Worg
"Their howls, very wolf like but deeper, more guttural, are enough to create a twinge of fear and discomfort. However what truly makes the skin crawl. Hearing the snarling monstrous voice grunt out coherent sentences, threats and promises of violence. Thats enough to set anyone's skin crawling right enough. Don't matter how many times ye've heard it, don't matter how many times ye've killed one. They don't get any less disconcerting."
Anders Folrimac, a scout with the 21st Stonefoot Patrol unit of the Suranthi military, remembering the various times he'd fought or been chased by worgs in his forty years of military service thus far.
Worgs are amongst the most common of monstrosities one might encounter across Valerick. They can make their homes in almost any terrestrial biome successfully, hunting and packs and working together, and much like wolves, are sharp thinking predators, capable hunters, and adept and swift learners as well.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Worgs are in a lot of ways just sort of large rather unfriendly and raggedy looking wolves with a mean cut to their jib as it were. Their facial features a little sharper, less dog like, less welcoming in shape. Their fur is often much thicker, their bodies more muscular and broad, their jaws and teeth heftier. However its the eyes, its that intellect in those brown and black canine eyes, a spark we recognize, but with enough malice and hate for an entire city. Combine that with their frankly disturbing ability to speak, and their naturally cruel and evil demeanor, it isn't hard to see why they aren't welcome anywhere near civilization, and that culls and standing bounties on them are normal.
Worgs, though canines, have a build that some might argue is more bear like, having a robustness and muscular structure to them that is almost comparable to a black bear. It is a valid thing to note. Their jaws are also unique and not so much like a wolf as like some specially bred hunting dogs, in that when a worg bites down on something, it is damn near impossible to get it to let go. Those jaws are like a vice. They normally grab onto a creature and use their neck and shoulder muscles, shaking their head wildly, trying to rip and tear flesh and snap bone and pull their target apart quite literally. Barring that they will generally yank them off their feet, getting them on the ground and begin chomping and tearing, feeding on the creature they have pinned below them, letting trauma and blood loss from the repeated bites do their job.
Worgs, though canines, have a build that some might argue is more bear like, having a robustness and muscular structure to them that is almost comparable to a black bear. It is a valid thing to note. Their jaws are also unique and not so much like a wolf as like some specially bred hunting dogs, in that when a worg bites down on something, it is damn near impossible to get it to let go. Those jaws are like a vice. They normally grab onto a creature and use their neck and shoulder muscles, shaking their head wildly, trying to rip and tear flesh and snap bone and pull their target apart quite literally. Barring that they will generally yank them off their feet, getting them on the ground and begin chomping and tearing, feeding on the creature they have pinned below them, letting trauma and blood loss from the repeated bites do their job.
Biological Traits
Though canines in the most technical of senses and by all appropriate classification, worgs have a similar build to black bears in that they are quite robust and muscular, with broad shoulders, stout legs and a muscular frame with a robust skeletal structure. They are noticeably larger than wolves, though not quite as heavy set as black bears. Worgs also have unique vocal folds, a complexity within their anatomy that seems to combine aspects of humanoid and wolves, allowing them to make a variety of canine vocalizations, as well as speaking humanoid tongues, though with a definite gruffness and snarling tone to it. They also have a unique jaw structure, with a sort of locking hinge within their tendon and joint structure of their jaw, allowing them to really clamp down and lock up when they bite down on something, making them very difficult to escape.
Genetics and Reproduction
Worg packs share a structure somewhat similar to wolf packs, though the structure is far more brutally enforced. It is in fact very likely that many perceptions of how an alpha male wolf would behave initially, those stories were likely not about wolves at all, but about worgs. A male worg runs his pack with iron jaws, and is the only male allowed to survive besides his own offspring and even those will be run off or killed (or have to kill him) by the age of 2 years old. A pack of worgs will number some 3-7 adult animals depending on the biome and food availability, and the male will mate with all of them. However his offspring will never stay to adulthood, for female worgs just as viciously chase off their female offspring, unwilling to share meat and pack protection with them once they are adults. This instinct likely also exists to help prevent massive inbreeding of course.
A pregnant bitch will give birth after an about 7 month gestation period. She will give birth to anywhere from two to five pups. These pups will be born blind and fully reliant on her and the pack for care and protection for the first three months, needing to suckle from her to survive. After the first two weeks, their eyes will open, and by the sixth week they'll be capable of travel and the nursery area the pack had hunkered down in will be abandoned. By month three they are capable of eating raw meat, and it is here that lethality within infancy spikes for worg cubs. At this point, the mother stops caring for the pups much at all besides protecting them from other worgs and predators. It is up to them to begin finding ways to get enough to eat from kills the pack makes, and up to them as they grow over the next few months to assert themselves and learn to feed and function within a pack hierarchy. By two years old, the pups will be run off. Females oft band together, whilst males will never travel with sisters or cousins from the same pack. Young male worgs will travel and hunt alone, or in pairs or trios of ornery and ill tempered mobs until they find an opportunity to either start a pack of their own by rounding up a group of bitches with no male and taking command and position as alpha, showing he can assert his dominance in fights if needed. Or they come upon a pack where they think they can run off or kill the alpha in charge currently, forcing themselves into his place. However worgs seem able to tell from scent alone if they share close familial ties with each other, and thusly they will avoid any packs where such ties exist. This sees male worgs often having to range quite some distance from the lands and region of their birth pack's hunting grounds.
A pregnant bitch will give birth after an about 7 month gestation period. She will give birth to anywhere from two to five pups. These pups will be born blind and fully reliant on her and the pack for care and protection for the first three months, needing to suckle from her to survive. After the first two weeks, their eyes will open, and by the sixth week they'll be capable of travel and the nursery area the pack had hunkered down in will be abandoned. By month three they are capable of eating raw meat, and it is here that lethality within infancy spikes for worg cubs. At this point, the mother stops caring for the pups much at all besides protecting them from other worgs and predators. It is up to them to begin finding ways to get enough to eat from kills the pack makes, and up to them as they grow over the next few months to assert themselves and learn to feed and function within a pack hierarchy. By two years old, the pups will be run off. Females oft band together, whilst males will never travel with sisters or cousins from the same pack. Young male worgs will travel and hunt alone, or in pairs or trios of ornery and ill tempered mobs until they find an opportunity to either start a pack of their own by rounding up a group of bitches with no male and taking command and position as alpha, showing he can assert his dominance in fights if needed. Or they come upon a pack where they think they can run off or kill the alpha in charge currently, forcing themselves into his place. However worgs seem able to tell from scent alone if they share close familial ties with each other, and thusly they will avoid any packs where such ties exist. This sees male worgs often having to range quite some distance from the lands and region of their birth pack's hunting grounds.
Ecology and Habitats
Worgs, like wolves and wild dogs, are actually incredibly diverse and versatile predators, and you can find a subspecies surviving in almost every terrestrial biome across Valerick. Marshes, swamps and jungles are about the only places you'll find without at least one subspecies of worg finding success.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Unlike wolves, worgs are obligate carnivores and they are generalist hunters, hunting basically anything they think they can successfully kill in their biomes. They are also intelligent enough, reasoning enough, to actually launch feed raids on small villages and hamlets and many are the horror stories in the most rural of frontier regions in many nations of the world of such behaviors.
Behaviour
Worgs and humanoid kind have been at odds since about as long as their have been worgs, so at least since the end of the Sundering and the Era of Rebirth. They are a common frontier foe to the expansion and settlement of wild frontiers, and as such it should come as little surprise that despite their unnatural intellect, they have a well known weakness that can help incite panick and disarray to their behavior and actions. That weakness being fire. Fire, even the sight of the stuff, will send most worgs into a near panick. Should a worg actually get burned however, they immediately go into a complete and utter panick, their instinctual fear of fire utterly overwhelming and tossing aside any sembalance of intelligence in utter panick, at least temporarily.
Additional Information
Domestication
One cannot truly say a creature capable of sapient thought can be domesticated, such things are simply not compatible. However it is worthy of note that greenskins, particularly orcs and hobgoblins do seem to be able to wrangle, convince or otherwise make alliances with worgs over the short term, able to convince them to be war mounts and to fight alongside them. This relationship is suspected to generally be arranged and maintained over short term windows, as long term there are logistical issues. Or to put it more bluntly, it would seem orcs or hobgoblins and worgs if they spend to much time together....well the greenskins have a habit of disappearing and the worgs have a habit of getting notably fatter and quite lazy.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Worgs are quite adaptable and succesful creatures and are actually found across many regions of Valerick. So much so there is often an active bounty for mercenary types in rural and frontier regions all year around for proven kills of the beasts. They are a menace and threat to rural communities both to livestock and the people. There are also two rarer mutative subspecies that can be found in both hot or cold extreme climates. The only terrestrial biomes they do not succeed in and are generally not found in any sustainable or entrenched number as a native population are swamps, marshes and jungles.
Average Intelligence
Worgs have a noted sapience that cannot be denied. They may allow their instincts and animal nature rule the roost, but they can speak, are capable of complex thought and problem solving and can understand if not practice more complex social structures.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Worgs like most canines have a sense of smell well beyond anything any humanoid possesses, and in their case it is particularly sharp even out to impressive distances, a mile or more. Their hearing is even better, members of the same pack able to communicate over distances of several miles with their deep guttural howls.
Worg Base Stat Sheet
Scientific Name
Monsteralis Caninedae Ferad
Lifespan
30-35 years
Average Height
1-1.3 meters (3'3"-4'3") at the shoulder
Average Weight
130-200 kgs (287-440 lbs)
Average Length
1.6-2.1 meters (5'3"-6'10") from snout to tail tip.
Geographic Distribution
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