This is the place for discussion and voting on various aspects of werewolf life, social ideas, physical appearance, etc. Also a place to vote on how a werewolf should look.
RedEye wrote:
Let me ask a serious question: WHY would a Werewolf need a psychic ability? Outside of the occasional odd lot, what would cause a psychic anything to evolve in Werewolves, outside of the magic/curse situation?
I'm going to give you an answer.
Do you know this man?
I wouldn't be surprised if you said no, since i'm probably the only one here who knows about the JoJo universe well enough. His name is Dio Brando, a vampire born in the 1830s. He was defeated once by the first JoJo (who knew the art of shooting out energy from the sun), but survived by killing JoJo and taking his body for Dio to possess. Jump to the 1980s, Dio obtained the telekinetic power of the Stand by means of a Stand-creating item called the Bow and Arrow, and his Stand manifested in the form of that armored guy right next to him. His Stand is called "The World", and, if you thought his vampiric qualities (especially when he could shoot mind-controlling spores out of his hair) wasn't enough, his Stand is fast, accurate, and has the ability to completely stop time. No, he was stupid enough not to make a move for global slavery sooner. He first had to take full control of the first JoJo's body, and to achieve that, he has to kill the whole JoJo bloodline.
Fortunately, he met his (exact) match, the third JoJo, and ultimately died. Even with all the advantages that werewolves had, like the usual physical enhancements and regeneration, he was split into pieces by another Stand user.
So if a werewolf had a telekinetic or psychic ability like a Stand, it could be for a similar reason like Dio's.
telepathy just makes werewolves more like superheroes, and I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Part of what apopeals about werewolves is their humanity and their weaknesses.
MattSullivan wrote:telepathy just makes werewolves more like superheroes, and I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Part of what apopeals about werewolves is their humanity and their weaknesses.
I knew you'd say that.
Unfortunately, i have to disagree with you. Any kind of other ability that a lycanthrope has, like lycanthropy itself, has its own weaknesses, proven by Matt Parkman from Heroes. It frustrates me that you seem to have overlooked the other issues of character flexibility and the inevitable instability of said ability.
Plus, a realistically characterized werewolf with realistic telepathy placed in an environment with a lot of depth in portrayal technically isn't a superhero/villain. Superheroes/villains wear spandex and kill pea-brained aliens.
Playing Devil's advocate on the Mental Powers business, I'd suggest that the most likely mental (Psi) abilty a Werewolf would posess is Telempathy.
Why? Wolves live in a world of Scent. Werewolves live with humans, Smoothskins, etc; who cover their bodies with all sorts of smelly things like body scent, aftrr shave, deodorants, perfumed soaps, et cetera ad nauseum.
Poor Wolfie's nose is confused big time; usually because the Smooths who wear all these things don't even try to coordinate the scents that they apply to their bodies. (visual: Werewolf in a gas mask)
The Psionic ability that most parallels scent is Emotion detection; ie: Telempathy. Empathy is the closest comparison I can think of to the information scent delivers, in that scent reveals emotion and so does Telempathy.
It would most likely be an adjunct to the senses, though; not a full-blown mind power.
RedEye: The Wulf and writer who might really be a Kitsune...
I was a big fan of the Animorphs way back when, and it seemed pretty cool then. I'd also read The Wheel of Time series where there was something called a "wolf dream" where "wolfbrothers" could communicate with wolves and things like that. I like the idea of telepathy, but I don't know how reasonable it would be. Maybe something where they can talk only amongst themselves?
Holy, this thing got some face time i see...
It's very interesting what the views everyone else has on this are.
I'm going to answer a few questions, then leave this to die as it should.
One: Set, they are elemental mages, but only because anceint spirits have been reborn into their bodies along side the normal souls. Sorta like a spilt personality, except the spirits can manipulate things in the pyscial world, take over the body, appear as their true forms in place of the body etc.
Two: RedEye, in my world, there is a lot of creatures called Hunters {no i'm not bashing bepole like you. That's just what their called}. There are three groups, ranging from the blood-thirst monstroucities, Lycanthropes and Nosferatu, to the human in apperance Steroid Hunters. The Lycanthropes are basically what you would call evil werewolves, except they look more like the werewolf from the third harry potter movie with a dash more fur. Nosferatu are evil Vampires, though unlike the vampires in my story, Nosferatu are blood drinking corpses. They don't even look human anymore. Lastly, There are the Steroid hunters. These hunters are given, and don't make fun of this okay, magic steroids, that increase their abilities, but don't remove any of their natural abilites, aka, they can still have kids. Their abilities are actually encoded into their DNA, so that their children possess their parents powers. All of these creatures basically have a hive mind set, all bound to one of three Hunter Leaders, Richard for the Lycanthropes, Andrew for the Nosferatu, Bartholomew for the male Steroid hunters and Evelyn for the Female Steroid Hunters. Werewolves and Vampires have been practicing telepathy for over ten thousand years, prior to ten thousand years ago, to fight demons that could attack the mind, after, to protect themselves from these groups. It's sounds like a massive buzzing sound, and usually, the Hunters mask their scent to prevent werewolves and the like from smelling them in time... It's a tactic that allows werewolves a better chance of surviving, and the advantages of spying, and escaping would be massive. I don't use it that much... it's basically one of those, if you use it too much the enemy can hear you, and use it too much, and it becomes corny, things.
Three: That's about it... I might even drop the idea after seeing how badly i can explain why they need it, but my main character is something called a DarkWolf, and all of them are Psychics. Because his mother was a Darkwolf, his two brothers and his sister all have psychic abilities. but because he is a darkwolf, he has alot more abilities than his siblings. Not to mention, their aforementioned spirits have control over the elements, so as a rule, they usually give their physcial forms a kenisis ability, like pyro, geo, hydro, aero... well, i still don't know what mental control over plants is. Does anyone else?
In anycase, i was just wondering if anyone read my story would stop reading it after ten seconds because they saw the words "He thought to him", or something. Varying reviews i see... it's never really played up as their only powers. They are werewolves because they can become human, shift to wolf form, or their half-awy/ werewolf form. {And i'm planning on using werewolf form, because outside this forum no one will know what the heck i'm talking about.) Just because they can use magic, doesn't mean all of them can. Some practice it, others are naturals, and some just use whatever talents they got in various ways. Some can manipulate feelings, which come in handy when you're in the senate and you want something to go your way, while others can add a thought to the thought process of an individual they don't want around. It doesn't just mean they all have powers, it's just from various sources that most do.
Oye, that was a long post...
Okay, now that i've defended my story a little, this thing can die... and telempathy is used in this story at times, but only when something really terrible happens... Thanks for discussing this again after others already have several times... I really appriciate it.
No what you have are bullets in the hope that when your guns are empty I'm no longer standing. Because if I am, you'll all be before you've reloaded.
V, from V for Vendetta.
What a strange creature is man, that he cages himself so willingly?
-Athena from Appleseed (2004)