My interpretation of werewolves!! Hopefully this has some impact on the collective werewolf-sphere in any way.
Right. So, to begin with, let's get into the general evolution of my take on werewolves, which aren’t wolves but apes.
Homopapius, which basically just means man related baboon, evolved from an ape species similar to baboons. They weren't actually related in any way besides visual appearance and were more like a subspecies of chimpanzee evolving alongside Homosapiens but came slightly before.
Homo Papius however (like salmon and deer combined effectively) would undergo a week and a half long period whereby they would change shape in warmer seasons to prepare for mating.
This transformation would be very energy consuming so individuals would become very hungry. To combat this they
congregated around East and South Africa (because you know obviously humans originated in Africa) and live close to rainforests. They would forage for fruit and keep large stores leading up to spring and summer so they wouldn't have to waste any more energy.
All the stronger individuals would go out hunting in the weeks or days leading up to the transformation to prepare meat reserves.
Said transformation would include a larger physical form, more abundant hair growth, a longer looking face with inflamed colored patches to show off in the males, and a more quadripedal gate and posture to support it.
Mind you, this transformation didn't happen in a day. It would take like weeks to transform because it would just be a slow gradual process.
So what would happen is that they would have hormonal spikes in testosterone, human growth hormone for bone and tissue growth, and thyroxine for nail growth. Also oestrogen because that's responsible for skin growth and hair thickness. The transformation would consume about 20,000 calories or roundabout for homo grandis and for homo-papius it was 30,000 calories.
Homoapius then interbred with homo sapiens producing fertile offspring. It got to a point where interbreeding was such a large deal that the gene for kicking off the seasonal transformation passed over to around roughly a quarter bordering on a third of homo sapiens.
As Homo papius slowly dwindled in numbers around 300,000 years ago due to changing climates and a shortage of food sources, and homo sapiens evolved, the gene became expressed in about 20% of homo sapiens. Then in modern day, it became around 12-8%. Those possessing the expressed gene were classed as HomoGrandis, which basically means tall man. I'm so creative. Homo-papius then fully became extinct around 280,000 years ago.
The transformation would last half a week as Wereapa’s, which is basically homo grandis was smaller than homopapius (given the homo sapien DNA) and would remain transformed for close to 3 weeks rather than about a month for homo-papius in the height of spring and summer.
Homo Papius were about 5' 10 to 5' 11 on average whereas Homo sapiens were about 5'7. Wereapa’s reached the height of around a horse when on all fours which is about 7 foot. Wereapa means man ape basically which sounds contradictory but then again uh they probably knew about apes back then but didn't consider humans apes at the time - there's no like actual source as to where English people found out about apes so we'll just go off Charles Darwin theory of evolution as like the period where they were given the name ‘Wereapa’ specifically. There were different names throughout history beforehand though before Wereapa became the worldwide accepted term. Obviously each language and culture has a different name for them.
Historically Wereapa’s were outcasted and killed off unless weaponized in battle, but it was incredibly rare for them unless it was between smaller communities. Given the gene is only expressed if passed down via reproduction, both parent and child would be killed, including the other human parent, which would have aided in the conceiving of the child. Those found with the gene were also sterilized or shown in freak shows in more humane ways. Not that they were, just that they weren’t outright killed or tortured.
Pre-colonial societies in South and North America would treat Wereapa’s with respect and consider them warriors (for the most part this varied between tribes and nations) as despite the brief period of intense hunger, people who transformed were fully autonomous and behaved normally, just adapted to a different body (and a lot more horny YIKES !!! ). This idea of Wereapa’s would be shared between Pacific societies and African societies too (again for the most part this varied between tribes and nations and countries).
Pre-colonial societies in Asia/Middle East were more varied as it would differ from country and region as to whether they were accepted, usually more often in rural areas away from the majority.
Colder European countries were not as accepting of Wereapa’s due to the lack of abundant food in hotter countries i.e. grain and fruit. They would often turn to killing livestock, similar to how wolves were hunted to extinction in areas due to the same fundamental fears; especially in England because it's always England isn't it? (Friendly fire)
This then spread to Europe as a whole with more widespread religion being one of the largest reasons why Wereapa’s were killed or persecuted leading to a massive reduction in Wereapa’s across both Catholic, Christian, Jewish, and Islamic societies in particular as they were deemed or considered to be demons/ bad spirits/ etc taking over people's bodies. This was present in pagan religions too. Overall I’m an antitheist for a reason.
A lot of the treatment for Wereapa’s is based upon people's views of homosexuality given, you know, it's something people are forced to hide. Guys, the metaphor is right there !!!
Different cultures would react and treat Wereapa’s in different ways of course. I’m not going to detail how every culture would but just take a reasonable guess as to how yours would and it’s probably the correct answer as long as it’s based on some historical accuracy with regards to rare genetic mutations or conditions or just how they treated gay people in general.
Shoutout to the #queers 👍
And shoutout to the primates yayyy I love monkeys !!
they also come in any skin colour, hair texture, and hair colour (that’s natural, though if someone has dyed hair that part would still be dyed it would just grow out a little due to the transformation, so if someone was freshly blonde girl I’m sorry ur roots are gunna be showing tenfold)
also irl they would be like no bigger than a gorilla I just made them bigger cos why not so don’t call me out yes I know they’re not entirely accurate
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