Werewolves, or at least references to them, maybe traced back to at least the 5th century BC when a warrior named Dolon fought for Troy in the much-debated Trojan War. According to some images, he would be dressed in wolf hide. During the first century BC, Gaius Petronius, a courtier, and author in King Nero’s court referenced the same in his works.
Then there is Peter Stumpp, a notorious 16th-century German serial killer who was killed for werewolves or lycanthropy, witchcraft, and cannibalism. Before his death, Peter admitted to these charges.
Despite these occurrences and the fact that werewolves exist in European legend, they have garnered less attention than their mortal rival, vampires. Naturally, there has been significantly less content about werewolves, resulting in ambiguous situations in terms of their characteristics.
The process through which a human transforms into a shapeshifting beast is known as lycanthropy, and the metamorphosis is most noticeable on full moon nights. Are all werewolves, however, of the same species? What are the different varieties of werewolves if not? We will go through all of the different sorts of werewolves and some examples of each in this video.
Before we begin, let’s take a quick look at the werewolves that we will be talking about:
The Lycanoids,
The Manwolf,
The Bloodhound,
The Berserker,
The Lycan,
The Delta Werewolf,
The Gamma Werewolf,
The Beta Werewolf,
The Alpha Werewolf.
The Types
Lycanoid
The Lycanoids is something like a pseudo-werewolf, more human with a few werewolf traits like sharp teeth, claws for nails, hairy and bushy eyebrows, and fur that comes in patches. These are the least pure form of werewolves and are formed when an actual werewolf grazes humans, polluting their blood.
However, when they change into their werewolf form during the full moon, they become ferocious creatures who can hurt anyone and everyone, including family and friends. Good examples of these werewolves would be the werewolves that appear on the series “Supernatural”.
Manwolf or Homo Lupus
These werewolves are probably the most traditional variety as they are the ones who go through an involuntary and grotesque transformation on full moon nights. Often created due to curses, they can also come into existence due to attacks. They are absolutely normal in their human forms, but upon the transformation, they lose their intelligence, develop long and thin limbs, and become extremely violent and hostile.
Homo Lupus always suffers from extreme guilt because they know that they do horrible things and hurt others as werewolves. Two significant werewolves belonging to this category are Remus Lupin from Harry Potter and David from An American Werewolf in London.
Remus Lupin from Harry Potter
“This time tomorrow, the owls will start arriving from parents… They will not want a werewolf teaching their children, Harry.” – Remus Lupin
Professor Remus John Lupin, Order of Merlin First Class and member of the original Order of Phoenix, was a half-blood wizard and the only son of Hope and Lyall Lupin. Remus was bitten by a werewolf named Fenrir Greyback, as revenge against Remus’s father, Lyall. Remus was young when that happened, and there were no cures for his lycanthropy, although, in the latter part, Professor Snape managed to make the Wolfsbane Potion for Remus, which helped him retain his human mind even in the werewolf form.
Remus and his friends, including James and Sirius Black, fought in the First Wizarding War along with scores of other wizards and witches. Remus lost most of his friends during the battle but revived his friendship with Sirius, during his years as a teacher of Defence Against Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
As a person, Remus was an excellent teacher but a better man. Not only was he tolerant, forgiving, compassionate, and brave, but also unusually perceptive and exceptionally well at guessing the thoughts of those around him. This could be attributed to his lycanthropy, as wolves are known to be highly perceptive beasts.
During his years as a professor, Remus’s secret became public, and he almost hurt Harry, Ron, and Hermoine in his werewolf form. He went underground later on but married a fellow member of the Order of Phoenix, Nymphadora. The two would have a child named Edward, who was raised by his maternal grandmother but remained under a close watch of Harry, who was named Edward’s godfather by Remus.
David from An American Werewolf In London (1981)
David and his friend get bitten by a werewolf in one of the moors of countryside England. Although his friend dies, David survives his injuries and wakes up at a London hospital. His friend informs him that he would turn into a werewolf on the next full moon night and that David should kill himself before that, so he doesn’t kill others or transform them into werewolves.
However, David doesn’t believe in what he hears and moves in with a nurse from the hospital. But soon, it was a full moon night and David transformed into this hideous but ferocious werewolf. He went on to kill several people in the dead of night and woke up the next morning in a wolf enclosure of a London Zoo. Despite trying to kill himself and end the curse once and for all, David failed to gather the required courage. In the end, he becomes a fierce Manwolf.
Bloodhounds or Lycanthropus Feral
Bloodhounds’ werewolves are more dangerous than Homo Lupus simply because they retain a bit of their intelligence and human mind when in the werewolf form, so eliminating or capturing them becomes more troublesome.
Furthermore, they have little control over their transformation, which means that they can turn into werewolves to defend themselves in dire situations. However, they can’t resist their transformation on a full moon night. Ginger Fitzgerald from “Ginger Snaps” and the werewolves from the film “Wolfman” make very potent examples of this category.
Ginger Fitzgerald from Ginger Snaps
Ginger and her sister were two sisters from a small Canadian town that was inflicted with a series of dog killings. It soon became clear that the killings were the result of a werewolf that was haunting the town. Ginger Fitzgerald went on to become a victim of a werewolf bite and soon started to transform.
The first symptom of her affliction was that her wounds from the werewolf bite started to heal almost immediately; she then went on to grow bushy patches of hair in various parts of her body. It wasn’t before long that Ginger lost it completely and gave into her transformation on a full moon night. She would go on to kill her enemies and didn’t spare even her friends and family.
Werewolves from Wolfman
The werewolves featured in “Wolfman” were portrayed by Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins. So, Anthony Hopkin’s Sir John Talbot went on a hunting expedition to the jungles of India, where he got bitten by a feral boy inflicted with lycanthropy. Later, he returned to England and realized he was a werewolf himself.
His bloodthirst was such that he killed his wife. But he ordered his servant Singh to lock him up during the full moon night until the moon waned. However, he now wanted to come out of the shadows and embrace his true form. He started killing people in the neighborhood and didn’t even spare one of his sons. Furthermore, he would go on to bite his other son, Ben Talbot, who would later turn into a Bloodhound werewolf himself.
In the end, the two werewolves would fight each other in a high-octane battle sequence, in which Ben manages to kill his father by throwing him into a fire and then decapitating his head. Even though Ben killed Sir John, he was not necessarily a good guy or a Beta werewolf and had to be put down.
Berserker or Lycanthropus Bestialis
As seen in films like “Underworld Evolution” and “Van Helsing”, these beasts adapt into their werewolf form forever once their curse comes to life. However, they retain more human intelligence than Bloodhounds and tend to display a bit of rationality. Although ferocious and deadly, they are not entirely animalistic.
These unstoppable forces of nature are extremely hard to kill as they themselves live to kill. Interestingly, the Berserkers don’t seem to have female members in their packs. Whether the females are never turned or killed early is unknown. Although a potent werewolf, there are not any great werewolves from this category that were featured in media.
Lycans or Lycanthropus Robustus
The Lycans are another breed of all-male werewolves, but they are an upgraded version of a bloodhound. Due to their ability to retain their human minds even in the transformed state, they are the most evolved werewolves that we’ve explored until now. Also, they can change at will, which gives them a stronger chance at survival. Their survival is further ensured by their ability to heal and their immense brute force.
These werewolves take pride in their bestial nature and share an eternal enmity with vampires. Although they don’t usually attack humans, they can do so when they have to increase the strength of their packs. The pack itself is governed by a patriarch, and a strict hierarchy is maintained.
Lucian from The Underworld—The First of a New Breed
Sometime in the 13th century, a pregnant woman was turned into a werewolf. She passed her werewolf genes to her developing fetus, who would later be known as Lucian, the first Lycan of his kind. Lucian was initially owned by a vampire named Viktor, who initially wished to eliminate the child but became convinced that Lucian and others like him could serve as a new breed of slaves.
Viktor spared Lucian’s life, killed his mother, and raised little Lucian as a pet. in his later life, Lucian would turn many humans into his likeness. Eventually, Lucian would lead Viktor’s Lycan army. Lucian possessed immense supernatural abilities and could transform at will, unlike many others who descended from him. Lucian was initially an animalistic beast who didn’t know how to channel his rage, but in a hundred years, he learned to control and channel his rage to bring forward the transformation.
Although he can transform as and when required, he also makes immense use of technology in battle. But his most enhanced ability should be the resilience against silver bullets because he can simply expel them from his body. This was first seen when Viktor killed his love interest, Sonja. This resistance to silver is actually the result of continued exposure to silver.
Gabriel Van Helsing
Once upon a time, Gabriel was one of God’s mightiest angels. Also known as the Left hand of God, Gabriel served God in many capacities, including a messenger. During the first century, Gabriel came to Earth and took the mortal form of a human.
He fought many great battles, but the turning point came in the battle that he fought alongside Count Vladislaus Dracula. In the middle of the fifteenth century, he was serving the Knights of the Holy Order and met Dracula on the battlefield, only to become close friends. However, Gabriel killed Dracula upon learning that Dracula had tried to bring back his dead wife using dark magic.
However, Gabriel couldn’t tolerate the knowledge that he murdered his friend and prayed to God to erase his memories. For the next 400 years, Gabriel Van Helsing wandered the Earth fighting personal battles, until he was found in the footsteps of the Vatican. Van Helsing then rejoined the Knights of the Holy Order and resumed his fight against the darkness. His battles with the forces of evil and death eventually made him stand before Count Dracula, once his best friend but now his mortal enemy.
But the path to Dracula wasn’t easy as Van Helsing got bitten by a werewolf and soon turned into a mighty werewolf. Interestingly, he used to slay werewolves as a Knight but he was now turning into one. Van Helsing soon learned that the cure to his condition and the death of his enemy were interrelated.
You see, only a werewolf could kill Dracula for good, and because of this, Dracula always kept with himself a cure for werewolf bites. Van Helsing and his friends then went straight for the much-feared Count. So, here we have for ourselves, an angelic werewolf, it doesn’t get any stronger, does it?
Delta Werewolves or Lycanthropus Sapiens Minor
As the name suggests, these are the most common and least dangerous forms of werewolves who have blended with human societies and live peacefully alongside humans without any struggle or strife. However, they also serve as slaves to the more evolved werewolf breeds, and in this capacity, the Delta werewolves are often abused and exploited by higher breeds.
Despite lacking enough strength, their smaller bodies give them heightened agility. Furthermore, they can transform into werewolves with lightning speed and possess enhanced healing abilities. A good example of the Delta werewolves would be Peter Stubbins from the comic titled “Peter is the Wolf”.
Gamma Werewolves of Lycanthropes Sapiens Saviors
The Gamma werewolves are pack hunters who also live among humans but are dangerous and hostile towards their neighbors. It seems that they’ve chosen this social setup to evade persecution but haven’t forgotten their animalistic tendencies and blood lust. Naturally, when the full moon comes up in the sky, the Gamma werewolves transform into big, nasty beasts that take whatever they want.
Also, they are extremely lusty and murderous. The Gamma take pride in their nature as werewolves and feel authoritative due to the terror they disperse amongst the human population near them.
The Gang from Howl (2015)
The gang of Werewolves that appeared in the film “Howl” was a pack of bloodthirsty and violent werewolves who held no qualms for violence and bloodshed. As it turns out, the werewolves were intelligent and immensely strong. One of the werewolves attacked a train full of passengers when the train almost derailed because of hitting a deer.
In the next few hours, it killed several of the passengers, but the remaining survivors managed to kill the werewolf using anything they could find on the train. It was turning out to be a sink for incoming damage but was ultimately killed when one of the passengers struck an ax several times on its head.
However, the dying werewolf’s cries alerted his pack, and they soon arrived at the spot to avenge their fallen member and satiate their hunger. Interestingly, there seems to be no use of silver to kill the werewolf appearing in the movie, which solidifies the belief that they can be killed by inflicting immense damage.
Beta Werewolves or Lycanthropus Sapiens Superior
Well, what can I say! Beta werewolves are mostly known as the good guys or heroes of the werewolf world. They are extremely social and well-natured. They don’t seek to hurt humans and even stand up for Delta werewolves. The Beta werewolf looks handsome and physically is in the best of shape.
They live alongside humans, and while some of them have to go through an involuntary transition during three nights, beginning with the full moon night, the others may not feel the requirement to transform into their werewolf form. Having said that, few Betas may be as bad as the Berserkers. Interestingly, most of these werewolves can be found in comics serving as heroes.
Jack Russell from Marvel
Jack Russell is a Beta Werewolf who has been featured in many Marvel Comics. He received his lycanthropy from his father, and every full moon night, he became an animalistic werewolf who killed other animals and at least injured the humans that he confronted.
However, a group of mysterious unnatural beings called the Three Who Were All appeared before Jack and lifted his curse partially. In his newly acquired state, he was able to retain his strength as well as his human intelligence and intellect. It wasn’t before long that Jack Russell started fighting crime around him, and on a few occasions, he even met with Iron Man.
Although Russell could now transform at will, he would undergo an involuntary transformation on every full moon night. During these nights, Russell would lose control of his human mind and become increasingly violent and animalistic. However, he did create for himself an escape-proof containment room for full moon nights.
Alpha Werewolves or Lycanthropus Sapiens Major
Not surprisingly, the Alpha breed or variant of werewolves are the strongest and most powerful werewolves. Only two breeds are known to be stronger than the Alpha Werewolves; they are the Shamanic Werewolf or Lycanthropus Sapiens and Lycanthropus Maxima. While the Shamanic breed is more mystical in nature, the Lycanthropes Maxima are God-like werewolf beings.
Nevertheless, they are extremely rare and of less concern. Coming back to the Alpha werewolves, these beings are mostly pureblood creatures and hold the right to lead large families. Whenever an Alpha comes into the picture, it becomes certain that they lead a more organized group of members who follow a strict hierarchy. This is in contrast to werewolf packs, which live to hunt and hunt to live.
Salvador Grant from The Order
Salvador Grant was a champion of an Alpha werewolf hide, and naturally, she was a force to reckon with when in her werewolf form. Because of her strength and abilities, she was also able to enjoy other powers such as necromancy. However, she believed that the world had to be destroyed so that a pure world could rise from its ashes.
This is in line with the obsession that the Alphas hold when it comes to purity of blood and maintenance of a single bloodline. Even in her werewolf form, she was extremely cunning and intelligent, which made her more dangerous than it actually seemed. However, the other werewolves that feature in the series are equally ferocious, and one can say that Salvador was something of a first among equals.