The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves

by Brown Robert

• Stargazers: A rather small tribe that consists primarily of converts from other tribes. Think werewolf hippies and you get the idea. However, they are not bad fighters since they are the only remaining keepers of the Garou’s lost tradition of martial arts.

  • Uktena: This tribe was originally Native American, but it has long had an open policy for taking in members from immigrant minorities who came to the New World. They are thought of by the other Garou tribes as dangerous mystics who too often mess with things they shouldn’t.

  • Wendigo: This tribe is purely Native American, and they hold a longstanding grudge against European werewolves for taking part in the confiscation of their lands. They tolerate the Uktena tribe and Silent Striders, but werewolves from any of the other tribes are met with violent hostility. They have a special dislike for the Get of Fenris, Shadow Lords, and Silver Fangs.

  BiteFight.org

  At the free online community game site BiteFight.org, players can join the ages old war between werewolves and vampires. With nothing more than a computer and e-mail address, anyone can join the BiteFight network. BiteFight.org was developed and continues to be hosted by the German gaming-technology company Game Forge AG.

  After joining, players can choose to fight as either werewolves or vampires. Both character types come with their own set of skills, strengths, and specific weaknesses. BiteFight players must learn how to effectively capitalize on their own strengths, as well as to take advantage of their enemy’s weaknesses, in order to succeed in the online world of the game.

  Once their character types have been chosen, players must decide whether to play independently or to create or join werewolf/vampire clans of their own. One of the primary aims of the BiteFight game is to become a part of a powerful clan, either by gaining membership or by creating and recruiting other players. The more players, and more powerful players, a clan has, the more powerful it becomes and the higher it is ranked on the network.

  Wolf Team

  In June 2009, the game development company Softnyx released their online werewolf-based game, Wolf Team. The Wolf Team game, once it has been bought and downloaded, allows players to assume the roles of French werewolf mercenaries on the run from the French military. Players must gauge between fighting in their well-armed human or strong but savage werewolf forms, using their judgment to decide when and if they should use their more powerful werewolf forms.

  The Wolf Team story explains how a pharmaceutical company, while researching the development of a new antibiotic, stumbled upon a serum that could allow a certain amount of the world’s population, those with a specific genetic makeup, to transform into werewolves. The French government took possession of the serum and recruited skilled soldiers with the right genetic makeup from all over the world, using them to create a team of werewolf super-soldiers, which they dubbed “The Second Foreign Legion.”

  The French government, however, soon found that they could not maintain enough control over these new werewolf soldiers. The men often went on violent rampages while on missions, going berserk and destroying anything and anyone who got in their way. Sometimes, they would even fight amongst themselves. Plans began to be put in place to eliminate the werewolf soldiers.

  Before the plans could be executed, the werewolf soldiers were sent on a final mission. Soon, reports came in that seven of the soldiers had been killed when the team members began to fight with each other in their werewolf forms. The government sent human soldiers and a team of scientists to investigate. They never returned alive, each of them killed. Knowing that the government would never allow them to live, the werewolf soldiers went rogue. They went into hiding and used their elite military training to drop off the grid. They now work all over the world as independent mercenaries, completing missions for the highest bidders, while also doing their best to avoid being detected and captured by the same French military authorities who originally turned them into the creatures they have become.

  The Least You Need to Know

  • The “Werewolf” party game is the easiest to play because all you need are enough people and a pen and paper to make up cards.

  • While Werewolf: The Last Warrior is good for laughs, it is not one of the better werewolf games out there.

  • Underworld: The Eternal War is based on the plot of the centuries old wolf-vampire war of the Underworld movie franchise.

  • The most interesting contribution of the White Wolf role-playing series was the creation of new breeds and tribes that paved the way for a modern mythos regarding werewolves.

  Chapter 14

  Werewolves and Urban Legends

  In This Chapter

  • The many sightings of the creature known as the Beast of Bray Road

  • A look at the legend of the Michigan Dog-Man

  • The unusual (as well as somewhat hilarious) case of the 1972 incident in Ohio referred to as the “Werewolf of Defiance”

  • The many British legends of ominous deaths following unusual encounters with ghostly black hounds

  Urban legends and local folklore exist in every society. Sometimes it is but a single misunderstood incident that leads to such tales, which often spread and influence the perceptions of others. In other situations, it may one day prove true that all legends begin with an original historic truth. What follows is a collection of such legends, some of which are believed (by some people, at least) to be true historic accounts of encounters with werewolves over the last few centuries. One of the most enjoyable things about investigating urban legends is that usually one can discover the actual historic events that sparked them. What can be even more entertaining is investigating further and discovering how the word-of-mouth stories that are inevitably created following these actual events continue to grow until they become, metaphorically speaking, “beasts that cannot be fed.”

  The Beast of Bray Road

  Local folklore about this Wisconsin creature has been around for nearly a century, though the name “Beast of Bray Road” is a fairly new title. This name comes from the location of the first sighting of the beast where the witness went public with what she’d seen. There is an unusual level of consistency in nearly all accounts of past and present encounters with the creature, which is usually described as a large, seemingly intelligent beast. Some insist that this creature is a Sasquatch, commonly known as Bigfoot. Others believe that this may be some nearly extinct species of North American gorilla or some other large primate that has learned to remain far from humans in order to survive. There are many, however, who hold to the belief that it is a different creature entirely … one that far more resembles the common mental image of a werewolf. Most concede that this animal is likely not a shapeshifter, but they still insist that it may be responsible for the werewolf legends.

  The so-called Beast of Bray Road is usually said to walk in a bipedal fashion and is described as standing at roughly 7 feet tall. Encounters with this beast when assuming a four-legged stance commonly describe it at an average of over 3 feet high. Size estimates vary greatly, ranging anywhere from 250 to 700 pounds. However, some argue that this may be because it is not one creature but a pack. Some theorize it is a pack of giant prehistoric wolves that are thought to be extinct. Others, however, call the beast the “Werewolf of Wisconsin,” and believe that these people have come face to face with a lycanthrope.

  The Savage Truth

  Bray Road is a rural road in southeastern Wisconsin that runs in a fairly east-west direction between the cities of Elkhorn and Bowers and bypasses the busier roadways of Interstate 43 and State Road11.

  One Scary Halloween on Bray Road

  The first sighting to bring nationwide attention to the Beast of Bray Road occurred on Halloween in 1999. Eighteen-year-old Doristine Gipson was driving east along Bray Road, having just left her home-town of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. While slowing down as she approached an intersection, Doristine reached down to adjust the station on her radio. Suddenly, the front right corner of her car jerked up. Believing she
had hit something, the girl pulled over. She got out so she could see what she hit. However, she couldn’t see anything in the road to explain what made the car jump. It was dark and cloudy, and the visibility was not ideal.

  Suddenly, Doristine saw the outline of a hulking figure in the darkness, no more than 50 feet away, but she could not readily identify it. Then the creature charged at her without warning. She heard the heavy pounding of its rushing feet against the surface of the road, and the animal’s hard, heavy breathing. In a panic, she immediately raced back into her car and locked the doors. She felt the entire car shift suddenly as the enormous creature pounced onto the rear hood of the vehicle. She started the engine and began to drive away. The beast held on for a brief moment but soon slid off of the car’s slippery wet surface and onto the road. Shaken but unharmed, Doristine continued on with her plans to take a younger girl out for some trick-or-treating. She tried to tell herself that it must have been a bear that probably grew enraged because she’d hit it with the car. However, Doristine’s encounters with this beast were not yet over.

  Later that night, Doristine was driving back along Bray Road. The girl she’d promised to take trick-or-treating was in the passenger seat. When she reached the same intersection where she believed she’d hit a bear, she pulled over. This time, however, she stayed in the car (as most thinking people probably would at that point). Soon a tall, massive, and hairy figure stepped out from the side of the road. Seeing this, Dorsitine immediately told the other girl to lock her door. When the beast again began moving toward them, Doristine burned rubber out of there.

  The next day, Doristine realized that there was some disturbing damage to her vehicle. Unsure what to do, she decided to confide in another woman, her friend and neighbor. She told the woman what had happened and showed her the damage to the vehicle, mainly consisting of deep scratches (as if from claws) in the paint and some wide but shallow dents on the trunk. Both women decided to let fellow locals know what had happened, just in case they encountered the animal (because it appeared to be violent). Talk of the incident was soon all over the area, and Doristine would learn that she was not alone. Several people in the area came forward with their own accounts of close encounters with a large beast (many while driving along Bray Road). Like Doristine, many had just convinced themselves that it had been a bear. Others feared that people would think they were crazy and so kept it to themselves. Doristine realized she was definitely not the first person to encounter this animal … and she certainly would not be the last.

  So a Werewolf Walks Into a Bartender …

  Later that same fall, 24-year-old Lorianne Endrizzi, the manager of a local watering hole, was driving west along Bray Road on her way home to Elkhorn. At a spot less than a half-mile from the site of Doristine Gipson’s encounter, she saw what at first looked to her like a person hunched over. Thinking that perhaps it was an injured person or a bar patron who had just had a few too many, she slowed the vehicle down to a crawl. She approached cautiously.

  The dark, kneeling figure less than 6 feet from the passenger side of her vehicle, which she now saw was eating something out of its palms, lifted its head and looked her dead in the eyes. Lorianne did not stop the car. Though she passed by the creature relatively slowly (likely from the shock), the smart young woman just kept right on driving (once she felt out of the beast’s reach, of course, she sped up considerably).

  Lorianne estimated that she had her eyes locked on the beast for roughly three-quarters of a minute. In her eyewitness account, she described the creature she saw as very large and muscular, with gray-brown fur, pointy ears, eyes that reflected yellow against her headlights, and a long wolflike snout, from which protruded a set of fangs. She also added that she’d caught sight of its hands, which she claimed were certainly not claws but long, fur-coated fingers similar to a human’s.

  Lorianne, when asked what the animal was, could not come up with an answer. She had never seen anything like it. Some time later, however, while flipping through a book, she came upon an illustration of a were- wolf. Thereafter, she claimed that this illustration was the only thing she’d seen that had a close resemblance to the creature she saw. This added the element of lycanthropy to the creature.

  Bark vs. Bite

  Did Lorianne really come face to face with a werewolf (or something close to one)? This is certainly possible. However, there may be another explanation. Considering that word of Doristine Gipson’s encounter had recently spread through the area, it’s not unlikely that news reached the ears of some prankster(s). Choosing a spot not too far from where it was said Gipson saw the creature, some joker could’ve donned a furry disguise (a padded gorilla suit or werewolf costume) and waited to see headlights. He might’ve then crouched on the roadside until Lorianne’s car passed by. Though she claims its eyes reflected her headlights like an animal’s, custom glass animal eyes from a quality mask could possibly have achieved this effect.

  The Michigan Dog-Man

  Among experts who study such cases, there are those who believe that the two creatures, referred to by residents as the “Michigan Dog-Man” and the “Werewolf of Wisconsin/Beast of Bray Road,” are not actually separate entities but one and the same beast. It is undeniable that the majority of eyewitness descriptions of the Michigan Dog-Man are nearly identical to those from encounters with the Beast of Bray Road.

  However, there is one issue with the theory that this is the same creature. In order for the animal to be in even half of the primary sighting areas, it would have to travel the roughly 350-mile-long trek (mostly along the southern coast of Lake Michigan) between the Bray Road area of Wisconsin and the most common Michigan sighting locations and do so rather frequently. Not to mention, it would have to do so without being seen since it has never been spotted between the two locations. However, it is entirely possible that these are two (or possibly far more) creatures that are simply of the same or similar species.

  Bark vs. Bite

  The majority of Michigan Dog-Man sightings have occurred around Manistee County, home to the Manistee National Forest wildlife preserve. This preserve is home to a fair population of both black bears and coyotes. It is entirely possible that many Dog-Man sightings are from people who simply experienced frightening or unexpected close encounters with these animals. Having heard the local legends, their panicked minds may have concluded that the creature they saw was the Dog-Man. Then again … maybe it really was.

  The 1967 Manistee Sighting

  In 1967, two fishermen were returning their rowboat to the south shore of Manistee County’s Claybake Lake after a day of catching little to nothing in the way of fish. As they got closer to shore, one man noticed some kind of animal was swimming right for their boat. At first, they thought it must be a deer. But why would a deer, a naturally wary animal, be moving toward them?

  By the time the creature was upon them, they were certain that this was no deer. They saw a hairy, humanoid figure with a doglike snout and pawed hands and feet. They stood there, awestruck, as the creature suddenly slammed into the boat. It placed its front paws over the side of the boat and began to pull itself on board. The two men finally got their nerves back together. They took up oars and began to beat the creature back before it could get onto their boat. Eventually, the creature let go and the two men rowed for the shore. Once safely on land, they scanned the area. The creature was by then nowhere to be seen.

  The 1987 Luther Sighting

  In July of 1987, an animal attack call came into the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. Apparently, a large animal had tried to force its way into a small cabin in the area, doing some damage in the process. The sheriff headed to the scene, but only after contacting a forestry ranger and asking him to come along. The two men even made jokes about the Dog-Man during their telephone conversation.

  When they arrived on the scene, however, their laughter turned to shock. Wood planks on the cabin’s exterior had been shredded in certain places, and deep gouges in the
wood appeared to have been made by massive claws (some were as deep as 2 inches). The outer screens to nearly every window of the cabin had been torn to pieces. The sheriff commented that it must have been a bear. The cabin owner, however, insisted that it had definitely not been a bear. The cabin owner also pointed out unusual tracks in the dirt, which could not have come from a bear. In fact, they resembled a dog’s paw prints … only much bigger. The sheriff and ranger filed the case as an attack by an “unidentified animal.” Apparently, neither public servant was willing to submit the incident as a “Dog-Man attack.”

  The 1993 Reed City Sighting

  In the late winter months of 1993, a teenage girl named Courtney (who reported the event a decade later) encountered a Dog-Man near her parents’ rural home near Lake Todd in Reed City, Michigan. The sighting occurred as Courtney was sneaking a cigarette behind the house. At the time, around dusk, she reported that she had been facing a dilapidated barn on the neighboring property.

  A piece of farm machinery near the barn seemed to move, and Courtney thought it might be a deer. Suddenly, however, trees nearby the barn began shaking and she heard the sound of branches snapping. Suddenly, a very large animal emerged from the woods, apparently standing on two legs. She claimed that it also had a canine snout and pointed ears. The sun had set by now, and the darkness impeded her vision. Courtney dropped her smoke and dashed indoors for a flashlight. By the time she came back outside, however, the creature had disappeared.