Hypothetically, what real life cities do you think werewolves would live in (considering humans actually knew they existed so there is no reason to hide)? What would be a werewolf's idealistic city?
I know white wolf publishing famously used Chicago as the main home for werewolves in the werewolf RPG. I think any city that is pretty close to a rural area or forested area would be a good home for were creatures
maybe Portland or Seattle. large cities and the eastern parts of the states are much more rural. Oregon i know already has wolves. what i dont know is how long a drive it whould take to go from city to country in these cities. but research always helps.
Yes, make sure you pay attention to your word choice. An idealistic city would likely be a city centered around, or run by, ideals.
Sorry about that. I actually did mean ideal city. I've been going back and forth on whether I should use a real city. The problem is I'm from a city where I would not want to set a story, but have never been to the cities I am considering. I was thinking I could just have an alternate version of America, which would feature fictional cities where I could set the story. A lot of people say it helps to visit or live in a city where you want your story to take place and since I can't do that, I'm wondering whether I should take the fictional alternate America route. And cities like New York and Chicago have been used a lot in urban fantasy as have the typical rural towns where nothing much happens. I was hoping to get everyone's opinion on what cities they think werewolves would live in if they were real and out to the world, what cities they would more than likely avoid, and what types of cities you think they would like (since I'm considering using a fictional city as the setting)
Besides the obvious, you could go old-world and set this in Russia, as they have massive forests and are sparsely populated. Honestly, I would stay away from the upper northwest, because it's been overdone.
I would recommend a city in Colorado. The state is famous for its easy access to nature and the wilderness. I live in Denver and it takes me roughly 30 to 45 minutes to be in the mountains/wilderness and that is solely due to traffic. There also is a very wealthy and well planned city called Evergreen which would be an ideal place. If you look it up, you might like it! Hope this helps!!
The main problem I'm having is that there are so many factors I have to consider when choosing a place to set the story in. For one, my protagonist is a young African American female werewolf. So wherever she is, I want there to be a significant African American population, so the odds of her living in a very small rural area is a bit slim. Also, being a werewolf I'm sure she would need access to a forested area but also need to be in the city for work. I was thinking of creating an alternate version of the United States. The layout would be the same, but some city names would be changed and may be a bit larger. The reason for that would be that werewolves I think would naturally gravitate towards rural areas because of the easy access to nature, which would drive people into the cities. As a result, cities would expand and I feel that most people would thrive in metropolises. Eventually, werewolves would come live in these cities for work which is why my protagonist would live in one of these cities. I guess a good example of this done well is The Hunger Games in which the story is set in the United States, but it is an alternate version of the country. However, there is no post apocalyptic feel to my story at all and the alterations are the result of werewolves and humans coexisting rather than some natural disaster. What are your thoughts on this?
It's your story. It's up to you to decide what your story requires of the setting, and to choose the setting accordingly. You might consider a setting you know well, over one you will have to research to write about believably. Ultimately, the decision is yours, and yours alone. It isn't the hardest one you will have to make, either, so you should get used to making them on your own.
I suggest you set it where you like. If you like your setting, and you can make your character move comfortably in it, it turns out great. You could even set it on an oil platform, if you like it and write convincingly about it, it's going to be just fine. In my (more than humble) opinion, there is no such this as "ideal" when it comes to fantasy. But, if it's a suggestion you are looking for, and you are comfortable with a U.S. setting more than others, I would say you need a rural, misty enviroment. New England settings have been succesful for many writers as H.P. Lovecraft, to name one of my favorites. Another option could be a big city that also offers a good deal of nature, New York, for example. Werewolves could prowl about Central Park and metro stations. But in the end, it's really just up to your taste.
Try an international city with some very old history. I mention Sofia because I think it would be a perfect Werewolf city and very suitable for the OP. Ancient yet modern. Check it out.
It can take place in any city. Werewolves travel a lot in packs because they can live anywhere they want.
I was looking at Baltimore, Seattle, and San Diego, but am having trouble deciding on one. And because I cannot go and visit these cities, I'm not sure if I should even set the story in a real place.I would probably just make a fool out of myself trying to write in a city that I've never been to for an extended period of time. What do you think of fictional cities set in a real place. For example, I was thinking of creating a fictional place called Atlas City that would be located on the west coast in southern California. So the city's layout and atmosphere could be inspired by typical southern California cities, but I would not be constrained by it being an actual place. Are there any authors that have used realistic fictional cities as their settings?
I use fictional cities but don't name them, so I don't make it obvious that they don't exist. I never really see a need to name the city anyway. I simply describe the places I am going and make up street names if needed. If you do this you can use the vibe, style, culture of an existing city and pretty much rebuild it any way you need.
I was also thinking of Minneapolis or Seattle. Which do you think would offer more flexibility as a setting?
I think it depends a lot on what happens in the story. What do the werewolves do? Do they work regular jobs in the day and hunt at night? Do they kill people or animals? Are they intelligent in animal form, or are they savage brutes? Is the story about them coexisting with millions of people in the mainstream of society, or in their own packs? Is this a horror with a lot of bodies, or a quiet, dark thriller? All of these things will determine whether you should put them in a big city like London or a smaller midwestern town. When I think of werewolves, I think of cool, urban, ironic types. Maybe I watched too much Teen Wolf. I'd love to read a werewolf book set in New York or London (yes, I hear the song playing in my head too). I think they'd have a great nightlife. Badump bump. If you're going to place it in a real city, it has to be a city you know. Otherwise people who know the city will read it and it won't work. If you're picking a fictitious city, I wouldn't bother naming it unless it's in a fantasy world. If it's set in the current-day USA, naming a fake city in a real place in a real state is going to come off strange, I think. Tell us a little more about what these werewolves do, and I think we could make more suggestions.
I honestly think that maybe you need to think of something like what state would they live in first correct? Werewolves are creatures of the night and the day correct but prefer that they hunt at night. Or that is at least the normal stereotype that falls to the Werewolf, so why not place them in somewhere like Alaska where the cold wont effect them and you can choose what time you want to write such as you can do the Artic Cycle that limits both night and the day at it's perspective times. Just a thought
The werewolves don't hunt people. Those that do are hunted down by the closest pack and killed. In my story, the existence of werewolves is known, but people have thought them to be extinct for 200 years. While there are rumors of their being simply endangered, with pockets of them still thriving in some places, there is no way for people to know who is a werewolf. So they are hesitant to reveal themselves publicly. The problem is I want to set the story in place that is big enough to have a lot going on and room to explore. But I also want a large forest that they can go to and run around as wolves without being spotted. Also, and I know it is too early to start thinking about this, but I do want to write a series. So the place I set it in needs to be interesting enough that a reader will want to know more about the place. I've recently changed my mind a bit about setting it in a real city. I've only lived in Atlanta and I don't want to set it there, so any other place won't seem realistic. How do you think the world would be altered if werewolves were once a thriving group of people? I was thinking about the U.S. having a specialized zone that was established a long time ago to protect humans from werewolves, but I wasn't sure how that would work.
