Grimfang

Written by Agent Serro

Long before the age of men, elves and dwarves during the early stages of the world existed three ancient races. Becoming known as vampire, werewolf and the Zhethrh'ithar (‘daimon’ in the common language). These three races have also been fighting a secret war against one another since the fall of the Zhethrh'ithar.
Werewolves are a brutal, savage and incredibly powerful but honorable race. What they lack in intelligence and finesse they more than make up for it in pure brute strength. They tend to be highly emotional, irrational and governed by reactions as they have almost no patience. To express strong emotion is to be free and to live.
Until recently, it was firmly believed that werewolves were nothing but make believe and never existed at all. It is being rumored that a group of brave adventures rescuing a group of book seekers actually came across a real werewolf. Due to this, rumors are flying around the adventures guild of this being true or just wild stories that adventures sometimes come up with.
Compared to the other two races, they are very short lived and could be a contributing factor of why they seem so bound to live life to the fullest. Having a shorter life span of between 250 to 300 years they do tend to be far healthier and more resistant to sickness. Most werewolves are sterile and do not give birth to cubs along with not being able to pass their race’s infection to others.
They have three subraces which are werewolf, alpha and wildling. Werewolf is the most common and is the majority of their race. Alphas are rarer and are always of the ruling class along with being the most powerful by far. Then there are the wildlings, they are never born but instead on rare occasions when another race is taken by the werewolf infection, they lose all touch with their humanity and go completely wild.
Alphas are the one in control, always leading the pack and their word is always final. When multiple Alphas should be in the same area it will result in combat to the death to determine the strongest, as only the strongest will ever lead their race. Having a strong mentally of only the strong shall survive and only the very strongest of them will ever lead the pack. They are also able to pass the werewolf infection to other races, but this is something that is never done lightly. Female Alphas are the ones that can give birth to werewolves, two to three per litter. It is said that during their pregnancy the male Alpha will leave until she gives birth. Sometimes the female is driven mad with hunger attacking, killing and eating the male alpha, which in their culture is acceptably normal.
The normal werewolves are the ones that most know about. Within the werewolf ranks there are two unofficial types, pure bloods and outsiders. The only difference being if they were born a werewolf or made into a werewolf from a different race. They do tend to be the majority of the race and the most common. Among the normal werewolves, they are always fighting one another to determine rank and status. In their society brutal hand to hand combat is normal, they wear their combat scars with great pride and those with the most scares are given the most respect. Being quick to anger and even quicker to fight, it is always normal to see werewolves fighting one another over even the smallest of reasons.
Wildlings are uncommon and only happen after an Alpha has turned a different race into a werewolf. Within a few days of being infected, the person transforms uncontrollably into a werewolf killing and eating anything around it. The hunger drives them mad; the animalistic side takes over fully so all that is left is a wild animal. Having no memories or knowledge of who they are and not caring, living in the wilds and always on the hunt for its next meal. It is rumored to be no cure for this, even if the infection is cured the person is left mentally altered forever being nothing more than a wild animal. For this reason, Alphas never take it lightly when they infect someone for whatever reason. When the person is infected, they are taken by force and put into a secured holding pen designed to hold a wild werewolf. It's known that a werewolf can bend bars on a normal prison so keeping one caged tends to be a little more complicated. Once the alpha is satisfied that the newly infected person will not turn into a wildling, they are marked, released and welcomed into the pack.
Something all werewolves share in common is their hunger for fresh meat. Due to their overly active metabolism and power of their bodies, they tend to eat way more than any normal person would ever be able to consume in a day. They can survive off nonmeat eatables but this will make them weak, becoming irrational and violent as the hunger for fresh meat takes over. They are fast, powerful and strength-based creatures in both forms. While in their dormant form they appear to be large, powerfully built humans with above average body hair but will pass as a human without a second look. In this form they are stronger, faster and have superior senses compared to a normal human. It's whispered that a large percentage of butchers and cattle ranchers are in fact werewolves.
A pure blood werewolf does have a weakness against silver damaging their bodies, but they are resistant to other types of damage due to their incredibly fast healing rate. They have been known to use almost any weapon available, but a werewolf almost always prefers to fight hand to hand as this is their speciality fighting method. Werewolves are a pack creature and part of their society; you will almost never see a single werewolf all alone as pack mates will almost always be nearby. When fighting, they never care about injuries to themselves as they are overtaken with blood rage and all that matters is killing that which stands before it. With their high run speeds, extreme jumping capabilities, keen sense of smell and hearing, it makes them a terrifying opponent as chances of escape are almost non-existent.
It should be advised that almost all writing and talk of werewolves are grossly mistaken. Being nothing more than bedtime stories designed to scare children. Not much is known in regard to the actual facts and truths of this race, many have tried to find out and many have died in that process. Werewolves prefer to stay hidden and unknown to the general public as it makes life much easier for them and not having to worry about being hunted down due to outsiders not understanding their culture.