I spy werewolf character, Nadia What's her relationship with their lycanthropy? Any interesting headcanons you have about werewolves?
Her developing lycanthropy was completely involuntary. While stationed at Bangkorai Garrison and on a nightly patrol, she was attacked by a werewolf (a member of the Grey Host) and nearly left for dead. The attack was faster than she could properly react, and she didn't have a good memory of it afterwards, therefore she didn't get the proper medical attention afterwards to stave off the condition before it became permanent. She doesn't even realize she's developed lycanthropy until she transforms for the first time, injuring many of her fellow soldiers/scouts. After that she wanders around High Rock aimlessly, mostly in her werewolf form, causing many problems for locals. She eventually is found by the Ravenwatch who take some pity on her, seeing the similarities to their own struggles, who help her start to assimilate back into society.
Her upbringing (militant, strict parents and a strong interest in history growing up) instilled in her a rather black and white view of the world, mainly in her understanding of who are good guys and who are bad guys, with little room for nuance. Her turning into a werewolf really shatters that harshly, and she’s left with a lot of self hatred as a result at first. Her interactions with the Ravenwatch, even though they are traditionally more vampire based in their approach, and Arana’s Reachmen allies/clan, of whom some are werewolves themselves by choice, are what help her work through the self hatred and black and white thinking with it. The way she (eventually) sees it, if she's going to be stuck like this for the rest of her life, she might as well learn to live with it without being her own worst enemy about it.
As for headcanons, one of the fun things about how TES handles its werewolves and vampires is that the existence of different strains of each condition means you can play around with the traits and how the condition works. The series is rather wishy-washy on what triggers a transformation, so for Nadia specifically, her transformations are based mostly on mood (because I like that thematically). If she gets overwhelmed in any way (particularly anger or frustration) she turns. Before being turned into a werewolf, she was a pretty calm, introverted, and level-headed person, but after being turned she has a much shorter fuse and more of a temper. This stresses her out, ironically, because she worries about getting upset. It's like a positive feedback loop. Over time, the less she tries to resist her emotions and deal with them healthily, the more control she has over when she transforms and more control she has over how she acts when she transforms. But initially, she basically acts like a violent beast when she transforms, attacking nearly ant living thing in sight.
I also, personally, prefer quadrupedal werewolves over TES's bipedal versions, so I like to think of them working kinda like bears in how they move: mostly quadrupedal, but can rear up and walk on their back legs to intimidate or fight.
TY for asking about her :D <3 I haven't really given TES werewolves much consideration until recently, so I'm still forming my thoughts about them and about Nadia
