Undead (Discworld) - Werewolves

Werewolves

Lupus Sapiens

There is some debate on the Discworld as to whether werewolves are undead or not. The general consensus seems to be "they're big and scary, they come from Überwald, and if you stab them with a sword they don't die. What more do you want?" Regardless of whether or not they are technically undead, inhabitants of the Discworld generally lump werewolves into the same category and treat them in the same fashion.

The Discworld variant of lycanthropy is not considered as merely an infection, as it can be passed along via bloodlines (Discworld Werewolves can be born). Whether or not Discworld lycanthropy is communicable via bites or not however is disputable, but there have been two comments made in the books in support of this notion (one is a joke made by Gaspode and the other was a mental note by Angua von Überwald in the 21st Discworld book Jingo) and one actual reference to a bite-conversion (Lupine, in Reaper Man, who was initially a wolf and, every full moon, sheds some hair and his teeth recede but, as he didn't begin as human, the fact cannot be generalised to all species).

It can be claimed however that it is not entirely correct to see a Discworld werewolf either as a human or as a wolf; they are a separate class of being equally at home in either form, and their psychology combines carnivorous animal instincts with human abstract reasoning. In some, this manifests as a fusion of natural predatory instincts with the purely human concept of sadism. Others just make the best they can out of a life where, once a month, they find themselves stealing chickens. Some werewolves (such as Wolfgang von Uberwald) refuse to wear clothes in human form unless required, and some (such as Angua's father) spend so much time in wolf form that they frequently carry canine behaviours over into human form. Their culture combines both human and animal elements; their castles contain few furnishings, both human- and dog-sized doors, and pantries stocked entirely with raw meat. They seldom cook, and have trouble entertaining guests. Unlike most other castles, there is no weaponry hanging on the walls (and even vampires occasionally see the need to use a sword).

There are as many werewolf barons in Überwald as vampire ones, and for much the same reason.

A "true" werewolf is a human three weeks out of four, unless (s)he chooses otherwise, and a wolf the week of full moon. There are also yennorks, werewolves who cannot change, and are permanently in human or wolf form. They usually find werewolf culture uncomfortable and leave to live in a village or pack, or in at least one case as a champion sheepdog. Presumably they are as difficult to kill as regular werewolves, and only vulnerable to silver and fire.

This is where the other kinds of werewolves come from. Crossbreeding between yennorks and ordinary humans has resulted in various other forms of werewolf. The most obvious are the people who turn into wolf-men, rather than wolves, at full moon, but the spectrum ranges from people who have hairy palms and eyebrows that meet in the middle to creatures that look like feral wolf-human hybrids... except at full moon when they turn into wolves. It is also said that some crossbreeds appear human, but with strong feral tendencies, or appear wolf-like but with that extra streak of savagery that is so very human. Meanwhile yennork/wolf mating has led to some extremely intelligent wolves, and is possibly also the cause of the occasional "were-man", a wolf that turns into a wolf-man at full moon.

Werewolves do not get on with vampires. This is less to do with deep-seated politico-racial rivalry and more because the effortless cool of vampires make werewolves feel like hairy animals, and the acceptance into human society of vampires makes werewolves feel even more like outcasts.

One Hollywood stereotype they do conform to is their vulnerability to silver, which causes burns even on light contact, and their subsequent nigh-invulnerability to being killed by other means. A longtime supremacy of a number of werewolf clans in Überwald led to a ban on dwarfs mining silver in the region, though that ban was lifted when the most powerful werewolf clan showed distinct signs of breaking the deal that there would be no need for such things. Werewolves can also be killed with fire, and put to distinct inconvenience with an axe.

Werewolves are synaesthetes, being able to see and hear smells - at least, this is how they describe it once they return to human form.

Noted werewolves in the books include Ludmilla Cake, Lupine (a were-man) and Captain Delphine Angua von Überwald and her family.