(no subject)

[coraa]

Starting assumptions: werewolves are humans who assume wolf shape either at will or when provoked by a stimulus (such as the full moon). That nature is contagious, usually spread by bite.

(That is: if your werewolves don't really turn into wolves, or spread via some mechanism that's not contagious, this question is irrelevant.)

Has anyone read any werewolf stories where the contagion-via-bite is true even if they bite something other than a human? That is, where a werewolf who bites a horse might create a horsewolf that shifts into a wolf at the full moon, or where a werewolf that bites a deer creates a deerwolf, or etc.?

Alternately, any stories where there's an explicit explanation for why that doesn't happen (as opposed to just assuming from the start that the only species susceptible to the contagion is humans)?

EDIT: Of course, as deer and horses presumably can't carry silver weapons or whatever else one does to avoid werewolves if one is a human, this might result in there being a ton of horsewolves and deerwolves and whatever, any animal large enough to survive a werewolf bite, roaming around. Which would make an interesting story, I think: a world in which any animal might theoretically turn into a contagious wolf monster by night, in which humans survive in isolated enclaves with rigorously-protected livestock...

...sort of like in JRPGs, in fact, where dangerous beasts lurk to destroy you as soon as you leave town.

Comments

[coraa.livejournal.com]

That's true, although if biting is the means of procreation for the species, they might do something to enhance the chance of transmission. For instance, if the werewolf virus requires blood contact to transmit, perhaps werewolves have a compulsion to bite their own cheeks or tongues before they bite people...?

I do like the idea that transmission is less than 100%, though, because as far as I know most (all?) actual contagious diseases have a less than 100% infection rate. That would add some interesting narrative drama, too: if the infection rate is, say, around 50%, you'd have some incentive to keep your bitten buddy (or horse, or whatever) around for a while, in case they were going to be fine, as opposed to just throwing them out to the wilds as soon as they got bit.

[istgut.livejournal.com]

Of interest there is whether they know about the blood or not... Concious decisions about whether or not to infect others makes for an entirely different sort of drama :)

Also, while we're going with the blood-borne pathogen thing, why not also have multiple mutant strains such that folks can get multiple infections that perhaps have slightly different effects or have different effects on different people. From there, you can also have non-expressing carriers, etc. Now, how close to HIV you want your lycanthropy is another question entirely...