So, I've been doing academic research on shape-shifters (literature, folklore, theological responses) for nearly a decade now. In that time (including researching and writing a dissertation on the subject, as well as a few articles and the book I'm currently working on), I've never heard of these things. This leaves me with two questions: 1) What, written (or video game as I suspect that's where they've come from), sources were/are being used to create the page and 2) Shouldn't this, if it indeed should exist on the site, be a sub-heading on the werewolf page (because that's what it sounds like)?

As a medievalist, my first thought on seeing the title was that it had something to do with the anonymous 14th century poem "Sir Orfeo" (a medieval reimagining of the Greek story of Orpheus and Eurydice), but clearly that is not the case.

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There is not one single humanoid being on this planet who can change his shape in ANY manner similiar to the legends of lycanthropy.

Shapeshifting would require a miraculous growth and loss of bone as the skeleton would reshape itself, a rearrangement of
organs and connective tissue, nerves, and blood vessels -
requiring “movement” of these structure through deep tissue and muscle, a
complete repatterning of the DNA code, a thickening of the
dermis and growth of fur from hair follicles generated on the
spot, a reallocation of body mass and generation of body tissue, and
a loss of brain tissue as the brain cavity “shrunk” to the
dimensions of the wolf cranium.

When you lose brain tissue, it is like a VHS tape being erased – any data or
associative functions stored there are gone for good – like in a stroke or TIA.
A werewolf able to transform would
return to human form suffering from retardation, and would be an
idiot at best and an animalistic killer at worst.

The caloric expenditure necessary is so high it is
impossible – the human body cannot ingest enough food
to power such a change. Also, the pain involved would
be so excruciating that the system itself would shut down, and the cardiac muscle would rupture and the “werewolf” would die from a cardiac hemmorhage.


There are no separate races of humanoids on this planet – by now they would have interbred with “regular” humans and we’d all be the same species anyway. There is NO "werewolf gene".
The concept of werewolves being shapechanging wolves is really absurd – wolves are descended from prehistoric canine creatures, such as the dire wolf. Humans are descended from upright, bipedal hominids. Nature “engineered” wolves and humans to be two different species, with different specializations and physical construction.


I’m a Nurse.

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