questions about were-kin infection

[Shadowhawk]

The Naga issue might be a result of many books and games portraying them as evil, as well as the traditional snake=bad concept, but I recall (though I'm no expert on the subject) eastern nagas being semi-divine but somewhat dangerous to mortals in general, though not truly malicious, with certain specific nagas actually evil.

In most western myths, games (where nagas are evil) and e.g. by father Tolkien dragons are greedy, treacherous and usually evil. But on Sennadar dragons are very intelligent rarely evil species. So I wonder why there nagas are evil... (if dragons ain't).

I've been thinking about the regeneration, and the closest I can get is that since Were-kin (or at least Were-cats, since I'm not as sure about the other species) are constantly in a limited contact with the All via their altered nature, the enhanced strength and regeneration sort of bleed through the connection. That makes some degree of sense, I think, but doesn't help with the pre/post Breaking part. Maybe Fel could clear up the issue?

If the cause of regeneration is close contact of Were-Kin with All, who for example doesn't want its creation to perish, then it would be understandable that in all Were-Kin enhanced regeneration is limited to hybrid form, most marked as (not natural) creation of All. Or maybe that is remaining "shadow" of original creation "spell", which gets active when the creation in question gets damaged and remakes wounded Were-Kin in its hybrid form (this explanation needs that Were-Kin were originally created in hybrid form; but that is quite probable).

This explanation would shift somewhat the explanation why magically enhanced weapons and silver (and maybe otherwordly material also) caused woulds do not regenerate: magic enhanction or silver severe somewhat contact with All, or the flow of shadows of original Druidic spell, not the magic coursing in Were body. But what it is about silver, that distinguishes it from other metals (common ones: iron, copper, bronze; precious ones: gold, platinum, mithrill)... what physical (or magical) characteristic makes it different... ?

It would also explain why unworked tools of nature (as most connected to All) and natural elements (acid, lightning, IIRC fire but I wonder why not cold for example) also cause damage: that [can be] because All notices the damage as coming from itself and stops trying to remake/heal wounded Were-creature. It needs to heal in normal way. But I wonder why Sorcery cannot heal those woulds: maybe All recognizes the wound made by silver/magic enhanced weapon/unworked tool of nature as it's feature, and "regenerate" the wound stopping unnatural healing attempts, allowing only human/animal speed natural healing. But then Druidic healing should work, I think.... Hmmmm...


Maybe I just should accept the facts at the face value: they are what they ware otherwise Were' would be too powerfull They have to have some weakness...

[Shadowhawk]

"Honor and Blood", Chapter 19 (Goddess tells tarin the story of the races)

"(...) Would it offend you to know that your race evolved from common housecats, Tarrin?"

agrees with the story told (that Were came from animal side).

"The Aeradalla are also magical beings, but they evolved from humans, not animals."

So from technical point of view Aeradalla should be able to becone Were if the human-Aerdalla split took place after the creation of Were-Kin. But there are probably too different for Lycanthrope curse to affect them. So no winged Were-Cats.

BTW. I hope you do realize that smaller animals are stronger wrt their weight than larger ones, because the strength scales with the area of muscle cross section (length squared), while mass scales with the volume (length cubed).

[Shadowhawk]

Here is some quote to think about Were-Kin infection (Lycantrophy).

"Honor and Blood, Chapter 27 (talk with Sathon before attack on Torrian)

Tarrin was surprised at how versatile Druidic magic could be. He learned a number of useful spells dealing with organic matter, from flesh to wood to earth to leather, spells to change its shape, age it, invigorate it, even destroy it. Tarrin had been startled to know that a Druid of even moderate talent could use his Druidic magic on himself and affect his own flesh, and bring about a shapeshifting by magic that was natural for the Were-kin. But where Were-kin were limited to three forms, a Druid could transform into nearly any living creature. Sathon warned him explicitely that Druidic shapeshifting was not something for him to try, because he was already a shapeshifter. Any time a Druid Were-kin attempted shapeshifting through Druidic magic, it caused the Were-kin to go temporarily insane. The magic that made up a Were-kin was incompatible with Druidic spells of shapeshifting, forcing a creature whose body was already designed to transform to do so into a form for which it was not designed. The taking of an alien shape caused the instincts within to go wild, and that triggered madness.

So Druids have learned how to shapeshift...

[Forbidder]

The guy who tried and messed up did survive, and since he was immune to being were, he must have improved and perfected the shape shifting druid spell before he died and taught it to someone.

And I'm surprised there aren't any were-fishes..  why is it only were-mammals?  I guess that would totally depend on the vector of infection.  If body fluid is the only vector, then I'm sure some body fluid would have gotten into a small pond or something and infected some water creatures.  Of course the whole thing being too dilute probably made it safe.

But where are the were snakes, or were insects, or were worms?  basically any animal that consumed the Alpha's remains would have been infected.  Perhaps they weren't compatible and it needed to be a mammal for the infection to spread.

Hmm make that a carnivourous/omnivourous mammal.
A were-whale would be interesting if somehow the Alpha's remains got mixed into some whale bait.

[hatten_jc]

The guy who tried and messed up did survive, and since he was immune to being were, he must have improved and perfected the shape shifting druid spell before he died and taught it to someone.

And I'm surprised there aren't any were-fishes.. why is it only were-mammals? I guess that would totally depend on the vector of infection. If body fluid is the only vector, then I'm sure some body fluid would have gotten into a small pond or something and infected some water creatures. Of course the whole thing being too dilute probably made it safe.

But where are the were snakes, or were insects, or were worms? basically any animal that consumed the Alpha's remains would have been infected. Perhaps they weren't compatible and it needed to be a mammal for the infection to spread.

Hmm make that a carnivourous/omnivourous mammal.
A were-whale would be interesting if somehow the Alpha's remains got mixed into some whale bait.

The Were infection might have been limited to Warmblooded animals only.

So Were-dogs.
Were-wolfs.
Were-cats.
Were-bears
Were-horses.
Were-cows.

Not fish and other insekts.  
Other wise Were-cats would NOT be the mightest of Were-creatsures.
The Were-COCKROACH would have been it.
It can survive anything fear them..

[Wildcat]

Were-Cockroach? I don't even want to imagine what one of those would look like.   Think about the entire series with one of them instead of kitty-Tarrin....

[Shadowhawk]

The Were infection might have been limited to warmblooded animals only.

So Were-dogs.
Were-wolves.
Were-cats.
Were-bears
Were-horses.
Were-cows.

It seems that only carnivorous or omnivorous (ones which eat carrion sometimes) mammals (compatibility with humans) Were produced as Were. So no Were-horses (centaurs aren't Were-Kin!) and no Were-cows.

[flail93]

i'm not sure a ware-kins healing is from the all. not directly anyways. the is a part when tarrin is serching for the fire staff, he wants to cut his hair and it keeps growing back. kimmie tells him that its about the way he sees himself. whatever way he sees himself his body tries to mimic. some of the healing i think comes from the fact that whenever a ware-kin is wounded it changes the body and a ware-kin just reaches  out sub contiously to the all to fix his/her body. tarrins mother said all ware-kin have druidic abilities.
   

[AdamX]

Were-kin regeneration does come from the All. In the Pyrosian Chronicles, Tarrin, Mist, and Haley discover that their wounds heal much slower than on Sennadar. Not as slow as a human, but not as fast as normal. They probably wouldn't have regeneration at all if it wasn't for Sarraya's amulet.

[Dash]

Off topic but:

They probably wouldn't have regeneration at all if it wasn't for Sarraya's amulet.

I disagree. Sarraya's amulet shouldn't work, but Tarrin is powering it. At the start, they didn't know Tarrin was reaching back to Sennadar, but later on, I think they figured it out.

From the first chapter of Sword:

This worlds natural energy, what he would call the All, was radically different from what was at home, and that was what was causing them the most trouble right now.  That major difference weakened him and the other Were-kin, for they drew power from the All which fueled some of their quasi-magical abilities.

[AdamX]

Sarraya's amulet was designed for giving an All-like magic source in off-world conditions(i.e. not on Sennadar). Every planet would have an All, since it is the echo of the power that created the universe, maybe Sarraya's amulet transforms the All of another world into something more like Sennadar's All, a magic more compatible with Sarraya and Fireflash. Or maybe the Were-kin regeneration is being fueled by the All of Pyrosia, but since it is a less compatible magic than what the Were-kin are used to(and created with) they draw less energy from it, hence the slower regeneration rate. We do know that the All on Pyrosia is somewhat compatible with the All on Sennadar, but it works differently. Tarrin connected with the All on Pyrosia, not by reaching through the Cat, but by reaching directly for that power, and Tarrin is a Druid on Sennadar, not Pyrosia, so unless all magics work similarly across different worlds, hmmmm, lost my train of thought, maybe I'll re-read this and finish it later....

Glad Fel doesn't lose his train of thought halfway through writing a chapter, then post it.

[Saetan]

I know this all has been answered already, and I don't really want to beat the dead dog anymore, but I found a quote that was rather interesting.

B1, C8

"Good.  Oh, just one word of warning.  As you can see, Tarrin isn't human.  He's a Were-cat, and if you're not familiar with his kind, they have magical capabilities.  One of them is that their blood and spittle can change other humans into Were-kin too.  We honestly have no idea what effect it would have on you, Allia, since you are Selani.  So you should exercise a bit of caution.  Don't put yourself into a position where his blood gets into your mouth, and Tarrin, please don't bite her."

am not saying that this leaves open any possibility that it could cause interesting effects with non-human/cat races, since fel already bluntly said no . . . just leaves an opening for interesting fun "what if" questions to be asked

[Super_C]

Tarrin should have been a were-donkey.  :D

[J-Man5]

Tarrin should have been a were-donkey.  :D

Why?  Because he acts like an immature ass sometimes?

J-Man5