Looking for “Beast of Gevaudan” – The ghost wolf that killed 113 people from real life into the game

If you are a fan horror gamemaybe you’ve recently heard about a game called Gevaudan – rookie at the hands of indie developer Nicolas Bernard. Gevaudan lets the player take the role of an unknown character who finds himself appearing in the forest of the same name, where a creature known as “The Beast” is raging. Moving freely in the forest, gamers have to find clues around the lampposts arranged along the way, thereby helping themselves to survive the shadow of a half-man and half-wolf. But few people know that Gevaudan is not a mythical place and the story of “The Beast of Gevaudan” is not a product of imagination. These two details are real and have been recorded in countless historical documents over the past few hundred years.
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From 1764 until 1767, in the historic area of ​​Gevaudan in the south of France, more than 100 barbaric murders of young men, children and women were recorded. The cause of death was “The Beast” – a beast living in the forest of Gevaudan. The existence of the organism has been confirmed by countless documents and no scientist has ever denied it. Evidence suggests the attacks took place within a radius of 80 to 90 kilometers, with victims often suffering head injuries and throats ripped open. A 1987 study reported that The Beast was responsible for a total of 210 attacks with 113 dead, 49 injured and 98 partially eaten. But another study suggested that only 60 to 100 people died, while the injured were just over 30. For those who were lucky to survive, “The Beast” was described in the form of a creature close to it. wolf-like but unusually large, with small and straight ears, broad chest, large mouth and teeth, while having a red coat.
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In a study published in 2002, John DC Linnell argued that there is a difference between the numbers of common wolf attacks and those of “The Beast” recorded between the 18th and 20th centuries. very big. Specifically, the data on The Beast is strongly aimed at the adult group. Six times more adults are attacked by The Beast than by wolves, while children under the age of 10 are three times less likely to be attacked. What does this difference mean? Does The Beast have lower intelligence than a wolf when it chooses bigger and stronger prey? Or does the behavior of this monster have another explanation? In fact, the target is an adult with a large build and good defense but at the same time it is more beneficial in terms of nutrition if The Beast can take them down. Nature has also demonstrated that prey size often increases with the size of the hunter. Based on those deductions John DC Linnell proved the information provided from the 18th century to be completely correct… The Beast is much bigger than a common wolf.
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The Beast’s first attack was recorded when a young woman saw the monster rushing towards her while tending cows. However, the cows turned back and attacked the beast, saving the young girl’s life. But not long after, The Beast claimed its first life in Gevaudan when the body of a 14-year-old girl named Janne Boulet was found near the village of Les Hubacs near the town of Langogne. In the following months, more and more attacks appeared, leaving residents living in constant fear. The beast always targets those who walk alone and tend to cows on the edge of the Gevaudan forest. In addition, it only attacks the head and neck of the victim. By December 1764, rumors of not one but two beasts living in Gevaudan began to appear. Some witnesses also said that they witnessed The Beast appear with a creature with a similar appearance, most likely its child.
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But it wasn’t until 1765 that the beast seemed to start attacking the whole group of people. There, Jacques Portefaix and his 7 friends soon became the targets of The Beast. After some discussion, Jacques and his friends succeeded in repelling the monster by teaming up. This incident soon caught the attention of King Louis XV, who offered a huge reward to any hunter who could kill the beast. Three weeks later, King Louis XV sent two professional hunters to Gevaudan to hunt for The Beast. With a pack of eight bloodhounds trained solely to hunt wolves, these two hunters have been active in Gevaudan for four months straight. However, the result is that the attacks still take place and show no signs of abating. King Louis XV later replaced these two hunters with his courtier Francois Antoine. During that time he succeeded in defeating up to 3 large gray wolves with a size of 30 cm in height, 1.7 m in length and 60 kg in weight. The authorities immediately identified this as the cause of the attacks over the years and the wolf was stuffed with straw and brought back to the capital while Antoine was hailed as a hero.
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But towards the end of 1765, attacks came again, wounding two men. After that, more than 10 fatal attacks followed, leaving the people of Gevaudan to continue to live in fear. However, during a hunt organized by the nobility in the region, a farmer named Jean Chastel succeeded in shooting down The Beast… officially ending the five months of this monster’s rampage. . Many later novels adapted that image, claiming that Jean Chastel used a blessed silver bullet.. and when dissecting The Beast’s abdomen, the inside was filled with human organs. But hundreds of years later, people still make many theories about the existence of this beast. Some believe it is merely a wolf attack but is arbitrarily wormed to fabricate a ghost story. Others believe that this is not a wolf but in fact a lion still in the process of maturing. The area of ​​Gevaudan at that time was still poor and the victims were only civilians, so it is possible to not know the shape of the lion – a creature originally from Africa. Only the nobility, who had been to Africa, which was also a French colony at that time, knew what a lion was. It is possible that a noble in the region brought this species from Africa and accidentally released it into the wild. However, the theory is just a hypothesis and so far there has been no official confirmation about the nature of The Beast..
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