| “ | While their minds operate differently from ours, Wolfen are capable of strategic planning and and have their own complex language. This combination of intelligence and awesome physical prowess makes them the deadliest predators on earth.
— Wayne Douglas Barlowe, "Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy", page 100
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The Wolfen are a species of wolf that has attained sentience, or highly evolved intelligence, on par with human beings in many ways. They think, they understand the concept of human-level strategy (which they use with lethal effect. One method they use is to wound a human: after other humans arrive to check on the wounded man or woman, they pounce), they have language (series of vocalizations, claw tapping, tail wagging, etc), they eat their dead to keep their species a secret, they select their prey based on how likely they are not to be missed by loved ones, and they have mastered doorknobs, capable of opening doors using their huge, human-like paws. Indeed, when two cops discover the creatures, they retaliate, stalking them.
Wolfen are large, about the size of a timber wolf (in some artwork they are pictured as being the size of very large wolves, perhaps 175-200 lbs. However, like Grey wolves their close relatives, they probably have a fairly good size range). Canadian Timber wolves, the largest north American subspecies, can average nearly 3 feet tall at the shoulder and 100-170 lbs in weight; the wolfen by contrast reach 3 feet tall at the whithers, and can raise their hair up on their backs like a cat, making them appear larger. The book states that they weigh about 180 lbs for males. So a weight of 180 lbs will be used for Male wolfen in fights.
Wolfen's physical capabilities are incredible: with extremely heightened senses, great speed (they move so fast its like a flash. They can get to a cop's right hand before he can pull out his gun), great bestial strength (They can eat human bones. They use their arms to carry off human meals) and large canine heads with powerful (yet shortened) jaws. Wolfen hair is dark grey, and when used in concert with their prowling and stalking capbilities, they can stalk humans while remaining unseen in the dark.
Wolfen live in packs (4-5 animals), adding to their already formidable nature.
Battle vs. Velociraptors (by GSFB)
Wolfen: 
Velociraptor: 
It had been over a minute since the Velociraptor pack started hunting the Alpha female wolfen. They had tried to hit her with the usual trick of sending a decoy out, a distraction, while the other raptors charged in from the sides and behind, but the wolfen leapt into the trees before they could strike. They jumped onto the branches of the tree but the wolfen was gone in a second. The chased her, not realizing that she was leading them into a trap.
The Alpha female made sure that her pack was downwind of the reptiles, so that they weren't detected. She ran but not constantly, always waiting for the raptors to catch up. She had never hunted such as these before; so clever, so quick. Like her kind. She worried that soon they would suspect something, that they would wise up to the ambush, but before they could do so, they were in the kill zone.
The Raptors encircled her. She glared, hissing, the hairs on her back and neck sticking up, her clawed extended. The Raptors studied her, extremely curious. They had never hunted a mammal like this before. Indeed, they had never hunted anything like this before. She was ffast, as fast as they were, if not faster, and se could get to full speed much more rapidly. It was a sif they were hunting a mighty wind. And she was smart, as smart as human prey, if not smarter, and without the fear that humans had around raptor kind. It unsettled them, this creature almost without fear, hardly any. It was then that they suspected a trap.
Too late.
With a howl from the alpha female, right when the raptors charged in masse, the Wolfen leaped from the trees onto their prey. Three raptors were knocked down, struggling to get up while the wolfen bite down and thrashed them with razor sharp claws. The fallen raptors struck back with their arms and their jaws, yet they were coming off the worst: ribs were cracked or broken in wolfen jaws, bellies were being shredded, one had a tail that was halfway cut off at the middle. Two of the raptors stood up and threw their assailants off, but one had serious cuts to the throat, and by the time it kicked the wolfen away, it was mere seconds away from its doom
Two wolfen fell on the alpha female Raptor, slicing her back, upper tail, and legs. The Female bite down on one wolfen's neck, ending its life . The other it rammed against a tree several times before it collapse. She finsihed him off with a big toe claw to the belly .
The Alpha female wolfen leaped towards one of the raptors, biting it in the eyes. She brought her foot claws down on the raptor's neck. In moments, the raptor was dead , but the female was cut deeply by its toe claws and teeth.
The Wolfen ran into the thick woods. The Alpha female Velociraptor screeched, ordering the last two members of her pack to follow. Sneering, she ran to her left, trying to encircle the prey.
The two lower rank raptors stopped after several seconds, sniffing the air. One cawed. As they walked silently, ready to pounce, a Wolfen leaned down from a low branch, his hind claws locked into the wood. This was the alpha male, the lagest member of the Pack. When he lowered, he snarled and sliced the Raptor's neck repeatedly .
The other Raptor turned around, but before it could strike the alpha female wolfen leapt passed, clawing its eyes. Another jumped on its side and bit down on a rib, breaking it. The Raptor fell down.
The Alpha Female Raptor arrived a few seconds later: no wolfen. She had heard the battle and the ensuing distress calls of the fallen comrade and made haste. She saw that one of her pack lied dead, the other, the alpha male, was thrashing about on the forest floor, blind and crippled with pain. She crept towards him, cawing to him, keeping a sharp eye and nose out.
A wolfen, the big alpha female, jumped down over the fallen raptor and ripped its throat out . Turning to the Raptor, it beared her fangs, her hair on the back sticking straight up. The Raptor reared, enraged, her face filled with malice. She raised her hand claws and made the first step to the Wolfen.
Predictable, the Wolfen thought. For all their smarts, they were still brute beasts, driven to bestial rage and robotic instinct. Not even as clever as human beings, she thought to herself. She smiled, a split second before the other two members of the pack came at the velociraptor from the sides, savaging her ribs and belly. To make sure she didn't overcome and kill two more of her pack, she leapt onto her head, forcing her left paw through the lower jaw, into the skull's braincase .
The Raptor dead, the Wolfen raised their blood soaked, satisfied faces to the full eclipse, and howled the song of their distant ancestors.
Winner: Wolfen
Expert's Opinoin
TBA