🥓 Worgen Lore - Ask me questions!

Raedolf-wyrmrest-accord · September 29, 2019, 12:30pm

The question of worgen sanity and culture is a tricky one, especially when it comes to the word “feral”. I could - and should - write a separate article on “feral-vs-mindless”, and the popular misconception. So many think “feral packs” are dumber than dogs, and that only “cured worgen” can be sane.

Feral Worgen Culture

Feral packs include the Nightbane and Bloodfang, the former which has hierarchy and architecture, and the latter which can use human form at will and planned and orchestrated the fall of Gilneas. Feral worgen are sentient and live in the wild in a pack culture by choice, and many of the members of the Bloodfang and Nightbane have been initiated and given the bite of their free will, as we see in the comics Curse of the Worgen and Dark Riders respectively.

There is no cure needed and, in fact no cure exists; as stated by Belysra Starbreeze in Curse of the Worgen issue 5 concerning the Ritual of Balance, it is no cure. The Ritual of Balance is only helpful in helping you make peace with past grievances, as exemplified in both Curse of the Worgen and in the novel Wolfheart. In the latter, we are actually shown how Genn Greymane and his royal followers are -not- living as humans as if cured, but rather have adopted a pack culture themselves, living in the forest and hunting deer and boar with their claws and teeth. Hunting on all fours isn’t just a feral pack thing, it’s a worgen thing. Feral worgen are sentient, just live outside more.

The Mindless State

So there’s the feral packs, which are cultures of people. Then there’s The Mindless State, which is the rabies-like fight-or-flight state. We’ve seen this occur in at least four examples, being the Gilnean player character, bitten Gilnean civilians, Mardigan, and Sven Yorgen. In these cases, this occurs when a human is bitten, and does not take it well, completely losing control. On the other hand, we’ve seen plenty of other cases where people become worgen, and remain in control - Alpha Prime, Genn Greymane, Halford Ramsey, Wolf Cultists in Gilneas/Northrend/Duskwood etc - meaning that the mindless state is not the default outcome.

This is where emotion comes into play, and where that therapeutic Ritual of Balance becomes so important for some worgen. The Worgen Curse is pumped full of raw emotion. It draws on the power of Goldrinn, who is the god of not just rage, but survival, meaning any of the character’s fears trigger instincts of survival, which present themselves as a fight-or-flight response, thus the Mindless State. If a character falls into a depression or a panic, they run the risk of going Mindless, as the wolf side takes over in an effort of survival.

Bitten and Mindless: You, Gilneans, Mardigan, Sven, etc

The player character, the attacked Gilnean civilians, Mardigan and Sven Yorgen were all attacked and bitten without consent and during or after traumatic events. You and the rest of the Gilneans were fighting off the werewolf apocalypse. Mardigan had been kidnapped by Duskwood’s Wolf Cultists, hated his father, and was a pretty dumb kid besides. Sven Yorgen came home to his farmstead in Duskwood to find his wife and children had been brutally murdered by at the hands of the Dark Riders, which you can read about in Jitters’ journal. In each example, there’s no one that would come out of that emotionally unscathed. Now throw a lycanthropic curse on top of that and boom, you’ve got yourself a Mindless Worgen.

Bitten and Not Mindless: Alpha Prime, Genn, Halford, etc

But let’s look at the other examples. Alpha Prime wanted to become worgen, and while he was fighting tragically blood a war at the time, he turned out to be one of the most cunning worgen of all time, even becoming a cult leader. Genn Greymane used to hunt worgen on horseback with his noble friends as one would a fox, until he was bitten. But even then, by the skin of his teeth, he managed to keep his worgen form at bay, even all through the fall of Gilneas and the whole Forsaken attack, managing not only to -not- go Mindless, but also keep human form… until his noble friends figure it out. Halford Ramsey was bitten when investigating the Wolf Cult, and lasted three whole days in pain until he finally turned, at which point he was still capable of holding long complex conversation with Alpha Prime, the cult’s leader. He was unable to take human form until he had taken the Ritual of Balance, which helped him let go of his anger against his sister for her suicide, thus allowing him to unlock human form. Unlike the Wolf Cultists that already knew human form, such as those he chased and that literally turned and bit him.

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Jitters%27_Completed_Journal

Curing the Mindless

Now back to your real question…

Can feral worgen become civilized? Well, yeah, I suppose. Considering Nightbane hunt and howl and live in the woods, and Gilnean worgen hunt howl and live in the city, it’s a difference of culture and ideals. Given the Wolf Cult, you do not need the elf ritual to learn to use human form, and many feral worgen likely already walk through Stormwind as they did Gilneas, hunting for new aspirants for the Wolf Cult of Duskwood.

Now if you meant a mindless worgen becoming sane, that’s a different story. We see calming chemicals used on Mardigan, the Player, and Sven Yorgen. A rage-suppressant is used on Mardigan, allowing his human side to resurface, albeit with boiling rage just beneath the skin. A potion with Mandrake root and Moonopetal is used on the player in Gilneas to similar effect. That Gilnean potion was the same that Genn used to remain human all through the fall of Gilneas, but he never went Mindless before.

Can feral worgen sort of… “choose” to become not [mindless]?
I have yet to find a mindless worgen who has made their way back to sanity on their own. However, I would say it is possible, depending on what drove them to mindlessness. For instance, if a soldier with PTSD went mindless under gunfire, he may return to sanity sometime later if given time away from gunfire to recover. But there are some mental illnesses people just can’t return from on their own, much like the real world. I also like to think that feral packs are a good place for mindless worgen to live and recover, since they both contribute to a pack and they aren’t risking hurting anyone like living in a human city.

Do [mindless worgen] need to be given the ritual/alchemical potion to become mentally “there” enough to integrate into society?
If we’re talking about getting a mindless worgen to a state where they can attend Mrs Nesbitt’s tea party, I’d say there’d be three key points involved. Firstly, for there to be a human part in them that wants to get better. Second, the sedating medication as used on Sven and the player. And third, the Ritual of Balance to help them move past whatever it is weighing on their mind, as used on the player, Halford Ramsey, and Varian Wrynn. And lastly, time. You’re not going to go from Kujo to Doug in a day. But again, if we’re talking about just feral not-mindless worgen integrating into society, the dark truth is that they already do.

Is there a downside to becoming non-[mindless] through alchemy?
I suppose if we’re considering a mindless worgen such as the PTSD soldier example, we have the two options. Let him possibly find his way back to sanity over time, or provide medication and ritual. I believe the former is possible, but we haven’t seen it, and most mindless remain in the local feral pack, being lead by the sane feral worgen. We have seen the latter occur, after which the medicated eventually rejoin human society. I would wager that is the major difference between the two options, being the time it takes and who they end up staying with.