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Extensive study tracing the family trees of the Rainchildren and other cooperative tribes has given me a great conviction in support of the spiritual side of our cultural heritage. That is to say that there is no doubt in my mind that we have an unusual, great, and mystical power, and a responsibility to use it for the betterment of the Earth.
Careful analysis of our families, and the known bloodlines of others, demonstrates that lycanthropy simply cannot be fully explained by current knowledge of evoluton and genetics. Firstly there is the shapeshifting ability itself; the ability to change from a wolf to human, and vice versa, and the ability to blend at will the qualities of wolf and human to varying effects. This ability is astounding. "Normal" humans and wolves have nothing remotely like it. With minor exceptions, neither does anything else. A few other werecreatures are known to have existed (for example the werebears of Ohlone report), but these are relatively rare, if not extinct. Humans and wolves are not extremely close to each other evolutionarily (though wolves and bears are); one might expect a were-monkey, or bear-wolf shape-changer more reasonable and common than a Primate-Carnivore cross-order shape-changer. How could such a thing come about? How could it leave so little real evidence as to be regarded a complete myth by humans, and leave its origins so clouded even from our own people?
One detail I have found extremely telling of our ability to continue to exist, if not very explanatory of our actual origins: the analysis of genetic samples, carefully performed by trusted contacts. Unfortunately these people are not in the top of their field, and certain limitations were necessary to mask the records created by their research. Yet the data I was able to obtain is incredible enough; genetic samples taken from an individual in wolf form, compared to samples taken from the same individual while in human form, are NOT identical. Taken from wolf form, the chromosomes have the appearance of a wolf sample: 78 chromosomes (39 pairs). Taken from human form, they have the appearance of a human sample: 46 chromosomes (23 pairs). This means that the transformation occurs at a genetic level. Where do the extra 32 wolf chromosomes go? Without an exhausively thorough analysis of the actual genes within the samples, we cannot tell if the genetic material also changes on a molecular level, or if it simply regroups into a different number of chromosomes. Though not any expert, I tend to assume the latter, and that both samples actually contain the same genetic code; a mixture of human and wolf genes. Remember that, though there are many animals closer to wolves than humans (and vice versa), still a great number of genes are common to all mammals, and these would be the same in both human and wolf samples. The question is the part of the material which ought to be different in a wolf and a human, and whether that is different in the same werewolf when taking different shape. Sadly I do not think a detailed enough analysis can be made with sufficient secrecy, given the amount of work required. This must remain a mystery for now.
Still, this seems to make sense; werewolves, whether born of a wolf mother or human mother, can breed with wolf, human, or werewolf. If the chromosomes regroup according to the physical form, there will always be a matching number of chromosome pairs in the gametes involved. There is some unconfirmed speculation that our kind can even reproduce with various dog breeds (of sufficient physical size), given that this is also true of ordinary wolves. Of course, this notion appears to be universally repugnant to us, for sociological reasons. There has, however, been a suggestion that this may have occurred occasionally in the past, with undesirable results; our were-friends in France suspect that the infamously predatory wild 'Beasts of Gevaudan' in the 1760's which so galvanized the French to nearly exterminate their wolf (and werewolf) population, were the result of a werewolf-mastiff mating, or something similarly unfortunate. Normal wolf-dog hybrids are themselves most often larger than either parent breed, and tend to possess a random assortment of wolf and dog instincts, often joining the predatory skills of wolves with the aggressive temperment of large dogs. This phenomenon hybridization itself seems to me strikingly similar to the common mentality of the strange wolf-man hybrid that is the werewolf.
In any case, the offspring of a werewolf mating show the kind of variance one would expect from genetics, but with an extra complication. There is surely some genetic component that is only sometimes passed from parent to child; offspring inherit the natural shape of their mother, whether wolf or human, but if either parent is not a werewolf, the children may or may not prove to be lycanthropic. Such offspring are typically known as 'halfbloods,' but I find that their own reproduction statistics follow a pattern identical to those of 'fullbloods.' In other words, reproductively speaking, there are no halfbloods; one is either a werewolf or one is not. This itself appears consistent with genetic probability, but for the fact that, on the whole, those of us designated 'halfbloods' are significantly less robust and vital than 'fullbloods,' even when a 'fullblood' is the child of two 'halfblood' parents. The significant factor that throws off genetic logic is that ALL offspring of two 'halfbloods' are either 'fullbloods' or non-werewolves. According to genetic probability (if lycanthropy were an inherited gene or set of genes), SOMETIMES an offspring of two 'halfbloods' ought to be another 'halfblood,' but instead we find that this is NEVER the case.
It does, however, appear that at least some non-werewolf children of werewolves are carriers of some kind of unexpressed genetic marker. Sometimes their descendants multiple generations later have proven, without warning, to be werewolves. Yet these so-called 'recessives,' neither of whose parents are apparently lycanthropic, do not appear to carry a recessive gene as such (or a set of recessive genes that allow lycanthropy). In genetics, a recessive gene is one that is only expressed when there is a matching set inherited from both parents. Blondeness, for instance, is recessive: only if a blondeness gene comes from both parents (bb) is the child blonde. If either parent contributes a gene for dominant brown hair instead (Bb), the child cannot be blonde.
In contrast, the recessive quality of lycanthropy seems to need no matching gene; 'recessives' have appeared in bloodlines in which only one parent is descended from a werewolf (and therefore may carry a marker), while the other parent is descended from ancestors who are extremely unlikely to have wereblood in them. An excellent example is our own great-grandfather, Rainchild himself; his father was a native of central North America, where there were demonstrably neither native werewolves nor legends of them (until the coming of Europeans), while his mother was a descendant of recent Russian immigrants. It is certain that his father's bloodline contained no recessive markers from American werewolf stock (which did not exst), and nearly as certain that it contained none from European werewolf stock, as his particular tribe was noted for its avoidance of white immegrants.
Again complicating this is the fact that 'recessive' werewolves, whether born human or wolf, appear always possessed of greater strength and vitality even than common 'fullbloods.' They also, perhaps due to the werewolf-lacking situations into which they are usally born, have a disturbing tendancy to erupt in an uncontrolable and violent manner when first experiencing change. Rainchild himself was one of the few exceptions on record, owing to his unusual personal experiences; sadly not even all recessive cases within our own tribe, where they are surrounded by were-cousins, have been as fortunate as his.
It seems illogical that a werewolf child with no werewolf parents should be the strongest, when a child of two werewolf parents is stronger than a child of one werewolf parent. Only from a spiritual point of view does this begin to make sense. Wisdom comes down to us, both from the visions of our ancestor Rainchild and from the lore of other were-folk who have married into our tribe, that we are the inheritors and guardians of the Earth. Rainchild himself agreed with many Native American's views that all persons, no matter what breed, are resposible for the protection of Mother Earth and Her creatures. The ancestors of our other relatives mantain that we, as the Mother's chosen, are uniquely qualified to enforce this responsibility.
In analyzing the talents and strengths that we possess as werewolves, I become convinced of this viewpoint. We alone (or nearly alone) of all creatures take transmutable shape between two relatively unrelated animal species, one of which lives in harmony with Nature, and one which does not. We alone possess a staggeringly disproportionate strenth and skill that comes from a deeply felt spiritual power. Those of us born from two of our own kind are reinforced by both parents, and are stronger than those born of one parent, while those born from one werewolf parent are more cautious, and more able to form bridges between peoples. Those whose inheritance has lied buried and hidden usually find themselves awakening in far places, removed from other werekind. This is where they are most needed, and so they inherit all the stregth withheld from their parents to protect them as they form the nucleus of a new pack. Our diplomats negotiate when possible, our warriors strike when needed, and our healers and shamans then begin the true work to guide the world toward enlightenment.
The power bequeathed to us allows us to take the forms of two of the most successful high-order creatures to populate the globe in a vast array of environments; wolf and man. As man has turned his back on Nature for the most part, and the wolf has turned from peaceful predator to suffering prey at the hands of man himself, it falls to us to take this inheritance and treat it with the truth and respect, and with the action, that it deserves.
- Hunter Sequoia
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