Need help with werewolf culture

[TheMonotonePuppet]

> because any fluid of theirs is highly contagious. This is an allegory for AIDS, but I haven't researched the disease and popular movements and thought processes around AIDS.
They are also viewed as subhuman,

You'll want to handle the subject carefully.

The US government, at the very highest levels, ignored it as an issue because they thought it was principally killing gay people. And that their deaths were either morally just, or just unimportant.

Most every surviving gay person from that era lost friends and family members to it.

People thought you could catch it from a handshake or shared drinking glass.

> Inside the West Wing, however, there was strong resistance to growing public calls for the Reagan administration to become more aggressive in combatting the disease. Some of the president’s more conservative advisers contended that AIDS should be viewed as the consequence of moral decay rather than as a health issue. White House Communications Director Pat Buchanan, before joining the administration, had written a column in which he sneered, “The poor homosexuals—they have declared war upon nature, and now nature is exacting an awful retribution.” Many of Reagan’s allies on the right were more concerned with identifying and isolating those who had AIDS than treating and caring for them. In 1986, the conservative lion William F. Buckley, the Reagans’ longtime friend, proposed tattooing HIV-positive people—on the upper forearm if they were IV drug users and the buttocks if they were homosexual.

Nancy Reagan’s Real Role in the AIDS Crisis

The former first lady fought the most conservative elements of the Reagan administration in an attempt to get her husband to pay more attention to the deadly pandemic. It wasn’t enough.

www.theatlantic.com

How Princess Diana challenged HIV stigma with every hug | Terrence Higgins Trust

For what would have been Princess Diana's 60th birthday, Ian Green reflects on her lasting impact on the HIV epidemic in the UK.

www.tht.org.uk

Stars above, thank you for all of this info. Frickin' GOLD MINE!!! Greatly appreciate it!

 

[RepresentingCaution]

The story itself will drive a lot of the culture once you realize the obstacles you need to create for your characters.

In my favorite book about werewolves, most humans aren't aware of supernatural creatures, and the werewolves don't want to be revealed, so they tend to live in isolated communities far from any cities or towns. The females leave their pack to travel to search for their mate, and there's an element of destiny involved. Once they find their mate, they must cut ties with their family and everyone else they knew before to prove their loyalty to the pack.

This obstacle was created specifically for the female protagonist, who is not a werewolf but a human prostitute with a werewolf client. The client's pack knows that she is human, but they don't know who she really is, only the character she plays for her client. The character she plays for her client is an orphan, but she still has an IRL family, and she has a vampire client, and you can imagine for yourself how that makes things complicated when the werewolf client's family starts pressuring them for marriage.

Think of your characters' goals and then put obstacles in their path.

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

The story itself will drive a lot of the culture once you realize the obstacles you need to create for your characters.

In my favorite book about werewolves, most humans aren't aware of supernatural creatures, and the werewolves don't want to be revealed, so they tend to live in isolated communities far from any cities or towns. The females leave their pack to travel to search for their mate, and there's an element of destiny involved. Once they find their mate, they must cut ties with their family and everyone else they knew before to prove their loyalty to the pack.

This obstacle was created specifically for the female protagonist, who is not a werewolf but a human prostitute with a werewolf client. The client's pack knows that she is human, but they don't know who she really is, only the character she plays for her client. The character she plays for her client is an orphan, but she still has an IRL family, and she has a vampire client, and you can imagine for yourself how that makes things complicated when the werewolf client's family starts pressuring them for marriage.

Think of your characters' goals and then put obstacles in their path.

The thing is that they are an important side aspect of the story, and they need to have a history and long past of interaction and violence with humans. They did not develop on their own, separately from outside influence. Instead, they developed from cultural influences as the contagion spread throughout the area. Not only that, I need to know what their culture is as I introduce them. It will help determine their garb and preferred political leanings, religions, cultural activities, etc.
I want to flesh out a whole human culture with the influences of dealing with a fantastical disease that influences behavior and forcefully separates the humans from the rest of society as a new species (i.e. werewolves). My goal is to make something I can call my own with werewolves.
What I mean to say with my long rambling is that I deeply want to flesh them out in a very realistic way that draws on history that I have read, and cannot wait for the plot to move forward in order to figure how I want their culture to look like.

 

[Ellieporter]

Make the Werewolves speak British

 

[Cipiteca396]

but always the minority everywhere because they are forcefully spread out, and enclaves are often broken up via targeted laws.

Logically speaking, it doesn't make sense to disperse the wolves. That would be like intentionally putting Covid positive people on planes. You'd want to isolate them to prevent the contagion from spreading- and if you still viewed them as a threat, annihilation would be the only option. Especially if there's a precedent for it already like you mentioned.

The biggest difference between werecurse and AIDS is that AIDS kills you, and werecurse turns you into a superhuman murdermachine. It wouldn't be ignored and disdained, it would be feared or exploited as a tool.

I imagine werewolves being kept as mercenaries or shock troops for human nations or any nation that can subdue them. Humans can get away with it by gaslighting and manipulating them into thinking they are heroes making a sacrifice for the sake of their friends and family.

Now, this is where your mafia comes in. Some of those wolves wouldn't be satisfied with the results of their sacrifice. After coming back from the fight, they are looked down on by civilians, treated like an unstable, deranged and literally poisonous existence. Either they band together, or they're collected by a manipulative sort and turned against the people who ostracized them.

How this goes depends on their leadership. It might take the same shape as the pride movement, or the civil rights movements. Or they might turn into a terrorist organization. Probably the most important thing you need to look for is heroes. Who the wolves consider heroes is going to be the most important part of their culture. Every wolf should have a list of specific names, and be able to detail a few of their legendary actions.
What those actions are will determine your wolves' culture. Even better if different individuals have different lists of names.

---

Now then. A lot of gay culture relies on secrecy. Throwing parties, introducing friends to one another without having to publicly risk yourself, dancing around the topic to avoid outing yourself to potentially hostile people. That is out of the question here. Anyone who sees the mask will know.

It will help determine their garb and preferred political leanings, religions, cultural activities, etc.

That means the wolves will have to go a different route. If you can't hide it, flaunt it. Perhaps they decorate their masks with South American ornaments, or wolf-shaped trimmings.

They would need clothing that allows the transformation to complete without being damaged, and that clothing would need to stand out even in wolf shape. South American clothing tends to be quite bright and highly decorated. Ponchos could be worn easily over a hulking monstrosity and still provide some modesty to a human form.
Something like this:

On the other hand, with enhanced senses, it might go the other way. They might avoid bright clothing or spicy foods since they offend their senses. Perhaps they wear dull, camouflaged clothing and only eat lightly seasoned foods. Or perhaps they can tolerate the pain and do it anyways, you never know. This is a good place to give your wolves individuality.

As for activities, aside from activisim, terrorism, or organized crime, I expect it depends on how easy it is for them to get together.
I mentioned parties already. They could gather and share food recipes, play 'Guess that smell', or just dance and sing like a normal party.
If they can't gather too openly, they might have a relay-type of event, where one person talks to another, and that person talks to another, and so on. Maybe they pass an item that has a certain person's scent on it, and they have to guess who it belongs to. Practically, that could be a security measure as well. 'This person' says you should be at King Street at 12.

Uh. I lost my train of thought. Hope something in all that is useful.

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Logically speaking, it doesn't make sense to disperse the wolves. That would be like intentionally putting Covid positive people on planes. You'd want to isolate them to prevent the contagion from spreading- and if you still viewed them as a threat, annihilation would be the only option. Especially if there's a precedent for it already like you mentioned.

The biggest difference between werecurse and AIDS is that AIDS kills you, and werecurse turns you into a superhuman murdermachine. It wouldn't be ignored and disdained, it would be feared or exploited as a tool.

I imagine werewolves being kept as mercenaries or shock troops for human nations or any nation that can subdue them. Humans can get away with it by gaslighting and manipulating them into thinking they are heroes making a sacrifice for the sake of their friends and family.

Now, this is where your mafia comes in. Some of those wolves wouldn't be satisfied with the results of their sacrifice. After coming back from the fight, they are looked down on by civilians, treated like an unstable, deranged and literally poisonous existence. Either they band together, or they're collected by a manipulative sort and turned against the people who ostracized them.

How this goes depends on their leadership. It might take the same shape as the pride movement, or the civil rights movements. Or they might turn into a terrorist organization. Probably the most important thing you need to look for is heroes. Who the wolves consider heroes is going to be the most important part of their culture. Every wolf should have a list of specific names, and be able to detail a few of their legendary actions.
What those actions are will determine your wolves' culture. Even better if different individuals have different lists of names.

---

Now then. A lot of gay culture relies on secrecy. Throwing parties, introducing friends to one another without having to publicly risk yourself, dancing around the topic to avoid outing yourself to potentially hostile people. That is out of the question here. Anyone who sees the mask will know.


That means the wolves will have to go a different route. If you can't hide it, flaunt it. Perhaps they decorate their masks with South American ornaments, or wolf-shaped trimmings.

They would need clothing that allows the transformation to complete without being damaged, and that clothing would need to stand out even in wolf shape. South American clothing tends to be quite bright and highly decorated. Ponchos could be worn easily over a hulking monstrosity and still provide some modesty to a human form.
Something like this:

On the other hand, with enhanced senses, it might go the other way. They might avoid bright clothing or spicy foods since they offend their senses. Perhaps they wear dull, camouflaged clothing and only eat lightly seasoned foods. Or perhaps they can tolerate the pain and do it anyways, you never know. This is a good place to give your wolves individuality.

As for activities, aside from activisim, terrorism, or organized crime, I expect it depends on how easy it is for them to get together.
I mentioned parties already. They could gather and share food recipes, play 'Guess that smell', or just dance and sing like a normal party.
If they can't gather too openly, they might have a relay-type of event, where one person talks to another, and that person talks to another, and so on. Maybe they pass an item that has a certain person's scent on it, and they have to guess who it belongs to. Practically, that could be a security measure as well. 'This person' says you should be at King Street at 12.

Uh. I lost my train of thought. Hope something in all that is useful.

Absolutely delightful! Much thanks!

 

[Placeholder]

> Stars above, thank you for all of this info. Frickin' GOLD MINE!!! Greatly appreciate it!

So, continuing, "their saliva is infectious" is a false caricature of what went down.

And "Gay people convert innocents to the homosexual lifestyle and give them AIDS" is a false caricature of what went down.

 

[Placeholder]

Why 'alpha wolf' is misleading | International Wolf Center

When visitors come to the International Wolf Center and observe our wolves, many ask: “Which one is the alpha?” That is a misleading term when applied to wolves

wolf.org

> When visitors come to the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota, and observe our pack of ambassador wolves, many of them ask: “Which one is the alpha?” So begins a long conversation about the term and what it means.



> It’s a term that started in the field of ethology, or animal behavior, and is now widely used in popular culture. While it is popular, it’s also misleading when applied to wolves. In fact, the International Wolf Center has stopped using the term altogether.



...



> One of the outdated pieces of information is the concept of the alpha wolf. “Alpha” implies competing with others and becoming top dog by winning a contest or battle. However, most wolves who lead packs achieved their position simply by mating and producing pups, which then became their pack. In other words they are merely breeders, or parents, and that’s all we call them today, the “breeding male,” “breeding female,” or “male parent,” “female parent,” or the “adult male” or “adult female.” In the rare packs that include more than one breeding animal, the “dominant breeder” can be called that, and any breeding daughter can be called a “subordinate breeder."

 

[Notadate]

Ruffing