly support me by purchasing a copy of your own of Wolf Gift from Amazon! Should my article spark your
interest in the book – or should you want to read it yourself – please consider buying it using the link provided next to this
message. Simply click on the cover of the book on the right-hand side and you
will be sent to a page listing all the offers related toit! Thank you and enjoy!
2012 is the year of the 20th anniversary of the Batman Animated Series and once again, our culture shows me that no television series can get by without... a werewolf episode! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there is a full-fledged werewolf episode in the animated Batman TV series - its number is 43 and it comes in the second season of the series, from the year 1993. As it very often happens, I came across this episode by chance, but inevitably, as I had started watching the series from the beginning to relive the awesome from my childhood. After a bit of a break caused by an intense period at university, I thus come back with the intention of describing this episode to all of you who haven't seen it yet or saw it so long ago that you don't remember about it anymore. Of course, as this is not real material for The Lycanthropologist's Werewolf Movie Reviews there won't be any grades or detailed commentary, just a general synopsis of what happens. So if you're interested in what this is all about, read on and enjoy (and perhaps then decide to watch the episode for yourself?) :)
Click here to shop for Batman: The Animated Series Volume 2 on Amazon!
Since I am now part of Amazon’s Affiliate
program, you can directly support me by purchasing a copy of your own of Batman: The Animated Series Volume 2, containing this episode, from Amazon! Should my analysis and review spark your
interest in the series – or should you want to view the episode yourself before reading
this article – please consider buying it using the link provided next to this
message. Simply click on the cover of the DVD on the right-hand side and you
will be sent to a page listing all the offers related toit! Thank you and enjoy!
Synopsis
We start out on a seemingly peaceful night in Gotham city as a man (an employee of the city's zoo judging by the labels on his cap and jacket) is walking his dog down an empty street. Shortly after, the dog becomes restless and starts to snarl at the night air. A moment later, a large, burly grey werewolf (dressed in some ragged pants) leaps out of the nearby bushes to attack him. The werewolf grabs the dog and throws it away and after a short struggle knocks out the man himself, but as he leaps in for the kill, Batman appears and starts fighting the big creature. As a result of the struggle, the man ends up thrown into the river and Batman jumps in after him to save his skin. By the time he's done, however, the werewolf has already disappeared.
Down at the Police Department Batman informs Commissioner Gordon about the night's incident and asks whether he knows anything about a criminal running around in a werewolf mask (as, at this point, Batman does not take the attacker to be a genuine lycanthrope). While nothing related to werewolf masks comes up, he learns of the theft of two Alaskan timber wolves from the local zoo. Since the man who was attacked was an employee of that same zoo, they agree that it might have something to do with the villain. Leaving, Batman finds a few strands of hair tangled in his uniform and "a disturbing thought" passes through his mind as he considers the possibility that the man wasn't wearing a mask after all.
Meanwhile at the construction site of the Gotham Coliseum a man sits alone at a desk in a small wooden hut when, growling, the werewolf starts banging at the door, eventually breaking it down, and walks inside. This whole scene, though it didn't take place in winter, reminds me of the first chapter and Berni Wrightson's illustration to it of Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf. Whether it's an intended allusion to the short novel or whether I simply like the book too much and am seeing things where there isn't anything to see is up to the viewer to judge. If you're curious though, you can see the two scenes I'm talking about here and here. Unamused, the man waits for his pocket watch to strike ten. When that happens, the werewolf begins to howl and writhe in pain as he shapeshifts back into a human. Don't ask me how it works with the time and all since I'm not reviewing, only writing a synopsis! Anyway, the two men then talk about their failure to murder the zoo employee and come to a conclusion that the bump in the road they encountered in the form of Batman must be eliminated.
The next day at the gym, everyone is talking about how the former Olympic champion Anthony Romulus (nice touch indeed, since this is our werewolf guy) has pledged to double his charity donation of 1 million dollars provided that the cheque is received at his apartment by the Batman himself. Of course, this is all part of a scheme to eliminate the vigilante. Incidentally, Bruce Wayne happens to be working out at the same gym and has a talk about it with Anthony... who we see now has a monobrow. Okay, that was kind of low, guys. After that, I was expecting holy water and silver bullets to appear as well. But back to the topic...
Over at the Batcave that same evening, Batman is watching a documentary about Alaskan timber wolves and analyses the leftover hairs from his encounter with the wolf-man, trying to work out a connection between the stolen wolves and the incident of the night before. The hairs turn out to be genuine wolf hairs, but Batman is still reluctant to accept the idea that what he fought that night could have been a real werewolf. Having decided to take his mind off the matter for a while, he sets out to meet Romulus in his mansion.
Once there, instead of receiving a cheque, he falls into the trap set by Romulus and his accomplice and is subsequently captured by them. The two transport the Batman to the empty Coliseum and chain him to the ground outside of the small hut from before. While they wait for the Batman to regain consciousness, Milo (the doctor/scientist accomplice of Romulus) reminds the athlete that the latter is dependent on his will if he ever wants to be cured of werewolfism because he is the only one possessing the antidote which he keeps securely locked away in a safe. We also get the backstory of how Romulus came to be a werewolf in the first place and about what his involvement with Milo really is about.
It turns out that Romulus, already an athlete at the time, wasn't satisfied with only his training as preparation for the upcoming Autumn Olympics, so he asked Milo to come up with something that would be undetectable and would guarantee him a gold medal. As a result, Milo created a concoction made up of a mixture of steroids and timber wolf estrogen, which Romulus drank in spite of being warned that it still requires testing, his greed thus leading him into a trap carefully set by Milo. Indeed, the potion made him stronger and led to his victory during the Olympics, followed by a life of fame that a champion sportsman can expect. It was short-lived, however, as the test tube-brewed werewolfism can never turn out healthy in the long run. On the nearest full moon, Romulus began to change, but was not yet fully transformed. Suspecting it to be some kind of wicked scheme of Milo's, he called on the doctor and demanded an explanation as well as a cure to his condition. Milo informed him that what he was suffering from was an early form of lycanthropy and that as opposed to the "advanced form" of lycanthropy the former cannot be cured. Having learned of this, Romulus agreed to become a full-fledged werewolf and as such follow Milo's orders and take part in his schemes until the latter decided that the athlete had earned his right to the antidote. Now, as they are waiting for the full moon to rise, Milo wants to make use of Romulus in order to kill the Batman.
At the same time at the zoo, the guard that was attacked at the beginning of the episode is apprehended. It turns out that Milo paid him to release the wolves from their cages, probably so that he could further experiment with their hormones and devise an antidote. Later on, he sent Romulus after him to eliminate the only witness. After this subplot is explained, we go back to the Coliseum where Romulus eventually starts to transform. Not all goes according to Milo's plan, however, when the werewolf - instead of rushing out to take on the Batman - focuses his anger on Milo and in the end destroys the small hut altogether. Unfortunately, in the commotion, the flask with the antidote is destroyed and Milo is knocked out after being thrown off a small cliff.
The werewolf then turns to the Batman who has already woken up and is trying to free himself from the chains binding him. The two fight and as a loud and long howl is heard, a couple taking a stroll down the nearby street notices what's going on and decides to call the police. When they arrive, they find the Batman fighting the wolf-man on top of the roof of one of the buildings of the Coliseum. After a more or less even battle, the Batman manages to outsmart the werewolf and leaves him flying on a chain attached to a steel construction crane. Oddly enough, as there is a storm raging, the crane is struck by lightning which also electrocutes the werewolf that's holding onto its chain. Baffled, Romulus falls down into the river and disappears. The police then take in Milo, but their search for the lycanthrope is in vain. They decide to wait until the next full moon to make sure if he is really gone for good.
After all has calmed down, the mansion where Romulus used to live is now for sale. An estate agent is giving a tour of the mansion to a couple interested in purchasing it, explaining that the rumour has it that the champion athlete one day simply left town, but that in truth nobody knows what happened to him. The episode ends with a cliff-hanger ending in which we see the silhouette of a (were)wolf howling against the backdrop of a full moon, suggesting that Romulus survived the fall and is still out there somewhere.
Thus we've come to an end of the synopsis and our lovely meeting with the werewolf episode of the Batman TV series. Hope you enjoyed reading this post and of course I encourage you to watch this episode for yourself if you're interested. That would be all for now from me, so keep warm as the first signs of cold autumn weather have begun to appear over at where I am and see you another time!
P.S.
Now I really feel like watching Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf from the Scooby Doo series. Hmm... Why not indeed? Cya!
Hello and welcome again everyone!
After a series of werewolf trial accounts and some songs, I present you now
with a – slightly changed – article I wrote in September 2009 concerning the
motif of werewolfism in the extremely popular MMO franchise, World of Warcraft. 2009 was a good time
to talk about lycanthropes in WoW, following the announcement of the game’s
third expansion which would feature Worgen – the werewolves of the WoW universe
– as one of the two new playable races. I have made some changes to the
article, however, to more reflect the current, post-Cataclysm state of things.So
without much ado, here we go.
Worgen as NPCs (Non-Player Characters)
Let’s start from the beginning.
Surely every player, Alliance or Horde, has sooner or later come across Worgen
during their adventures in Azeroth. What are they? There probably isn’t a
person in the world who, seeing them for the first time, wouldn’t involuntarily
call them werewolves. In appearance, they look like your usual crinos
werewolves – bipedal wolf-human hybrids with long claws and fangs, a bit hunched
stature, with a small demonic spicing in the form of red eyes. By all means,
they can be called werewolves, but why my question was ‘what’ and not ‘who’ I
will answer in a moment. But for now, let’s focus at the subject at hand. For
the first time, we meet the Worgen as hostile creatures divided in a few clans,
distinguished by colour and sometimes armour, too. Like all good fantasy werewolves (and what
Blizzard likes to take advantage of in its games) the names of the particular
clans are wolf, silver, or moon-related. The same applies to places where they
can be found. And so, on our way we encounter the following clans: Nightbane,
Moonrage, Terrorwulf, the Wolfcult, and Greymane. Examples of place names are
then: Silverpine Forest, Silverbrook, Pyrewood Village (a reference to pyres
that the Holy Inquisition burned those accused of werewolfism and witchcraft
on?). When fighting against the Worgen, most of the time we learn that they are
cruel monsters that delight in torturing and murdering of other creatures, for
which reasons they are considered a threat to the inhabitants of the nearby
settlements. And so it is from Eastern Kingdoms, through Kalimdor, to the snowy
reaches of Northrend that Worgen are regarded as corrupted and wild monsters
that are to be wiped from the face of the world.
Pyrewood Village
Before I continue, let’s stop for a
moment in Silverpine Forest in the Eastern Kingdoms. It is there that a village by
the name of Pyrewood is located. Despite the entirety of Silverpine literally
crawling with the Worgen and worgs (large wolves), Pyrewood Village is an
interesting place in a different regard – curious things happen here, about
which many players don’t even know. The village is home to many seemingly
ordinary people found in other villages – we have craftsmen, an apothecary,
even a mayor. These villagers, however, are cursed – every day at sunset (which
usually happens on the servers between 8pm and 9pm) they transform into Worgen.
In this form, even though friendly before, they become hostile to both
factions. They remain shapeshifted until dawn, when they return to their human
forms. Lycanthropy, however you would look at it.
2012 edit: After the release of Cataclysm, the Pyrewood I speak of in this
article no longer exists. It has been taken over by the Forsaken and turned
into one of their many camps for the production of the plague.
Silverbrook
Another interesting place where we
encounter a story concerning the Worgen and their curse (or at least the
Alliance does) is the Grizzly Hills region of Northrend. While doing quests
there, we are eventually sent to Silverbrook – a seemingly ordinary human
encampment. Initially, we are sent there to help its inhabitants who give us
various, increasingly suspicious, tasks – first, we have to get rid of
Horde spies who supposedly endanger the settlement, then we are ordered to
pluck out wolfsbane from the area surrounding the village under the claim that
it is vile to other plants, and finally we are sent to kill a woman captured by
the Orc spies, who we in the end rescue. This woman reveals to us the truth
about Silverbrook and warns us about the curse, having made sure that we are
not members of the Wolfcult by asking us if we had been bitten by anyone or
anything (a clear reference to werewolf lore). As we progress through the
story, we end up running away from Silverbrook on horseback through the woods,
chased by packs of bloodthirsty Worgen in their true forms. Another werewolf
motif we can add to our collection in our adventures across Azeroth.
Bloodmoon Isle
(2012 entry addition)
As we continue the story from
Silverbrook in our quests, we learn that Archmage Arugal (who will be described
in more detail later in this article) was raised from the dead by the Lich
King, following his defeat in his former stronghold of Shadowfang Keep, with the purpose
of spreading the Worgen curse across the lands of Northrend. In his undeath,
Arugal is then found by the player and defeated, this time for good, in his
keep situated on Bloodmoon Isle, to the eastern coast of Grizzly Hills. We also
learn from the questline that many of the trapper communities of the region had
willingly joined the Wolfcult and those who refused had either been killed or
cursed with undeath.
The Howling Vale (2012 entry addition)
Located in the north-central part of
Ashenvale, in Kalimdor, the Howling Vale is another good example of a place
where one could find the Worgen before the release of Cataclysm. What used to be the Shrine of Mel’Thandris, became the
Howling Vale because of the Terrorwulf clan Worgen that had taken up
residence there. While questing in Ashenvale, the player used to be sent
there in search of sentinel Velinde Starsong’s legacy, of which a few words are
written in the latter part of this article. Unfortunately, now there are no
more Worgen in the Howling Vale and the cave entrance to it has collapsed
(though there is a way of entering it regardless), the vale itself now overrun by hostile Ancients.
Blizzcon 2009 and the Revelations of World
of Warcraft: Cataclysm
A Worgen Rogue.
Like every year, also in the summer
of 2009 in the USA the convent of the WoW creators, Blizzard, was held. As
early as a few weeks before the event, there appeared on the Internet
supposedly leaked content that was to be part of the upcoming new expansion to
the game. The expansion was to not only reshape the appearance of Azeroth, but
also introduce two new playable races. The rumoured leak caused a stir among
the community (like it usually happens before the official announcement of the
next expansion). Having heard about it, some players began jumping up in joy,
others frowned upon it, keeping to the mindset that nothing is true until it
has officially been announced by Blizzard themselves during Blizzcon. On August
21st 2009 it became official – not only did Blizzard announce Cataclysm as the third expansion to its
MMO, but all of the changes that had leaked out the weeks before were
confirmed. I will not discuss the details of the expansion here, because what
is of most interest to us are the Worgen. Quite a big surprise here that gave
wings to the Alliance – the Worgen were one of the new playable races to be
added in the new expansion. How is it possible for the Worgen to join the
Alliance? Let’s take a look at the story presented to us by the creators of the
lore themselves…
Greymane, Gilneas and the Alliance – Allies of Old?
Up until then quite little was known
about the relationship between the Alliance of Lordaeron and the Worgen. Till
the times of Wrath of the Lich King
it was known that during the time when Lordaeron was being overwhelmed by the
plague of the undead under the leadership of Arthas Menethil, the future Lich
King, the subjects of king Genn Greymane fell victim to a cruse which made them
turn into savage beasts, the Worgen.
A Gilnean Worgen as portrayed on the cover of
the Curse of the Worgen comic book.
The cause of this curse was to lay
in the person of an Archmage of Dalaran, Arugal, who had summoned the Worgen to
Azeroth from a different dimension in order to use them as a weapon against the
undead armies. It turned out, however, that the Worgen could not be so easily
controlled as Arugal had hoped and they soon spread their curse to the
inhabitants of Gilneas. Having realized what he’d done, Arugal lost his mind,
proclaimed the Worgen as his children and took to the recess of his keep,
Shadowfang, in Silverpine Forest, drowning himself in darkness. Killed later on
in his own keep by a band of heroes, Arugal came back in Wrath of the Lich King, along with some of his minions, in the
service of the Lich King and, known under the name of the Shade of Arugal, was
tasked with spreading the Worgen curse in Northrend.
King Genn Greymane fighting the vicious Worgen.
Cataclysm
sheds some more light on the fate of the kingdom of Gilneas during the plague
of the undead. The kingdom of Gilneas, though officially being part of the
Alliance of Lordaeron, prided itself on great independence and king Greymane
himself was viewed as a grim king unfavourable towards king Terenas Menethil’s
kingdom. When the undead armies walked into Lordaeron, Gilneas initially
resisted their attack hand-in-hand with the people of Lordaeron itself. When,
however, it became obvious that the enemy’s force is too strong for the Humans
to defeat, Archmage Arugal (called here by Blizzard ‘a patriot’) decided to
summon the Worgen, possibly from another dimension, into Azeroth to help with
fighting off the attackers. In time, this goal had been achieved and the undead
were chased out of Gilneas, but by that time the Worgen had irreversibly become
a part of the kingdom. Bloodthirsty and without foes to battle, the Worgen
reacted with hostility towards the mages controlling them. After a while, a new
plague had begun to spread among king Greymane’s subjects – this time not of
undeath, but of lycanthropy, the curse of the Worgen, which turned ordinary men
into uncontrollable creatures that were no longer a guarantee of safety, but
constituting a danger to those who they were meant to serve. Seeing what was
happening, king Genn Greymane decided to confine Gilneas and its people behind
the great Greymane Wall, which was to serve as a barrier between the outside
world and the cursed kingdom. With the return of the dragon Deathwing, who had
been banished from the world thousands of years before, and the destruction he lay
to the world, the Greymane Wall was shattered and the link for the Worgen of
Gilneas to the rest of the world reopened.
Relationship With the Night Elves (updated)
Watching the official trailer of Cataclysm we see that it is the Night
Elves who introduce the Worgen to the Alliance after the fall of the Greymane
Wall. The Worgen themselves are called “old allies”. What connection do the
inhabitants of Darnassus have with the werewolves? Well, it turns out that
roughly at the same time when in Lordaeron Archmage Arugal decided to summon
the Worgen to the Eastern Kingdoms, in Kalimdor’s Ashenvale the Night Elves
were waging their unending war with the demons of the Burning Legion. One of
the Sentinels – Velinde Starsong – was ordered to rid the primordial forests of
Ashenvale of the demons’ presence. As an answer to her prayers, the Night Elf
moon goddess Elune sent Starsong a gift in the form of the Scythe of Elune, which
enabled her to summon the Worgen to Kalimdor. Taking advantage of it, Starsong
summoned a great number of the creatures to fight the demons of the Burning
Legion, however, after a while it turned out that more Worgen arrived in
Kalimdor than the Sentinel had planned. It was almost as if the Scythe of Elune
could summon Worgen without Starsong’s consent. Noticing the growing problem,
she ordered the Worgen to remain at the Shrine of Mel’Thandris in Ashenvale,
while she herself went to search for Archmage Arugal who she had heard had also
been summoning Worgen. She then travels to the Eastern Kingdoms, but news of
her is lost somewhere in Duskwood and the Scythe’s location becomes unknown. It
is said that it then became of interest to the Black Riders of Deadwind Pass
(of whom very little is known since there are only mentions of them in the
lore), who arrived in Duskwood and began murdering the families of the people
living there in order to find out about the Scythe’s location. The Black Riders
weren’t the only ones, however, who began to show interest in finding and
claiming the power of the Scythe for their own – a sorcerer by the name of
Morganth, who after Archmage Arugal’s death stole from his possessions Ur’s Treatise on Shadow Magic which
originally helped Arugal summon the worgen.
Worgen Druids in bear form, cat form and humanoid form.
In the third expansion the story of
the Scythe of Elune is expanded. During the Worgen starting zone questline, the
player learns that the Scythe at one point came into the possession of the
Worgen Druids of Blackwald, but had then been stolen by the Forsaken during
their assault on Gilneas. The questline then leads the player to recovering the
Scythe for the Worgen and since then it remains in the hands of the Druids of
the Scythe. Not much of an expansion (and how did the Scythe even get to
Gilneas from Duskwood?), but it’s as good as it will get.
Speaking of the Druids of the
Scythe, as the Worgen Druids call themselves, druidism is another link between
the Worgen and the Night Elves. It turns out that the Night Elves’ connection
to the Worgen is even deeper than it would seem. Cataclysm
revealed that the first Worgen were, in fact, a group of Night Elf Druids who,
during the War of the Satyr that the Night Elves fought after the War of the
Ancients in the past, advocated shapeshifting into feral wolf-monsters using the
power of the Wolf God, Goldrinn. These original “Druids of the Pack” became,
however, consumed by the instincts and rage of their wolf forms and eventually
became the first Worgen. Tearing through friend or foe during the war, these
Druids made other Night Elves contract a virulent curse that would also change
them into Worgen. When the situation began getting out of hand, Archdruid
Malfurion Stormrage banished the Druids of the Pack to a pocket dimension of
the Emerald Dream, where they were to stay in slumber forever. Millenia
afterwards, they were summoned back to Azeroth from that dimension by Arugal
and Velinde Starsong – and the rest is history.
Who are the Worgen… in the Alliance?
What might the inhabitants of a
kingdom whose ruler had long since proclaimed he does not need the help of
Humans want from the Alliance? First of all, they are in a dire need of a place
to be – during the starting area quests we see that the Forsaken attack and
take over Gilneas, the cataclysm’s tidal wave finishing the job for them. Without
their old home, they are now searching for a new destiny outside of the
Greymane Wall. And secondly, the Worgen, with the help of the Alliance, strive
to preserve their humanity. How much of the humans they once were has remained?
Or have they completely submitted to the beasts within? Will they ever be able
to find a cure for the curse? These are all the questions that the Worgen seek
answers to as part of the Alliance.
Worgen are able to become every
class apart from Paladins, Shamans and now Monks. The characteristic trait of
the race is that, like the usual werewolves, they can swap between their human
and wolf forms according to a player’s will, but only out of combat. The
playable Worgen went through two model changes in order to be made more customizable.
As can be seen, they are significantly different from their originals and, what
is worth mentioning, with the coming of Cataclysm
nearly all old Worgen models were swapped to the new ones, so there are very
few places still where the old model can be seen. Of course, like with every
playable race, there also has to be a female character – something that wasn’t
needed in the past (yes, the old Worgen didn’t have any gender differences).
Comparison images below.
Original Worgen model, early Beta model, and the current model.
The old and the new/current Worgen female model.
And that’s all for now when it comes
to Worgen and World of Warcraft. If
you’re interested in the topic of Worgen, however, I encourage you to pick up
the game itself, or the comic book Curse of the Worgen.
Click here to shop for the Curse of the Worgen comic
book on Amazon!
Since I am now part of Amazon’s Affiliate
program, you can directly support Werewolf Theory by purchasing a copy of your own of DC Comics' Curse of the Worgen comic book from Amazon! Should my article spark your
interest in the story of the Worgen, please consider buying the comic using the link provided next to this
message. Simply click on the cover of the comic on the right-hand side and you
will be sent to a page listing all the offers related toit! Thank you and enjoy!
Like the Worgen say, “let the light
of the new moon guide you”!
In the same year that the trial of
Jacques Roulet was held, on December 14th 1598 the Parliament in
Paris sentenced a tailor from Chalons to death for having transformed into a
werewolf. He was accused of luring children into his parlour and attacking them
when they got lost in the woods, and subsequently devouring their bodies. One of the pieces
of evidence in the trial was a chest full of bones. Not much else is known
about the trial, as it was abundant in so many atrocities that the judges ordered
its files to be burned.
Manuel Blanco Romasanta is most probably Spain's first documented serial killer. At the age of 35, he was charged with the murder of a constable of León who had attempted to collect debt from Romasanta for merchandise he had purchased. Judged guilty by default for failing to appear in front of court, Romasanta fled to Portugal for fear of imprisonment. The small village of Rebordechao was to become the scene of his future murders. While there, Romasanta worked as a cordmaker, a cook, and a weaver (originally, he was a tailor and a travelling salesman). He also moonlighted as a guide leading people who wanted to cross the mountains to Castille, Asturias, and Cantabria. During his stay in town, a number of women and children who had hired him as a guide disappeared. As it later turned out, Romasanta murdered them and tried to sell their clothes to the locals, avoiding immediate suspicion by delivering fake letters to their families, saying that they had successfully arrived at their destinations. A formal complaint was eventually put forward in 1852. The same year, Romasanta was put on trial in Allariz, in the province of Ourense, and accused of murdering thirteen people. Romasanta admitted to committing the murders, but he claimed that he had committed them in the form of a wolf, maintaining that he suffered from the curse of werewolfism. It is worth noting that at the time Spain was suffering from one of the worst periods of famine in the 19th century.
The first time I transformed, was in the mountains of Couso. I came across two ferocious-looking wolves. I suddenly fell to the floor, and began to feel convulsions, I rolled over three times, and a few seconds later I myself was a wolf. I was out marauding with the other two for five days, until I returned to my own body, the one you see before you today, Your Honour. The other two wolves came with me, who I thought were also wolves, changed into human form. They were from Valencia. One was called Antonio and the other Don Genaro. They too were cursed... we attacked and ate a number of people because we were hungry. - Manuel Blanco Romasanta, from El hombre-lobo de Allariz (Ourense), 1853: una visión desde la psiquiatria actual by David Lorda Gerardo Menendez
Thinking that this might provide the country with a clinical case of lycanthropy, Queen Isabella II annulled his initial death sentence so that doctors may study him. Not having found anything, the doctors discredited his claim, also concluding that he was not insane, but a cold-blooded murderer. During the trial itself, the prosecution asked Romasanta to demonstrate his ability to transform, but he replied that the curse only lasted for thirteen years and that it had expired the previous week. In the end, Romasanta was acquitted of four of the murders, which were determined to have been caused by real wolf attacks, but he was found guilty of the remaining nine. In April of 1853, Romasanta was sentenced to death by garrotte, but his penalty was subsequently reduced to life imprisonment by the Territorial Court in A Coruna. Due to an appeal of the prosecution, however, the original verdict of death by garrotte was upheld. A few months after arriving in prison, Romasanta died in what were initially considered mysterious circumstances. In 2011, it was determined that he actually died in prison in 1863 from stomach cancer.
Two movies have been made on the basis of Romasanta's case: El bosque del lobo (The Wolf Forest) in 1968, and Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt in 2004.
The trial of a Russian man named
Theiss, accused of werewolfism, is much different from other such trials and it
is probably thanks to this that it has its place among the most famous werewolf
cases. The whole difference is contained in the statement that the accused
gave. Theiss told the court an interesting tale about himself and his wolf
companions. He claimed that werewolves were the defenders of human communities,
fighting against demons and evil witches with the aim of protecting all good
people. In the end, the court believed Theiss and he was released without
consequence.
On the basis of: A. Devine, Magia Księżyca, Wrocław 2002
Though originally this article was
part of the Trials section of my old website, I decided to put it into a
different category here due to it not being, strictly-speaking, a usual
werewolf trial.
* * *
The case of the Beast of Gévaudan is
one that to this day baffles many cryptozoologists – it features an animal
similar to a wolf, but the size of a cow, which terrorised the French district
of Gévaudan (today’s Lozčre) for three years, from 1764 until 1767. The small
province, situated in the mountains of Margeride in mid-southern France near
such towns as Langogne and Mende, was haunted by the beast for the first time
in 1764.
That month, a young woman was
attacked by a large, wolf-like monster in Forét de Merçoire near
Langogne. She was one of a few people who survived the encounter with the
beast. In October of the same year, two huntsmen approached the creature and
fired at it at a close range. The animal was shot four times, but appeared to
have not suffered any physical damage. Captain Duhamel, who led nearly sixty
soldiers, began the hunt for the monster, wounded it a few times, but did not manage to kill it.
In 1765, king Louie XV sent an
experienced wolf hunter by the name of Denneval to Gévaudan so that he would
put an end to the beast. Before Denneval tracked down the creature, a man named
Chaumette had spotted the animal in the vicinity of his home near St. Chely.
He and his two brothers shot the beast twice, but it would still not be killed.
Afterwards, in June of 1765, Denneval abandoned his search for the beast, having failed to track it down.
A month earlier, king
Louie had also sent his commander of weapons transport, Antoine de Beauterne, to Gévaudan. On September 21st , three months after Denneval had given up his search, de Beauterne commenced his hunt in Béal
Ravine, near Pommier. He succeeded in killing something that he had considered to have
been the famous beast. It was an unusually big wolf that measured six-feet in length (circa
1.8 metres). The animal's body was then put on display at the Natural History Museum in Paris
and remained there until the beginning of the 20th century.
However, despite de Beauterne's efforts, something was still killing
people. In the summer of 1767, hundreds of villagers made pilgrimages to the
Notre-Dame de Beaulieu cathedral in the vicinity of Mount Chauvet to pray to
God for salvation from the monster. They regarded it as divine punishment for their sins or even a werewolf (loup-garou). One of the pilgrims was Jean Chastel, who was
carrying a gun and three baptized bullets.
On June 19th 1767, a
local noble organised a great hunt attended by three hundred people. Chastel
lay in wait for the monster in Sogne d’Aubert. When what he thought was the beast appeared, he
fired the three baptised bullets at it and the monster was finally slain.
In the end, what was the monster, really?
French villagers believed that it was a kind of demon, but at the same time English scientists
concluded that it was a cross between a tiger and a hyena (which, we now know, would not be possible, biologically-speaking). Others spoke of a
wolverine, a bear, even a baboon. However, in recent times the remains of the
animal killed by Chastel were found in the storage of the Natural History
Museum in Paris – even though at the time the beast was classified as a wolf, a
zoologist Franz Jullien studied what remained of the creature and concluded it
to have been a striped hyena (Hyena hyena), which normally live in Africa. While there can be observed a
specific similarity of the striped hyena to a wolf (especially to 18th-century
European folk who had probably never seen a real-life hyena in person before), it
has a closer relation to a bear than a wolf, like other hyenas. The striped
hyena is also the second-smallest subspecies of the family (other being the
aardwolf), measuring at most 130 cm length, 80 cm in height, and weighing
around 55 kg. Contemporary descriptions of the beast vary, but it was said to have reddish fur with a streak of black on its back - this description, in turn, brings to mind the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), which, by the way, is a wolf only in name. Whatever the creature might have been, it is yet another mystery how the animal got to France in the first place and how it
suddenly started to freely roam its wilderness. The claim that it was immune to
bullets can also be attributed to the people’s lack of sharpshooting skills.
However, much of this case remains – and will continue to remain – a mystery as
to its true nature.
That said, nowadays it is presumed that – due to the vast area in which
the attacks took place – that the famous beast was not a single animal, but a
couple of wolves or even wolf packs that resorted to hunting humans who were
increasingly encroaching on their territories. Coupled with the
already-existing mass hysteria concerning wolves and wolf attacks during the 18th
century, it is possible that such isolated incidents started being perceived as
the work of a solitary, demonic monster. This theory is reinforced by the fact
that with the drastic reduction of the wolf population in France during that
time, the attacks on humans ceased.
A monument was erected in the village of Auvers to honour those who fought against the beast.
The story of the Beast of Gévaudan to this day remains deeply-rooted in European culture. It was the premise of the 2001 French movie Le Pacte des Loups (The Brotherhood of Wolves). Allusions to the tale can also be found in Fred Vargas's 2004 crime novel Seeking Whom He May Devour. In 2010, in the remake of The Wolfman, the iconic walking stick adorned with a wolf's head is said to have been purchased in Gévaudan. And in 2021, the German power-metal band Powerwolf released a song titled Beast of Gévaudan promoting their new album, Call of the Wild.
An ordinary judge from Chatellenie and the barons of Roche Chalais […] led an investigation on May 9th 1603. The accusation was based on the statements of only three witnesses, one of whom was the thirteen-year-old Marguerite Poirier. She claimed that she had had the habit of looking after her livestock in the company of the aforementioned lad, Jean Grenier, who swore to her numerous times that whenever he felt like it, he could shapeshift into a wolf, that he had caught and killed some dogs, ate a part of one and drank some blood, but he did not like it as much as that of small children and girls. He had also told her that it had been a while since he attacked a child whose body he had bitten into and had thrown the remains to another wolf that was wandering nearby, and a girl who he had devoured whole except for shoulders and back.
She added that one day, while she
was looking after her livestock, some kind of wild beast attacked her,
grabbed onto and tore off her skirt near her left hip. She, in turn, struck
it on the back with a stick, noting that
the beast was larger, but shorter, than a wolf, had rust-coloured fur and a
short tail. After the blow, the beast leaped away from the girl some ten or
twelve steps, sat up on its hind legs like dogs often do, and gave her a
furious look that made her run for her life. She had also noticed that the animal
had a smaller head than that of a wolf.
Another witness was the ten-year-old
Jeanne Gaboriout who reported that one day, while she was guarding her livestock
along with other girls, Jean Grenier had approached her and had asked which of
the shepherdesses was the prettiest. The girl asked him in turn why he
wanted to know that.
“Because,” he answered, “I want to
marry a shepherdess; and if it is you, then I want to marry you.”
She then asked him about his father.
“He’s a priest,” he replied.
During the conversation the girl
told him he was very tan. He answered that he had looked like that since not
long before. She then asked if he had become so tan due to heat or cold, to
which he replied that it had been caused by the reddish wolf pelt he had been
wearing. So the girl asked him where he had gotten such a pelt and he explained
that it had been one Pierre Labourutt who had given it to him. The shepherdess
wanted to know who that was, so Jean told her he was a man who kept an iron
collar that brought suffering to him, that he kept various people in his house
on burning chairs, others on burning beds, and others yet who burned – ones
stretched out as if on a roast, others in a large oven. The house itself was
said to have had rooms that were huge and dark.
Jean Grenier said that when he put
on the wolf’s skin he turned into a wolf, or any other kind of animal which he
wanted to become, and that while shapeshifted like this into a wolf he had
killed a few dogs and had sucked out their blood which, however, did not taste
good, and added that small children and girls were much tastier. He said he
would run in the form of a wolf during every setting of the moon, on Mondays,
Fridays and Saturdays, and only one hour during the day, near evening and in
the morning. He would roam the vicinity with the other nine like him, some of
whom he had named, always on the same days and at the same hours. This
information became the confirmation of his arrest. He was captured,
interrogated and during questioning he admitted guilt to more crimes than the
ones reported by witnesses.
He said that he had met a young man
by the name of Pierre du Tilhaire on the main road leading from Coutras to
Monpon, who told him of a man from the forests of Saint Antoine that wished to
speak with him. The young man persuaded Jean to go see him, so they went there
together and eventually came across a lone, tall man clothed in black on a
black horse, standing in the middle of the forest. They bid good morning to
him, as it was dawning, and he, having dismounted his horse, kissed them both
with unusually cold lips. Then he mounted up again and they soon lost sight of
him. Riding off, however, he managed to persuade them to promise him that they
would come to him whenever he sent for them.
The boy was then questioned as to
how long it had been since he had become a servant of this master, if he had
marked them in any special way, how many times they had answered his call and
what had later happened to them. Jean replied that it could have been three
years from their first meeting – during the time of questioning he was thirteen
or fourteen years old, so back then he could have been ten or eleven – and that
they had been marked with the use of iron that the man had held in his hand, in
the shape of a small, round stamp on their left buttocks. He added that when
they wanted to speak with their master, they went into the forest to find him,
and it happened three times. One such time when they arrived there, their
master allowed them to brush the hide of his horse with a comb, promised them
money and gave them a glass of wine which they drank and then went away.
He confirmed that the entirety of
Marguerite Poirier’s statement was true. He confessed to all the acts of rape
and other crimes he was accused of with the exception of drinking the blood of
a white dog he had killed. Asked about the children he had killed and devoured
while in the form of a wolf, he answered that one time, while he was walking
from Coutras to Saint Anlaye, having passed the villages of Double, he entered
one of the abandoned houses and found there a one-year-old baby lying in a
cradle. He grabbed it with his fangs by the throat, dragged it out of the house
and away from the garden fence and ate as much of it as he needed to sate his
hunger, leaving the rest to another wolf roaming nearby.
Jean also said that in the vicinity
of the presbytery of Saint Antoine du Fizon he had snuck up to a girl herding
sheep, who was dressed in a black robe, killed her and began eating her; after
he was full, like the other times, he left the rest for a nearby wolf. What is
worth noting is his statement that he had taken off the girl’s clothes and had
not torn it off, which is an interesting fact as it points to the fact that
contradictory to average wolves which tore their victims to pieces with their
claws werewolves bit them to death and, like humans, were able to undress girls
and women they would then devour, without tearing up their clothes.
Jean Grenier said that when he
wanted to run, he would put on a wolf pelt that he had been given by the Lord
of the Forest. In addition to that, he would rub an ointment into his skin,
which he kept in a jar and which he had also gotten from the man. Before that,
he would take off his clothes, which he hid usually among the bushes. He
explained that he would run when the moon would set, one or two hours a day,
and a few times during the night.
After a while, a second
investigation was carried out to find out if, during the time that the accused
had pointed to have been the time when he killed the children, anyone had heard
about someone being murdered in the village Jean had mentioned in his
statement. Fathers of children killed by werewolves were questioned and their
accounts compared with each other. Finally, it was concluded that the
statements of the above witnesses and of the accused matched.
Asked if he had ever roamed the
vicinity with his father and whether or not they both wore the wolf skins and
committed some of the crimes together, Jean answered that his father
accompanied him a few times. Once, two years earlier in May, they met a girl
dressed in white who was herding geese in the vicinity of the village of
Grillaut. They captured her, dragged her among the grain fields and there
devoured. Later, however, Jean would go on his escapades alone, without his father.
Additionally, he said that the Lord who had gifted the pelt to him, forbid him
from murdering with the use of his left hand’s claw because it was thicker than
the rest, and that during the time when he would take on the form of the wolf
his master would never lose sight of him and followed every event until he
would become a human again.
Pierre Grenier, Jean’s father, was
arrested, questioned and confronted with his son. Jean changed a lot in his
statement and it was visible that the long incarceration and poverty had made
him a bit dull. Nevertheless, after he was allowed to rest, they were
confronted again and the son confirmed all the incriminating statements against
his father.
What remains to be found out is
whether this transformation, or transmutation, of a man into an animal can come
to pass in reality. In case of it being real, what punishment awaits those who
become werewolves, and those who admit having served the mentioned Lord of the
Forest (who is none other than the devil himself) and committing, in the form
of a wolf and under the disguise of the pelt they had been given, countless
acts of infanticide and other crimes?
[…] The court of law, having taken into account the age and the mental
limitations of the boy, who was a witless idiot […] reached a decision and passed its sentence: that there would be no
appeal to the sentence, and that on the basis of the events shown during the
trial it sentences Jean Grenier to life-long confinement and service at the
local monastery. When it comes to the above mentioned Pierre Grenier, his father,
and Pierre called Tilhaire, the mentioned court of law has decreed that within
a month’s time a new, thorough investigation concerning the two will be
launched.
After Grenier had been locked up at
the monastery, people numerously reported the sightings of a strange creature that resembled a dog, which bit to
death people and animals in the vicinity, but was never caught. Jean Grenier
died at the above mentioned monastery in 1610.
On the basis of: P. De Lancre, Tableu de l’Incostance de Mauvais Anges et
Demons, Paris 1612, p. 211n
Taking a short break from the accounts of werewolf trials, here is a song, one of many more to come, that fans of the Portuguese metal band Moonspell know all too well. Coming from the 1995 album Wolfheart, Wolfshade (A Werewolf Masquerade) over the years has become a cult classic. Not only this song, but the whole album, revolves around the themes of lycanthropy and vampirism and is a very interesting listen. It's also not the only werewolf song in Moonspell's musical history, other such tracks being, for example, Full Moon Madness from their 1996 album Irreligious.
She brought the night, hidden in her sad wolf eyes
The perfume of a twilight, her strongest scent
Half-wolf, half-female - what a strange wedding
Mother nature has offered us to see...
Her mask lays lost in the fatal dawn
Closed were the eyes of the sun. He sleeps.
And in the name of her father
She will kill. My child kills.
Your nightly birth. A requiem god can't forget
For your life is just a celebration of his death
Without his thorns in her heart, she wears a shadow as face
A werewolf masquerade. In her eyes the wolfshade.
She brought the night and by the night was brought
We are but children of the powers she had set free
Strange are the ways of the wolfhearted...
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