ftp.ee.pdx.edu/2014.02.ftp.ee.pdx.edu.tar/ftp.ee.pdx.edu/pub/frp/Archives/777

Internet Message Format | 1994-12-07 | 13KB

Path: usenet.ee.pdx.edu!cs.uoregon.edu!reuter.cse.ogi.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!pipex!uunet!not-for-mail
From: [e-mail] (Ian McDonald)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives
Subject: SUPPLEMENT: Garou Genetics
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: 6 Dec 1994 09:32:58 -0500
Organization: UUNET Technologies Inc, Falls Church, VA, USA
Lines: 264
Sender: [e-mail]
Approved: [e-mail]
Message-ID: <3c1smq$[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net


Werewolf : the Genetics
=======================

Contents
========

1. What ?
2. Why ?
3. What do White Wolf tell us ?
4. What are RL genetics like ?
5. So what happens when Garou shift ?
6. What about Metis Garou ?
7. How do we explain 'pure breed', Silver Fangs inbreeding, and problems
due to wolf blood thinning out ?
8. Who ?

1. What ?

The Genetics of the Garou

In the August of 1994 a discussion broke out on the computer 'usenet' group
alt.games.whitewolf about the genetics of the Garou from the 'White Wolf'
roleplaying game 'Werewolf: the Apocalypse', mainly between people with a
background in real-world genetics.  This is a de-jargonised result of that
discussion.

If you would like to add anything to this document please email the
maintainer, [e-mail].  This document is stored at
cerebus.acusd.edu, under 'Role-Playing/Horror/World of Darkness' as 'Garou
Genetics'.  (Use double quotes around directory names and filenames in
order to get that file).  On the WWW use . . .

<gopher://cerebus.acusd.edu/00ftp%3apub%3aRole-Playing%3aHorror%3aWorld%20of%20Darkness%3aGarou%20Genetics>

2. Why ?

Some of us had been thinking about the topic for some time.  W:tA is, in
many ways, about the intersection between the spiritual world and the world
of human experience.  That intersection - where science meets magic,
fascinated some of us.  Some of us wanted to clear up the various
statements about inheritence of Garou, Metis and Kinfolk characteristics in
a way that made sense in terms of our basic knowledge of genetics.  Some
wished to work out rationalisations form a Developed Neogenetics
Amalgamated or Progenitor viewpoint to include in their campaigns.

We are aware that many will say 'hey, this is magic'.  Some of us are
simply looking for DNA point of view.  But some look at it in terms of
normal genetics simply because Garou walk and talk and do most things like
other living things.  So why shouldn't they inherit like other living
things ?

So, if you are running a W:tA campaign and want a better idea of what a
scientist might make of the Garou, this is the document for you.

3. What do White Wolf tell us ?

Two Garou produce Metis 100% of the time.

One Garou and one human produce Garou 10% of the time and Kinfolk 90% of
the time.

Commentary.  This isn't particularly easy to explain, although it isn't
impossible either.  It cannot be explained if you assume a single Garou
'gene'.  As will be shown, you would expect the proportion of Garou to be a
factor of 0.5 (the proportion of your genes you get from each parent) not
0.1 (the chance of getting a '0' with a ten-sided die).

White Wolf probably did not show their work to a geneticist before they
published it.

Several of us concluded at the start or during the discussion that it was
impossible to rationalise Garou genetics, and that it was all down to
spirits.  Straffon pointed out that White Wolf have told us simply what the
Garou themselves believe, and the reality could be different in your
campaign.  (If a non-Garou bore a Metis, would anyone believe them ?).

4. What are RL genetics like ?

The instructions that tell our bodies how to build us are stored as the
chemical called DNA.  A gene is the bit of DNA that 'codes for a particular
protein' or, without the jargon 'gives an instruction on a particular
subject'.  We all have two copies of each gene.  Sometimes, these genes
give different instructions, and the 'dominant' version over-rules the
'recessive' version.  For instance, one instruction that says 'have brown
eyes' will always overrule another saying 'have blue eyes'.

Some things, such as height, are affected by instructions from many
different genes.  The 'expression' of some genes can be 'governed by
inducer genes' or 'subject to environmental factors'.  In other words, the
instruction begins with 'do this only if condition such-and-such is met'.

If being a Garou was a matter of only one gene simply expressed, then
either (a) instructions to become a Garou are dominant, the Garou probably
has one instruction to be human and one to be Garou, and 50% of her
children will become Garou, or (b) the instructions to become a human are
dominant, the Garou must have two copies of the instruction to be a Garou,
passes one to each child, none of whom become Garou.

As you have probably guessed, when we have children each parent passes one
instruction out of each pair to its child.

Physically, the DNA is stored in microscopic objects called chromosomes.
To make matters worse, humans and wolves have different numbers of
chromosomes.  (Read: the instructions for the two species are written in
the same characters, in related languages, but are stored using totally
incompatible filing systems).


5. So what happens when Garou shift ?

"_Conventional_ genetics takes place on the _developmental_ timescale --
 influencing things as they grow, not once they have been made.

 Shapechanging on anything like the timescale Garou do it is not
 conceivable to normal biology.  However, a change in gene expression can
 slowly result in a change in the whole organism, and we know that Garou
 metabolism can be extraordinarily fast because of how rapidly they heal
 normal wounds.  So it appears that there is a common function explaining
 two concepts."
                 - DNA internal document

Although, given that shifting violates the principle of conservation of
mass, we probably know better than DNA on that front.  It has to be magic.

The question we look to is "where are the genetic instructions for the wolf
when you are in human form, and vice versa ?"

There are various theories.

RL genetics shows us that much of the DNA in our cellular filing systems
has no apparent use.  It was suggested that in Garou and Kinfolk this DNA
might contain the "other" genome, possibly encrypted.  One problem with
this theory is that it would be quite easy to lose the "other" instructions
when a Garou or Kinfolk mates with a normal human.  Under this theory, when
a Garou shifts between forms, the genetic instructions, and their filing
systems, are re-scrambled so that the "right" set of instructions are used
as instructions and the other set are put away until the Garou shifts back.
Using the analogy of instructions stored on paper in filing cabinets, some
pieces of paper include coded instructions.  During shifting these are
replaced by their decoded counterparts, whilst many 'normal' instructions
become coded and invisible.

In the jargon, "exons" are expressed, "introns" are not.

One consequence of this is that only your homid ancestors affect your homid
appearance, and vice versa.

Some Progenitors wrongly believe a second theory, that the Garou pass onto
their children two sets of instructions instead of one - one from each
from, wolf and homid.  This results in the "other" form lying dormant.  In
this theory, Kinfolk have part of the extra set of instructions, but not a
whole copy.  Using the same analogy, a Garou has twice has many filing
cabinets as humans, just that some of them are locked depending on your
form.  This is also suggest that only your homid ancestors affect your
homid appearance, etcetera.  The fallacy is that scientists can, and
frequently do, count the number of filing cabinets so this would have been
noticed.

A third theory is that the instructions 'shift' with the Garou.  Using the
analogy, the writing on the paper, the paper, and the filing cabinets,
would all shift with the Garou.  One of the consequences of this is that
all your ancestors affect each form - if your human parents have blue eyes,
you are likely to have blue eyes as a wolf.  Ironically, this theory,
invoking magic to switch between chromosomes, holds the most water
scientifically.

6. What about Metis Garou ?

At first glance, it seems very easy.  And second glance, you have to delve
deeper.

There are many RL genes, for instance the single gene for both
sickle cell anaemia and malaria resistance, where two instructions telling
your body to have malaria resistance will also tell it to have the disease
sickle cell anaemia.  Unfortunately for us, any genes that come from two
Garou parents could also (although with less probability) come from kinfolk
parents.  Therefore the explanation must come from the process of
procreation rather than the genetics.

We concluded that the relevant instructions must be in the parent cells
themselves, and in whether they are expressing 'Garouness' (in Jargon, the
'Garou Phenotype').  The cause must either be an overdose of something
Garou, or a deficit of something wolf/human, in the Garou cells.

For instance, the Garou embryo could require a 'trigger' that Garou sperm
and egg cells (male and female sex cells, or 'gametes', or sperm and egg
cells, fuse to make an embryo) lack, possibly in order to 'choose' the
correct 'genome' (set of instructions) for the breed (lupus or wolf) and
develop normally. When Garou mate with each other, the trigger is absent,
and the embryo does not develop normally.

An additional result of the overdose of a Garou factor in both parent sex
cells may be that the embryo has its first shift happen at conception.  The
Metis has genes of both wolf and man activated all the time in its
childhood until it learns to control them, resulting in the Metis child
being born Crinos.  (Note: White Wolf have said that Metis can shift from
birth).

One consequence of the Garou deformities that appears obvious to a
biologist is that many Metis embryos will spontaneously abort because they
their 'deformities', as the W:tA rules put it, make it impossible for them
to survive even in the womb.  And that some other Metis will be born
severely disabled, non-viable as PCs.

7. How do we explain 'pure breed', Silver Fangs inbreeding, and problems
due to wolf blood thinning out ?

    "There are many ways other than your 'genetic DNA one' in which
beings can be related.  Look at stinking wyrm-ridden leeches, for example:
isn't there something to do with which leech-master they've sucked which
determines their Gaia-damned powers?  And we Garou know that a part of our
spirits are reborn from those of our ancestors.
    "And here's my own idea, too: Pure Breed is not just a genetics-thing.
In those Silver Fangs _perhaps_ it is, and _maybe_ their inbreeding is a
straightforward matter (although I'm inclined to doubt it).  But in my own
tribe, the Silent Striders, the Blood still runs Purer than most, and what
tribe travels wider, and breeds with more different mates?   There is that
in our spirits -- which are of course those of our ancestors, also -- which
is strong and is always maintained, regardless of who you mate."

            - Mauls-with-Laughter

Questions like this can look like a gift for the geneticists, being so easy
to answer, so I prefaced them with the Garou POV to remind us that there
are other explanations.  Naturally, if your ancestors were pure-breed, you
are more likely to be.  Inbreeding (of both their halves) will have the
same effects in Garou as it does in humans and wolves -- most of the royal
families of Europe suffered from it, and notably the English and Russian
royalties, who shared haemophilia, if that's what it was! (:> The same will
certainly affects normal wnd kinfolk wolves too, and remember that most
wolf-packs are closely related, with virtually no out-bred genes at all, so
the quest for 'new blood' has to find completely new packs.

Some think that the decrease in power of the Garou race is partially due to
the fact that fewer and fewer Garou have recent lupus ancestors.  Although
this could be explained by some lupus genes not shifting when the Garou
shifts, but augmenting the genes that switch Garou nature off and on or
that allow shifting to be triggered instead, most preferred to think of
this as a psychological or spiritual thing instead.

8. Who ?

This document was compiled at [e-mail] from
contributions made to the discussion by . .

[e-mail] (Ms Anna Simpson)
[e-mail] (Lisa Hoff)
[e-mail] (John Walter Biles)
[e-mail] (Ian McDonald)
[e-mail] (Zoe)
[e-mail] (Paul Strack)
[e-mail] (Mr Neville Steven Percy)
[e-mail] (Mr A Straffon)

Paul, John, and Anna favoured the magical paradigm over the scientific for
explaining Garou inheritance.

Bibliography

A Genetics Primer
<http://www.gdb.org/Dan/DOE/intro.html>