Eternity RPC Board
"Ahhh," Elke acknowledged, the drawn out syllable a sound effect for the absorption of sage knowledge imparted by Nevina into Elke's brain. Like a slurp, really, except less repulsive and viscid. "Mmm. I see." Pen ever at the ready, the pupil had found a clean sheet of paper in her journal and was jotting down quick notes about the churning, glimmering suspension known as Falulf's blood. She wondered for a moment about the name Falulf, her ponderances materializing into ink strokes: Falulf? Surname/place/both??
And lycanthropes - there was another subject which would require further thought at a later date. She'd heard about them before, but the summation of facts and opinions she'd totaled from professors, peers and populace seemed often contradictory. The last Elke had read of them in her texts, the author claimed that werewolves and the belief therein were the product of very well-done glamours being cast by highway robbers and ruffian types as a cover for their crimes. One of her teachers of hexing had outright denied their existence, calling the very notion that shapeshifters could exist preposterous and an affront to established science and the laws of physics (although Elke had taken this flat-out denial with a grain of salt as this particular professor had also vehemently denied the existence of faerie despite there being a bona fide fae in their class). Her parents had quietly agreed to disagree on the subject, her father thinking them little more than an urban legend crafted by city dwellers who had forgotten how large and vicious wild wolves could be, and her mother believing them to have existed at one point, yes, but also believing they had gone extinct quite some time ago. Elke had even encountered a small but vocal group of intellectuals who, strangely, not only accepted that wolfmen were very much a thing, but insisted that lycanthropy was not an affliction nor a disease, but merely another valid iteration of the human experience deserving of the same levels of respect and tolerance awarded to any person.
Curious, indeed.
Not having yet left their lodging for the morning, the last sips of tea in her cup not having been drunk, Elke could already see that her upcoming travels and lessons with the object of her fascinations would lead only to more questions. She couldn't deny that the idea of so many pending revelations was exciting, but it would have to keep her busy when she returned home. For now, there were more immediate matters in need of the mageling's attention. Nevina accepted that lycanthropy was real and was a disease, and so for now, Elke believed the same.
People being turned by drinking tainted water was certainly a new concept to the young woman, however, who maintained her denial of expertise in the area. She had only heard the typical lore that men became werewolves after being bitten on the night of a full moon. Her mentor seems to think that the cause was less mystical and more bacterial in nature.
"A bit like bloody flux?" she murmured, half to Nevina and half to solidify the thought in her mind for a later date by means of vocalizing the question. She'd first heard of that particularly gruesome ailment after her father had returned from treating a small village whose inhabitants lived downstream from a larger farming community with less than sanitary manners. Different symptoms than lycanthropy, true, but a similar mechanism of disease.
"I didn't know a werewolf could turn a person without biting them," she admitted. Something about removing the mysterious, ceremonial nature of The Turning and instead viewing it through a more clinical lens made the entire thing seem less... not interesting, certainly, but less.... Well, yes, a little less interesting. Not that a disease which altered a man's very basic nature and form wasn't interesting, it's just that it wasn't what Elke had pictured. No foggy forest lit only by the huge, silver moon, no distant, macabre chorus of howls and screams, no hint of dark magic or malicious intent. Just an infection.
"But this Falulf's blood - it is magical in nature, yes?" That was fascinating. An enchanted tincture would not be needed for the average infection where a paste of herbs applied topically or a tonic of vitamins and roots drunk thrice daily would normally suffice, implying that this lycanthropy disorder might be some hybrid of magical and biological in nature. A hybrid, just like a wolfman.
Elke's eager excitement returned in full-force.
"So, then, what is it exactly we'll be looking for upstream," she asked, and feeling the atmosphere right, tacked on a quiet, "Professor Nevina?"
And lycanthropes - there was another subject which would require further thought at a later date. She'd heard about them before, but the summation of facts and opinions she'd totaled from professors, peers and populace seemed often contradictory. The last Elke had read of them in her texts, the author claimed that werewolves and the belief therein were the product of very well-done glamours being cast by highway robbers and ruffian types as a cover for their crimes. One of her teachers of hexing had outright denied their existence, calling the very notion that shapeshifters could exist preposterous and an affront to established science and the laws of physics (although Elke had taken this flat-out denial with a grain of salt as this particular professor had also vehemently denied the existence of faerie despite there being a bona fide fae in their class). Her parents had quietly agreed to disagree on the subject, her father thinking them little more than an urban legend crafted by city dwellers who had forgotten how large and vicious wild wolves could be, and her mother believing them to have existed at one point, yes, but also believing they had gone extinct quite some time ago. Elke had even encountered a small but vocal group of intellectuals who, strangely, not only accepted that wolfmen were very much a thing, but insisted that lycanthropy was not an affliction nor a disease, but merely another valid iteration of the human experience deserving of the same levels of respect and tolerance awarded to any person.
Curious, indeed.
Not having yet left their lodging for the morning, the last sips of tea in her cup not having been drunk, Elke could already see that her upcoming travels and lessons with the object of her fascinations would lead only to more questions. She couldn't deny that the idea of so many pending revelations was exciting, but it would have to keep her busy when she returned home. For now, there were more immediate matters in need of the mageling's attention. Nevina accepted that lycanthropy was real and was a disease, and so for now, Elke believed the same.
People being turned by drinking tainted water was certainly a new concept to the young woman, however, who maintained her denial of expertise in the area. She had only heard the typical lore that men became werewolves after being bitten on the night of a full moon. Her mentor seems to think that the cause was less mystical and more bacterial in nature.
"A bit like bloody flux?" she murmured, half to Nevina and half to solidify the thought in her mind for a later date by means of vocalizing the question. She'd first heard of that particularly gruesome ailment after her father had returned from treating a small village whose inhabitants lived downstream from a larger farming community with less than sanitary manners. Different symptoms than lycanthropy, true, but a similar mechanism of disease.
"I didn't know a werewolf could turn a person without biting them," she admitted. Something about removing the mysterious, ceremonial nature of The Turning and instead viewing it through a more clinical lens made the entire thing seem less... not interesting, certainly, but less.... Well, yes, a little less interesting. Not that a disease which altered a man's very basic nature and form wasn't interesting, it's just that it wasn't what Elke had pictured. No foggy forest lit only by the huge, silver moon, no distant, macabre chorus of howls and screams, no hint of dark magic or malicious intent. Just an infection.
"But this Falulf's blood - it is magical in nature, yes?" That was fascinating. An enchanted tincture would not be needed for the average infection where a paste of herbs applied topically or a tonic of vitamins and roots drunk thrice daily would normally suffice, implying that this lycanthropy disorder might be some hybrid of magical and biological in nature. A hybrid, just like a wolfman.
Elke's eager excitement returned in full-force.
"So, then, what is it exactly we'll be looking for upstream," she asked, and feeling the atmosphere right, tacked on a quiet, "Professor Nevina?"