Heroes Insider Weekly

Shifters for Dummies - Lycanthropes

          Hello and welcome back to Greenlantern-ess' guide to were creatures. This week I will focus solely on werewolves and (hopefully) everything to do with them, but done in a Q&A style article. These are questions that I see regularly posted in the werewolf forum and then a few that developed in my mind while attempting to answer them.

          (Be mindful I am speaking of the shifter type werewolves).

Why do werewolves have ranks?

          I guess in some ways giving a werewolf some sort of rank makes them a little more human? Or perhaps writers are mirroring (or mimicking) the naturally occurring ranks in animal societies and/ or colonies? 

         Think about it, wolf packs have alphas, lion prides as well...ants and bees have a queen with her worker ants/ bees doing everything required to maintain the colony/ hive. 

       Ranking in larger animal gatherings is vital to the survival of the group (and therefore the species), especially in harsher climates.

What are the ranks?

          There is an accepted set of ranks (but don't feel restricted to these) that writers use, more adventurous souls will expand that set or ranks and others will restrict it depending on what is needed.

Alpha (This title applies to both male and female werewolves, some people like to use the term luna but it doesn't fit in with the Greek alphabet). 

Beta

Omega

          And any other letter in the Greek alphabet that you might want to use.

What can each rank do?

Alpha - The ruling pair of a pack are typically known as the alphas, please for the love of werewolves don't use the term luna! (It just doesn't fit, if you're going to use the 'Moon Goddess' in a story then I suggest using the Greek counterpart 'Selene.' As Luna is the Roman equivalent).

Beta - Second in command to the alpha pair, often provides support, suggestions, opinions and usually acts as a confidant to the ruling alpha. Can issue orders to lower ranked members but cannot make decisions for the good of the pack unless the alpha is incapable (mentally or physically).

Omega - In line with the Greek alphabet, this is the lowest ranked member of any pack. 

Rogue - Not to be confused with rouge, which is a colour. Rogue are werewolves that used to belong to a pack but no longer do through either leaving or being kicked out of a pack. 

Do we have to have ranks?

          You don't have to have ranks, they aren't vital to or make a story in most cases. So use them if you want, don't if you don't.

What are mates? 

          Mates are interesting (I think so at least). 

        The way I see mates is this: One soul is split and born into two bodies, those two pieces of soul are bound together and can't be whole, functioning people as halves. So they spend the better part of their lives waiting or searching (if they're really impatient) for that other piece of themselves, once they've found them then the hard work really begins. 

         I'm not into that 'instant love' concept, some people may be and may have experienced that and that's cool. But not everyone is as lucky in life to experience that sort of thing, so instead of writing each and every meeting between mates as an instant love or lust scenario why not change it up a bit? Some people have to work really hard to get the one person they want as a significant other to see them as being a potential love interest, those sorts of situations should be incorporated into stories.