Monday, 14 January 2013

Misadventure by Moonlight (Working title)

Hey guys, sorry it's been a while since I posted something. I am carrying on with New Z-Land, and no, I didn't finish my NaNoWriMo project (Who out there honestly thought I would?) But it is another project under my belt for picking up at a later date and dusting off to finish. Yeah, I said finish. 2013 is going to be a year of change for me, and the first thing I want to change is how I write; not my style of writing persay, but my attitude. I'm not gonna just be an explosion of new ideas that then just fizzle out into nothing.

That being said, I've been reading a lot of Werewolf stuff at the minute. There's just something enchanting about werewolves that isn't really covered in modern fiction to my knowledge (And please enlighten me otherwise if there is). There's a sense of romance, of raw, natural passion about werewolves, and yet it's vampires that seem to be the cool kids in the fiction world. Don't get me wrong, I love vampires, when they're not sparkling, but I wanna give some time to the underdog (Pun intended) so here's just something I knocked together and will definitely toy around with whilst working more on New Z-Land, which is all I can really work on at the moment other than my NaNoWriMo project, as I still have yet to get my external hard drive repaired.





There are a lot of myths and speculations about Werewolves. Some are true, others are not. I want to start this off by clarifying some of these. Silver is the bane of werewolves; fact, sort of... Every supernatural entity has what is known as a bane and yes, silver is the bane of werewolves. It does not, however, outright kill a werewolf; well, it can, but no more than say a shotgun blast to the head. This myth dates back to times of old, when man was a simpler creature and had to use what was at their disposal to fight off the beasties that hunted them. As time passed, mankind got smarter, and weapons got stronger; so strong that they started to hurt like silver. Werewolf kind referred to this new period as the silver age of mankind, and it is one that they still struggle against to this day.

Werewolves transform at the sign of the full moon; a little bit of fact, but greatly embellished. When a Garou (Yeah, the French actually got it right with that word) first transforms, they are marked by the sign of whatever auspice the moon is in. As the moon is at its strongest when it is full, a lot more Garou (That’s right, it’s its own plural, like sheep. Fun metaphor, I know) change for the first time. Now, with training and experience, a Garou can transform at will; hell, stronger Garou can even partially change, shifting just a part of their body, but as a sign of respect to Gaia a Garou will always transform on the first night of their auspice.

Werewolves are mindless savages, hunting and killing based around pure instinct; myth...ish. Garou retain all sense of who they are when they transform, but they do gain a greater sense of their connection to the primal energies of Mother Earth. One of these energy aspects is that of rage. Rage fuels the Garou; they harness and manipulate it, but some are lost to rage and give in to it, becoming the frenzied beasts of folklore. They are known as Wilder, and it is one of the duties of the Garou to prevent the Wilder from becoming widespread. This is both our gift and our curse. We use our rage, yet we risk it consuming us...

If bitten by a werewolf, you become a werewolf. Bullshit. This makes about as much sense as eating a cheese sandwich makes you a cheese sandwich. Don’t make me laugh!

One thing you might have noticed, I used the term ‘we’ back there. That’s right, I’m one of the Garou. My name is Alex Grey, and what follows is a story of how I came face to face with the Wilder, our curse, and other things that go bump in the night.




It's only a short post, but I want to explore the character of Alex a lot more. And I'll say now, my main influences for this piece are the World of Darkness RPGs and the Dresden Files series, which I am very much falling in love with thanks to my friend Julianne who introduced me to them. Also loving the TV series. If you've not heard of this franchise then check it out, I highly recommend it. It's like a Buffy Noir.

Love and peace!
Craiggy.

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