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Vargulf
Hemlock Grove - 1x12 - Children of the Night vw
General Information
Status

Extinct

Distinction

A werewolf who turns on a wrong moon, driving them mad.

Season(s)

12

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Christina's unnatural canine like face and eyes in season 2

A vargulf is a physically and mentally unstable Werewolf. Unlike typical werewolves, a vargulf will kill its prey without eating it. A vargulf will eventually die from the disease or insanity possessing it. The wolf is connected to the phases of the moon, with its peak form being when the moon is full as its body becomes fuller as the moon does. If they transform without a full moon, they risk becoming a mentally and physically unstable werewolf that is consumed by its condition until it dies from it. Parts of the wolf body can manifest from the human body on the werewolf's will, though this usually happens when the wolf body is incomplete inside the human one. This will risk them becoming unstable and insane, with their transformations being completely unstable as the wolf body will become independent of the human one and transform the human body involuntarily. The wolf will then be in control of the transformations instead of the human, causing the human to lose control of their own minds and bodies as well. The more unstable these transformations, the more the wolf can appear without a full moon, though at the cost of the werewolf's conscious mind, which causes the wolf to emerge from a werewolf's corpse should the werewolf not be decapitated beforehand. At this point, the werewolf has become a vargulf, which are commonly shown as having brightly colored eyes and completely white fur as their condition progresses. The human form of a vargulf, should the vargulf ever take human form again, also has brightly colored eyes and completely white hair, usually due to the stresses of their insanity. This insanity could also mean the loss of human thought and the complete takeover of the wolf's feral and instinctive nature, though it may still retain the memories of its human self as Peter did.

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Peter as a vargulf, still retaining human calmness and rationality

Known Vargulfs

Appearance

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Peters vargulf form about to attack Nadia, Roman, Miranda, and Destiny

Vargulf as just like werewolves when it comes to their appearance they are much

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Peter succumbing to his condition

bigger than regular wolves and with an almost bear or feline like physical build, size and shape to their bodies. They can be as big or at least almost as big as a tiger. Their eyes glow a bright yellow, though sometimes their eyes look blurred in color. The fur of a

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vargulf mainly depends on of the color of their hair in their human form. Christina's vargulf form's fur was black like her hair at first but after all her

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Christiana's new wolf form in season 2

stress of her traumatic experiences and the loss of her friends and

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subconscious guilt and confusion over what she was doing as a wolf, as she was repressing it in her mind and creating fake memories and believe to help her process what was happening, and also possibly progressing in her vargulf condition, her human hair turned white and thus her vargulf form's

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Christinas wolf form in season 1

fur turned white. It is also seen that they are slightly bigger than regular

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werewolves and are much less like a normal wolf in appearance, as their teeth are all similar in size and are much more

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Peter explodes into wolf form without the full moon the final time, causing his wolf to emerge a white vargulf

stalagmite in shape, and their more human-shaped limbs. Their wolf body is less like a canine and does not appear to look as a regular wolf body does. Peter's vargulf eyes had far a more blue-red look to them and had a darker yellow as did Christina's, both in the second season. They appear to have much more fur than usual, which

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Peter's more frizzed fur as a vargulf

usually looks and wild, a reflection of their mental instability. Their mental state can affect their wolf body, making their wolf look and act much more wild, rabid, and crazed.

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Christina's savage wolf form.

Transformation

When a person turns, the body up to the surface and all layers of skin begin to transfigure into a wolf body that literally rips out of their human bodies surface and skin layers. In the first season, their eyes pop out and are replaced with wolf eyes that glow yellow and their teeth fall out and replaced with fangs. The eyes do not fall out in the second season and transfigure along with the body under the human skin. Briefly, a transforming person voice can change and become inhumanly deep and distorted as their vocal cords are

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Peter's final transformation into a vargulf

transforming. When the vargulf has completed its change, the wolf then eats the remains of their human skin. A vargulf fully dies without having their heads are destroyed, or they will return from the dead, and while they can die inside the ground they are buried in and rot in their grave, but they will still be somewhat alive and transform into their wolf bodies, which will be normal and not rotted like their human body, which also rots again if they die again in their grave, as both the wolf and human bodies are constantly redeveloped and reborn from each other's bodies, which is why they can not die without their brain being severed or destroyed, as their brain drives both bodies to operate. In the first season, when werewolves or

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Christana's claws emerging from her knucless

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Christinas wolf in the abandoned church

Vargulfs revert to their human form, their wolf bodies seemingly transfigured back into a human one instead of the human body having to be pulled out of the wolf body, or the human digging themselves out of their wolf body or the body dissolving or opening like a cocoon or chrysalis and rapidly decomposing, as suggested by the lack of any sign of the wolf body in season one when werewolves became humans again. Since their transformations

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Peter's vargulf about to kill an incapacitated Roman

are unstable and uncontrollable, there are some points were the wolf will damage the human body of the werewolf from the inside at unpredictable times. In the first season, it seemed that both werewolves and vargulfs turn back to human form without their wolf body tearing and turn back in 4 seconds, simply their wolf body literally changes into the human body in an unseen manner. It was not shown if this changed in the second seasons, at least for

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Roman pulling Peter out of his vargulf body, as his condition overtook him and kept him from changing back. Click to Animate

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Christana's eye having white background instead of black, as Peter's does

vargulfs, as regular werewolves are now seen transforming back seemingly with their wolf bodies being a cocoon or chrysalis and their human bodies redeveloping, much like an embryo in an egg, throughout the time the werewolf is in their wolf body. It is possible to have changed for virgules as well, though it might have been as maggots fed on Christina's corpse, seemingly eating off her wolf body and exposing her human body, that or her wolf body physically transfigured itself back into her human body, and Peter was inside his wolf body while he was transformed into a vargulf.

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Christina's wolf confronting Roman and Letha. (click to animate)

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A vargulf's abnormal face and eyes. CLICK TO ANIMATE

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Peter tapping into his wolf without a full moon

Becoming a Vargulf

There is only one way to become a vargulf, by turning on another part of the lunar cycle other than the full moon. If a werewolf partly turns too many times or fully turns more than once without the full moon, they will become a vargulf, or will be at high risk of it if they transform or partially transform without a ritual that requires the destruction of their physical human faces. Their body and mind become misaligned as they do not feel the phases of the moon properly, as they normally can the moons phases. The process of physical and

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Peter's vargulf

mental degeneration is called distrugere, the Romani word meaning to be destroyed, spoiled, or burned away, or to ruin oneself. The wolf consciousness that a werewolf has will take over the werewolf, potentially permanently trapping a werewolf in its wolf body without any conscious control, or simply having the wolf develop an instinctual homicidal personality that the werewolf does not control at all.

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Peter's mental sickness and aggressive tendencies making him homicidal

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A close look at the vargulf's almost unnatural wolf teeth and face

Cure

There is only one known way to turn back into a werewolf, while in their vargulf form someone with extreme strength must open up and destroy the wolf body and pull the human body out of it.

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Peter after being pulled out of his unstable werewolf body, cutting him off from his vargulf infection

Death

When a vargulf dies, their head must be cut off or damaged past the brain before putting it into the grave. If

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this is not done, the vargulf will come back from the dead, seemingly as crazed as it was before. Christina was shown to have awoken in her grave a day after having her neck broken by Shelley, screaming in horror. 9 months later, her rotted corpse's hands emerged from the ground and her vargulf body came out of her rotted corpse. It chased Shelley throughout the night and day after, either due to instinct or that she wanted to avenger her death. Shelley could still fight her off smacked into the air and into a tree. She ran from her until her

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Peter's vargulf showing a last semblance of humanity when Roman mentions that he will have to spend the rest of his life as an animal

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Christiana rising from the grave

neck was crushed with a rock, and her head was severed. Shelley picked up the head, causing the flesh still attached to the head from the body, to rip and tore it in half in anger. The flesh under what was once a neck started to bubble slightly and later on, her human body was found, still with white hair, and maggots eating away at the pieces. Some of her wolf skin was also found being eaten by maggots.

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A vargulf in Roman's catabasis about to attack a vision of Shelley. This is what Christiana's wolf used to look like before her vargulf condition and insanity degenerated its form, giving it white fur like Christiana's

Feeding

A vargulf kills their victims no matter if they provoke them or not they kill randomly. It is this or that they will kill who they fell antagonized by and will act on their subconscious feeling. When a vargulf kills they only eat some parts of their victims body but leave most of the body wherever.

Powers & Abilities

A transformed vargulf's physical abilities seem greater than that of a regular werewolf, allowing them to overpower and kill animals, humans, and other werewolves. Shelley and a full upir, no matter the age, can more than easily overpower and kill Vargulf's, as Shelley killed Christina twice and Roman ripped open a vargulf's body to remove a transformed Peter from the body.

  • Mesmerisation Resistance: Vargulfs can resist the mesmerizing of upirs because of their insanity there is not much to mesmerize.
  • Shape-Shifting: Vargulfs can turn at will, though they will not consciously control it as they are mentally unstable.
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    Christiana in wolf form in season 2

  • Enhanced Strength: Vargulfs only have their strength when
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    they are in their wolf form, and then they can overpower almost every living creature and be at equal or nearly equal strength to that of a Full upir and that of Shelley. It can seemingly affect human strength as Peter was in a fist-fight with Roman and fought him on equal grounds, though Roman probably held back some of his strength to not kill Peter.They are more vulnerable in a fight with such species due to their quadrupedal bodies and being forced to lunge directly at their victims, leaving openings in their attacks. They would be equal in strength with upir and Shelley if it were not for their body shape and limited movement. Roman demonstrated this when he grabbed Peter's vargulf body by the jaws and torn it apart when it tried to attack. Shelley came at Christina from behind and picked her up, leaving her helpless as her neck was broken. Also, due to her non-humanoid shape, Shelley
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    Peter kills Roman and leaves

    was able to smack her aside while she was in mid-air after lunging at her. Shelley used a rock in a downward strike while Christina lunged at her, pushing her right to the ground and helpless while her neck was crushed and her head pulled off. Peter's vargulf fought Roman on equal grounds, with Roman's distraction by Destiny's ghost allowing Peter to tackle them both out the window, leaving Roman with several injuries and broken bones, allowing Peter to kill him by ripping out his heart.
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Peter's vargulf wrestles with Roman

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Christiana running after Shelley

  • Heightened Senses: Vargulfs can see, hear and smell much better than humans.
  • Enhanced Speed: Vargulfs' speed is increased when they are in their wolf form.

Weaknesses

  • Turning: Once someone has become a vargulf they are unable to control their turning. Each time it seems, their bodies can become more unstable and eventually leave transformation related injuries that can be fatal though they come back to life unless their heads are destroyed. It is possible they can be trapped in their wolf form permanently as their wolf becomes in control of its turning, but have no intellect to control it. They may turn back and have no memory of what they did in wolf form or only subconsciously know and believe something else. Christiana seemed to have developed a split personality from the vargulf condition, with her split personality controlling her wolf and stemming from her seeing others as promiscuous and sexually threatening to herself.
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    Peter's animal mind taking over making him ready to kill Destiny

  • Mortality: As they do not have enhanced healing factors, vargulfs can be killed any way a normal human can be killed. Although, they come back to life if their head is not destroyed or removed.
  • Mercury: Mercury is a liquid that can burn the skin of a werewolf.
  • Decapitation: If a vargulf's brain and head are completely or partly destroyed or even severed, they will be permanently destroyed.
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    Christiana after being struck in the face by Shelley when she lunged at her

  • Non-Humanoid Body: Due to their non-humanoid shape and their lack of joints that provide the movement that humanoids possess, vargulfs are exposed at
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    Roman quickly catches Peter as his jaws are exposed for him to break open

certain parts of their bodies, and be attacked from the sides or be picked up and killed. They are limited in their attacks due their quadrupedal bodies, which only allow them to lunge forward and slightly reach to the sides. They can, however, turn as fast as humanoids and can be overwhelmed and killed due to their predictable movements.

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Christina's head after she was killed a second time by Shelley, this time being decapitated

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