Fever…Chills….Fatigue…Vomiting… mass hallucinations…convulsions…
All the symptoms of turning a person into a werewolf?
Um… not really . Let me explain . The other day I wrote a post about ways a human could turn into a werewolf. I guess there transformations. I also wrote a post about what really happened at the werewolf trials and what it really was . It was Ergot poisoning or the St. Anthony’s fire; a poisoning from contaminated bread that had fungus on it.
What does my post today have to do with those two post? Well a lot. In my novel humans cannot be bitten by other werewolves . They cannot turn . They will never be werewolves .(view the Caninruh video)
Well how are you writing about werewolves then ? You might be asking yourself.
Today in my post I’m going to go a little deeper into this topic about Ergot and how humans in my novel don’t turn into werewolves and Why I chose to use it in my work in progress novel and how. Before I delve into how I used it in my novel I will discuss a little real world research about Ergot .
REAL WORLD RESEARCH
In my research like I explained in my last post ergot is fungus that sits on old moldy bread . Particularly Rye . The oldest signs of ergot was all the way from 1100 BC . However the first of many epidemics of Ergot began in France in the 944. In that first outbreak it was said nearly 20,000 people died . 40 years later in a 2nd outbreak it doubled and was 40,000.
When the people got ergot poisoning they got symptoms that would make someone believe they were crazy, possessed or simply a werewolf. Also it was even confused with bubonic plague (we will talk about that in a later post)
So many people who were not sick, mostly the church associated the symptoms with hell and the devil. There treatments for the infliction were minimal but were mostly religious relics and didn’t include ointments and wine until the end of the 15th century .
The ergot has the shape small curved brads. That measures between 4 to 6cm long. It sprouts on rye when its usually an overly wet season . And it changes from a whitish color to a blueish color . The reason why it was a problem during the middle ages is because the ergot itself was never removed off the bread before grinding it.
IN MY WIP
In my wip novel the main villain continuously died and came back to life from ashes of a field of ergot before the first war in my novel and before they once upon became werewolves. Therefore she has high levels of ergot in her system . And even though the ergot killed people because they ate the bread they did not turn into werewolves like some thought, because they have to get bitten by a caninruh who died and have it in its system. The main villain in my novel due to the ergot in her system, she is the only known caninruh who can change any human into the caninruh. The first mention and instance of this is at the end of During the Blue Hour.
EFFECTS ON HUMANS
The bite or kill from my main villain effects the human turning them into a type of Caninruh werewolves called Larefayel. They begin to become very, very strong, fast and perceptive, having the ability to kill anybody in their path. As the Larefayel, the ergot only allows them a couple of days before it makes them have convulsions and paralysis that results in death. So you see they don’t really turn into werewolves at all it is just a slow painful death by an actual werewolf .
Only two other characters besides the main villain has the ergot in their system.
The main character’s uncle who is also a caninruh werewolf. He has the ergot in his system because he has the celestial power to die and come back to life.
And Sirena the main character who (spoiler) will die and coms back to life and has the ergot in her system.
I don’t actually know when she will die or if I’m going to have them turn a humans but they will certainly have it as a heavy burden on their conscious. At least my main character will . The other two not so much.
I chose this method to give a little spin on werewolf mythology. And to also up the stakes of the characters . It took a lot of research and a lot of creative thinking to come up with this idea to try it in my novel. However it might not work well written down . But I’ll see how it turns out after I have written it.
If you liked this blog post and you want to see more content involving my work in progress During the Blue Hour Follow , Like , share . But first LET’S START A DIALOGUE
What turns humans into werewolves in your novel?
I want to know so let me know in the comments below.
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