"The true Children of the Moon rarely move in packs, and they are never much in control of themselves."
—Edward on werewolves.
Children of the Moon, more commonly known as werewolves or lycanthropes, are creatures similar to the traditional werewolves of myth, and are not to be confused with shape-shifters. They are a near -extinct supernatural species of individuals who unwillingly transform into a fearsome, and extremely hostile wolf during full moons. Even in their human form, all werewolves possess superhuman physical powers, though only during a full moon are they at their strongest and most lethal.
Children of the Moon are the most dangerous enemies of vampires, because they are the only thing strong enough (aside from another vampire) to kill a vampire. Children of the Moon originally hunted humans, though over the centuries they have been hard-wired to kill vampires on sight in their wolf form. They still hunt human prey when there are no vampires to kill.
Children of the Moon are creatures similar to the traditional werewolves of myth. They phase, or change form, in response to the cycles of the moon. To become a werewolf, one must be bitten by a werewolf (in werewolf form), though some older werewolves (Vivienne Blackwell) have been able to pass on their curse by biting in human form. The infection can also be passed on through scratches, though for a higher chance of passing on the curse one must be bitten. The process is extremely predictable and a victim of a werewolf attack will always survive as long as the transformed Children of the Moon draws blood from the victim with an infectious bite or scratch. Children of the Moon cannot breed in animal form; they can spread their species only by infecting humans through a bite. Infected humans who have children do not pass their abilities to their offspring.
In their changed form, they do not entirely resemble actual wolves; their forelegs are more powerful than their hind legs, and they still have usable hands with opposable thumbs. In addition, their stance is more upright, making their movement somewhat apelike, rather than entirely canine. They change form only at night, and only during the fullest phase of the moon. Their eyes change to a bright golden colour during their transformation, though in their human form, their eyes can change to a flash of gold when angered or provoked.
While in their wolf form, Children of the Moon are not aware of their human selves; they are feral rather than rational. They become much stronger in wolf form, and are much more savage and blood thirsty. Or the correct term would be, "flesh hungry. If a werewolf finds prey, whether it's an animal, human or a vampire, it will be mauled, ripped apart and devoured. Originally, werewolves only hunted humans and other animals, however after years of rivalry with the vampires, the werewolves have "hard-wired" themselves to hunt not only humans and animals, but vampires as well.
As they grow older and more disciplined, Children of the Moon can learn to channel their lupine nature to discover the differences between the scents of various human's blood, as well as scents of other things like fabrics (the unique scent of denim). The range of their senses can be increased through concentration. They can hear sounds coming from several miles away and even as they are asleep, they can be sure that there are multiple people in a room thanks to their varied breathing patterns. They can hear the sound of a heartbeat, a pulse thudding in a vein, and words spoken too quietly, or too fast for a human to detect. Their enhanced vision allows them to see the smallest details. They are virtually undetectable to other supernatural creatures. It is because they appear human 29 days of the month, and their saliva (venom) is most active (and most poisonous) 1 day, and at night. The scent of werewolf saliva is extremely unpleasant, not only to humans but to vampires and shape-shifters as well.
Children of the Moon do not age, show flowing blood and a beating heart like humans, however, they smell unappetizing to vampires. Although they are immortal, their body's smaller natural changes will occur. They cannot age or grow in size, nor do their gain or loose any weight, but the small things like fingernails, toenails and hair will be able to grow - if they are cut, they will grow back soon. They show no physical and mental illnesses and defects, but their voice becomes different and almost rugged.
Werewolves sometimes describe themselves like vampires do: they are unchanged, "living stone" beings frozen at exactly when they were transformed (though their skin feels smooth, soft and blazing hot). Children of the Moon have the body temperature of about 110°F. This high temperature allows werewolves to bare cold weather and makes it difficult for them to become overheated. It also makes it very difficult for vampires to harm them in combat, due to a vampire's temperature being lower than a humans and therefore making a vampire's skin extremely sensitive to high temperature. When a vampire touches a werewolf's skin, it can be described as "touching fires" and "unbearable to touch".
In their animal form, Children of the Moon have heightened strength and speed that makes them both deadly and difficult to kill; contrary to the legend, these werewolves cannot be killed with a silver bullet, nor does silver repel them. Their amplified abilities makes them capable of destroying a lone vampire. One advantage the werewolf has in both his/her human and animal form is immunity to vampire venom, both the transformation properties and the pain-producing properties.
Children of the Moon, though essentially immortal and indestructible, can be killed. However, vampires are unable to compete with werewolves in strength and speed under the full moon, so therefore they are highly unlikely to fight and win with a transformed werewolf, even in a group. Because of this, it is necessary to kill a werewolf when it's in human form, as they are only at their most lethal and most deadliest when the moon is full. In order to kill a werewolf (in human form), a vampire must rip out its heart, cut off their heads or tear it into pieces. These are the only known ways to kill a werewolf.
Transformation[]
"She should be dead within 30 seconds. The werewolf heart is about two-thirds the size of a human’s. But in order to shrink, first it has to stop. In other words, she has a heart attack. All the internal organs are smaller. So while she's having her heart attack, she's having liver and kidney failure too. And if she stops screaming, it's not because the pain has dulled—her throat, gullet and vocal chords are tearing and reforming. She literally can't make a sound. By now the pituitary gland should be working overtime, flooding her body with endorphins to ease some of the pain. But that too is shut down. Anyone else would have died of shock long ago, but it won't let her"
—Vivienne's transformation.
On every full moon, a Children of the Moon will experience indescribable pain whilst transforming from human into a savage and hungry monster, incapable of any form of empathy and thought. The shifts into a wolf alone can last for hours (some have been said to last over five hours), and it is during that time that a werewolf will feel every body break as their body is twisted into unnatural positions while their bones reshape and shift to form a wolf-humanoid skeleton - the entire process will cause the person nothing but immense pain. Children of the Moon are known to "shed" their human skin when transforming, and as a result, they can leave a bloody mess of human tissue, skin, blood and organs when the transformation is complete. Children of the Moon stay in their wolf form from dusk till dawn.
History[]
Not much is known about the Children of the Moon. It is known that Caius, one of the Volturi leaders, is terrified of them after he was nearly killed in a fight with one two thousand years ago. Aro and Marcus knew about Caius's encounter, and since werewolves posed a threat to vampires everywhere, they initiated a war against them, resulting in the near extinction of the werewolves in Europe and Asia. Ever since Caius ordered them to be hunted, these seemingly nomadic creatures were forced to form packs. This was new to them, being extremely close to so many rivals. Fights would occasionally break out.
The Volturi refuse to tolerate any truces or alliances between werewolves and vampires, under likely punishment of death. This was something that Caius tried to stress when the Volturi put the Cullen family on trail for creating an immortal child and for creating an alliance with a werewolf, Vivienne Blackwell. But the werewolf he believed to be Vivienne was actually her doppelganger and descendant, Gabriella Cullen, a human. Also, the werewolves aiding the Cullens were actually shape shifters in wolf forms, and so therefore, the law didn't apply.
Features[]
Food[]
Children of the Moon are flesh eating creatures instead of blood drinking creatures. When feeding, it is absorbed throughout the body, satisfying their lupine urges, and gives the werewolf a slight amount of control during it's lunar transformations, but it's not necessary for life (unlike vampires who will go weaker if they don't consume blood after a considerable amount of time). The absence of devouring victims will result
in Children of the Moon lacking all control mentally in werewolf form, inhibiting their ability to have that tiny once of control in which they achieve in when they feed, and ultimately resulting in them loosing all sense of humanity and rationality in their transformed state. Despite lacking no bit of control in their werewolf form if they do not feed, a werewolf will 90% of the time devour their prey.
Some newborn werewolves attempt to lock themselves up during their transformations in order to not harm anyone, but either that night or shortly after they will attempt to break out. Children of the Moon have and will attack humans, but instinct and centuries of rivalry have hard-wired them to hunt their prey of choice: vampires. This especially began after the Volturi drove Children of the Moon into almost extinction. If a werewolf finds prey, whether it's human, a vampire or shape-shifter, it will be mauled, ripped apart and devoured. To werewolves, the taste of a vampire varies on a massive basis. A transformed werewolf will most likely attack a vampire who has feed off humans instead of animals.
Nature[]
Children of the Moon are a supernatural species in the Twilight Universe (other known species are vampires, shape shifters and hybrids). It is known that humans can be turned into Children of the Moon, and that werewolf venom is nothing more than a deadly poison to animals. Shape shifters and vampires can't be turned, however much like animals, the venom acts as a deadly poison giving them a slow and very painful death if severe injuries are added.
Children of the Moon are feral, predatory creatures, far more savage and beast-like than their vampire rivals. They growl, snarl, roar and curl their lips back baring their teeth as signs as aggression. Even older "civilized" werewolves (ex. Vivienne Blackwell) can break their human façade and show their animal instincts. When they sense danger, they go almost immediately looking for the presence, after which they bare their teeth and instantly attack with a feral roar and brutal attack.
When fighting transformed, Children of the Moon go in for the kill and often times succeeding in doing so. Their bites can sever the limbs of their opponent (their teeth have been known to be able to severe vampires in half), as well as kill (biting their head off like a toothpick). Their grips can also snap limbs and is common for some werewolves to play with their prey. Despite their nature, they are also capable of human feelings, such as love, beauty, protection, compassion, caring, respect, self-control, empathy and remorse.
Enemies[]
Children of the Moon are said to have two natural enemies: vampires and shape-shifters, to each of the creatures the other smells like food. These smells are too enhanced for a human sense of smell. Werewolves are said to be stronger than shape-shifters and vampires, however this only occurs when they are in their wolf form and under a full moon. According to vampires that have encountered werewolves and survived, the Children of the Moon are a vampire's most dangerous natural enemy.
Just like a vampire, if a werewolf's mate is attacked or killed, then he or she will likely seek revenge, hunting down and killing the attacker.
Attitude towards Vampires[]
Children of the Moon have an extremely hostile relationship with vampires, that has been generating for thousands of years. Many vampires claim that this is because werewolves are "part-timers" while vampires have to deal with their issues on a permanent basis. As supernatural beings that can identify one another, werewolves can spot vampires immediately, even in their human form. Vampires will immediately attack a werewolf if they can be easily identified, vice versa. Werewolves are often called "Lyco" and "magies" by vampires, and it is very rare to see the two species co-exist peacefully.
Originally in the early dark ages, vampires loathed werewolves because they saw them as "lower life-forms". However, after Caius's near death at the hands of one of these creatures, the true basis for the hatred turned into fear, as when fully transformed into their werewolf forms, Children of the Moon are much stronger than vampires and the fact that a werewolf bite is extremely lethal to vampires. Because of Caius's near demise, over time, the Volturi hunted all werewolves into near extinction.
Powers, Abilities, and Features[]
A Child of the Moon's physical and mental abilities far exceed those of a human being. They are shown to possess superhuman strength, endurance, healing, health, senses, speed, agility, dexterity, reflexes, willpower and intelligence. These traits vary between human and werewolf form: in human form their mental abilities are increased higher than their physical abilities, but in their werewolf form their physic
al powers are increased far greater than their mental ones.
Super Strength - Children of the Moon have super strength to a degree and grow stronger as time passes, though they are somewhat weaker than vampires while in their human form - it has been compared to the strength of a human-vampire hybrid. However, in their wolf forms, they are vastly stronger than vampires, shape shifters and human-vampire hybrids.
Super Speed - Children of the Moon possess this ability in and out of transformation. However, the power is unknowingly faster during the night then it is during the day, but it usually works fully while they are transformed under a full moon. It has been proven that werewolves can run down vampires even in their human form.
Super Agility - Children of the Moon possess superhuman agility. They can move, jump, climb and run incredibly fast without difficulty or exhaustion.
Accelerated Healing - Children of the Moon can snap their bones back into place after being broken, and have been seen to be complete unharmed from gunshots, stab wounds and torso impalement.
Super Senses - Children of the Moon have extremely acute senses, even in human form. Many werewolves can "smell" emotions. They can hear a person's heart beating or the blood moving in the human body miles away, even in human form. Children of the Moon can quickly tell a vampire from a human, a human from a shape-shifter, and a human from another werewolf.
Immunity to a Vampire Bite - Children of the Moon are immune to the bite of a vampire in either human or werewolf form, both the pain and transformation ability.
Lie Detection - Children of the Moon are able to sense if others are lying or not. Unlike gifted vampires, Children of the Moon possess this ability naturally and are based purely on instinct instead of psychic powers. Because of this, they can overlook Bella's mental shield.
Immortality - Like their vampiric enemies, Children of the Moon stop ageing once turned. Upon their transformation, werewolves become immune to all conventional illnesses, viruses, diseases and infections.
Full Moon - Werewolf powers and abilities are enhanced, and are at their speak during a full moon.
Shape shifting - Children of the Moon turn into a huge, wolf-like beast/monster under a full moon, however they have no control over themselves and have often been described as being worse than newborn vampires.
Weaknesses[]
Vivienne gets burnt by wolfs bane
Decapitation - By decapitating a werewolf, it'll die instantly.
Heart Extraction - If the heart of a werewolf is removed, it will cause instant death.
Wolfs bane - When ingested, wolfs bane causes a werewolf to become severely weak and feverish. Although, if a werewolf's skin is exposed to wolfs bane, it can burn them.
Myths/Trivia[]
Contrary to the legend, children of the moon cannot be killed with a silver bullet, nor does silver repel them. They heal when they are wounded by silver.
Edward explained that it was just a myth created to give humans a sporting chance of killing a werewolf. It was later explained that the myth was started by werewolves.
Vampires originally believed that children of the moon passed their curse onto their offspring.
This is not true as Vivienne had a child (Madeline) with Nicholas, and she was able to continue the Blackwell bloodline, eventually resulting in Gabriella Cullen, who is human.
Children of the Moon are the antithesis to vampires.
In the Twilight Saga, children of the moon were only mentioned and never made an appearance.
Children of the Moon originally only travelled packs of two, usually with the opposite sex, however due to the near extermination of their species more than 2000 years ago, werewolves have been forced to hunt in packs.
Vivienne Blackwell was bitten by Nicholas sometime between 1200 and 1100 BC. She was one of the few werewolves to have survived the extermination of her species. However the traumatic experience has warped Vivienne from a compassionate being into a maniacal werewolf with brutal, violent tendencies and zero empathy.
Because no werewolf has lived as long as Vivienne has, she is considered to be a major threat among the Volturi. A death warrant has been put on Vivienne, however her 2000 years of werewolf heritance has proved that she is much stronger than a typical vampire.
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