Me: *tries to explain Teen Wolfâs entire wolfsbane bullet and treatment concept*
Spouse: *deep sigh, pinches nose* So the wolfsbane is mixed in with the gunpowder and then they burn it and put it in the woundâŚ
Me: Yes.
Spouse: âŚwhich was caused by the bullet traveling through the barrel of the gun, propelled by burned gunpowder mixed with wolfsbane.
Me: Yes.
Spouse: Those are the same thing. One of those things is not an antidote to the other. If one thing is poisonous to them, so is the other thing.
Me: It does all sound vaguely homeopathic, doesnât it.
Spouse: *has never watched a single episode* I hate this show so much.
Because I made the spouse actually think about this now:
What hunters would actually use: Large-caliber hollow point rifle rounds (probably in .308 caliber) packed with wolfsbane* and capped with a plastic ballistic tip.
How werewolves would actually counter wolfsbane poisoning: Assuming itâs actually a poisoning reaction and not some sort of weird lycanthropic autoimmune response, theyâd need to inject a counteragent into the bloodstream to bind with the wolfsbane to keep it from continuing to bind with whatever receptors werewolves have that makes them vulnerable. Hence, the werewolf equivalent of an epipen. (What would this binding agent be? Who knows. No antidote for aconite poisoning exists, since humans as a species have never needed to develop one, but werewolves obviously have the incentive to do so.)
Bonus logic: To treat the ingestion of mistletoe (or wolfsbane), try activated charcoal.
*Note: Aconite in the real world is a neurotoxin. It opens sodium channels in your neurons, which cause them to uptake more sodium and makes it take longer for them to re-ionize their axons, which changes the way the electrical part of signals between neurons are transmitted. Thatâs bad for you in all kinds of ways, but the most immediately fatal one is that it disrupts the signals that allow your heart to maintain a steady rhythm. Humans are clearly just as/more susceptible to wolfsbane poisoning as werewolves, and hunters would need to be extremely careful in the preparation of their bullets so as not to fatally poison themselves.
Citizen is simpler and more beautiful~ but just in case anyone needs this.
DUDE BUT THIS IS WHAT IâVE BEEN TRYING TO TELL PEOPLE
in medieval times you ONLY addressed a king/queen with âYour Majestyâ, NEVER âYour Highnessâ. Â To address a king/queen with âYour Highnessâ was considered an insult.
Proposal: instead of creating fantasy names by inventively misspelling real names, create fantasy names by cutting real names in half and stapling them back together with mismatched counterparts. e.g.:
The thing is, the âSolid Sourceâ is kind of a myth when it comes to folklore and fairytale, in that the vast majority of these tales were a) oral, and some of the best retellings we have are b) written and secondary or tertiary. Weâve already lost a lot of the best versions of the tales if the cultures are gone or Christianised or heavily damaged.
So itâs good to turf the âI need solid sourcesâ mindframe when researching this stuff? I mean, itâs – I believe – way better to read like 100 versions of sayâŚthe Ugly Duckling or Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave, than it is to look for the âone true story.â (Which doesnât exist anyway, because in an oral tradition, they are meant to be changed and adapted to become relevant for whatever geographical group or class is hearing the story). Also fairytales and folklore are generally pretty short? You end up with huge huge variation.
However, Iâve written some stuff in the past that might be useful for you as well re: sources:Â
Itâs worth also looking into anthropological studies on different cultures that practice animism; fair warning though, they can be very problematic. (Especially earlier studies, which are often racist and/or xenophobic).Â
Mostly with this stuff, it is actually often a matter of âquantity over qualityâ which sounds weird but, there is so much and you can only really start by getting started and sayâŚpicking a favourite fairytale (or âspeciesâ of fae) and researching them. You can hunt down more primary written sources (some of them are actually freely available on places like sacred-texts, due to copyright no longer holding on those sorts of texts) to distinguish between heavily Christianised tales and earlier versions; but you can also distinguish between those by researching animism tales/stories in different cultures etc.
Be prepared to give it a lot of your time, too. Like, Iâm really only at the tip of the iceberg myself, and a lot of my studies have been going on since I was young and are very personal in that I research what has felt relevant to me over the years and I havenât been doing this for say a course, or for a university or something (Iâve done some electives at university on this subject but ultimately, my research into these subjects is partly spiritually motivated, and partly about my fascination with âsimpleâ narratives told in complex or poignant ways to make them relevant).
theproblemwithstardust 