History - The creation of the Svartskoll Race
A summary of common knowledge about werewolves, written from the perspective at January 2023:
On May 3, 2023, at moonrise of a full moon, thousands of humans both inside and outside of the Midgard Realm underwent a transformation into the new species of Svartskoll (Literally
"black skoll", since all of them are quite dark in colour). The apparently hostile transformation rekindled many old fears as transformations outside of the realms was supposed to be impossible, and many northern European countries closed their borders to realm traffic for a time.
Copenhagen and Aalborg were by far the most heavily affected cities, and some estimates presume that as much as 20% of Denmark's population was transformed on the same day. St. Petersburg, Riga, Gdansk, Rostock, Aberdeen and London were all affected, but in much more tolerable ratios (0.1 to 2%). Pockets of transformation occurred globally, but were most prevalent in northern Europe, in areas with Realm contact.
In most affected cities, massive quarantine efforts were undertaken as it was rapidly discovered that the mode of transportation seemed to be a salival infection, cementing the term "werewolves" for the new species in common parliance. The affected individuals almost universally accepted their new forms rapidly, and psychologists have since determined that the transformation, unlike that suffered by standard forcemarks, seems to change the self-image of the affected individual, so that very few genuinely mourn the loss of their humanity. No transformations occur between full moons, only on the moon itself.
On May 4, 2023, a largely unknown diety by the name of Ryu acknowledged full responsibility in a well-distributed video, and confessed that he had modified Aaron Dowrey's werewolf curse, and then maliciously spread it in Fenrir's name. Fenrir himself came out of realm to personally apologise to the "entire scientific realm" and to condemn Ryu's actions to an international audience, promising swift corrective action, both to cure the affected individuals, and to bring those responsible to justice. It was revealed that Fenrir had managed to isolate and cure several offworld diseases before they could become epidemics, and that his experience and resources should expedite the process a great deal.
On May 6, 2023, it was announced that while Fenrir could not yet reverse the transformations, a vaccine was now available to anyone willing to come to the realm border and receive it from a priest of Fenrir, Loki, Skoll, or Hati. The vaccine-cure would nullify nullify the contagious infection immediately in any transformed svartskoll, and would nullify the infection in any human so that they could not be transformed. Further, any vaccinated individual would be fully proofed against infection. Upon scientific verification of the claims, most nations re-opened their borders to Midgard to facilitate the mass demand for the cure.
Over the course of the following week, many regions made the cure mandatory for the affected lupines, and many inventive ways of marking and curing as many people as possible as quickly as possible. The challenge was that the cure could only be administered inside of the realm border, but Fenrir had allocated thousands of priests to administering the cure. A station was set up on the Malmo-Copenhagen bridge scant metres inside of the realm, where busload after busload of Danes were cured. A common tactic was to station a priest or two on a ship just inside the border, and to have other ships rendezvous with it, so that the vessels' turnaround times could be vastly increased. Many other gods overtly rallied against these actions, claiming that Fenrir was exploiting the situation to gain hundreds of thousands of marks, but any attempts at preventing pilgrims from obtaining the cure-vaccine were met with hostility and force. Russia began heavy-handed methods to relocate all of their transformed onto Russian holdings in Midgard, and to mandate vaccination of anyone who had contact with the transformed.
On May 13, 2023, in Stavanger (former Norway), Aaron Dowrey and the demigod Ryu met in fair combat in front of a full audience of a football stadium. Aaron, the former otherworlder turned agent of Fenrir, killed the dragon Ryu. The event received widespread press coverage, as did proclamations by Fenrir himself that Ryu would forever be an example to his followers that harming the innocent in Fenrir's name would not be tolerated, that relations with the scientific realm are to be handled with care and benevolence. Fenrir promised that he would always recognize the debt that he owes to the scientific realm for the transgressions of his demigod Ryu, and would do everything within his power to help the transformed individuals, regardless of their affiliations.
On May 31, 2023, a second wave of transformations occurred, transforming everyone who was infected but not cured between May 3 and May 31. Again, Denmark was by far the worst affected, but a full month of distributing the cure meant that the second round of transformations was not nearly as severe as the first. The event prompted redoubled efforts to vaccinate all vulnerable individuals. In ensuing months, the number of transformed was rapidly truncated but at present (Jan, 2024) transformations do sometimes occur, because many individuals devoted to Fenrir's enemies have refused to be vaccinated, and there is no governmental mandate requiring cure in-realm. As such, svartskoll that wish to travel require "proof of cure" documentation at present, and many nations refuse to allow them at all. It is estimated that in total, approximately four million humans were affected in 2023, which has made the svartskoll one of the most common sentient species in existance after humans, almost literally overnight.
Trade and diplomacy with the realms (Midgard particularly), and their image worldwide, was set back significantly by the fear that was generated by their "magic" appearing to extend out into the scientific world, which had historicly been safe from the divine influence of the pantheon gods.
Denmark's state of emergency was repealed on June 12, 2023, and a general election forced, ostensibly to adjust representation to accommodate the significant events that had beset the country. Because as much as a third of Denmark's population was now svartskoll, and massive numbers of the human population had fled the epidemic and social unrest, on August 24th, Denmark resumed political stability with a new government, massively pro-equality and unofficially very pro-Fenrir. The next months saw large-scale immigration of svartskoll seeking a stable and tolerant home from other regions to Denmark. Not everyone could or did move, but the immigration was significant. Entire industries had begun to crop up catering to the new species, creating products designed to replace what human items they could not use. The year's end saw Denmark sitting at a now-stable ratio of almost 50/50 human and svartskoll, with a rather suddenly multicultural population, and infrastructure in place to support svartskoll as comfortably as they had ever lived as humans. Naturally, Denmark is regarded somewhat suspiciously now in their dealings with other countries, but they retained EU and NATO membership, and on the whole endeavor to continue to recover from their economic and social losses.
The svartskoll "werewolves" themselves are darker in colour than skoll, and have a less human build, being of digitigrade construction and able to move about on all fours if they so desire. Their instincts make them prone to physical contact, more inclined to cooperation with other canids, more inclined to follow social rules, and largely unconcerned with the loss of their previous forms.
In May and June, rumours emerged that a resource-intensive method of reversing the transformation was available via Fenrir, prompting some svartskoll to attempt to earn their human forms back (espescially among those whose careers or family lives had been ruined by the transformation). By July it was confirmed that a few were able to successfully see this through, and Fenrir did confirm that while he was able to create new bodies for the affected individuals, the process was so resource intensive and time consuming that it could not possibly be used on significant portions of the svartskoll population, and therefore had to be meted out on a case-by-case basis. Many svartskoll who have ambitions of becoming human again have therefore taken up direct service to Fenrir.