The following is the setup I have planned for the worgen lore guidebook, and also serves as a list of subjects. See one that catches your interest? Want to learn more about it? Just ask!
1. History
the worgen legacy
1.1 - Ancient History
Mythos
Rise of the Kaldorei
War of the Ancients
War of the Satyr
Plight of the Kaldorei
Malfurion and the Druids of the Pack
Alpha Prime and the Druids of the Scythe
Banishment
1.2 - Modern History
Rise of Man
Tribal Man and the Troll Wars
Humanity rises
First War
Second War
Third War
Return of the Worgen
Genn and the Bloodfang Pack
(Shadowfang Pack, Moonrage Pack)
Velinde and the Terrowulf Pack
Jitters and the Nightbane Pack
Arugal and the Bloodmoon Pack
Fall of Gilneas
1.3 - Current Events
Cataclysm
Lord of his Pack: Worgen and Kaldorei
Wolfheart: Worgen join the Alliance, Garrosh meets worgen
Hyjal: Return of Goldrinn
Felwood: The Talonbranch Pack
Silverpine: The Gilneas Liberation Front, The Bloodfang, and the Forsaken War Machine
Gilneas: The Blackhowl Pack
Plaguelands: Fiona
Mists of Pandaria
here be bears
Warlords of Draenor
Garrison: The Bloodfang Pack on Draenor
Legion
The Scythe of Elune
Darkshire
Battle for Azeroth
Books
Before the Storm
Game
Gilnean Heritage Armor Questline -
Gilneas, Goldrinn, The Dream, Rage, Duskwood, Bloodeyes
2. Phsycology
the worgen mind
4.1 - Instinct
Survivor
Fight or Flight
Hunger
Freedom
Guardian
Parental
Territory
Dominance
Predator
The Hunt
The Kill
The Pack
4.2 - Emotion
Rage - Rage, anger, and fury
Despair - fear, despair, and sorrow
Love - family, love, and sacrifice
4.3 - Intelligence
Communication
Verbal - ferals speak in clear Common, and can give speeches (Gervase, Alpha Prime)
Nonverbal - genn uses ear flicks and growls to communicate to his pack
Written - ferals have a holy book, and steal books from darkshire
Culture
Architecture - ferals build huts out of furs and leathers
Nomenclature - ferals have a naming system
Style - ferals have clothing style, tattoos, and warpaint
Hierarchy
Leadership - ferals have sane worgen in leadership, Packleader, Denmother, Alpha
Pack Roles
Mindless
3. Physiology
the worgen body
3.1 - Characteristics
Anatomy - man and wolf
Dimorphism - male and female
Appearance - sizes, colors, options
3.2 - Capabilities
Senses
Eyesight
Hearing
Smell
Agility
Dexterity
Speed
Leaping
Strength
Muscle
Claw
Fang
Stealth
Instinct - instincts of an apex predator
Fur - camouflage, soft and silent
Anatomy - feet, eyes,
3.3 - Systems
Regulation
Perspiration - Creatures with fur pant and sweat from their paws. If a creature were to sweat from their skin - which is under layers of fur - it would just get their fur wet.
Oooh, good one! Iād been comparing/contrasting the worgen and werewolves, but I hadnāt considered the ādogā similarities/differences.
Gives you bacon
Dogs are red-green colorblind (not just black and white), made up for with long distance sight, low light vision, and better motion sensing.
As far as I can tell, worgen are not colorblind. As part man and part beast, it appears they have the perks of both when it comes to vision. Their stellar eyesight is noted time and againā¦ with no mention of difference in color. Iām gonna have to look through Wolfheart to see if the worgen ever mention anything green or red.
But for now, thereās these two images from Curse of the Worgen. One depicts the dark forest of the Blackwald when Halfordās a human, and the other in the Blackwald when heās a worgen and exploring his senses. He couldnāt see without his glasses before, so of course heās more tham happy either way.
Aah, another good one. I havenāt thought about that one in ages.
Unlike werewolves, there is no superhealing, and no evidence of immortality. Bullets have to be removed (CotW loc 124), they canāt be pushed out. A shotgun to the belly isnāt gonna grow back (loc 97, 118). Worgen also wear bandages (ingame ferals), and many even have scars (loc 34).
As for immortalityā¦ no sources for that. Theyāve only really been back in the real world for a few decades, so thereās not been time for them to really die from age. Buuutā¦ thereās no grey or white hair option, like there is for humans. Ultimately, the only source I have is Genn Greymane, and the aches of age he feels in human form.
As with many worgen, Genn more often than not remained in his lupine form. He felt stronger, younger that way. When human, the king felt the aches of age. (Wolfheart pg 316)
Thankyou! Iām gonna have to remind myself to include that one. And hereās a bacon for youuuu
There is two schools on the selfhealing thing. One is that feral worgen have itās own selfhealing and this extends mostly to the RPG. Essentially the other is that we can be killed, but we are harder to kill and we can survive wounds thatāll kill other races and heal faster. Near as I can figure itās about as well as the Trolls.
Again the tabletop RPG comes into play, plus we are not told anything and it gets ignored when asked. Once cursed, you are stuck looking that way until you die.
Edit, Worgen are also very resistant to Curses and Diseases (Aberration Racial)
Hereās some more info:
Right, but weāre talking canon worgen lore here. The RPG lore was written for the RPG, and is not considered canon for World of Warcraft.
When it comes to trolls, they do specifically have a regrowth ability. Since they do, they make a big deal about it in troll lore, and even make it a racial mechanic. If it were so with worgen, itād ne similarly showcased. There is no mention of any such feature for worgen, they are shown dieing from bullets and simple sword attacks, and they are seen missing parts of their ears.
Not sure what you mean hereā¦ worgen use human form all the time. Even the Bloodfang and Nightbane worgen use human form in the comics.
That is indees a racial ingame mechanic. However, I wish to provide more lore sources - meaning from the stories and quests - where worgen have demonstrated this fact.
Yes. I frequently contribute to that page myself as an editor. Like a wikipedia article, it can be edited by anyone, and is not a āsourceā. A wowpedia article is good, because they cite the sources for their claims, which you can scroll down and look at.
Some fingers and toes can grow back according to a story about Volājin becoming a shadowhunter.
Iām trying to remember where I saw the talk about the more hardy bodies worgen have.
You stop outwardly aging supposedly.
There are very little. I do know that Wolfsbane is deadly to worgen in lore.
Best we source we got right now. Iām going to reread Wolfheart in a few days, and reread Lord of his Pack. Iām also redoing the Worgen Starting zone. Like I said, the Devs have stopped answering questions about the Worgen.
Aaah, bit of a tricky one, but thisāll be good to mention in either the Body or Soul section. Iāll see if I can do this one in citation style.
Worgen Eyesight
Sight
Worgen vision is far better than an ordinary humanā [1]. While one may need glasses[2][6] in human form, the worgen eye can see more clearly than dreamed possible[3]. In addition, worgen are capable of seeing and hunting in low-light environments [4][5]. While it does enhance your vision, becoming a worgen does not fix eye injuries[9]. (See Speculation on Night Vision, and check RP Tips for how to see distances.)
Color
In human form, a worgen will have the eye color they were born with, such as green, blue, or brown[7]. When in their true form, however, a worgenās eyes will shine in brilliant hues of gold[8], ranging from brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds. (There is no canon lore on other color options. See Speculation below.)
Glow
Worgen eyes actually glow hues of gold, much like Goldrinn himself[12], wolves of the wild[13], the wolf-shaped Pack Form[17], and Kaldorei druids who have reached their greatest potential[11]. Whether this glow is because of any one reason or a combination of them is unknown, but it is a minor glow compared to Draenei, and does not interfere with stealth and hunting[15][16]. This feature - along with the fur and fangs - is not included in their human form.
In lore source material, all Worgen have golden glowing eyes. Yet in the game, other colors are available for customization, and females do not (yet) have glowing options. These other eye colors may be attributed to the magic your character uses, could be simple variance (many in-game wolf models range in eyecolor), or you may simply specify and emote that your characterās eyes are golden.
Sources
[1] The curse more than heightened our senses. We see things that no normal human can. (Knaak, Richard Aā¦ World of Warcraft: Wolfheart (p. 267). Gallery Books. Kindle Edition.)
Hereās what Iāve got so farā¦ though I may have to re-visit the worgen eye color idea. I just found a piece in Wolfheart that blows a hole in the āall worgen have golden eyesā theory.
A male worgen stalked up to him. Nostrils flaring, the male sniffed Jarod carefully. The deep brown eyesāthe most āhumanā feature of the otherwise bestial figureānarrowed slightly.
Knaak, Richard Aā¦ World of Warcraft: Wolfheart (p. 242). Gallery Books. Kindle Edition.
What do yall think about the formatting though? I think I like the idea of a speculation and RP Tips section, using the spoiler dropdown
Why do Gilneans who become afflicted with the Worgen curse sometimes obtain the desire to eat meat raw, and savagely? In some cases, while the animal is alive?
Gilneans seemed to be a pretty high class people. If anything, generally sophisticated. Yet now we have seen many examples of them becoming exceptionally brutal. I was going to just overlook the villains as just letting themselves become bloodlusted and using their new form to its fullest, but then we also have examples like these two:
https:// wow. gamepedia. com/Sam_Trawley
https:// wow. gamepedia. com/Micaiah_Wiewandt
Sorry about spaces, for some reason itās not letting me post links. Normally I can.
Ahah, I hadnāt even thought of addressing classes in worgen culture.
I canāt recall ever seeing a named worgen mage NPC. However, I do know at least one Gilnean wizard. Archmage Arugal himself was a Gilnean, who left to join the Kirin Tor in Dalaran, only returning to Gilneas when Dalaran was destroyed by the Scourge.
Gilnean Culture (click to expand)
Gilnean culture and history could present some reasons there are less worgen mages. In short, there may not have been many mages in Gilneas to be bitten. The city was cut off from the world, so there were no Kirin Tor visiting, much less teaching apprentices in Gilneas. The city is culturally independent and industrial, so perhaps less focus on mystic arts as a culture. Mages that did pop up may have gone to join the Kirin Tor or the Alliance, meaning they wouldnāt be in Gilneas during the worgen apocalypse (Jaina too left her homeland at a young age, to join the Kirin Tor in Dalaran). In support of this, there is not one mention of Arcane magic in the Curse of the Worgen comic or the starter zone. Meanwhile around Stormwind, the Dark Riders comic has a mage main character and everything to do with arcane, with the Elwynn quests reflecting this.
Pack Worgen Culture (click to expand)
Now on the flipside, thereās plenty of reasons why wild worgen society would not have - or produce - mages. It was kaldorei mages and their meddling in the arcane that brought the Legion to Azeroth 10k years ago, and lead to the banishment of the kaldorei mages shortly after. So there were no kaldorei mages around to get bitten during the War of the Satyr. Then once they got out of the dream in modern day, they formed the Wolf Cult, and specifically recruited humans that agreed with their āre-wildingā and anti-civility ideology, being mostly thugs and rebels. I donāt imagine many scholarly wizards would jump at the opportunity to become a ājugernaught of rageā, and I donāt see an anti-civility culture producing its own wizardly scholars.
So one way or another, the use of arcane magic doesnāt seem as central to worgen cultures as it might to Silvermoon or even Stormwind. Even Genn Greymaneās own merlin-like advisor wasnāt a mage, but rather a royal alchemist, suggesting a focus on chemical and mechanical science. Of course, thatās not to say a worgen canāt become a mage, or that a mage canāt become a worgen. It simply has reason to be less likely, which would explain the certain lack of such NPC characters.
Sorry this one didnāt end up as clean and concrete as the lore on eyesight. Iām stuck on mobile for a few days, and this particular topic of cultures is far more theoretical and speculative based on lore. But hey, definitely made me get my thinking cap on! Now I feel like I aughta make a āworgen class guidesā guide too, like to go over worgen druids, deathknights, hunters and the like.
Thankyou for your questions! Havenāt been able to respond for a couple days, but these are definately helpful and I plan on answering, as well as adding these subjects to the guide.
Harvest Witches
I had to do a refresher on Harvest Witches. Thereās not a lot on them, at all, and I know itās a topic of debate. But there is far more to say they did not shapeshift than there is to suggest they did. Give me a bit, and Iāll post more on that.
Worgen Diets
I didnāt even know about these two, thanks! They definately support the argument for worgen carnivorous diets. But while they make a good case on their own, thereās far more on it in the books. Itās not just a sometimes thing. Even our good king Genn Greymane takes to all fours to hunt with claw and fang with his pack or royal guards in Wolfheart, and meat is a point of interest to worgen in both Curse of the Worgen and Dark Riders. Iāll see about collecting those sources and writing a portion on worgen diets.
Exactly how are worgen? Genn was able to push Saurfang (or some armored orc) off of Anduin. Smack Sylvanas across a room and break part of the titan floor. I know they can lift a human but I remember this one quest in Mount Hyjal where you fight in a pit and the worgen boss is able to lift the whole carriage to throw it out you.
Itās been stated by Blizzard that Worgen are canonically the strongest and fastest race in the Alliance. Of course this is very vague, but it at least gives us something to go off of.
I assume Worgen are super naturally strong, with the examples you stated being good evidence of such.
![:bacon:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/bacon.png?v=6" ":bacon:")