Werelupe Encyclopedia

You have no idea what it is. But your power of deduction combined with your knowledge of the alphabet's order deduce that it must be a Lupe. It's hideous and frightening and you want to get away from it as fast as you can.

Something, however, keeps you glued in place. It's curiosity. That thing might be hideous and frightening, but it's also interesting. I will now attempt to satisfy your curiosity while keeping you out of harm's way.

What you have stumbled on is a Halloween Lupe, also commonly referred to as a Werelupe. (The "were" part in the name comes from an alternate spelling of "where." The tradition of calling them Werelupes arise from the first question most people think of when they encounter one: Where is the nearest exit? Good luck with that if you run into one out in the Woods.)

I'll start at the beginning. There are two ways of becoming a Halloween Lupe, one, of course, being considerably more pleasant than the other. First--if you're already a Lupe--you can get your owner to spend half a million Neopoints on a Halloween Paint Brush and go swimming with it in the Rainbow Pool. There are a few things wrong with this method, however. It implies that you are not only willing to be a Halloween Lupe (*le gasp!*) but that you are willing to pay (*double le gasp!*) to be turned into one.

The other option--and the only one for all you non-Lupes out there--is to get bitten. Yep, that's right. If you get bitten by a Werelupe, there is a 99.9999... % chance that you will turn into one. Don't count on that missing fraction of a percent; I only know 10 pets who have come away with nothing but a bite mark.

Now, the most important thing you need to know about Werelupes is that thing about full moons. There's a rumor going around that Werelupes are only Werelupes on a full moon. That's a myth! Werelupes are Werelupes all the time. What else could they be? Yellow Lupes?

Well, okay, not all the time. A Werelupe can be demorphified temporarily if he or she gets sick or loses all of his or her health. As long as one (or both if this Lupe's owner is cruel) of these conditions exist, you will not be faced with the greatest terror of the Haunted Woods but with a bandaged, pitiful, limping yellow Lupe. It takes a lot of energy to be a big, mighty Halloween Lupe, energy a sicky can't manage.

That may be the most important thing to know--keeping you on your guard all the time instead of just on the full moon--but I'm sure you want to know more. For example, what do owners of Werelupes do with them?

Having once had a Halloween Lupe in my employ, I can answer that for you. My Werelupe was a guard Lupe. Now, what you have to understand is that I live in the Haunted Woods. Tourists like to wreak havoc and chaos in the Haunted Woods. This Werelupe of mine kept those silly tourists in their places. She (yes, she) also kept the houses of my neighbors safe from harm. All but one of them were afraid of her, but they didn't complain.

I mentioned that one of my neighbors wasn't afraid of my Werelupe. He has one himself. His stays locked up in the basement most of the time. It may seem harsh, but the howling of a Werelupe makes perfect background music for dinners with a spooky theme. If you live in the Haunted Woods, everything has a spooky theme.

I've had the pleasure of being introduced to several other Werelupes in my day. One of them works in the annual freak show at the Deserted Fairground. Another makes Halloween Costumes with hair from his back. Apparently they sell for a fortune, as he has a Candychan seamstress and a Mootix hair-plucker. I won't talk about the Werelupes I know that run wild in the woods. Those are the ones you don't want to meet.

No, the wild ones haven't been domesticated at all. They challenge everything and everyone they see. Fights with them usually end in bites and an increase in the Halloween Lupe population.

So, what do you do it you come face to face with a Werelupe? Grab your trusty Sword of Apocalypse and hope for the best.

If you don't have a Sword of Apocalypse, try talking to the Werelupe. Explain that you're just passing though and you don't mean any harm (if you're not just passing through and you do mean harm, now would be a good time to start running). If the Werelupe you've encountered is female, she'll most likely let you go. The female ones are protective more than aggressive. Most of the time, at least. She'll follow you in the shadows to make sure you keep your word, but she'll let you go.

If you are unfortunate enough to have encountered a male, now would be an excellent time to obtain a Sword of Apocalypse. Better make it a trusty one. If you still can't get one, run away and scream as loud as you can. Hopefully someone with a trusty Sword of Apocalypse will hear and come to your aid. (The moral of the story? Make sure you have a Sword of Apocalypse or a friend with one close by if you ever decided to take a trip to the Haunted Woods.)

So, now you know how to become a Werelupe, what Werelupes do to keep themselves busy, and what to do if you ever encounter a Werelupe. I'm sure that's all you could ever want to know about Werelupes. If it's not, you'll just have to ask one. It takes a lot of courage, I know, but most of the answers are interesting enough to take that risk. ;)