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, [m c donald] at [bsm.bioc.ucl.ac.uk.] This document is stored at 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 [m c donald] at [bsm.bioc.ucl.ac.uk] from contributions made to the discussion by . . [REDACTED] at [dna.bio.warwick.ac.uk] (Ms Anna Simpson) [h--f] at [ux1.cso.uiuc.edu] (Lisa Hoff) [j--n--l] at [next19pg2.wam.umd.edu] (John Walter Biles) [m c donald] at [bsm.bioc.ucl.ac.uk] (Ian McDonald) [p 01366] at [psilink.com] (Zoe) [p f strack] at [gibbs.oit.unc.edu] (Paul Strack) [s p bcn s p] at [ucl.ac.uk] (Mr Neville Steven Percy) [s t raffon] at [ccs1.cc.monash.edu.au] (Mr A Straffon) Paul, John, and Anna favoured the magical paradigm over the scientific for explaining Garou inheritance. Bibliography A Genetics Primer