Lately in fantasy stories I have seen a growing trend of urban settings where all mythical creatures are real. This means the fae, werewolves, witches, vampires, etc. all live alongside humans whether people know about them or not. This works well for some stories while others seem to overdo it. In my story I have two different types of "werewolves". The first are the natural werewolves which are called lycans. They came from an ancient pagan race that traveled all over the world as nomads and made some kind of spell (I'm still working out the origins) so that they could transform into large wolf-like creatures. They can change at will, must change on the full moon, have an aversion to silver, and have a very limited control of some magic. Werewolves are artificial lycans that scientists made a long time ago. Unlike lycans, who can control or at lease have some sort of balanced relationship with their wolf side, werewolves are ruled by their wolves and spread their infection through a bite. Changing into a lycan is a long and much different process that most lycans don't remember anymore. There are more werewolves than lycans since most lycans were killed off in a mass genocide known as The Purge many years ago. So, does the two different types of werewolves idea sound good? Does anyone have any suggestions on it? And are there any websites or books I can look at with different werewolf myths that will help while I develop them both?
(This post contains spoilers, by the way.) The Southern Vampire Mysteries (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood) is one of the bigger examples of this. In the series, as some reading this will know, there are Weres and weres. Only werewolves retain the proper noun status of "Were". There's also shifters. Now, werewolves are the most populous, most badass in the supernatural world, but have their whole gripe with vampires. Two weres who breed together will create a full were. These shift into just the animal itself and can do so outside of the full moon as well as during the full moon itself. Bitten weres "are where you get your wolfman", to quote Alcide Herveaux. In the series, Jason Stackhouse is abducted by Felton Norris and turned into a bitten werepanther. Now, I find this to not be that bad at all. I mean, we have plenty of art and film with crazy looking wolfmen. Twilight gives you massive, dire wolves, essentially, which don't look monstrous at all. The reason I find that stupid is because people need to get the idea for the horror films from somewhere, and if you're going to pretend these things are real, then they should at least look like they were the inspiration for horror. As I said, Jason is abducted and turned into a bitten werepanther. In the fourth season of the show, True Blood, not only is he abducted and bitten by both Felton and Crystal Norris (kissing cousins. ew) multiple times, he's tied to a bed and raped by the Hotshot women. After being convinced that at the full moon he'll turn into a panther, his sister Sookie stays with him. He disappears into the woods, she follows, and finds her friend Alcide Herveaux who, in the novels, told her about bitten weres. In the adaptation to screen, however, Alcide Herveaux has changed his tune and decided to tell her that the ONLY way for a were to be born is to a full were couple. So, in response to your idea: sure, there's nothing wrong with the way you've got your idea, mostly. The lycanthropes are reminiscent of witchery involving skinwalking, where they'd wear the skin of an animal to transform into them. However, we've long since disproved that idea. There's a reason why you couldn't transform yourself into a giant wolf. Mass. Your body would have nowhere near the mass of a giant wolf. Even magic would need to obey a majority of the laws of physics, since you can't create or remove mass without repercussions. So the wolf you'd be transforming into would be human size still. As for the aversion to silver, WHY? Do you know why silver is believed to be strong against supernatural creatures? Because silver has natural antibacterial properties. If they're magical creatures, then it's not a disease. Your werewolves could be allergic to silver considering that it's an engineered virus or something along those lines. But even then, there's no guarantee that this "science" was based around the use of bacteria anyway. It could just be some occult gene therapy. My point: don't just use things like werewolves and give them the stereotypical strengths and flaws without actually thinking about it. Hell, silver only came about because of The Wolfman.
It is quite creative, which I believe is the most important thing. Taking an intriguing idea, then steering it off from the stereotypical version of it. That, and interesting names. Lot's of interesting names. But I digress, anyways, I like the idea, just make sure to, as I said earlier, keep the whole individual creative touch you appear to be crafting with this story.
