On Using the term Garou.
Working on the concept behind my novel (working titles Moon and Second Moon, subject to change), I did some research into the concept of Werewolves. Like Vampires, Werewolves can be found in almost every culture’s folk tales, and apparently in every continent except Antarctica.
Probably because there’s no native population besides Penguins there, and we don’t know if they have such a folk lore.
I’m very careful not to say myth, because there are quite a few people in today’s world that literally have encountered beings they describe as werewolves, sometimes as Skunk Apes or Dog Men – but the essential descriptions are roughly similar. Such people who’ve had sightings of these beings would argue against it being mythology. Out of respect for them and their experiences, I avoid using that word. Indeed, in my novels, I use characters who use the term in a scoffing way. To them, it is not a myth.
I discovered that the term Lycanthrope according to some means “Shapeshifter”. Literally a Vampire who can turn into a bat, mist or elemental dust (three traits they supposedly have) would fall under this definition.
The term “Garou”, from the French “Loup Garou” or Wolf Man, would be the more accurate term.
So let’s talk about the Werewolf Apocalypse board game.
I heard about it for the first time an hour ago. This is after I wrote the first novel, and got 50,100 words into the second novel.
I had heard about the Werewolf: Apocalypse computer game. With apologies to the game developers, it didn’t look all that interesting to me. It seems to share the Defiance computer game curse. Defiance apparently was released unfinished to the computer gaming public in the 90’s. It’s biggest drawback was that every level and encounter was – exactly the same. By the time you won the game, you were bored with it because you never really got expanded abilities, greater attack levels, etc. From what I’ve heard about the game, it’s roughly like that.
My decisions on how to structure the novel follows this logic tree.
- Zev is the hero
- he is turned involuntarily into a Garou.
- The garou that turned him is amoral and evil, seeking only to fuel the wolf within by killing and eating men.
- See point #1. Zev Geller cannot be a villain. What happens then is he is left with two outcomes – refuse to be the wolf (he has no control over this) or eventually take his life to avoid killing.
Now I have to create two or three different groups of Garou. Those who kill, those who do not. Zev apparently is one of those who do not – because he is a hero.
Okay, there’s only one logical outcome of this event. Zev is now engaged in a war between the killers and the non-killers. To give him a fighting chance, I made him physically huge. Contemporary descriptions of werewolves from eyewitnesses describe them as massively muscled, physically powerful, and giant. Over eight feet tall is a common recounting.
So we’ve got a non-killer, young and inexperienced, whose only benefit is that he’s almost nine feet tall. Close to three meters, if you live in some country with metrics.
Kind of not enough.
Just these four decisions led me to creating an entire society, orderly and fairly structured. There would have to be some form of law, and enforcers to keep things in check.
With all these factors introduced, I made Zev the only wolf who can change “At will”. At first, still only involuntarily, but external circumstances can make his super-type A personality manufacture massive amounts of adrenaline, which triggers the change. His playing with it (to make his appearance appealing to a woman he’s got feelings for) leads eventually to complete control over the change, with one caveat – he cannot avoid the change during the Moon.
Distinctions like this (capitalizing the Moon to show its importance) and in the skin vs. in the fur lead me to the creation of the Law, the Liturgy of the Garou for the Lawkeepers, close association with physical wolves, isolation vs. packs, etc. went a long way towards creating my novel for me.
So that’s how I wrote the novel. Some werewolf enthusiasts will be annoyed at the atmospheric moodiness of the novel, and “Why aren’t they scarier?” (because the nail that sticks up gets hammered down – werewolves that kill or “blood” during the moon call attention to themselves and arouse the wrath of man, who will hunt them down and exterminate them). And the Others, who oppose the Lawkeepers, want exactly that.
Once these conditions are put in place, it sets the tone and atmosphere of the novel. Unless you make the werewolf the villain, you don’t get the “Massacre everybody” action.
You do end up with… well, you’ll have to read it.
The last thing to know – someone complained on his werewolf web site that “Stop making them smell like wet dogs. It’s not funny. These things are terrifying.”
Eyewitnesses that claim to have seen Garou describe the smell of blood, urine and wet dog. All of them. Can’t have a hero that smells like pee, so hey- he smells like blood and wet dog. Sorry.
And suddenly I’ve got novels that reek of doom, pain, blood and one massive werewolf who isn’t even done growing yet.
The series is too cool, and I can’t stop playing in it. I might end up with more than just a trilogy.
