The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves (32 page)

After the primary symptoms have set in, you will (or, hopefully, will not) begin to exhibit the more extreme and noticeable physical symptoms of lycanthropy. Unlike the primary symptoms, these physical symptoms are a bit harder to deny or explain away. The most extreme physical symptoms of lycanthropy are as follows:

The mind and body are undoubtedly linked. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the onset of lycanthropy includes a number of psychological symptoms. At first, these will usually manifest as out-of-character behaviors or sudden changes in personality. For example, if you are the type of person who avoids confrontation, you may suddenly find yourself itching for a fight. If you are the type of person who is timid by nature, you may begin staring other people down to assert dominance. These manifestations are caused by the interaction between your preexisting human nature and the foreign invasion of the wolf nature brought on by lycanthropy.

 

The most common psychological symptoms of lycanthropy include the following:

For the sake of this book, the various levels of lycanthropic infection have been broken up into three main stages—first-, second-, and third-degree lycanthropy. To summarize, the basic criteria for each degree may be thought of as follows:

If you’ve been bitten by a lycanthrope or in any way infected with lycanthropy, then you are experiencing first-degree lycanthropy. For the most part, you will continue to be in the first degree until the first transformation. This is commonly believed to occur roughly 30 days after the initial infection. In this stage, it is important to watch out for widespread combinations of the aforementioned physical and psychological symptoms. If you are uncertain as to whether or not you are infected with lycanthropy, your best bet is to isolate yourself as much as possible and wait 30 days. If you really have been infected, then it should become painfully obvious by then.

 

Second-degree lycanthropy infection begins at the moment of your first transformation into wolf form. At this stage, you will likely be unable to control your abilities. It is also unlikely that you will be able to change at will. Second-degree lycanthropy is usually the longest in duration since it is in this stage that your mind and body must adapt to its new forms and abilities.

 

Third-degree lycanthropes are the most dangerous. They are the oldest, strongest, and most skilled among werewolves. It would seem that few lycanthropes survive long enough to make it to this stage. A third-degree lycanthrope can shapeshift from human to wolf form and back at will. (However, some lore states that even third-degree lycanthropes are forced to change during the night of a full moon.)

If you were thinking that your first transformation was going to be a blissful communion with nature, think again! Nearly every resource makes the same assertion. Your first lycanthropic transformation is going to hurt like hell. After all, your body is being forcefully transformed on both cellular and genetic levels. Does that sound pleasant to you? Of course, these rules may not apply to enchanted lycanthropes that use magical means to attain their forms.

 

There are a handful of sources that offer a couple of mildly comforting ideas. Some sources argue that it is only the initial transformation that is painful, and they claim that lycanthropes in the mid to latter stages of the second degree no longer experience pain when they transform. Others claim that the transformation itself is so severe in its impact on the human mind that the infected person does not even remember it once back in human form. So yes, there is no doubt that your first lycanthropic transformation is going to hurt and that it’s going to hurt
a lot.
However, the good news is that there exists a very slim chance you won’t even be able to remember the experience when you regain consciousness the next morning, back in your human form … stark raving naked … in the middle of the woods … with a dead rabbit in your mouth. There, now … don’t you feel better?

There is a bit of controversy in modern werewolf lore as to the role of the moon when it comes to its influence on lycanthropic transformations. The oldest lore states that a lycanthrope enters the werewolf state
only
on the night of a full moon. Later werewolf lore, however, as well as the majority of modern lore, insists that this is a misconception.

 

According to most current beliefs, a “young” werewolf (meaning one who still exhibits the early stages of second-degree lycanthropy) can’t control his or her transformations. Therefore, the moon is at first the primary trigger for a “young” werewolf’s transformations. However, it is thought that, somewhere in the middle stages of second-degree lycanthropy, extreme emotions such as anger or sexual arousal become secondary triggers for the change.

 

What about the full moon, however? Well, some modern lore claims that
all
lycanthropes involuntarily transform into either the werewolf or the full wolf state on the night of a full moon. Some believe that older werewolves (those who are well into the stages of third-degree lycanthropy) are able to resist the full moon’s influence. Among some, there exists the belief that the whole idea that the moon influences lycanthropic transformations is nothing more than an old story and that it has no real merit. You may be wondering which of these is correct. As with much of the conflicting pages of werewolf lore … you’ll just have to decide for yourself.

Unfortunately, there is no certain cure for an infection of actual lycanthropy (this does not include clinical lycanthropy, also known as psychological lycanthropy, which will be discussed in Chapter 18) unless one considers death a valid cure. However, in older werewolf lore, there were a number of methods believed to be effective in reversing the curse of lycanthropy. However, one must remember that most of these methods were written during or shortly after the Dark Ages, back when lycanthropy was considered a supernatural occurrence.

 

The known cures for lycanthropy, according to the old lore, are as follows:

Lycanthropy, in much of the early church’s lore on the subject, was caused either by making a pact with the devil or demonic possession. Therefore, it was believed that performing a rite of exorcism on the afflicted individual would cure him or her of lycanthropy.

The belief that lycanthropy was the result of demonic influences was probably spread throughout Europe during or shortly after the influx of Catholicism into the region. Many of the old religions, traditions, and beliefs were labeled as
pagan
. Before Christianity, this word was used to refer to country people who were considered “uncivilized.” The Roman Church later adopted the word to refer to those who still practiced the “old ways,” or pre-Christian religions.

Eventually, the Roman Church denounced nearly all pagan practices as witchcraft or in some way related to demonic rites or devil worship. As a result, it was most likely reasoned by the church that lycanthropy (a concept which, like other pagan beliefs, predated the arrival of Christianity in Europe) was also a product of interactions with the devil. This would explain how exorcism came to be seen as a potential cure for lycanthropy. However, the level of success (or failure) for this method is unclear or at least undocumented.

The good news is that throwing or waving an iron bar, knife, or any other iron artifact over a werewolf will return it to human form. The bad news is that this method appears only to work against enchanted or magical lycanthropes. There are no recorded cases of this method being used against cursed lycanthropes. Though this would appear discouraging, the upside is that no one can say that it definitely
won’t
work. I mean, considering the alternative, you’d probably want to exhaust all potential options.

 

Iron was considered a strong element for protection against magic/ curses or in the negation of spells. Similar methods were believed to be effective against witches. The belief was that, by doing this, one could temporarily render impotent any magical power. Therefore, it makes sense that this was believed to work in returning magical or enchanted lycanthropes to their human forms. In lore, these kinds of werewolves were often said to gain their abilities to assume the wolf state from a belt or shawl (usually constructed from wolf’s skin).