#also the vampire in lycaon's story

[sampoenjoyer]

the higher-ups at Hoyoverse said 'cut the men' and the ZZZ devs heard 'cunty men' AND DELIVERED

[chisungie]

.

[kittygeek]

Some fun stuff from the Lycaon sub quest ♡♡♡

His stance is really quite cute~

He kinda gazes pretty hard at Wise due to it~

Honestly? Girl same. She was so thirsty, and I caught her right as she's full on dogging down the puppy tiddy... which also same i am not looking respectfully

Wise you little shit, hes genuinely pouting!!! Keep doing it tho :3 bark bark amirite Lycaon??? (Im only a little sorry)

...huh???

......HUH??? Last but not least, spoilers from the finale!!!

Baby Lycaon!!! Hes got a little scar on his cheek under the muzzle!!! Waaaah!!! Also its nice to see the trend of wearing clothing you literally are bursting the fuck out of goes way back, keep it up sweetie you look amazing

...

Wait who is that

A FUCKING VAMPIRE HELLO???? SIR???? YOUR TEEFS??? YOUR EARS???

OH MY GODDDD?!?!?

I am rattling the bars of my encLOSURE WEREWOLF AND VAMPIRE PLOT HELPPPP IM WEAAAAAK

But he lost his chance, hes got a little robot bunny hubby now (or wifey!!! You go belle stans ♡♡♡)

Hoyo you son of a bitch im IN

I'm gonna go do Rina's side story but I am ENTHRALLED

[luminique]

YIPEEE I LOVE DISCUSSING OCS !! i think people who think self-shippers/yumejoshis are cringe need a bit more whimsy in their life ☝️

my agent's name is scarlett reid and she's a bat thiren under victoria housekeeping ! i was debating whether or not i'd make her represent the vampire trope bc lycaon's story teased an upcoming vampire chara (altho idk if he's gonna be playable) but this is all i can think of for now so unless i can come up with something else, she's gonna be the vampire of the team 😭

basically her story is that she has a sickly younger sister who inspired her to pursue pediatrics, the only issue is her fangs become visible when she talks/smiles and it scares most kids 😭 she also has a crazy work history because she used to take up a bunch of jobs just to get by until she got the opportunity to join victoria housekeeping

i've also been considering making it so that she was a medic in the ember arena which is where she met lighter but i haven't decided on if she was born in the outer ring and moved to new eridu or born in new eridu and worked in the outer ring for a while for some reason

OOH SHE SOUNDS LIKE SHES SLAYING ?? like ugh i’d eat her up if she was in game !! her name is so pretty too and shes a bat thiren ?? sign me uppp

as part of lighter nation, i believe lighter would absolutely ADORE the little fangs. like the first time she smiles at him, he was a little scared but he finds it charming. whenever he’d attempt to flirt with her (and fail miserably), as long as her little fangs show, he KNOWS that she’s genuinely smiling and laughing.

also , since there’s a huge misconception that most bats like human blood, i think he’d be a little worried that she’d go crazy upon seeing him bleeding from his matches. BUT NO, she’s treating him so well, his eyes are focused on her while she’s busy patching him up. this is canon, i was there in the ember arena 🙂‍↕️

i hope we get more about the outer ring because i think it could definitely help you decide which origin is better for her. i LOVE your oc and i’m so happy that you’re telling me about it AKSHSKBS

[ambroselaveau90]

If y'all know me,I'm trying to write my own TVDU crossover with AHS and other properties such as Teen Wolf,called the Millennium Of Hellfire.

The reason I'm writing this series,is because I'm tired of watching the characters of color and queer characters get shafted and shitted on while white characters get to be complex and given victimhood,when many are abusers and oppressors.So,for MOH,those characters such as Tyler Lockwood,get to live instead of dying in canon and have a happy ending.For my series,I created three oc characters that represent their species and their collective traumas:

Desmond Jameson

Marcos Corazón

Simon Quinn

The reason,I created them was because I was so tired of the treatment of their species,hell even the vampires,the Originals treated them horribly,and it just made my blood boil.But after watching Legacies,it just made the fire brighter and I started the Millennium Of Hellfire Series.

Each character has a past with the Mikaelsons since I don't really like the family and how their victims get treated like villains for getting their revenge for their cruelty.So,I started writing the Trio's stories.Each of them have a particular one in the family,that they consider their nemesis & the one that they share with similar traits with.

Desmond>Freya

Marcos>Klaus

Simon>Elijah

So,I decided to write a Legacies Rewrite with them as the mains instead of Hope Mikaelson and Landon Kirby.But that doesn't mean they aren't in the story,they are secondary mains.But the season 1 rewrite will deal with the monsters & Malivore along with the demons of Des's past so,we can get mythology such as the origin of witches and their ties with other beings such as demons,angels and deities.It also connects to other property's mythology such as Marcos's matriline being descended from Lycaon,the first Lycan,from Teen Wolf.

Also the idea of a black witch being one of the most powerful supernaturals,always gets me giddy since we got that in Bonnie,Vincent and Cleo,which is why Desmond will be the one that challenges Hope's beliefs around her family and the myth of her being the most powerful being in the world,since he is a Tribrid like her but he comes from a ethereal and infernal origin,while she is made up of the basic supernaturals.

The trio also are the living embodiment of the Generational Trauma that the Mikaelsons had afflicted over the centuries,which is one plot that I hated,Hope never had any beef with any of the students,who's family were killed by her family,so I was like,what if she had to deal with that?This story also centers their trauma and pain instead of Hope's constant belief that her dad was a good person with flaws,it really deals with the Legacies that these characters left for the next generation.

But this book also is more focused on what it means to be a minority in the supernatural world since let's be real,it's very white-centered and I'm so bored by it,so the characters of color are centered,so in this Kaleb and MG's sireing are told,which should have been in season one but we got Sebastian's whole origin and Alyssa is not seen as vile,she actually has a point.She was going to be sent to a prisoner world with Kai Parker as a child but God forbid,Josie kills someone oh wait she did and she was forgiven.

[starguardianniom]

My Agents so far

I got some more pulls in the last few days.

I managed to get one 10 pulls in one go and thankfully got 3 A-rank agents in one fell swoop which was pretty nice, I got Anton, Lucy and Nicole.

So now Anton is at M6 like Soukaku, but I still don't have his w-engine so uh, yeah.

I love using Nicole and Lucy so them getting more Cinema is pretty neat, especially since Nicole is my sole Ether specialist agent so I am using her a lot to support Billy and Piper (sorry Jane but Piper just has a higher cinema plus I got her engine twice so she hurts a bit more than you I guess).

Also I finally got Lucy's engine, funny story is that I actually got it on the normal channel not even the w-engine one. XD

Then got Lucy again so now I have her to M3, yes!

Little queen will hurt more, as soon as I can get enough stuff to level her up to level 60, got level 50 on Inter knot yesterday, and Billy is almost at level 60, then I need to raise up his attacks, then I need to have the rest of my agents do the same.

Also I wasn't able to get Caesar in my pulls. So I'm hoping that I get Burnice, or hopefully Nekomata so that I would have all the Cunning Hares or Soldier 11 so that I would be at M1 with her, that would be nice. Or I dunno, maybe Lycaon because my only Ice agent is Soukaku and I suck at her, I also have Lycaon's w-engine so that would be sweet.

But honestly I just hope that in the near future I'll get to pull for his bestie/enemy that is that cute vampire boy from his agent story, I love him so much I consider him my holy trinity of hot guys of ZZZ alongside Billy and Seth, I accept no substitutes.

I also got Nicole once more too so now both Lucy and Nicole are at M3. Alongside Billy and Corin. Anby and Piper are M5. Anton and Soukaku are M6. Seth is at M2. Soldier 11, Jane, Koleda and Ben are at M0.

So far I finished everyone's agent stories, completed the first area with the dead end butcher in Hollow Zero, and now am stuck at frontier 9 of Shiyu Defense. I just finished the computer event too so I'm a bit stumped for Polychromes, I won't lie I did buy some stuff to get some which is how I got my 10 pulls in one go, but that was the rest of what I had in store on my PS5 after buying V Rising's complete edition so yeah. Now gotta wait to slowly raise my agents to level 60/50 one by one the long, painful, hard way (I feel Hollow Zero is annoying a bit especially when I have that one Thanatos guarding the freaking gates I loathe them to death it's the one guarding the 9th frontier of Shiyu Defense that is stopping me right now.

I am also trying to get Billy special trust events, so far they are running away from me, got a few and I feel those are beating my heart so badly, like why is Billy so hard on himself for real, he is more amazing than he thinks, yet somehow the game seems to treat him like a ragdoll, one moment we are defending him and caring toward him the other one we seems mean, unless it's teasing, though chapter 4 makes me feel Phaethon seems to find him a bit too much even if they care about him.

[adarkrainbow]

This is a very interesting question, and I have a lot of things to say about this subject - too much unfortunately to put them all into a simple reblog. I tried, and the result was a convoluted mess. Because many questions are raised here, such as "Is Hansel and Gretel antisemitic?" and "Are ogres antisemitic figures?". Questions I will definitively make posts about

But in short, I will redirect people to a post I made when the subject of "Hansel and Gretel's blood libel" was brought up: https://adarkrainbow.tumblr.com/post/717690884124278784/please-be-aware-that-the-classic-hansel-and

Beyond this post, and to briefly say something before I make a whole new series of hyper-long posts - in short I will agree with the statement above that the witch is clearly not meant to be an antisemitic figure and is not Jewish coded in any way in the Hansel and Gretel story. But I will disagree with the statement that a "witch that eats children is uncomfortably close" to the blood libels.

I disagree with it, because saying "blood libel is about the Jews eating Christian children" is a bit of a misinformation. Blood libel is primarily, as the name says, about blood - not flesh, not eating, but taking and using blood. Which is why for example there was a whole antisemitic reading of the vampire myth. And blood libel does involve "baking" yes - but it is using blood for religious food and preparations, because the blood libel is about occult rituals/perversion of religious rituals/so-called black masses and devil worship. In the story of Hansel and Gretel, there is no mention of blood, and no mention of any occult ritual or religious rite. It is just the old folktale tradition of the depraved cannibal and monstrous man-eater that feasts on the flesh of the innocents. It is a tradition as old as humanity and that dates back to, for example, Greek myths of Tantalus, Cronos, Lycaon, Polyphemus the Cyclop... If the story explicitely mentioned the witch using blood to bake some pies, I'd agree - yes there's blood libel subtext in there. But the story in all the editions of the Grimm's Household Tales does NOT have blood libel subtext - except maybe the subtext other people are willing to put into it.

As a silly and superficial comparison: Reading Hansel and Gretel does not bring to mind any antisemitism for me, and I feel reading a blood libel story in there is quite a stretch. However, I know I personaly, as an European, was shocked when I saw Hotel Transylvania scenes that depicted Dracula and his vampire clan as Jewish - something that for many Americans felt just like a good joke or "representation", but to me was shocking due to the whole "Jews are vampires" slander, and thus it came off as accidentally/mistakenly antisemitic, by unknowingly perpetuating the kind of caricatures people such as the Nazis enforced in people's minds.

But I digress - and to return to the original post, to answer the question that opens the debate, I firmly stand by the side of the second proposition. Stories of ogres and the like are much older than the legends of the blood libel, and take their roots in Greco-Roman mythology. Or more precisely they take their roots from what has been considered by all times and most civilizations as a great taboo: cannibalism, which is in most society's collective mind one of the great primordial crmes alongside things such as incest or a parent killing their own child (which are all topics explored by fairytales and folktales heavily). So yes, it is pretty clear, when you know the evolution of culture and cultural tropes, that minorities accused of eating children is a side-product of how folktales and legends depict the most wicked humans and the humans who lose their humanity for monstrosity as eating people (ogres, giants and cyclops ; werewolves too ; and originally vampires, the pre-Dracula, old Eastern European kind, also devoured corpses and human flesh on top of drinking the blood). This is why, when you want to dehumanize people, you call them "baby-eaters". Conspiracy theorists do that today claiming the rich elite of the "new world order" eat babies ; and this dates back all the way to the European witch hunts - a part of the witch craze was the belief that witches ate dead children or dead babies during their feasts. Canniballism was one of the "fifteen crimes of the witch" alongside things such as devil-worship, blasphemy and incest.

And this is VERY important because the brothers Grimm fairytales are from a post-witch hunt Europe, and the imagination of folktales was deeply marked by the European witch madness. This is notably why so many wicked fairies of French or Italian variations of the fairytales were replaced by witches in the Grimm versions. The witches were much more present, prominent and well-known cultural figures at the time than fairies.

But all in all I cannot insist enough on the fact that blood libel was primarily and originally about Jews stealing, using and consuming Christian BLOOD hence the name. If we start calling any story involving cannibalism a "blood libel" story, we're going down a path of muddled misinformation - the episode "To Serve Man" of The Twilight Zone is not a blood libel story for example - and we will end up over-focusing too much on stories not antisemitic by themselves ; and ignore ACTUAL antisemitic stories with blatant Jewish caricatures, insults and attacks. And there are several in the Grimm fairytales - just look at stories like "The Jew in the Thorns" and THERE you'll find actual antisemitism.

A part of me wishes that the lesser-known versions of Hansel and Gretel where the villain is a wolf or a bear had become the "standard" version, rather than the Grimms' version with the witch.

It goes without saying that a wolf or a bear will eat lost children, that's just the nature of a wild carnivorous animal. Whereas a humanoid witch who eats children can seem uncomfortably close to the appalling "blood libel" legend of Jews consuming Christian children's blood, as @the-gentile-folklorist has often posted.

I don't consider Hansel and Gretel's Witch an inherently antisemitic figure, though – she's not a Jew, she's a witch. (Not that the Grimms portrayed actual Jews any more positively in other stories, but that's another topic.) The question is open: did stories of witches, ogres, etc. who eat children evolve from the blood libel legend? Or did people just take a primal fear, children being killed and eaten, and independently apply it both to imaginary monsters and to the horrific slandering of a minority group?

[johannestevans]

The #MonstrousMayChallenge 2021

Love monsters?

The #MonstrousMayChallenge is going to be a series of monster-centric prompts for every day of the month of May!

Draw, write, talk about, analyse, shitpost, critique, rec, discuss, create, consume, and otherwise have fun with each prompt.

Tell your friends, pick and choose the prompts that you like best: make art, make fiction, make rec lists, make jokes, make monsters!

May 1. What is a Monster? May 2. How to Talk to Your Monster May 3. The Vampire May 4. Iconic Settings May 5. Feeding Time May 6. The Lycanthrope May 7. Adverse Weather Conditions May 8. The Monster in Love May 9. The Undead May 10. "... and add a monster." May 11. A Baby Monster May 12. The Alien May 13. The Domesticated Monster May 14. Clothing Your Monster May 15. The Mermaid

May 16. The Gentle Kaiju May 17. Monstrous Transformations May 18. Angels & Demons May 19. Monstrous Flora May 20. The Monster in History May 21. The Hybrid May 22. Kept Captive May 23. The Human is the Monster May 24. The Dragon May 25. The Monster Dies May 26. The Hive-Mind May 27. The Fae May 28. The Monster Extinct May 29. Cultural Differences May 30. The Minotaur May 31. Happily Ever After

The full write-up for the #MonstrousMayChallenge is below the cut — for every day of the month of May 2021, there’ll be a new prompt all to do with creating monsters and monster-centric stories!

You can either go directly off of the prompts themselves, or if you want a little more inspiration, you can come check this post for more in-depth exploration of the idea in question.

For each entry in response to the prompts, regardless of what platform you post to, make sure to tag the #MonstrousMayChallenge! In the meantime, just spread the word and tell your friends to get them ready for May!

Feel free to pick and mix the prompts you like best, to skip any prompts that don’t suit you, or to swap in prompts of your own if you like — every 3rd day is a specific category of “classic” monsters, and they’re not for everybody!

“Monsters are the patron saints of imperfection.” — Guillermo del Toro (x)

The emphasis on all of the prompts below are on monster-centric and monster-POV stories. Monstrous romances and monstrous erotica are both welcome and encouraged, just as much as platonic monstrosity is, and please feel free to join in regardless of your medium, whether you draw, write, animate, or create in another way entirely!

Just a note as to what expect — this challenge is intended for those who love monsters, who identify with monsters, who feel for the monsters, and all the prompts are written with that expectation in mind.

One small note: throughout these prompts there are references to folklore and ideas from different cultures and backgrounds. When exploring ideas from cultures that aren’t your own, remember that not every representation of spirits or monsters can be divorced from its original context, and take care to do your research to ensure you aren’t harming others by furthering harmful stereotypes or appropriating ideas of cultural importance.

We’re all here to have fun, which means that using a love of monsters as a vehicle for racism (whether that’s outright or by upholding colonial and imperial ideas, appropriating from other cultures, or fetishising other races and cultures) is not what we want to see in the course of this challenge, and isn’t welcome here.

Note the above especially in regards to the Alonquian W*nd*go.

Saturday 1st May 2021 — What is a monster?

Here’s a warm-up challenge to start the month off:

For you, what is a monster? What makes a monster monstrous? What delights you, excites you, scares you, horrifies you about a monster? What fills you with affection for monster?

When you first hear the word monster, what springs first to mind?

This is a free space — talk about, write about, draw, animate, sing about, the monster(s) you love best, and why you love them!

Sunday 2nd May 2021 — How To Talk To Your Monster

How does your monster communicate?

Do they have a mouth, lips, a tongue, like humans do? Do they communicate verbally at all? Do they communicate via telepathy, via their tentacles, or their limbs? Do they speak, but at a pitch or volume or speed inaudible or incomprehensible to human ears? How is this gap bridged?

Does your monster understand humans but struggle to make itself understood? Does your monster want to be understood?

Alternate: How does your monster communicate with other, different monsters?

Monday 3rd May 2021 — The Vampire

The vampire is a walking corpse that sustains itself by feeding off the the blood of the living.

There are a thousand variations on the myth — a corpse that rises from its grave at night only to mindlessly glut itself on the prey it can find becomes a reclusive gentleman who lives in isolation in a brooding, gothic castle overlooking a Transylvanian woodland (Dracula); a sparkly immortal Mormon who likes to climb into young women’s windows to watch them while they sleep (Twilight); a rich aristocrat so intent on preserving his properties and his privilege that he clings onto immortality at all costs (Interview with the Vampire); an extremely sexy vampire in sunglasses who’s devoted to killing other vampires (Blade), and so on and so forth.

Explore your own take on the vampire:

Is your vampire actually dead? Do they just appear dead, or sleep in coffins?

What makes a vampire? A curse? A ritual? Transmission of vampiric disease — via the exchange of blood or via sex? Are they born that way? Do dhampirs (half-vampires) exist? Do vampires become vampires by choice? Is there a contract or an agreement?

Does your vampire drink blood? Cerebral fluid? Consume human flesh? Do they sap energy from others in non-literal ways — for example, do they feed off of emotions or energy, or seek to devour a soul?

If they survive off of the above, do they also eat or drink other things? Are they capable of doing so without becoming ill?

Is your vampire sensitive to sunlight? Bright light in general? Do they physically react to it? Do they burn, or crumble to dust? How do they cope with this — do they only come out at night, do they wear leathers and carry a parasol, do they use a medicated suncream?

Can vampires become ill? Sick? What weakens a vampire? What kills them?

Does your vampire have any other powers? Can they fly, hypnotise people, transform into gas or another animal?

What happens if a non-human becomes a vampire?

Alternate: A non-vampire monster becomes absolutely obsessed with vampires. They love them to pieces! Why? How do they get their vampire fix?

Some inspiration, if you want it:

Article: An 18th-century guide to hunting vampires from National Geographic

Article: The Great New England Vampire Panic from the Smithsonian Magazine

Video Essay: The Sexy Vampire Trope, Explained, from The Take

Tuesday 4th May 2021 — Iconic Settings

Imagine an iconic setting within the horror genre or without — your Transylvanian castles, your unending deserts of shifting sands, your haunted houses and their infinitely winding corridors, your unholy spires atop distant peaks, your deep and dismal caves, your roiling seas…

What monsters lurk within these settings? How do they feel about their environs? What happens if you transplant a monster from one such setting into its opposite, or combine a few of them together?

What happens if these settings are invaded, lost, destroyed, expanded, changed?

Alternate: Imagine any iconic setting you like, but instead of the monster lurking within, the setting is the monster.

The seas themselves are sentient; the caves are toothy maws of impossible beasts; the mountains themselves have eyes; the castles and houses and ancient tombs and temples are, themselves, imbued with a spirit… Is it hungry? Angry? Lonely?

Wednesday 5th May 2021 — Feeding Time

What does your monster eat?

Is it predator or prey? To a human understanding, does it look like what it is? If it eats meat, does it prefer to eat it dead or alive? If it’s not from this planet or dimension, does it struggle to find new things to eat? What does it look like when your monster eats? Is it private about eating? Does it look scary when it feeds?

Does it eat at all? Does your monster get its energy from the sun, from electricity, from magic, from something else entirely?

Alternate: From a monstrous POV, a human’s dietary habits seem monstrous and strange. Why?

Thursday 6th May 2021 — The Lycanthrope

The werewolf is a person who turns into a wolf, typically at the time of the full moon. Lycanthropy is the name of the condition of being a werewolf, or someone who turns into some other animal.

The variations on the werewolf are infinite — the core is often people bitten by strange beasts and left forever cursed with their regular transformation (for example, in The Wolf Man); but a curse is also possible, such as when kings are turned into wolves as punishment for their hubris (as with King Lycaon in Metamorphoses); or of course, a curse inherited, such as when young men who come into their inherited lycanthropy and suddenly have a whole host of new puberty concerns (Teen Wolf).

And it needn’t be a wolf at all — there are all manner of shapeshifters between one myth and the next, and as much as there are werewolves there might be werelions, werebears, werebats, et cetera, et cetera.

For your lycanthrope, why not explore:

What animal or creature does your lycanthrope turn into? A wolf, a bear, a lion, a snake, a bird? Something magical — a phoenix, a unicorn, a griffin, a dragon?

Once transformed, can your lycanthrope be distinguished from the normal edition of the beast? What are the differences, for example, between a werewolf and a wolf?

Can your lycanthrope transform at will? Is it influenced by their emotion? Is it kept to a regular schedule? Can that schedule be interrupted? For example, if it’s a monthly cycle like someone’s menstruation, can they go for periods without transforming or with “spotty” transformations? If it’s with the phases of the moon, does hiding from the moon help? What happens if you send them to another planet?

Is the transformation painful? Physically or mentally taxing?Are there any health problems associated with lycanthropy?

When transformed, how conscious and aware of themselves is you lycanthrope? Do they know they’re transformed? Do they remember what they were?

Alternate: Sometimes, another monster turns into a human.

Friday 7th May 2021 — Adverse Weather Conditions

What weather is your monster happiest in? What weather is your monster least happy in?

Is your monster native to an area that’s extremely hot and humid? Very cold and dry? Is your monster used to heavy rains, droughts and little water, sandstorms, electrical storms, blizzards? If your monster lives in space or underwater, how are they affected by solar flares or tropical storms, shifts in tides and gravitational flows?

How has your monster evolved or developed to handle these weather conditions — or, is there anything your monster hasn’t evolved for, and struggles with?

Alternate: Your monster is a house-monster, and will not be going outside. They would like a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa and a nice comfortable bed, please and thank you.

Saturday 8th May 2021 — The Monster In Love

Your monster’s in love — what do they do about it?

Does your monster have any particular mating rituals or ways in which they show their affection? Does your monster mate for life, does your monster date, does your monster romance singular or multiple partners? Does your monster yearn, do they pine? Do they bring gifts, do they do special dances, do say particular words or have mating calls?

Is their love reciprocated — is it even understood?

When one monster loves another monster, what does it look like? What does it look like when a monster is in love with a human? When a human falls in love with a monster?

Alternate: Your monster has never been in love, and is baffled — perhaps even disgusted — by the prospect. Do they do research? Demand an explanation?

Sunday 9th May 2021 — The Undead

The undead covers a lot of things under a similar umbrella, and it’s up to you whether they count as monsters or not — ghosts, ghouls, poltergeists, spirits, revenants, draugr, reanimated corpses like zombies, arguably vampires… To infinity, and beyond.

We can be talking spirits without bodies or with new bodies, corpses with new spirits in them, corpses controlled by necromancers or the like, and so on.

So, for this prompt:

For your undead monster, are they conscious, sentient? Do they control their own body? Do they remember when they were alive, if they were dead and then reanimated?

If they have a physical form, can someone tell they’re undead? Are they rotting, corpse-like, desiccated, all bones, all flesh, all muscle? Are they missing parts? Do they have any extra ones? Do they look the same way they used to? If they don’t have a physical form, can you see them at all? Can you see them only sometimes?

What sustains this undead monster? Do they feed off of anything, or are they just sustained by the air itself, by magic, by some sort of magical object or curse?

Was your undead monster once a human? Once a werewolf? Once a faerie, once a dragon, once some other creature entirely?

Alternate: Your monster is a necromancer, and they are not undead, but control and raise, in some way or another, the undead.

Monday 10th May 2021 — “… and add a monster.”

Take absolutely any iconic work you like, whether it’s a classic piece of literature, a poem, a piece of mythology or folklore, a fairy tale, a fable, a shanty or a campfire song — anything that’s in the public domain and might be well-recognised — and add a monster.

Have Sherlock Holmes meeting a vampire, reimagine Jean Valjean as a minotaur, give Mr Darcy a deep and affectionate longing for his local werewolf.

You don’t have to keep to the same characters or plots — rewrite an existing plot with monsters (Rapunzel or Cinderella, for example), have two plots crossover (what happens when the monsters in two myths team up to defeat the hero out to kill them?), add monsters or change the monsters in the narrative, or if it already has a monster, add another.

Alternate: Take a public domain domain monster and give them a break. Send Dracula on holiday, give the poor result of Frankenstein’s experiments a spa day, etc.

Tuesday 11th May 2021 — A Baby Monster

How do the monsters breed?

Do they lay eggs? Give birth to live young? Do something else entirely? Are monsters active parents? What happens when monsters interbreed, or breed with humans?

Is the breeding… fun? 😉

I know not everyone likes writing babies or kids, and equally that some people have come into this challenge specifically for the monsterfucking, so there’ll be two streams of main prompts — one focusing on the breeding for you child-free monsterfuckers, and another focusing more on monstrous baby development once an egg is laid or a baby is born, etc.

Feel free to do both if you want to do both, as one does lead into the other!

Questions about breeding and monstrous pregnancy:

Does your monster fertilise eggs for the purposes of a live pregnancy, do they lay eggs, do they clone themselves, do they breed in some other way?

If your monster has genitalia, what do they look like? Are they analogous to human genitalia? Are they particularly big or particularly small compared to the analogous human parts, if so? How compatible is your monster’s genitalia with a human’s genitalia — or another monster’s?

If there is a size difference between monster and partner, what comes of this? Are there any chemical differences between monster and partner — for example, does the monster’s touch impart a high or some kind of contact aphrodisiac?

Are any attempts at breeding viable? If the monster’s partner is filled with eggs, what happens the longer they carry them? If the partner does carry the eggs or the babies to the point of birth and laying, what happens? Is it a painful process? Will they survive it? Does the partner know they’re pregnant at all?

And the pregnancy/egg-carrying questions: how does the partner’s biology change to accommodate the pregnancy? Do they have any strange or unexpected cravings? Does their biology change in any unexpected questions?

Questions about monstrous child development:

How is the monstrous baby first conceived? Is it an egg laid, is it an egg fertilised, an egg fertilised and then carried, as the result of a live pregnancy, something else entirely? If they’re laid eggs, do they go through a larval stage or other similar development?

Are monstrous babies born alone, or in groups? Do they have a high viability rate? Do the monstrous babies eat one another? Do they eat their egg casing or their placenta, if applicable? If not, what do they eat — do they drink milk or blood, do they need their food pre-chewed by their parents, can they look for food themselves?

Are monstrous parents very active in caring for their offspring? Are monstrous babies born able to take care of themselves, able to have a sort of independence, or do they need to be cared for for a period first?

How fast or slow is a monster’s development? How long does it take for them to become fully grown? How much do they grow, and how does their body develop and change as they run through their lifecycle? Do they shed their skin or any body parts, do they change a lot materially?

Alternate: What does monstrous contraception look like? Do they have a concept of it? If they don’t, how do they feel about it being explained to them?

Wednesday 12th May 2021 — The Alien

What makes an alien?

Are they from another planet, another dimension? How similar are they to anything found on Earth? How did they get here?

Are they intelligent, sentient? Do they know they’re on a foreign planet or in a foreign dimension? How fit are they to survive on Earth? How do they respond to the animals, the new sounds, the new world, around them? What technology do they have? Do they appear to be aliens as people imagine them? Do they pilot aircraft as people think they do?

Alternate: A human (or another species from Earth) is the alien on another planet or another dimension populated with “monsters”.

Thursday 13th May 2021 — The Domesticated Monster

Let’s look at the monster domesticated.

The likes of Pokémon, fantastical creatures as beasts of burden or as steeds — unicorns and pegasi and giant spiders and dragons, for example — or other tamed monsters that have learned to live with humans, and live side-by-side with them.

Are monsters actively bred for a result, or do they domesticate themselves as cats and dogs did? Do they perform tasks or assist humans? Do they give milk or eggs or honey or silk or meat? At what point in their domestication are they? Are they happy? Are they well-treated?

Alternate: A monster gets a pet of their own — is it a fantastical species, or is it a dog, cat, bird, etc? Is it even a human?

Friday 14th May 2021 — Clothing Your Monster

Does your monster wear clothes or armour?

What sort of clothes or armour do they wear? Is it grown, made, bought, traded for? Do they wear any other kind of jewelry or decoration? Do they always wear it, or only for some occasion? What do they think of human clothes? Do they want to try wearing any themselves, or taking human fabrics for monstrous clothes?

Alternate: If your monster does not wear clothes, what do they think of human clothes? How do they feel about the fact that humans wear them? Do they have a full understanding of the separation between clothes and flesh?

Saturday 15th May 2021 — The Mermaid

A mermaid is a half-human, half-fish.

You can take this very literally, as in The Little Mermaid, with someone who has a human upper half and fishy bottom half (or the other way around…😏), you can think more along the lines of the fish-person we see in Abe Sapien from Hellboy or (also) in Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water, or you can look at different variations on mermaids — the seal-like selkie who can remove their pelt to walk on land; the siren that calls to sailors so they dash themselves upon the rocks; naiads and other spirits of the water; the rusalke of the water, and so on.

Questions for your merfolk:

Do they belong in freshwater, saltwater, brackish water? Do they stay in the seas, in deep lakes, in ponds?

Do they regularly come to the surface, or do they live very deep below? What sort of temperatures are they used to, and how much sunlight? If they live in cold water or deep below the surface, are they very large and blubbery to ensure they can cope with the pressure and the cold?

Are your merfolk bioluminscent? Fish-like, cetacean-like, cephalapod-esque? If they do look similar to humans, with a human face or human body parts, do they look or feel like human flesh underneath the skin, or is it just for appearance?

What and how do your merfolk eat? Do they eat fish, meat, seaweed, plankton?

How do your merfolk feel about humans? About fish and other marine life? About animals on land? Other monsters?

Can your merfolk step onto land? Do they want to? Are they curious about what they find there? Do the humans nearby know about them, care about them?

Do merfolk live alone, in groups or as families? Are they migratory? How far do they travel, and for what reasons? Do they build towns and cities? How do they feel humans compare to them?

Alternate: A completely different non-merfolk-esque monster lives at the very bottom of the sea. What is it? How do humans come upon it? How big is it?

Sunday 16th May 2021 — The Gentle Kaiju

Kaiju is a Japanese genre of films— your Godzilla, your Mothra, your Rodan, all of these are kaiju: strange, gigantic beasts.

This prompt is centred around any monsters of superlative size that are trying their absolute best not to harm any of the little people scurrying them about them.

You can take this literally — think kaiju tip-toeing their ways through great cities and trying not to step on anything important, huge space beasts careful not to disturb planetary orbits in case they hurt anyone, or even the likes of the human trying not to step on any ants — or you can think of other monsters trying not to harm others despite some aspect of their biology making it difficult for them — Lovecraftian beasts doing their best not to do anyone any psionic damage, for example, or Medusa-like beings desperate to avoid people’s gazes in case they do any harm.

Alternate: An extremely tiny monster or another monster very easily harmed by human activities needs to kept safe.

Monday 17th May 2021 — Monstrous Transformations

How does a monster transform?

Does in transition between one form or another, like a werewolf, or between forms for land versus water? Does it regularly transform or transition through different physical presentations? Does it shed its skin, leave its old body behind? Does it grow new teeth or claws or body parts? Does it transform in response to disease or ailment?

Does a human transform slowly into a monster? Does a monster transform into another? Is this transformation willing, conscious — is it against all desperate attempts to prevent it? Is it painful? Is it agony?

Alternate: A monster expresses deep curiosity about human transformations — perhaps the differences between a child and an adult and their scale of growth, perhaps the apparent transformation when a human changes clothes, or puts on a mask, or even make-up.

Tuesday 18th May 2021 — Angels & Demons

A demon is typically an evil spirit or devil, and are sometimes thought to be fallen angels; angels are typically benevolent spirits, often thought of as celestial messengers.

Being as they’re often thought to be celestial or infernal, do you think of them as being from another dimension? How well do they mesh with Earth, from their own perspectives and human ones? How do they look or appear? Do they have to present themselves in a strange or unusual form? How do they communicate with humans — and why? Are they evil, benevolent, or simply neutral?

Are angels and demons separate things? How many kinds of angels and demons are there respectively? If they’re separate, do they communicate with one another, balance with one another?

Alternate: A monster that is not a demon or angel decides to present itself as one or the other. What is it? Why does it present itself this way?

Wednesday 19th May 2021 — Monstrous Flora

Your monster is plant- or mushroom-based!

(Or lichen-based, or algae-based, or moss-based, or coral-based, or…)

What does it look like? What makes it different from a mammalian or scaly monster? Where does it come from? How does it move, how does it breathe, how does it eat? Does it sleep? Does it 😏… you know? Is it good at it?

Alternate: Your monster lives codependently with, or lives inside, some sort of plant. What does that co-evolved relationship look like? How big is the plant? What does it look like?

Thursday 20th May 2021 — The Monster in History

Throughout history, the perception of your monster has changed over time.

Is your monster immortal? Over the progression of recorded history, has it been this same monster recorded in one sighting after another, in art or in story? Or, is your monster the latest generation of a species or line of inheritance that has gone on for a long while?

How much has your monster’s culture changed and developed in that time — has it changed in reaction to or alongside human cultures? How accurate has human perception of your monster been as the centuries have rolled by? How has art or stories about your monster changed in their telling?

How has the monster reacted to changes in human history, or different events as they have happened?

Does your monster even notice the passage of time? Are they in some way insensible to it, or do they experience it in a way humans don’t?

Alternate: The monster is a time-traveler! How do they do this? Why?

Friday 21st May 2021 — The Hybrid

A few things are bred together to create a monster, whether that monster be sublime or an abomination before the universe!

Think about griffins, pegasi, basilisks, cockatrices, and of course the manticore — any sort of beast made by combining one creature with another.

What creatures have been combined to create this monster? Has a human been one of them? How has this combination been achieved — via actual interbreeding, magically assisted or otherwise, via alchemy, a curse, or some other magical process? Has this creature literally been stitched together and then reanimated? How have the different creatures contributing to the creature changed its behaviour or its abilities?

Alternate: An attempt is made to create a hybrid… and unfortunately this is not the result. What is?

Saturday 22nd May 2021 — Kept Captive

The monster is captured.

How big or small is your monster? How was it captured — was bait used to draw it in, such as a food stuff, a copied call? Was it herded into an ambush? Was it trapped under a cage, in drop trap, in a magic trap? How easy was it to capture — did it take a long time, were several attempts made? For what reason was the monster captured?

Now kept captive, how big is your monster’s enclosure? Is it a cage, a glass box, physical chains or bondage, something else entirely? How long has it been there? Is it alone — would it rather be alone than the alternative? Is it struggling with its captivity? Is it marking out the amount of time it has been kept trapped, screaming at its captors, harming itself in its desperation for escape?

Is it likely ever to be freed?

Alternative: A human is kept captive by a monster.

Sunday 23rd May 2021 — The Human Is The Monster

From the perspective of the narrator, the human is the monster.

Who or what is made to fear them? What makes the human so monstrous in their eyes? Is it to do with the human’s size, their appearance, their behaviour, the nature of humans as a collective?

Alternative: The human thinks they’re thought of as the monster — the real monster is behind them (figuratively or literally).

Monday 24th May 2021 — The Dragon

A dragon is a mythical creature, often large and scaly, with variations found the world over.

Is your dragon extremely big, or very small? Is it indeed scaly, or does it appear so? Is it some form of sea serpent, or does it fly? Does it have wings, fins, a tail, teeth? Does it have very powerful senses, or different ones entirely to what one might expect? Does it have a mouth, eyes, a tongue, ears? Does it breathe fire or ice, have gills? Does it have some other supernatural power — telepathy, telekinesis, affect the weather or the tide?

What does your dragon eat? Does it eat meat, vegetables? Does it feed off of magic?

Does your dragon hoard anything — gold, jewels, young people out for a wander? Livestock? Something else entirely?

Alternate: An ancient dungeon, temple, or some other monument, is marked by a huge statue of a dragon. Something else inhabits it.

Tuesday 25th May 2021 — The Monster Dies

It’s the end of the story — or perhaps the beginning.

The monster dies.

Alternate: The monster dies… but only for a while.

Wednesday 26th May 2021 — The Hive-Mind

The monsters in this one are multiple.

They share a hive-mind, whether that hive-mind is created by pheromones, by fungus or infection or disease, by magic, by telepathy, by technology, or something else entirely. How many beings are part of this collective? Do they exist in conjunction with one another, and move as a swarm or a hive? Do they synchronise their movements, and work together toward a common goal? Can they work independently, or only as a group?

Can others be inducted into this hive-mind, willingly or otherwise? Is this painful or uncomfortable? Does it wipe away what experiences came before?

If a member of the hive-mind travels far away, do they remain connected to the whole? How is this hive-mind used, when beings work independently? Can it be sensed or its effects be noticed by outsiders? What is its everyday function?

Alternative: A being once a member of a hive-mind or a collective is severed from it, and now alone. Are they grieving? Do they feel free? Are tasks suddenly more difficult or easy for them? How do they feel?

Thursday 27th May 2021 — The Fae

The fae are supernatural beings or spirits found in a variety of folklore.

The fae are often associated with woodland, bodies of water, bogland, or other particular areas, but there are variations on variations of different fae legend: elves, brownies, merfolk, y tylwyth teg, the bean sidhe, selkies, gnomes, kobolds, leprechauns, nymphs, pixies…

In a lot of modern fantasy, the fae are associated with rigidity around law and rules, certain contracts, and many superstitions are associated with fae or fae-like beings, where one offends them at one’s peril.

What makes the fae monstrous? What makes them frightening and an object of horror for others? What rules do they follow and expect others to follow? What superstitions are associated with them?

Alternate: The fae are introduced to pop culture depictions of fairies. What is their response?

Friday 28th May 2021 — The Monster Extinct

The monster has been extinct for thousands of years, if not hundreds of thousands, and based off of the evidence of them — stories, fossils, remains, old art, people are trying to back-engineer what they were like, what they looked like, how they communicated.

How accurate are they? How off?

Alternate: The monster doesn’t exist yet, or is a long way off, but has been told about in prophecy, or glimpsed in visions of the future. Are these glimpses accurate to the truth? Do they tell the whole story?

Saturday 29th May 2021 — Cultural Differences

What does cultural exchange look like between monster and human, or between two monstrous cultures?

How do these distinct cultures affect one another or interact? Are there large cultural differences between the monstrous cultures and the human ones? Are there any moral, ethical, aesthetic, economic, political, legal, or other cultural aspects that are very much at odds between some cultures and the others?

For example, do the human and monstrous cultures both have money? Do they treat money as of the same importance? Do they rank things in the same orders of importance? Do they have similar customs around politeness, greeting, language? Does each culture respect the others, or do they consider themselves superior or inferior?

Alternate: A human has never had much experience of the culture they were born of — they only know the monstrous culture they were raised by and into. What does that look like?

Sunday 30th 2021 — The Minotaur

It’s my birthday and the minotaur is my absolute favourite, so! Minotaurs!

The classical minotaur was the son of Pasiphaë and the unwilling stepson of King Minos of Knossos: born with the body of a man and the head and tail of a bull, he was declared monstrous and trapped within the labyrinthine maze beneath the great palaces of Knossos, until the hero Theseus came to slay him dead.

Today, the minotaur is the name for any half-bull half-human delight, tragic or otherwise.

Alternate: You needn’t limit yourself to a half-bull half-human if you feel the need to abandon literal perfection — go for the drider, perhaps, a half-human half-spider, return to the merfolk of several prompts above, and go half-human, half-fish, the satyr, half-goat half-human.

Whatever it is, make it half-human, half-something else, and then decide:

Is your monster cursed? Were they made this way, were they born this way? Are they happy? Are they the same as their family members, or are they different? If they are the latter, are they loved and accepted, or made an exile?

What are the benefits and negatives to their physical appearance and to their biology? Are there any aspects that might be unexpected?

Are they viewed by people in general as frightening, intimidating, unusual, strange, incredibly sexy? Are they treated as a monster?

Monday 31st May 2021 — Happily Ever After

The monster lives happily ever after…

What does that look like?

Alternate: Or, your monster has a tragic ending — because you’re the monster, apparently! 😒😭

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Thanks so much for considering taking part in the #MonstrousMayChallenge!

If you want to do any of the above prompts, or if you want to do them all, but you’re not a writer or an artist, or you are but you’re not always in the mood for art, here’s a list of alternate activities you can do to tick off the prompts!

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Watch movies or TV episodes, read comics, or consume other media, related to the prompts

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[legend-collection]

Shapeshifter

Shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ability.

Popular shapeshifting creatures in folklore are werewolves and vampires (mostly of European, Canadian, and Native American/early American origin), the huli jing of East Asia (including the Japanese kitsune and Korean kumiho), and the gods, goddesses, and demons of numerous mythologies, such as the Norse Loki or the Greek Proteus. Shapeshifting to the form of a gray wolf is specifically known as lycanthropy, and such creatures who undergo such change are called lycanthropes. Therianthropy is the more general term for human-animal shifts, but it is rarely used in that capacity. It was also common for deities to transform mortals into animals and plants.

Other terms for shapeshifters include metamorph, the Navajo skin-walker, mimic, and therianthrope. The prefix "were-", coming from the Old English word for "man" (masculine rather than generic), is also used to designate shapeshifters; despite its root, it is used to indicate female shapeshifters as well.

While the popular idea of a shapeshifter is of a human being who turns into something else, there are numerous stories about animals that can transform themselves as well.

Pic by mernolan on tumblr

Examples of shapeshifting in classical literature include many examples in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Circe's transforming of Odysseus' men to pigs in Homer's The Odyssey, and Apuleius's Lucius becoming a donkey in The Golden Ass. Proteus was noted among the gods for his shapeshifting; both Menelaus and Aristaeus seized him to win information from him, and succeeded only because they held on during his various changes. Nereus told Heracles where to find the Apples of the Hesperides for the same reason.

The Titan Metis, the first wife of Zeus and the mother of the goddess Athena, was believed to be able to change her appearance into anything she wanted. In one story, she was so proud, that her husband, Zeus, tricked her into changing into a fly. He then swallowed her because he feared that he and Metis would have a son who would be more powerful than Zeus himself. Metis, however, was already pregnant. She stayed alive inside his head and built armor for her daughter. The banging of her metalworking made Zeus have a headache, so Hephaestus clove his head with an axe. Athena sprang from her father's head, fully grown, and in battle armor.

In Greek mythology, the transformation is often a punishment from the gods to humans who crossed them.

   Zeus transformed King Lycaon and his children into wolves (hence lycanthropy) as a punishment for either killing Zeus' children or serving him the flesh of Lycaon's own murdered son Nyctimus, depending on the exact version of the myth.

   Ares assigned Alectryon to keep watch for Helios the sun god during his affair with Aphrodite, but Alectryon fell asleep, leading to their discovery and humiliation that morning. Ares turned Alectryon into a rooster, which always crows to signal the morning and the arrival of the sun.

   Demeter transformed Ascalabus into a lizard for mocking her sorrow and thirst during her search for her daughter Persephone. She also turned King Lyncus into a lynx for trying to murder her prophet Triptolemus.

   Athena transformed Arachne into a spider for challenging her as a weaver and/or weaving a tapestry that insulted the gods.

   Artemis transformed Actaeon into a stag for spying on her bathing, and he was later devoured by his own hunting dogs.

   Galanthis was transformed into a weasel or cat after interfering in Hera's plans to hinder the birth of Heracles.

   Atalanta and Hippomenes were turned into lions after making love in a temple dedicated to Zeus or Cybele.

   Io was a priestess of Hera in Argos who changed her into a heifer to escape detection.

   Hera punished young Tiresias by transforming him into a woman and, seven years later, back into a man.

   Callisto was turned into a bear by either Artemis or Hera for being impregnated by Zeus.

While the Greek gods could use transformation punitively – such as Medusa, turned to a monster for having sexual intercourse with Poseidon in Athena's temple – even more frequently, the tales using it are of amorous adventure. Zeus repeatedly transformed himself to approach mortals as a means of gaining access:

   Danaë as a shower of gold

   Europa as a bull

   Leda as a swan

   Ganymede, as an eagle

   Alcmene as her husband Amphitryon

   Hera as a cuckoo

   Aegina as an eagle or a flame

   Persephone as a serpent

   Io, as a cloud

   Callisto as either Artemis or Apollo

   Nemesis (Goddess of retribution) transformed into a goose to escape Zeus' advances, but he turned into a swan. She later bore the egg in which Helen of Troy was found.

   Vertumnus transformed himself into an old woman to gain entry to Pomona's orchard; there, he persuaded her to marry him.

   As a final reward from the gods for their hospitality, Baucis and Philemon were transformed, at their deaths, into a pair of trees.

   In some variants of the tale of Narcissus, he is turned into a narcissus flower.

Sometimes metamorphoses transformed objects into humans. In the myths of both Jason and Cadmus, one task set to the hero was to sow dragon's teeth; on being sown, they would metamorphose into belligerent warriors, and both heroes had to throw a rock to trick them into fighting each other to survive. Deucalion and Pyrrha repopulated the world after a flood by throwing stones behind them; they were transformed into people.

Cadmus is also often known to have transformed into a dragon or serpent towards the end of his life. Pygmalion fell in love with Galatea, a statue he had made. Aphrodite had pity on him and transformed the stone to a living woman.

British and Irish Fairies, witches, and wizards were all noted for their shapeshifting ability. Not all fairies could shapeshift, some having only the appearance of shapeshifting, through their power, called "glamour," to create illusions, and some were limited to changing their size, as with the spriggans, and others to a few forms. But others, such as the Hedley Kow, could change to many forms, and both human and supernatural wizards were capable of both such changes, and inflicting them on others.

Witches could turn into hares and in that form steal milk and butter.

Many British fairy tales, such as Jack the Giant Killer and The Black Bull of Norroway, feature shapeshifting.

Celtic mythology Pwyll was transformed by Arawn into Arawn's own shape, and Arawn transformed himself into Pwyll's, so that they could trade places for a year and a day.

Llwyd ap Cil Coed transformed his wife and attendants into mice to attack a crop in revenge; when his wife is captured, he turned himself into three clergymen in succession to try to pay a ransom.

Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion transform flowers into a woman named Blodeuwedd, and when she betrays her husband Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who is transformed into an eagle, they transform her again, into an owl.

Gwion, having accidentally taken some of the wisdom potion that Ceridwen was brewing for her son, fled from her through a succession of changes that she answered with changes of her own, ending with his being eaten, a grain of corn, by her as a hen. She became pregnant, and he was reborn in a new form, as Taliesin.

Tales abound about the selkie, a seal that can remove its skin to make contact with humans for only a short amount of time before it must return to the sea. Clan MacColdrum of Uist's foundation myths include a union between the founder of the clan and a shapeshifting selkie. Another such creature is the Scottish selkie, which needs its sealskin to regain its form. In The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry the (male) selkie seduces a human woman. Such stories surrounding these creatures are usually romantic tragedies. Scottish mythology features shapeshifters, which allows the various creatures to trick, deceive, hunt, and kill humans. Water spirits such as the each-uisge, which inhabit lochs and waterways in Scotland, were said to appear as a horse or a young man. Other tales include kelpies who emerge from lochs and rivers in the disguise of a horse or woman in order to ensnare and kill weary travelers. Tam Lin, a man captured by the Queen of the Fairies is changed into all manner of beasts before being rescued. He finally turned into a burning coal and was thrown into a well, whereupon he reappeared in his human form. The motif of capturing a person by holding him through all forms of transformation is a common thread in folktales.

Perhaps the best-known Irish myth is that of Aoife who turned her stepchildren, the Children of Lir, into swans to be rid of them. Likewise, in the Tochmarc Étaíne, Fuamnach jealously turns Étaín into a butterfly. The most dramatic example of shapeshifting in Irish myth is that of Tuan mac Cairill, the only survivor of Partholón's settlement of Ireland. In his centuries long life he became successively a stag, a wild boar, a hawk and finally a salmon prior to being eaten and (as in the Wooing of Étaín) reborn as a human.

The Púca is a Celtic faery, and also a deft shapeshifter. He can transform into many different, terrifying forms.

Norse There is a significant amount of literature about shapeshifters that appear in a variety of Norse tales.

In the Lokasenna, Odin and Loki taunt each other with having taken the form of females and nursing offspring to which they had given birth. A 13th-century Edda relates Loki taking the form of a mare to bear Odin's steed Sleipnir which was the fastest horse ever to exist, and also the form of a she-wolf to bear Fenrir.

Svipdagr angered Odin, who turned him into a dragon. Despite his monstrous appearance, his lover, the goddess Freyja, refused to leave his side. When the warrior Hadding found and slew Svipdagr, Freyja cursed him to be tormented by a tempest and shunned like the plague wherever he went. In the Hyndluljóð, Freyja transformed her protégé Óttar into a boar to conceal him. She also possessed a cloak of falcon feathers that allowed her to transform into a falcon, which Loki borrowed on occasion.

The Volsunga saga contains many shapeshifting characters. Siggeir's mother changed into a wolf to help torture his defeated brothers-in-law with slow and ignominious deaths. When one, Sigmund, survived, he and his nephew and son Sinfjötli killed men wearing wolfskins; when they donned the skins themselves, they were cursed to become werewolves.

The dwarf Andvari is described as being able to magically turn into a pike. Alberich, his counterpart in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, using the Tarnhelm, takes on many forms, including a giant serpent and a toad, in a failed attempt to impress or intimidate Loki and Odin/Wotan.

Fafnir was originally a dwarf, a giant or even a human, depending on the exact myth, but in all variants he transformed into a dragon—a symbol of greed—while guarding his ill-gotten hoard. His brother, Ótr, enjoyed spending time as an otter, which led to his accidental slaying by Loki.

In Scandinavia, there existed, for example, the famous race of she-werewolves known with a name of Maras, women who took on the appearance of huge half-human and half-wolf monsters that stalked the night in search of human or animal prey. If a woman gives birth at midnight and stretches the membrane which envelopes the child when it is brought forth, between four sticks and creeps through it, naked, she will bear children without pain; but all the boys will be shamans, and all the girls Maras.

The Nisse is sometimes said to be a shapeshifter. This trait also is attributed to Hulder. Gunnhild, Mother of Kings (Gunnhild konungamóðir) (c. 910  –  c. 980), a quasi-historical figure who appears in the Icelandic Sagas, according to which she was the wife of Eric Bloodaxe, was credited with magic powers – including the power of shapeshifting and turning at will into a bird. She is the central character of the novel Mother of Kings by Poul Anderson, which considerably elaborates on her shapeshifting abilities.

Armenian In Armenian mythology, shapeshifters include the Nhang, a serpentine river monster than can transform itself into a woman or seal, and will drown humans and then drink their blood; or the beneficial Shahapet, a guardian spirit that can appear either as a man or a snake.

Indian Ancient Indian mythology tells of Nāga, snakes that can sometimes assume human form. Scriptures describe shapeshifting Rakshasa (demons) assuming animal forms to deceive humans. The Ramayana also includes the Vanara, a group of apelike humanoids who possessed supernatural powers and could change their shapes.

Yoginis were associated with the power of shapeshifting into female animals.

In the Indian fable The Dog Bride from Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas, a buffalo herder falls in love with a dog that has the power to turn into a woman when she bathes.

In Kerala, there was a legend about the Odiyan clan, who in Kerala folklore are men believed to possess shapeshifting abilities and can assume animal forms. Odiyans are said to have inhabited the Malabar region of Kerala before the widespread use of electricity.

Philippines Philippine mythology includes the Aswang, a vampiric monster capable of transforming into a bat, a large black dog, a black cat, a black boar or some other form in order to stalk humans at night. The folklore also mentions other beings such as the Kapre, the Tikbalang and the Engkanto, which change their appearances to woo beautiful maidens. Also, talismans (called "anting-anting" or "birtud" in the local dialect), can give their owners the ability to shapeshift. In one tale, Chonguita the Monkey Wife, a woman is turned into a monkey, only becoming human again if she can marry a handsome man.

Tatar Tatar folklore includes Yuxa, a hundred-year-old snake that can transform itself into a beautiful young woman, and seeks to marry men in order to have children.

Chinese Chinese mythology contains many tales of animal shapeshifters, capable of taking on human form. The most common such shapeshifter is the huli jing, a fox spirit which usually appears as a beautiful young woman; most are dangerous, but some feature as the heroines of love stories. Madame White Snake is one such legend; a snake falls in love with a man, and the story recounts the trials that she and her husband faced.

Japanese

In Japanese folklore ōbake are a type of yōkai with the ability to shapeshift. The fox, or kitsune is among the most commonly known, but other such creatures include the bakeneko, the mujina and the tanuki.

Korean Korean mythology also contains a fox with the ability to shapeshift. Unlike its Chinese and Japanese counterparts, the kumiho is always malevolent. Usually its form is of a beautiful young woman; one tale recounts a man, a would-be seducer, revealed as a kumiho. The kumiho has nine tails and as she desires to be a full human, she uses her beauty to seduce men and eat their hearts (or in some cases livers where the belief is that 100 livers would turn her into a real human).

Somali In Somali mythology Qori ismaris ("One who rubs himself with a stick") was a man who could transform himself into a "Hyena-man" by rubbing himself with a magic stick at nightfall and by repeating this process could return to his human state before dawn.

Southern Africa Kaggen is Mantis, a demi-urge and folk hero of the Xam people of southern Africa. He is a trickster god who can shape shift, usually taking the form of a praying mantis but also a bull eland, a louse, a snake, and a caterpillar.

Trinidad and Tobago The Ligahoo or loup-garou is the shapeshifter of Trinidad and Tobago's folklore. This unique ability is believed to be handed down in some old creole families, and is usually associated with witch-doctors and practitioners of African magic.

Mapuche (Argentina and Chile) The name of the Nahuel Huapi Lake in Argentina derives from the toponym of its major island in Mapudungun (Mapuche language): "Island of the Jaguar (or Puma)", from nahuel, "puma (or jaguar)", and huapí, "island". There is, however, more to the word "Nahuel" – it can also signify "a man who by sorcery has been transformed into a puma" (or jaguar).

Slavic Mythology In Slavic Mythology, one of the main gods Veles was a shapeshifting god of animals, magic and the underworld. He was often represented as a bear, wolf, snake or owl. He also became a dragon while fighting Perun, the Slavic storm god.

Folktales In the Finnish tale The Magic Bird, three young sorceresses attempt to murder a man who keeps reviving. His revenge is to turn them into three black mares and have them harnessed to heavy loads until he is satisfied.

In The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh, a Northumbrian legend from about the thirteenth century, Princess Margaret of Bamburgh is transformed into a dragon by her stepmother; her motive sprung, like Snow White's stepmother's, from the comparison of their beauty.

In Child ballad 35, "Allison Gross", the title witch turns a man into a wyrm for refusing to be her lover. This is a motif found in many legends and folktales.

In the German tale The Frog's Bridegroom, recorded by folklorist and ethnographer Gustav Jungbauer, the third of three sons of a farmer, Hansl, is forced to marry a frog, which eventually turns out to be a beautiful woman transformed by a spell.

In some variants of the fairy tales, both The Frog Prince or more commonly The Frog Princess and Beast, of Beauty and the Beast, are transformed as a form of punishment for some transgression. Both are restored to their true forms after earning a human's love despite their appearance.

In the most famous Lithuanian folk tale Eglė the Queen of Serpents, Eglė irreversibly transforms her children and herself into trees as a punishment for betrayal while her husband is able to reversibly morph into a serpent at will.

In East of the Sun and West of the Moon, the hero is transformed into a bear by his wicked stepmother, who wishes to force him to marry her daughter. In The Marmot Queen by Italo Calvino, a Spanish queen is turned into a rodent by Morgan le Fay.

In The Mare of the Necromancer, a Turin Italian tale by Guido Gozzano, the Princess of Corelandia is turned into a horse by the baron necromancer for refusing to marry him. Only the love and intelligence of Candido save the princess from the spell.

The Deer in The Wood, a Neapolitan tale written by Giambattista Basile, describes the transformation of Princess Desiderata into a doe by a jealous fairy.

From a Croatian book of tales, Sixty Folk-Tales from Exclusively Slavonic Sources by A. H. Wratislaw, the fable entitled "The she-wolf" tells of a huge she-wolf with a habit of turning into a woman from time to time by taking off her skin. One day a man witnesses the transformation, steals her pelt and marries her.

The Merchant's Sons is a Finnish story of two brothers, one of whom tries to win the hand of the tsar's wicked daughter. The girl does not like her suitor and endeavors to have him killed, but he turns her into a beautiful mare which he and his brother ride. In the end he turns her back into a girl and marries her.

In Dapplegrim if the youth found the transformed princess twice, and hid from her twice, they would marry.

In literary fairy tale The Beggar Princess, in order to save her beloved prince, Princess Yvonne fulfills the tasks of cruel king Ironheart and is changed into an old woman.

[maverick-werewolf]

Werewolf Fact #64 - Prehistoric Werewolves

I’ve been asked before about how old werewolf legends - the belief in werewolves in general - really are. It’s a question I get quite a lot, actually. I talked about it once, in a werewolf fact, but I didn’t go into as much detail as I could have.

So let’s talk about the oldest werewolf legends.

(yeah, another lovely moon gif - I’m running out of wolf and werewolf gifs)

For starters, werewolves are a universal legend. That means that, wherever wolves lived (which is WAY more places than they live today), there was a belief in werewolves.

This was worldwide in every wolf region and across all time periods, even dating back to prehistory. Everywhere wolves lived, we have found evidence of a belief in werewolves - all of Europe, most of Asia, the Mediterranean, India, China, North America...

People have always believed in werewolves.

Even before recorded history, werewolf legends were told in cultures all across the world. Scholars often argue over what represents the “first werewolf,�� since there’s no real way to know. We can’t know the exact age of the legends that get passed down to us over time or just how many rich oral legends we’ve lost.

From pre-humans to Greeks and Romans to every other known culture that shared its existence with wolves, we have at least some proof of belief in werewolves. From Greece and Rome and Scandinavia and other civilizations, of course, we have many legends, including but not limited to the berserkers, the Arcadians, King Lykaon (often argued as the “first werewolf” that we at least have the written story for, though clearly a belief in them existed long before that), and many more across many other regions.

The prehistoric werewolf takes many appearances across many cultures, spanning basically the entire world. Werewolf legends do not seem to have spread from a single source. Many cultures came up with their own werewolf legends individually, instead of picking them up from another nearby or conquering culture.

Most werewolf scholars agree, though, that werewolves can be traced back to prehistory, though unfortunately we - obviously - don’t have the actual stories. But carbon dating of cave paintings and prehistoric artifacts puts werewolf beliefs going back as far as 45,000 BP - “Before Present,” a term used by carbon dating systems. So we’re talking around early Paleolithic Age or so.

Studying werewolves, though, will inevitably lead you also to studying wolf cults and ancient beliefs in animal transformation. Many prehistoric cultures revered the ability, even ever since the days of shamanistic hunter-gatherers, who doubtlessly had their own werewolf legends. These beliefs, though, have little to no bearing on werewolves in pop culture today, though it’s interesting to look at them and realize that werewolves have much older roots than anyone gives them credit for today. You see cases of ancient peoples revering wolves and wanting to turn into them for their power and their hunting ability and the like.

You’ll hear some scholars, like Matthew Beresford, infer that the reason people believe in werewolves all across the wolf’s prehistoric range is because it would have allowed people to take the form of the animal they feared most. What he doesn’t mention, though, is the important note that yeah, they certainly feared them, but they also respected and revered them. Wolves were something to aspire to being, for savage humans. To turn into a wolf was a respected thing, because while wolves were feared, it doesn’t necessarily mean they were “hated” so much as “respected.” Today, we equate fear with hate, but that doesn’t have to be the case.

One may ask, then, who or what was the “first werewolf?” To claim that one can trace werewolf legends – many of which predate recorded history – back to the “first” one is surely a combination of arrogance and ignorance, but, today, it has become a popular notion to assert that King Lycaon, from Greek mythology, was the “first” werewolf. Other scholars claim there are other “first” werewolves, but I won’t bother going into those, because frankly most of them are immensely silly and aren’t werewolves at all. It’s reaching. And many of them are downright silly and totally irrelevant to werewolves, and scholars mention them just because there happens to be a wolf involved at some point (and for no specific reason; in the case of one legend, you can literally substitute any animal, as other legends similar to it do in later ages).

Ultimately, defining the “first werewolf” depends largely upon how exactly one wants to define a “werewolf” - which I’ve already done here as far as I’m personally concerned, on this blog - along with a willingness to acknowledge that records of whichever legend truly told of the “first werewolf” could not possibly exist.

But either way, we can certainly acknowledge that from what we have seen, a belief in werewolves does seem to predate history.

So next time someone says werewolves are “silly,” remind them that they’re just saying that because it’s in human nature to be absolutely terrified of them. And some people want to laugh at things that scare them, I suppose.

For real, though, now you know!

(If you like my werewolf blog, be sure to check out my other stuff and consider supporting me on Patreon! I need your help now more than ever. If you enjoy the blog, I would appreciate it so much if you could pitch in so I can continue to keep this running!

Patreon — Ko-fi --- Wulfgard — Werewolf Fact Masterlist — Twitter --- Vampire Fact Masterlist )

[thorsiffe-dragonheart]

Normally, she did not mind the cuts and bruises from her brawls; they came, they were painful, and granted she was luckier than most of her opponents with their wounds, given her wolfblood. She had gone to one of the many bars scattered throughout the city that night, alongside some of her pack. It had been a joyous night, though not for any one reason. There'd been a vampire there though, its scent clear to them as soon as they'd walked through the doors. She and hers held no hatred for the night-kin on principle, but they did for those more predatory of their kind. Those who preyed on humans and others who could not protect themselves.

This one had quickly drawn her ire, followed shortly after by her fury. It had conjured his in turn when Thorsiffe had interrupted his hunt. He played at rage, while she became it. They had taken their conflict outside an ontowards a parking lot. Hardly a place for proper battle, though it'd sufficed.

A whirling storm of red hair and excitement, Thorsiffe'd laughed when the vampire had taken her invitation and thrown the first punch. She'd felt the battle-fury rush through her veins as blows were dealt and landed. Felt that faintest cry of war, that distant memory of her ancestors. She'd proven herself by stepping in, and had proven herself doubly by winning the fight. She hadn't worried much for the knife the vampire had pulled from his pocket. Another scar to add to her stories, if anything. It'd ended up in her stomach before the handle was snapped off, and she hadn't worried about it then either. She hadn't worried about it when she'd knocked the vampire out and she and hers made a fleet-footed escape of the scene, hearing sirens in the distance.

Thorsiffe'd only started to so much as think about the knife when they'd slowed down, laughed, reminisced some, and parted ways. There'd been a sting that rung through her body with her step. The fervor of the fight had started to wane, it seemed, and Thorsiffe was becoming abruptly aware again of the blade still lodged in her intestines. She reached down to pull it out, only to feel a still healing wound under her fingertips.

A blush formed on her cheeks and for a moment she just stood there, blinking at the place where the knife had crept further into her stomach and embedded itself under her healing wound. She burst out in laughter soon after (even if it hurt like Hel), took a picture and texted it to her pack. After the shocking joy of absurdiy had washed away, Thorsiffe looked around, mentally pinpointing her own location in the hopes of remembering a place nearby where they could help her.

Pandora's was nearby, she remembered, as well as the knowledge that its proprietor would help those in need. Hers wasn't dire, no, but she was quite certain it could become so if the blade wasn't removed. It was also odd enough that she was quite sure the Lycaons would wish a word with her if she visited any normal hospital.

So, Thorsiffe set out towards Pandora's, wincing or gritting her teeth every odd step. It wasn't long before she arrived, and she was surprised to find the front of the shop still open. The bells rang, and Thorsiffe looked around but could not yet see the owner, even if a scent all too familiar to this place still lingered.

For some reason, Thorsiffe was surprised to see the owner looked the way that she did. She smiled, a slight blush forming on her cheeks. The expression on the woman's face made it quite clear Thorsiffe wasn't welcome now though, and she could smell her frustration. She'd been about to speak when the woman beat her to it, and her blush intensified at the words.

"Ah- You are the owner here, yes?" Thorsiffe took a careful but assured step forward, closing the door behind her. The movement made her wince again; all that which had numbed her pain had left her by now. "I was told you could help those in need."

a night dark & dreary || lillian and @thorsiffe-dragonheart​

Normally, she did not mind her little evening book club; they came, they were respectful, and granted they were the most patronage her used bookstore cover usually got. She had chairs set up for them in an area, they would chat with her before going and doing their own thing, and their presence in the ship meant that she needed to stay around, which meant she used the time to try to catch up with various bookkeeping (for both stores) that she normally neglected. This time of year she was usually antsy while doing it, considering she was in the middle of inventory for the back store, but it made her take a break and that was all that mattered.

This night was no different, at least as far as their presence went. It was afterwards that things changed from the usual routine, because she hadn’t realized until the little bell rang that she hadn’t locked the front door. She wasn’t sure the time – after 8pm she knew, because the book club left at 8pm sharp – but she knew the store was closed and while she sometimes let people into the back shop from that way… well, it wasn’t normal, and she hadn’t meant to leave the door unlocked, and frankly she wasn’t in the mood to entertain customers anyway.

She placed the spellbook in her hands down before entering the front shop, peering into the dimly lit bookstore, seeing the figure near the doorway. Something rang in Lillian’s head as off, but she pushed it down to clear her throat. “I’m sorry, we’re closed. We’ll be open tomorrow at 11.”

[chisungie]

.

[morningstargirl666]

I'm in the middle of the story right now bc I read WIPs super slow in hopes of an update, but ⭐ The Big Bad Wolf ⭐ especially around Klaus's father?

Ok, so I’m a little late answering cause life is hectic but be prepared, I may bend these ask games rules a little because my god I have SO MUCH to say about our resident 'Tired Dad'.

Although The Big Bad Wolf came about because I had just stumbled across the Klaroline fandom, and was struck by a clawing need to write something more in depth than the show offered us, something that explored Klaus' werewolf side in detail - the real truth is, Lycaon was the beginning. He was the catalyst that sparked everything, that built this fic from the ground up. I've always loved the father-son dynamic in stories, or even the sense of family amongst characters and felt that killing Ansel off so quickly in TO was a horrendous waste of opportunity. So I fixed it by creating Lycaon.

Of course, I needed a way to explain why Klaus thought Mikael had killed his father, and well, I thought having both Mikael and Klaus believe Ansel was Klaus' father when in fact it was Lycaon, who escaped, was a great way to do it, and also gave me endless possibilities when it came to rebuilding Klaus' father's entire character. Why Lycaon survives for hundreds of years afterwards... well, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait to find out more 😉

One scene that I loved to write, was the flashback scene in chapter 8 from Elijah’s POV. Fics that explore Klaus’ werewolf form hold my entire heart, and that moment was especially poignant as its the first time Klaus is reunited with his werewolf side in over one thousand years. For Klaus and his father, it’s a beautiful moment of finally being whole again, of no longer being alone. Klaus can understand him once more, can hear the wolves speak, feel the magical bond he shared with his father before it was savagely torn away. It’s a playful, heartwarming scene, but also one of warning: there is a darkness there, a dangerous edge to Lycaon that serves as a threat to even Elijah, an Original vampire that in any other circumstance, has no reason to fear anything.

Yet he is afraid of Lycaon.

And really, that symbolises Lycaon’s entire character. A protector - both of his people and his son, kinder and fairer than Mikael, more controlled and wiser than Klaus. But just like his son, vengeance and hate clings like a shadow, and although he wouldn’t destroy his enemies in a fit of rage, that doesn’t mean he’s merciful. Not by a long shot.

Even Caroline senses the danger Lycaon poses, despite warmed by his gentleness that reminds her of her own father. She’s wary of him in a way she isn’t wary of Klaus, mainly because of one simple fact: Klaus may have never been the big bad wolf of her story, but Lycaon - a man who has made armies run at the very mention of his name and chased even the Destroyer to the ends of the earth - certainly could be.

[tlbodine]

A Horror History of Werewolves

As far as horror icons are concerned, werewolves are among the oldest of all monsters. References to man-to-wolf transformations show up as early as the Epic of Gilgamesh, making them pretty much as old as storytelling itself. And, unlike many other movie monsters, werewolves trace their folkloric roots to a time when people truly believed in and feared these creatures. 

But for a creature with such a storied past, the modern werewolf has quite the crisis of identity. Thanks to an absolute deluge of romance novels featuring sometimes-furry love interests, the contemporary idea of “werewolf” is decidedly de-fanged. So how did we get here? Where did they come from, where are they going, and can werewolves ever be terrifying again? 

Werewolves in Folklore and Legend 

Ancient Greece was full of werewolf stories. Herodotus wrote of a nomadic tribe from Scythia (part of modern-day Russia) who changed into wolves for a portion of the year. This was most likely a response to the Proto-Indo-European societies living in that region at the time -- a group whose warrior class would sometimes don animal pelts and were said to call on the spirit of animals to aid them in battle (the concept of the berserker has the same roots -- just bears rather than wolves).

In Arcadia, there was a local legend about King Lycaon, who was turned to a wolf as punishment for serving human meat to Zeus (exact details of the event vary between accounts, but cannibalism and crimes-against-the-gods are a common theme). Pliny the Elder wrote of werewolves as well, explaining that those who make a sacrifice to Zeus Lycaeus would be turned to wolves but could resume human form years later if they abstained from eating human meat in that time.

By the time we reach the Medieval period in Europe, werewolf stories were widespread and frequently associated with witchcraft. Lycanthropy could be either a curse laid upon someone or a transformation undergone by someone practicing witchcraft, but either way was bad news in the eyes of the church. For several centuries, witch-hunts would aggressively seek out anyone suspected of transforming into a wolf.

One particularly well-known werewolf trial was for Peter Stumpp in 1589. Stumpp, known as "The Werewolf of Bedburg," confessed to killing and eating fourteen children and two pregnant women while in the form of a wolf after donning a belt given to him by the Devil. Granted, this confession came on the tail-end of extensive public torture, so it may not be precisely reliable. His daughter and mistress were also executed in a public and brutal way during the same trial.

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? 

The thing you have to understand when studying folklore is that, for many centuries, wolves were the apex predator of Europe. While wolf attacks on humans have been exceedingly rare in North America, wolves in Europe have historically been much bolder -- or, at least, there are more numerous reports of man-eating wolves in those regions. Between 1362 and 1918, roughly 7,600 people were reportedly killed by wolves in France alone, which may have some bearing on the local werewolf tradition of the loup-garou.

For people living in rural areas, subsisting as farmers or hunters, wolves posed a genuine existential threat. Large, intelligent, utilizing teamwork and more than capable of outwitting the average human, wolves are a compelling villain. Which is probably why they show up so frequently in fairytales, from Little Red Riding Hood to Peter and the Wolf to The Three Little Pigs.

Early Werewolf Fiction 

Vampires have Dracula and zombies have I Am Legend, but there really is no clear singular book to point to as the "First Great Werewolf Novel." Perhaps by the time the novel was really taking off as an artform, werewolves had lost some of their appeal. After all, widespread literacy and reading-for-pleasure went hand-in-hand with advancements in civilization. For city-dwellers in Victorian England, for example, the threat of a wolf eating you alive probably seemed quite remote.

Don't get me wrong -- there were some Gothic novels featuring werewolves, like Sutherland Menzies' Hugues, The Wer-Wolf, or G.W.M. Reynolds' Wagner the Wehr-Wolf, or even The Wolf Leader by Alexandre Dumas. But these are not books that have entered the popular conscience by any means. I doubt most people have ever heard of them, much less read them.

No -- I would argue that the closest thing we have, thematically, to a Great Werewolf Novel is in fact The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Written in 1886, the Gothic novella tells the story of a scientist who, wanting to engage in certain unnamed vices without detection, created a serum that would allow him to transform into another person. That alter-ego, Mr. Hyde, was selfish, violent, and ultimately uncontrollable -- and after taking over the body on its own terms and committing a murder or two, the only way to stop Hyde’s re-emergence was suicide. 

Although not about werewolves, per se, Jekyll & Hyde touches on many themes that we'll see come up time and again in werewolf media up through the present day: toxic masculinity, the dual nature of man, leading a double life, and the ultimate tragedy of allowing one's base instincts/animal nature to run wild. Against a backdrop of Victorian sexual repression and a rapidly shifting concept of humanity's relationship to nature, it makes sense that these themes would resonate deeply (and find a new home in werewolf media).

It is also worth mentioning Guy Endore's The Werewolf of Paris, published in 1933. Set against the backdrop of the Franco-Prussian war and subsequent military battles, the book utilizes a werewolf as a plot device for exploring political turmoil. A #1 bestseller in its day, the book was a big influence on the sci-fi and mystery pulp scene of the 1940s and 50s, and is still considered one of the best werewolf novels of its ilk.

From Silver Bullets to Silver Screens 

What werewolf representation lacks in novels, it makes up for in film. Werewolves have been a surprisingly enduring feature of film from its early days, due perhaps to just how much fun transformation sequences are to film. From camera tricks to makeup crews and animatronics design, werewolf movies create a lot of unique opportunities for special effects -- and for early film audiences especially (who were not yet jaded to movie magic), these on-screen metamorphoses must have elicited true awe. 

The Wolf Man (1941) really kicked off the trend. Featuring Lon Chaney Jr. as the titular wolf-man, the film was cutting-edge for its time in the special effects department. The creature design is the most memorable thing about the film, which has an otherwise forgettable plot -- but it captured viewer attention enough to bring Chaney back many times over for sequels and Universal Monster mash-ups. 

The Wolf Man and 1944's Cry of the Werewolf draw on that problematic Hollywood staple, "The Gypsy Curse(tm)" for their world-building. Fortunately, werewolf media would drift away from that trope pretty quickly; curses lost their appeal, but “bite as mode of transmission” would remain an essential part of werewolf mythos. 

In 1957, I Was a Teenage Werewolf was released as a classic double-header drive-in flick that's nevertheless worth a watch for its parallels between werewolfism and male aggression (a theme we'll see come up again and again). Guy Endore's novel got the Hammer Film treatment for 1961's The Curse of the Werewolf, but it wasn't until the 1970s when werewolf media really exploded: The Beast Must Die, The Legend of the Wolf Woman, The Fury of the Wolfman, Scream of the Wolf, Werewolves on Wheels and many more besides.

Hmmm, werewolves exploding in popularity around the same time as women's liberation was dramatically redefining gender roles and threatening the cultural concept of masculinity? Nah, must be a coincidence.

The 1980s brought with it even more werewolf movies, including some of the best-known in the genre: The Howling (1981), Teen Wolf (1985), An American Werewolf in London (1981), and The Company of Wolves (1984). Differing widely in their tone and treatment of werewolf canon, the films would establish more of a spiderweb than a linear taxonomy.

That spilled over into the 1990s as well. The Howling franchise went deep, with at least seven films that I can think of. Wolf, a 1994 release starring Jack Nicholson is especially worth a watch for its themes of dark romantic horror. 

By the 2000s, we get a proper grab-bag of werewolf options. There is of course the Underworld series, with its overwrought "vampires vs lycans" world-building. There's also Skin Walkers, which tries very hard to be Underworld (and fails miserably at even that low bar). But there's also Dog Soldiers and Ginger Snaps, arguably two of the finest werewolf movies of all time -- albeit in extremely different ways and for very different reasons.

Dog Soldiers is a straightforward monster movie pitting soldiers against ravenous werewolves. The wolves could just as easily have been subbed out with vampires or zombies -- there is nothing uniquely wolfish about them on a thematic level -- but the creature design is unique and the film itself is mastefully made and entertaining.

Ginger Snaps is the first werewolf movie I can think of that tackles lycanthropy from a female point of view. Although The Company of Wolves has a strong feminist angle, it is still very much a film about male sexuality and aggression. Ginger Snaps, on the other hand, likens werewolfism to female puberty -- a comparison that frankly makes a lot of sense.

The Werewolf as Sex Object 

There are quite literally thousands of werewolf romance novels on the market, with more coming in each day. But the origins of this trend are a bit fuzzier to make out (no pun intended). 

Everyone can mostly agree that Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire was the turning-point for sympathetic vampires -- and paranormal romance as a whole. But where do werewolves enter the mix? Possibly with Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter books, which feature the titular character in a relationship with a werewolf (and some vampires, and were-leopards, and...many other things). With the first book released in 1993, the Anita Blake series seems to pre-date similar books in its ilk. 

Blood and Chocolate (1997) by Annette Curtis Klause delivers a YA-focused version of the classic “I’m a werewolf in high school crushing on a mortal boy”; that same year, Buffy the Vampire Slayer hit the small screen, and although the primary focus was vampires, there is a main werewolf character (and romancing him around the challenges of his wolfishness is a big plot point for the characters involved). And Buffy, of course, paved the way for Twilight in 2005. From there, werewolves were poised to become a staple of the ever-more-popular urban fantasy/paranormal romance genre. 

“Sexy werewolf” as a trope may have its roots in other traditions like the beastly bridegroom (eg, Beauty and the Beast) and the demon lover (eg, Labyrinth), which we can talk about another time. But there’s one other ingredient in this recipe that needs to be discussed. And, oh yes, we’re going there. 

Alpha/Beta/Omegaverse 

By now you might be familiar with the concept of the Omegaverse thanks to the illuminating Lindsay Ellis video on the topic (and the current ongoing lawsuit). If not, well, just watch the video. It’ll be easier than trying to explain it all. (Warning for NSFW topics). 

But the tl;dr is that A/B/O or Omegaverse is a genre of (generally erotic) romance utilizing the classical understanding of wolf pack hierarchy. Never mind that science has long since disproven the stratification of authority in wolf packs; the popular conscious is still intrigued by the concept of a society where some people are powerful alphas and some people are timid omegas and that’s just The Way Things Are. 

What’s interesting about the Omegaverse in regards to werewolf fiction is that, as near as I’ve been able to discover, it’s actually a case of convergent evolution. A/B/O as a genre seems to trace its roots to Star Trek fanfiction in the 1960s, where Kirk/Spock couplings popularized ideas like heat cycles. From there, the trope seems to weave its way through various fandoms, exploding in popularity in the Supernatural fandom. 

What seems to have happened is that the confluence of A/B/O kink dynamics merging with urban fantasy werewolf social structure set off a popular niche for werewolf romance to truly thrive. 

It’s important to remember that, throughout folklore, werewolves were not viewed as being part of werewolf societies. Werewolves were humans who achieved wolf form through a curse or witchcraft, causing them to transform into murderous monsters -- but there was no “werewolf pack,” and certainly no social hierarchy involving werewolf alphas exerting their dominance over weaker pack members. That element is a purely modern one rooted as much in our misunderstanding of wolf pack dynamics as in our very human desire for power hierarchies. 

So Where Do We Go From Here? 

I don’t think sexy werewolf stories are going anywhere anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no room left in horror for werewolves to resume their monstrous roots. 

Thematically, werewolves have done a lot of heavy lifting over the centuries. They hold up a mirror to humanity to represent our own animal nature. They embody themes of toxic masculinity, aggression, primal sexuality, and the struggle of the id and ego. Werewolf attack as sexual violence is an obvious but powerful metaphor for trauma, leaving the victim transformed. Werewolves as predators hiding in plain sight among civilization have never been more relevant than in our #MeToo moment of history. 

Can werewolves still be frightening? Absolutely. 

As long as human nature remains conflicted, there will always be room at the table for man-beasts and horrifying transfigurations. 

--

This blog topic was chosen by my Patreon supporters, who got to see it one week before it went live. If you too would enjoy early access to my blog posts, want to vote for next month’s topic, or just want to support the work I do, come be a patron at https://www.patreon.com/tlbodine

[missysmadhouse]

Full Moon Rising: Beware of the Big Bad Werewolf

Source: BBC News

Alongside vampires and zombies, werewolves have long been a part of everyone's favorite "things that go bump in the night." Werewolves have been stalking us in our nightmares (or dreams - however you like it) from the 1941 film "The Wolf Man" to 80's classics "The Howling" and "American Werewolf in London" to the Underworld series of the 2000's and beyond. Werewolf stories have evolved over the years from 1941's tortured Lawrence Talbot to rebellious, proud lycan Lucien in the Underworld series. Werewolves have carved their own niche in fiction, film and TV. What inspired tales of humans who morph into animals by the light of the full moon?

The first image of a human becoming a wolf is in the oldest known work of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back to 1800 B.C.E. in ancient Mesopotamia. Gilgamesh rejects a woman after finding out that she turned her former lover into a wolf. An ancient Greek myth, The Legend of Lycaon, tells the story of how Zeus turns Lycaon into a wolf after Lycaon serves him a meal made from the remains of a sacrificed boy. The Saga of Volsungs is a Nordic folktale about magical wolf pelts that can turn anyone wearing them into a wolf for 10 days. In the story, a father and son find the pelts and go on a woodland killing spree, which ends with a brutal fight between the two. The father dies and leaves behind a leaf with healing properties which the son uses to recover from his injuries.

Traditional folklore dictates that a human becomes a werewolf by being bitten by a werewolf, can only change during the full moon and can only be killed by a silver bullet. Over the centuries, folklore has provided many other ways a person could become a werewolf: sleeping outside during a full moon on a Friday, eating a combination of wolf and human meat, a witch's curse, being conceived during a new moon, drinking water touched by a wolf and eating certain herbs.

Many people associate the moon with werewolves. The origin of the belief that the full moon can cause all sorts of chaos is unknown. After being reinforced over the years, this belief has created an expectation of nothing but trouble during a full moon.

Source: Wikipedia; Illustration by J.W. Smith

There were, however, several cures for werewolves to rid themselves of their affliction. Some cures recommended by medieval medical practitioners included surgery, vomiting, drinking vinegar and bloodletting. Sometimes, these cures were the exact opposite, leading to the death of a patient. The alternatives to medicinal cures were an exorcism or a silver bullet.

Any being that's part of folklore has had gained fame or notoriety with a real person or event. Sightings and encounters with all sorts of beings have been reported throughout the ages such as vampires, sasquatch, fairies and lake monsters. The history of werewolves includes many cases of people who claimed to be werewolves.

In 14th century Germany, Peter Stubbe, a wealthy farmer, claimed that he owned a magical belt that turned him into a wolf and that, in wolf form, he had killed several people. There was a group of hunters who claimed that they saw him change from wolf to human. Stubbe confessed to 12 murders that were allegedly committed over a period of 25 years. Stubbe made his confession after being subjected to brutal torture. There was no evidence of any murders having committed by Stubbe.

In an odd little twist, Stubbe was executed on Halloween in 1589. He was beheaded, then burned at the stake. Belief in werewolves was common during the middle ages. The consensus was that werewolves were created by a witch's curse.

Three other confessed werewolves would meet the same fate. During the same time period in France, Giles Garnier, Michel Verdun and Pierre Burgot, in three separate cases, all claimed that they had an ointment that turned them into wolves, causing them to kill and devour children. They were all burned at the stake.

Let's return to Germany, home of the infamous Peter Stubbe. During the 18th century, a young boy was found in the woods exhibiting animalistic behavior. Dubbed "Peter the Wild Boy," he was unable to speak, walked on all fours and ate with his hands. The general consensus was that he was either a werewolf or raised by wolves.

"Peter" was eventually adopted as a "pet" by the courts of King George I and King George II. Current medical knowledge has been applied to Peter's case. Most likely, he suffered from Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, which was discovered in 1978. Pitt-Hopkins syndrome impairs speech, intellect, the respiratory system and can cause seizures and also affect facial features.

Two people who were born with hypertrichosis. Top photo: Barbara Vanbeck; Source: Medical News Today (Image Credit: Wellcome Images, 2014); Portrait by R. Gaywood, 1656. Bottom: Petrus Gonzales, the Wolf Boy of the Canary Islands; Source: Ashland Science

Many other conditions both physiological and psychological have contributed to the werewolf myth. Hypertrichosis is a rare genetic disorder that causes hair growth to the extent of giving a human being a wolf-like appearance. Lycanthropy is a rare psychological disorder which causes a person to have delusions of changing into an animal. Rabies has also been mentioned as a possible culprit contributing to werewolf folklore as well as food poisoning and hallucinogenic herbs (perhaps ingredients in a "werewolf" ointment).

The mention of food poisoning and hallucinogens makes me think of the theory that ergot poisoning led to the infamous 18th century witch hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts, which led to the execution of several alleged "witches." Ergot poisoning is caused by fungus that grows on rye as well as other types of cereals. In 1976, Linnda Caporael presented the argument that many of the characteristics exhibited by those who were described as "bewitched" in records of the trials, matched the symptoms of ergot poisoning (hallucinations, muscle contractions, psychosis, etc.). Besides an abundance of rye in the area, the climate would've caused conditions that could've produced the fungus.

Eating bread produced by tainted wheat may have caused mass witch hysteria in Salem. Food poisoning could have also created werewolves.

From the myths of ancient civilizations to contemporary pop culture, werewolves have captured our imaginations in many ways. Whether we love to hate them, hate to love them or long to embrace them, werewolves and other shape-shifters will continue to fascinate the dark side of the human imagination for many years to come.

- Missy Dawn

Sources:

"Werewolf Legends," August 21, 2018, History.com, by History.com editors

"Werewolves: Lore, Legend & Lycanthropy," by Benjamin Radford, LiveScience

[justsense]

Synonym for transform

Athena transformed Arachne into a spider for challenging her as a weaver and/or weaving a tapestry that insulted the gods.She also turned King Lyncus into a lynx for trying to murder her prophet Triptolemus. Demeter transformed Ascalabus into a lizard for mocking her sorrow and thirst during her search for her daughter Persephone.Ares turned Alectryon into a rooster, which always crows to signal the morning and the arrival of the sun. Ares assigned Alectryon to keep watch for Helios the sun god during his affair with Aphrodite, but Alectryon fell asleep, leading to their discovery and humiliation that morning.Zeus transformed King Lycaon and his children into wolves (hence lycanthropy) as a punishment for either killing Zeus' children or serving him the flesh of Lycaon's own murdered son Nyctimus, depending on the exact version of the myth.In Greek mythology, the transformation is often a punishment from the gods to humans who crossed them. The Children of Lir, transformed into swans in Irish tales Athena sprang from her father's head, fully grown, and in battle armor. The banging of her metalworking made Zeus have a headache, so Hephaestus clove his head with an axe. She stayed alive inside his head and built armor for her daughter. He then swallowed her because he feared that he and Metis would have a son who would be more powerful than Zeus himself. In one story, she was so proud, that her husband, Zeus, tricked her into changing into a fly. The Oceanid Metis, the first wife of Zeus and the mother of the goddess Athena, was believed to be able to change her appearance into anything she wanted. Nereus told Heracles where to find the Apples of the Hesperides for the same reason. Proteus was noted among the gods for his shapeshifting both Menelaus and Aristaeus seized him to win information from him, and succeeded only because they held on during his various changes. Vertumnus, in the form of an old woman, wooing Pomona, by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout.Įxamples of shapeshifting in classical literature include many examples in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Circe's transforming of Odysseus' men to pigs in Homer's The Odyssey, and Apuleius's Lucius becoming a donkey in The Golden Ass. While the popular idea of a shapeshifter is of a human being who turns into something else, there are numerous stories about animals that can transform themselves as well. The prefix "were-", coming from the Old English word for "man" (masculine rather than generic), is also used to designate shapeshifters despite its root, it is used to indicate female shapeshifters as well. Other terms for shapeshifters include metamorph, the Navajo skin-walker, mimic, and therianthrope. It was also common for deities to transform mortals into animals and plants. Therianthropy is the more general term for human-animal shifts, but it is rarely used in that capacity. Shapeshifting to the form of a gray wolf is specifically known as lycanthropy, and such creatures who undergo such change are called lycanthropes. Popular shapeshifting creatures in folklore are werewolves and vampires (mostly of European, Canadian, and Native American/early American origin), the huli jing of East Asia (including the Japanese kitsune and Korean kumiho), and the gods, goddesses, and demons & demoness’s like succubus & incubus and other numerous mythologies, such as the Norse Loki or the Greek Proteus. 1722 German woodcut of a werewolf transforming