Worgen-Curse, questions

So it states only that Humans and Night elves have been afflicted by these. But what of the other races from a lore perspective? Could anyone be cursed with this form of lycanthropy? - Asking because I’m wanting to RP a character outside of the listed two races, you know the whole sha’bang. Pleasant person overall, but as the moon phases come to full zenith he goes absolutely berserk and transforms into a beast.

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There is a Cata era questline somewhere where a Gnome is trying to become a Worgen. That’s about as close as I can recall of an official depiction of non-Human/Night Elf getting the Worgen Curse, and he doesn’t even succeed; or at least it’s inconclusive.

Many within the community have also seemingly decided that any other species of Elf and Half-Elves can get it; presumably due to their relation to the species that have been established as getting it.

Addendum:

Some Nightbane mobs in Duskwood have a chance to turn the player into a Worgen temporarily, but as far as I’m aware this is just a game mechanic with little to no narrative support. Take it for what you will.

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If you RPed that and I was standing there IC’ly I would think you were either nuts or having some serious constipation problems.

I will note, that questline with the Gnome trying to become a Worgen literally has the Worgen commenting that it cannot be done, but I forget if he simply doesn’t have the heart to tell the gnome, or if the Gnome simply doesn’t listen.

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Hierophant Malyk: I’ve tried explaining to Salsbury time and time again that there is no possible way that I could transform him into a worgen. He refuses to listen and has instead convinced himself that if he gains my trust I will let him in on the secret.

Gnomes are very strange.

-from wowpedia

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Theoretically speaking I don’t see any reason why other races can’t become lycanthropes. The whole thing did start with night elves after all.

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The only two races that can become full-on Worgen are humans and night elves.

The Pack Form? Any race that could become a druid could learn it and transform into it provided they learn how to do so, that’s the closest a non-human/nelf is going to get to it.

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Yes.

You answered your own inquiry in your first sentence.

No.

They fail, because it isn’t possible.

The canon, as it stands, says otherwise.

Literally wrote he didn’t succeed.

Your qusestion already indicates the answer which you know to be in the negative.

I have seen no such canon that says otherwise.

You cannever find canon that says A does not exist.

The poster wanted canon that says A does and there simply isn’t any. There is lore of an attempt to spread the worgen curse to other species,an attempt that utterly failed.

I just looked up the info for worgen online, and their is nothing that says that their was a failed attempt. In fact, it suggests other races can carry the cure which is sensible.

I’d argue that any race that can obtain the “Pack Form” can become Worgen as the term was created due to a corruption of the form via the Staff of Elune and The Wolf Wildgod’s tooth. Even before then the Elves who took on the Pack form were having troubles reverting back into their normal forms.

The “Worgen Curse” is a Druidic Curse more so than an Arcane/Fel/etc one. So in theory the reason Mr. Gnome can’t is because they cannot be druids.

Dwarves or more specifically Wildhammer Dwarves could be druids in the old RPG so apparently have the magic even if it is not currently cannon to WoW itself.

Tauren and Trolls could maybe if not simply because the later are precursors to Elves. Tauren being that they technically have a “Primal” form already may not be able to be effected by the curse.

I’ve honestly never questioned it but I have assumed that they could. At the very least it would be strange if the curse could only effect two very specific races and the rest got a free pass.

As with most things it’ll likely be an up in the air thing with it not being said one way or another. So I would say go for it and see how your community reacts to it as a whole. You’ll of course run into those people who will point at you and go “THAT’S NOT IN THE GAME YOU’RE BREAKING LORE!” followed by a bunch of inconclusive evidence to back up their claims, but they’re going to do that almost no matter what trust me.

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I wouldn’t say Gnomes CAN’T be druids. There’s no racial blockage actively preventing them from pursuing druidism if one were to so choose. They simply don’t pursue it.

With that in mind, why would that prevent a gnome from contracting the curse, and not a human who’s never so much as been outside the big city? I don’t feel like it’s about druidism.

The fact that there’s a quest actively saying “I cannot turn this gnome into a Worgen, it’s simply not possible” may not say that NO other races can be Worgen, but it does seem to confirm that at the very least, Gnomes can’t. Which is enough to base theories on, at the very least. It’s unclear WHY only Night Elves and Humans can be afflicted, but so far, that does in fact seem to be the case.

If we go with the Night Elves and Humans theory, I suppose an argument could be made that High Elves and other similar Offshoot Elves might be able to be afflicted due to their similarity to Night Elves, but it’s still hard to say.

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A bit extraneous, but I personally long speculated that the Worgen Curse only affected Night Elves and Humans because of their peculiar connections to it; Nelves through the events during the War of the Satyr, Humans through Arugal’s actions during the Third War. Admittedly, this hinges on the assumption that Arugal at some point manipulated the curse so that it could affect Humans, which upon recent cursory research I can’t confirm.

Frankly, the more this discussion goes on the more I’m reminded of just how vague the details behind the topic seem to be.

I think Draenei are immune to it? Either because they’re immune to diseases or it’s because they’re beings of Light.

The Worgen expression among Night Elves is not the same that which expressed on Gilnean Humans.

Nigh Elf Worgen are essentially Druids who succumbed to the base instincts of their Pack Form. They are the result of their own decisions.

Human Worgen are traced pretty much to the insane experiments of the Archmage Arugual who may have discovered latent Night Elf magics in Gilneas. The Worgen who haunt Duskwood may be a third branch whose origin is tied to the Sentinel Velinde and her ill-fated posession of the Scythe of Elune, which was at some point brought to Gilneas, presumably by the Dusk Riders. What we do know is that Velinde met her end at Duskwood and was buried in one of the mines there.