Post by Xander on Apr 24, 2009 15:20:50 GMT -5
The mythic birth of the Were-Hunters is called the Allagi. But instead of forcing you through some dusty archaic translation, I'm just gonna sum it up for you. You already know that Apollo cursed the Apollites and everything went to hell with that.
Many years later, the sorcerer king Lycaon of Arcadia unknowingly fell in love with and married an Apollite woman. He knew she had a few strange habits—what nobleborn lady didn't need to preserve her beauty by staying out of the sun?—but he loved her so much that he was willing to overlook them. She bore him two sons and them you guessed it—she went and died at the unnaturally youthful age of twenty-seven. Lycaon, distraught and all too powerful for his own good, declared that Apollo's curse would not plague his bloodline. He would see to it that his sons would outlive him.
Genius, scientific intelligence, and good intentions. We have the atomic bomb for the same reason we have the Were-Hunters.
And so, Lycaon began his terrible experiments on the Apollite' people. He gathered up as many of them as he could and used his magic to... change them, to alter their makeup on a level so basic that it might fool the curse of a god. He tortured them and killed them so that he might find a way for them to go on living, so that his sons might go on living. He experimented on them as if they were animals.
And then he experimented on them with animals.
Using arcane magicks, he took a page out of Apollo's book. The Apollites were cursed with the traits of beasts, so that's where Lycaon decided to start. He spliced the essence of the Apol¬lites with predators renowned for their strength and superior survival skills. Bears, for their teeth and deadly claws. Panthers, for their agility and hunting skills. Leopards, for their almost supernatural ability to go undetected. Lions, for their speed and ability to work together. Tigers, for their size and lack of natural predators. Jackals, for their long legs and cunning ways. Wolves, for their heartiness and stamina. Hawks, for their swift and deadly beaks and their keen eyesight. The mad king even captured the legendary dragon, with all its might, magic, and majesty. Lycaon hoped that if he could combine an Apollite's life force with those of these animals it would make them powerful to somehow break the curse.
For better or worse, Lycaon's experiments worked. Instead of living only twenty-seven years, these new Apollites now had life expectancies of close to a thousand. As he expected, they were strong, quick, powerful, and deadly. Their life spans were suddenly elongated to twelve times that of any human. And because they were born of magic and descended from the psychic pure blood Apollites, they ended up with a lot of innate bonus powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, and shapeshifting.
After choosing from among their new monstrous cousins, the king blended his sons with a dragon and a wolf—he decided that those were the most powerful of the animals he had experi¬mented upon. He had thwarted Apollo's curse; he had defied the will of a god with his own human hand.
The Fates were not happy when they found out.
Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos all came to Lycaon and demanded that he kill his sons, unnatural abominations that they were. It was not for man to change a fate handed down by the gods, and this should be Lycaon's punishment.
Yeah. That went over like a lead balloon.
When he would not comply, Clotho cursed this new race— "They will spend eternity hating and fighting until the day when the last of them breathes no more"—and then sent Eris to plant mistrust among them.
Chalk one up for the Fates.
The second you have to chalk up to science. Due to the dual nature of Lycaon's research, he was responsible for not one but two sets of laws: those of both heaven and earth. He was not going to get away with breaking either of them.
The first Law of Thermodynamics states that energy is neither created nor destroyed. Whatever you put in, you will get out. Because each member of this new Were race consisted of essen¬tially half an Apollite and half an animal, whenever Lycaon blended the two beings together he created two new, separate beings: one with an animal's heart and one with a human's.
Plato's theory about humans being two halves of the same person was based on the Were race.
The animal-hearted Weres were called Katagaria—a term meaning "miscreant" or "rogue". Born in the body of their predator skin, they could only become human at puberty, when their magical powers were genetically "unlocked". Conversely, the Arcadians—named after Lycaon's own people—were born as humans, a fact that was used as the argument for Arcadians being a cut above their animal cousins. The Arcadians thought—and still do—the Katagaria needed close supervision and monitoring. They believed the Katagaria should be controlled, and contained.
Likewise, the Katagaria were mistrustful of their human counterparts. Humans are so often deceptive. They constantly deal in lies and subterfuge. If a wolf dislikes you, he attacks you openly, without question or hesitation. If a human dislikes you, he can smile to your face, and then stab you in the back. As Clotho predicted, it wasn't long before war broke out between these two groups. That war continues on to this day. There are villains and heroes on both sides.
The direct descendents of the sons of King Lycaon took the surname Kattalakis. The name belongs to the Lykos and Drakos branches on both the Arcadian and Katagaria sides.
Through experience some of us have learned certain characteristics specific to each patria. For instance, that Were-panthers and -tigers cannot stand to be blinded, and that—like with most animals—chocolate is lethal to some Weres. Were-Hunters also mimic their animal brethren by preferring to move quickly to avoid or capture their enemies. Because of this, many Were-Hunters prefer racing bikes to standard automobiles.
Many years later, the sorcerer king Lycaon of Arcadia unknowingly fell in love with and married an Apollite woman. He knew she had a few strange habits—what nobleborn lady didn't need to preserve her beauty by staying out of the sun?—but he loved her so much that he was willing to overlook them. She bore him two sons and them you guessed it—she went and died at the unnaturally youthful age of twenty-seven. Lycaon, distraught and all too powerful for his own good, declared that Apollo's curse would not plague his bloodline. He would see to it that his sons would outlive him.
Genius, scientific intelligence, and good intentions. We have the atomic bomb for the same reason we have the Were-Hunters.
And so, Lycaon began his terrible experiments on the Apollite' people. He gathered up as many of them as he could and used his magic to... change them, to alter their makeup on a level so basic that it might fool the curse of a god. He tortured them and killed them so that he might find a way for them to go on living, so that his sons might go on living. He experimented on them as if they were animals.
And then he experimented on them with animals.
Using arcane magicks, he took a page out of Apollo's book. The Apollites were cursed with the traits of beasts, so that's where Lycaon decided to start. He spliced the essence of the Apol¬lites with predators renowned for their strength and superior survival skills. Bears, for their teeth and deadly claws. Panthers, for their agility and hunting skills. Leopards, for their almost supernatural ability to go undetected. Lions, for their speed and ability to work together. Tigers, for their size and lack of natural predators. Jackals, for their long legs and cunning ways. Wolves, for their heartiness and stamina. Hawks, for their swift and deadly beaks and their keen eyesight. The mad king even captured the legendary dragon, with all its might, magic, and majesty. Lycaon hoped that if he could combine an Apollite's life force with those of these animals it would make them powerful to somehow break the curse.
For better or worse, Lycaon's experiments worked. Instead of living only twenty-seven years, these new Apollites now had life expectancies of close to a thousand. As he expected, they were strong, quick, powerful, and deadly. Their life spans were suddenly elongated to twelve times that of any human. And because they were born of magic and descended from the psychic pure blood Apollites, they ended up with a lot of innate bonus powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, and shapeshifting.
After choosing from among their new monstrous cousins, the king blended his sons with a dragon and a wolf—he decided that those were the most powerful of the animals he had experi¬mented upon. He had thwarted Apollo's curse; he had defied the will of a god with his own human hand.
The Fates were not happy when they found out.
Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos all came to Lycaon and demanded that he kill his sons, unnatural abominations that they were. It was not for man to change a fate handed down by the gods, and this should be Lycaon's punishment.
Yeah. That went over like a lead balloon.
When he would not comply, Clotho cursed this new race— "They will spend eternity hating and fighting until the day when the last of them breathes no more"—and then sent Eris to plant mistrust among them.
Chalk one up for the Fates.
The second you have to chalk up to science. Due to the dual nature of Lycaon's research, he was responsible for not one but two sets of laws: those of both heaven and earth. He was not going to get away with breaking either of them.
The first Law of Thermodynamics states that energy is neither created nor destroyed. Whatever you put in, you will get out. Because each member of this new Were race consisted of essen¬tially half an Apollite and half an animal, whenever Lycaon blended the two beings together he created two new, separate beings: one with an animal's heart and one with a human's.
Plato's theory about humans being two halves of the same person was based on the Were race.
The animal-hearted Weres were called Katagaria—a term meaning "miscreant" or "rogue". Born in the body of their predator skin, they could only become human at puberty, when their magical powers were genetically "unlocked". Conversely, the Arcadians—named after Lycaon's own people—were born as humans, a fact that was used as the argument for Arcadians being a cut above their animal cousins. The Arcadians thought—and still do—the Katagaria needed close supervision and monitoring. They believed the Katagaria should be controlled, and contained.
Likewise, the Katagaria were mistrustful of their human counterparts. Humans are so often deceptive. They constantly deal in lies and subterfuge. If a wolf dislikes you, he attacks you openly, without question or hesitation. If a human dislikes you, he can smile to your face, and then stab you in the back. As Clotho predicted, it wasn't long before war broke out between these two groups. That war continues on to this day. There are villains and heroes on both sides.
The direct descendents of the sons of King Lycaon took the surname Kattalakis. The name belongs to the Lykos and Drakos branches on both the Arcadian and Katagaria sides.
Through experience some of us have learned certain characteristics specific to each patria. For instance, that Were-panthers and -tigers cannot stand to be blinded, and that—like with most animals—chocolate is lethal to some Weres. Were-Hunters also mimic their animal brethren by preferring to move quickly to avoid or capture their enemies. Because of this, many Were-Hunters prefer racing bikes to standard automobiles.