What do we know about worgen?

I'm probably personally going to draw from what Blizzard has given us and real world Lore. Say, only permanently killable if the deed is done with a weapon made out of heirloom silver.

I'm sure we're going to get a lot more information as Beta and Cata roll out, it's mostly a waiting game. 

((

Forget all that. We need to settle the important questions. ARE THEY HOUSEBROKEN?! Know this, before you invite them over to dinner people.

))

Based on what I've seen leaked from the Alpha, a lot of this is explained in the Worgen opening quests, although there are still gaps due to missing/incomplete quest text.

My tendency would be to treat anything not specifically mentioned to be different as being the same as the base race (ie, human) from which the worgen character was cursed.

My personal thoughts on the curse were that it wouldn't be transmittable via bite, but rather through touch.  Even then, the worgen has to be rather freshly cursed (say a day or two) for it to transmit, after that the outside effect of the curse weakens because the worgen's body has adapted to it's new form.

My thoughts:

The Worgen Curse, whatever it is, is non-communicable.  My strong suspicion is that Arugal weaponised some kind of OBL (ominous bubbling liquid) into a gaseous form or otherwise hexed the land itself, putting the curse into the ground.  Because the Forsaken are undead, they weren't affected, but the residents of Gilneas and the surrounding area, being both living and subsisting off of things grown in hexed ground, were cursed over time.  It's not like the same thing didn't happen with Lordaeron in a different fashion, and Gilneas sealed itself off without bothering to have any of the forwarning of watching Lordaeron die.

Having read the spoileriffic part, I'm thinking Raelthorn will end up being a Drood, trying to reconcile his old-world nobility with his new savagery. 

...Dammit, I'm making a Gangrel.

This is why I'm getting a rough idea for any Worgen alt's Human life first, and worrying about the Worgen part later, since that's the point of the starter zone experience, and I can extrapolate from there. I waited on my Draenei too, until the expac actually launched to come up with anythhing, and even then it was thread-thin based on lack of info.

I think they'll do a bit better with Gilneas given it's in the lore more fully than Draenei ever were, as well as the Worgen. But I'm probably not really going to know my Worgen character(s) until I play a bit in the zones and see what happens. I'm a fan of "person first, cool powers later" approach to character creation anyway; it's rare I make a concept based around a particular feature or ability. The ones I do, don't last nearly as long in my own experiences. Though the Worgen curse strikes me as a bit more of an overhaul and life-altering event than "kewl new powerz set!" So even more reason for me to wait and see how it's being shoehorned into the lore.

I've got the human part of my story pretty much written in my head already. I know who she is, how she got there and what she did during the years behind the wall. Of course its all subject to change once I start going through the quests and her worgen character will develope then too. I can't wait!

But here's a thought... The worgen in Pyrewood can be skinned (or they used to be skinnable) I suppose they'll change that now since Tauren aren't skinnable...

Something interesting I got from a webcomic is the concept that people with dog heads don't really have the ability to make certain sounds since they don't have lips or cheeks. So they'd have to practice ventriloquism to make "b"s, "m"s and so on. I already put the concept to use on an undead, but its pretty frustrating when the character's bad at it.

Just an extra quirk to think about.

I have another question to add to the list:

Will the claws be retractable, like cat's claws, or always out? Because I'm seeing a lot of difficulty ahead for anyone who can't change at will. Cooking, sewing, putting on clothes, reading books, handling... anything...

We know that they dance in a manner that would make a blood elf blush.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLlWuL0LikE&playnext_from=TL&videos=uCCWkzdP2co&feature=grec_index

Here's a question for folks:  How do you think the relationship between the Worgen and Night Elves is going to work out?  Call me playing devil's advocat here, but we have the following list of tension factors:

1.) Gilneas is the single proudest human nation led by the guy who flat declared Gilneas needed NO ONE.  Humble pie may be Genn Greymane's breakfast, lunch and dinner right now, but thinking all that pride is gone is probably a mistake.

2.) The original Worgen were transported to Azeroth by a Night Elf seeking an army for use against the Legion.  Am I the only one looking at the Worgen being transplanted to Darnassus and thinking that there's going to be at least ONE asshat Night Elf that's going to think "Well, the army's here, let them do the fighting?"  I have a bad feeling about this.

Just wait for the Beta, folks.  Trust me, the answers are there :)