Is the Gilnean worgen doomed?

None of this, however, is really established as behavior that worgen in Warcraft practice.

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Are you just pulling from World of Darkness? I tried googling stuff about the word Metis outside of that series and the only thing I could find was of a Greek titan that Zeus tricked into turning into a fly so he could swallow her.

Edit: And one site saying there was a Native American folk story about werewolf transmission occuring simply by seeing another one, or by committing the sins of cannibalism or greed.

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That would be the Wendigo it would spread it’s curse by encouraging cannibalistic behavior on others.

Like it’s predecessor company Lion Rampart, the old White Wolf company was known for it’s research. Worgen in Azeroth seem to express themselves in different ways… some ferally carnivorus, others more calculatingly evil. So I could see the Northrend Worgen operating the way I describe.

The Gilnean Children would still have the worgen curse if a Human and Worgen Gilnean were together and ended up having children but that set human would also be a worgen if he or she was bitten or stretched by the Worgen.

So the Child would probably be a worgen.

Worgen children
By the CDev response, worgen have human children. The logic given is that curses do not pass to offspring. In lore however, curses do in fact pass to offspring, such as the Curse of Flesh, of the Sporemounds, of Seth, of Fel, Naga, and literally every race except Trolls are the result of mutation. There is also a worgen child in-game described as offspring, so it is possible by some means, either by bite, blood, or inheritance. I let my players choose for sake of story, since there is support for either argument.

The "Cure"
As for the state of the worgen cure, there is none. All worgen hunt in the wild on all fours, and have innate instincts and boiling rage. Genn Greymane still runs and hunts on all fours with a pack, as shown in Wolfheart. What -does- exist are sedatives and medications, such as the sedative created by Oliver Harris, which is rarely effective on mindiless worgen, who he then decapitates.

The Ritual
What also exists is the Ritual of Balance, a kaldorei ritual consisting of three visions acting as an anger management session to help resolve old grudges, and thus make the rage and instincts more manageable. This too has a poor success rate, and those that fail it go mindless from their own memories, and are put down by Genn and his men in Wolfheart. Neither the medication nor the therapy session pass to young. But have no fear, the mindless state is not the default, as shown by the worgen in northrend, and Genn himself, who could shapeshift before the ritual was even created.

Will worgen die out?
That is possible, if hunted to extinction all at once, but unlikely. The silverpine and duskwood worgen are the two remaining free feral packs, one fighting the Forsaken and the other biting humans, both of whom have advocated for spreading the curse. Neither seem to be losing numbers, and quest text says the Nightbane are growing. Even in the Alliance, there are those who willingly or reluctantly seek to become worgen, like Tess Greymane and Hillsbrad Refugees. Worgen can turn humans and night elves into worgen, have now spread across the world, and can use human form to blend in if threatened. Eradication at this point is highly unlikely.

That is Werewolf: the Apocalypse lore specifically, garou are a bit different than traditional lycanthropes.

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Oh shoot, really? I mighta missed that, can I get a Wowpedia link? I’ve got some people claiming that kids can’t be worgen I need to keep this on hold for.

The “Lil’ Bad Wolf”, flavor text reading “The oft-forgotten offspring of the Big Bad Wolf, found gorged and sleep in a basket of sweets.” added in Mists. Some discredit it since it is just a battle pet, but battle pets are a citable source.

(It is also questionable since the Big Bad Wolf was recently revealed to be a man in a fur suit in Legion. Is the adult a worgen in a suit? Is the child a kid in a suit? Was the child bitten or given blood? Hell if I know, but it is a worgen child and can and is roleplayed as such)

  • https://wow.gamepedia.com/Worgen#Reproduction
  • https://wow.gamepedia.com/Spiky_Collar

My general defense for that is this, and the fact that they have no source. Some claim the transformation would kill a child, but there is no source for that, and are grasping at straws.

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I expect we will have Worgens(and Forsaken but that is a whole other thing) for as long as their are needed.

Assuming Warcraft as a series were to end and the world actually gains peace, I expect the people of Gilneas would not transmit the curse to anyone else(sans maybe an Elite Militia).

Not as long as people can get the curse via bite of blood drinking.

Culturally? Yep, totally doomed. See the Worgen “heritage” armor questline.

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The source is Ask CDev #4 :

EDIT: I think I may have misinterpreted your post. Children can be worgen, if they’re bitten or given worgen blood, just like an adult. They can’t be born worgen, though.

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off topic I wonder where the majority of Gilnean’s even are now. Are they in stormwind slumming it or did they all leave with the Night elves and are setup in Hyjal?

Right, the claim with no source is that children cannot be worgen. Not that worgen cannot have children. The CDev claims that the curse is not hereditary, however there are no sources against other means, being bite or blood.

I think it’s just improper wording on Grandblade’s part since the premise of this entire thread is if the curse can be transmitted in utero. I don’t think anyone was really contesting if a child could be bitten or not. :stuck_out_tongue:

If it’s anything like real wolf behavior, I imagine you’d effectively have a puppy for three months before they start going nuts for real, and then I guess you do the irresponsible pet owner thing and either throw them out or euthanize them because you’ve already ruined their socialization by that point.

sounds like my grades
:sunglasses:
:point_right: :point_right:

Possibly in Hyjal though they did travel all over establishing settlements in the blasted lands and val’sharah. There are some sea bound worgen such as seen in island expeditions even becoming pirates.

Doesn’t the mother transfer nutrients and oxygen in her blood through the placenta? I don’t think it’s a matter of her blood literally circulating through the fetus, but in cases of mothers with HIV for example, there’s a chance the baby can be born with HIV, or contract HIV through breastfeeding.

This doesn’t mean for sure that the child of a worgen mother would have the curse, seeing as it’s a magic thing and not a disease, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable.

My headcanon is that prepubescent children exposed to the curse just don’t transform until their bodies are strong enough to handle it, Teen Wolf-style, and in the future there might be a generation of “natural-born” worgen who are different in some way from cursed worgen.

There’s a lot of inconsistency with how the curse is transfered, you can spread it by making someone drink your blood, yet their babies are born human. You can infect someone with a bite or scratch, yet there’s not a single case of worgen infection in the horde, they could’ve made it so the ritual made the curse inert but they really prefer to just leave us guessing.

waht

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I actually scrolled up to double check the date here.

Because while I agree with your points - the Worgen heritage quest sure doesn’t seem to.

There you have the most important non Worgen Gilnean trying to be a Worgen. Being told no by her dad. Going on a weird vision quest simulation of being a worgen. And then concluding being a worgen is a bad idea and it’s not what the Gilnean identity is about.

So guess it’s just tophats and bulldogs, then. As the Kul Tirans got all the cool Anglo fantasy toys already. So uh, too late to retcon the Gilneans into being Irish?

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Fair, but to realize she’s alright with being a human (and thus vulnerable to undeath) she had to be denied by her father, denied by the next worgen she turned to (you) and had to summon Goldrinn himself and go on a lengthy vision quest. Most humans don’t get such treatment. If they wished to become worgen (which is shown via Tess that some still do) all they would have to do is turn to the Bloodfang or any sleezy worgen off the street.

Say a human wished to become a druid, for example, they would wish to become a worgen. Not to mention hunters such as those in Northrend, or warriors aspiring to be as strong as Crowley.