🛑 TW / / / Brief religious mention/themes ( Catholicism and Witchcraft ) 🛑

As a native to Southern Louisiana, this Rougarou is my personal interpretation of the Cajun legend, but my Rougarou is in the form of something much more biologically appropriate and (maybe) a more available candidate for the area/location/lore itself. I chose to take on a more native species; An alligator concept/representation instead of the typical wolf affliction, namely as wolves ( only red wolves were present anyhow ) have been extinct in Louisiana for 40+ years due to ongoing agricultural pressures. Then the larger, more usual werewolf suspect/candidate being a Grey Wolf species/subspecies, just doesn't seem likely to me, in a Swamp anyhow, nor as realistic for most bi-pedal lycanthrope-style cryptids to move efficiently and quietly in a Swamp or bayou type environment. Ya got bears, gators, or coyotes here as our main predators, and they all have one thing in common, I've noticed- they're all quad. If it works well for them here, I think an Alligator Rougarou just makes sense! 

Louisiana & Cajun Legend - Cryptid / Creature / Afflicted Sinner

• Alligator features take priority, while the quad/lower body is afflicted with canine and warped to combine the two.
• The Sinner afflicted will still need to consume blood/feed in their condition, as per the curse originally states.
• Lurks along the bayou edges and shoreline. Typically only spotted in the wee hours of dusk/dawn.
• Visible only to similarly Afflicted Sinners, the Unfortunate & Downtrodden, and other, lesser Sinners.
• Does not bring luck and will take advantage of those for the blood curse to survive.
• Never a Good Omen, usually hostile/unnerving with an unknown survival rate as an attack brings on a state of disorientation, memory loss and lethargy. The victim cannot recall the attack nor the events that may follow. Either ending in a transformation of the newly attacked victim once they succumb to their inner sins and/or fatality in the aforementioned victim, if the victim cannot/reject the invocation of the curse themselves. 

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Rougarou - Credit to Wikipedia, Don't @ me kthx

The rougarou (alternatively spelled as roux-ga-roux, rugaroo, or rugaru) is a legendary creature in French communities linked to traditional concepts of the werewolf.

In the Cajun legends, the creature is said to prowl the swamps around Acadiana and Greater New Orleans, and the sugar cane fields and woodlands of the regions.^{[citation needed]} The rougarou most often is described as a creature with a human body and the head of a wolf or dog, similar to the werewolf legend.

Often the story-telling has been used to inspire fear and obedience. One such example is stories that have been told by elders to persuade Cajun children to behave. According to another variation, the wolf-like beast will hunt down and kill Catholics who do not follow the rules of Lent.^[3] This coincides with the French Catholic loup-garou stories, according to which the method for turning into a werewolf is to break Lent seven years in a row.^{[citation needed]}

A common blood sucking legend says that the rougarou is under the spell for 101 days. After that time, the curse is transferred from person to person when the rougarou draws another human's blood. During that day the creature returns to human form. Although acting sickly, the human refrains from telling others of the situation for fear of being killed.^[2]

Other stories range from the rougarou as a rabbit to the rougarou being derived from witchcraft. In the latter claim, only a witch can make a rougarou—either by turning into a wolf herself, or by cursing others with lycanthropy.^[4]