So, hmm, per the tags it looks like I never really did a lot of world building for EW, which is strange since it’s a fun little sandbox. Or at least it looks like it will be a fun sandbox– there may be inherent problems with the situation that aren’t readily apparent. Hmm. *ponders*

Anywho, the basic premise for this universe is that were-whatevers exist, are common knowledge, and are a more or less accepted part of society. It’s obvious from their behaviors they aren’t completely human, but because they have a very long history of peaceful interactions, most of humanity tends to overlook the non-human elements. Sort of like how folks treat wolves as dogs– up until the point here it’s made painful obvious that they aren’t.

Still, when a were goes bad the media has an unashamed field day over it, and there are areas of the world where being a were is still not a conductive to a long life. But it’s been this way for a very long time, and were’s have long since moved into more tolerant societies. As a result there is a bit of a self-segregation on the part of the were community, simply because they really don’t trust ‘plain’ humans all that much.

The basic question of ‘how do they work’ is going to be hand-waved, and an assumption that magic is involved is made by folks in the EW-verse. Per previously written snippits, latern hanging is in vogue for this bit of divine meddling.

This version of weredom is a genetic trait, not contagious, and is a recessive female-biased trait. The species of were is determined by the female, even in full/recessive crosses.

Were-mom + Were-dad = were-kid (both)
Were-mom + human-dad = were-recessive-kid (both)
Were-mom + were-recessive-dad = were-kid (both)

Were-dad + were-mom = were-kid (both)
Were-dad + human-mom = were-recessive-kid (female) & human-kid (male)
Were-dad + were-recessive-mom = were-kid (female) & were-recessive-kid (male)

Were-recessive-mom + were-recessive-dad = were-recessive-kid (female) & human-kid (male)
Were-recessive-mom + human-dad = human-kid (both)
Were-recessive-dad + human-mom = human-kid (both)

So after two generation of cross-breeding, the recessive is lost unless the line is tied back into the gene pool. Which would make for interesting family trees if the gene pool ever got thin. Hmm. But still, should allow for plenty of outside bloodlines to keep folks healthy overall.

Could make for interesting sociological problems as well, since you have three possibilities for a female were and only two for a male. (Plus three chances for female recessive and two for male recessive.) So the were groups would be much more willing to let a female were marry outside of the gene pool than an male, since you’d get two recessives instead of one. But on the flip side, a male recessive is better than a female because it has a chance for two full-blood offspring and a female recessive doesn’t.

And an offshoot of that would be that recessives would be ‘encouraged’ to marry back into blood and that a male recessive would be in trouble if he didn’t pick a full-blood female (since that is his only change of full-blood offspring).

Add to this that females are the one’s that determine the species of the offspring and you have some interesting sociological prohibitions to play with. Hmmm… *ponders*