March 29, 2024
What Does Human- Werewolf  Transformations, the Bite and Ergot All have in Common in my Wip Novel?

What Does Human- Werewolf Transformations, the Bite and Ergot All have in Common in my Wip Novel?

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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