I have a few werewolf Worlds in my mind, but there's one where new ideas often arise and that's amidst my
Werewolf Nation. A sort of post-mutant scenario where they're now recognised as sapient beings (along with a few other kinds of critters) and granted a landmass to congregate on.
These critters are the sort that could probably body-slam a tank and have crazy regeneration capabilities, so if they get into a fight it's common belief that it's not really all that fair for them to use killing force against their opponents... unless that becomes a necessity for survival, of course. That's not happened yet.
They can even regenerate limbs if need be, very slowly over time... oooor they can chow down on the raw materials they'd need to actually provide the body with the resources it needs to recreate said limbs, that would go much faster, so it's very hard to fatally wound one of 'em.
Due to this a number of different non-lethal fighting styles have been developed, some using weapons like staffs, others just based around grappling and disarming. I blame Kitetsu for this
completelyl, because he never stops going on and on about such things... and the man makes a
lot of sense when he isn't been too frothy-mad and ranty.
There are even some goofy mad-tinker/engineer types who're constantly making new kinds of non-lethal weapons as well. One even postulated a weapon that could chain-fire low grade anaesthetic darts at a rapid rate. This is an idea that's being tossed around between these goofs as to how they could pull it off. I blame
Howlitzer for this kind of thinking.
...
No, Howlitzer, you don't want to make one of those, too.
So mostly they just have a little fun with anyone who decides to combat them but mostly they're seen as peaceful creatures, which leads to some really uncommon werewolf stories, woo! I suppose sugarpoultry has some equally uncommon stories too if her werewolves aren't obsessed with violence. Good for you, sugarpoultry!
As for the disease, it isn't really transmitted by claws, and not necessarily through the mouth either, it can even be an STD. But no... this doesn't mean that people can copulate werewolves into existence as it doesn't quite work that way. The change actually lies dormant and even when it's transferred it's not easy to bring it out.
It involves an altered state of mind and forms of hypnosis and meditation, it's a rather long and drawn out process, and one part of it is even mildly dangerous as once they
do bring the Wolf out, they have to be ready to restrain that person. They don't turn evil or angry or anything silly like that, but they are
confused because the heightened senses overload them, no one's ever ready for the first time...
man.
<.<
But yes, after that, they're eased into the shift and the new form, so these weres don't really have to worry about their gift jumping around because the process to properly bring out the wolf isn't all that easy, and it is very specific. So it's a bit of a countermeasure. A person who obtains a sample of bodily fluids can't ingest them and suddenly decide to be the wolf, they'd need help with that, educated help.
I'm almost tempted to set a number of short stories based in this scenario, and that might end up becoming my NaNoWriMo project for this year, but I digress.
As for the actual state of the hands once-shifted (to get to the meat of the matter), it's similar to what RedEye described but the thumb isn't moved as much, they'd be more like the weres of Howlitzer, Jingles, or Myenia. Has anyone actually seen Howlitzer's paw gloves? I actually imagine it would be a bit like that...
In fact, let me find those gloves on Howlz's dA.
[Merry, jingly intermission.]
Ha! Neat. The two phases of the creation of Howlitzer's glove come up as the first two results when one searches for 'werewolf gloves'.
And here you can see the gloves themselves!
So the end result is akin to a human hand, but bigger, fluffier, clawed, and padded. Some dexterity is lost in the process but not as much as one would think, and a werewolf who spends a lot of time in their form can become quite capable with their paw-like hands.
Visual aids help with stuff like this. And forgive me but I'm going to go on a walky-talk here and segue (Gods I love saying that), in that I think Howlitzer should really set up shop and start selling those if he ever gets the chance, he'd make a
killing. Morever, he should name his shop the
Paw Mall. Bit of a play on words there, geddit? Maul.
Aaaanyway!
I've said about all I'm going to here and knowing my walls of text I wouldn't be surprised if this post gets skipped over because I'm more rambly than Bram bally Stoker. ...well, all right, I concede, perhaps not
more rambly but at least
as rambly. Then again, I think everyone from that era was a bit rambly, the rambly Victorian era of rambly people...
***
Vagrant wanders off, muttering to himself.