Episode Title: The Beast of Gévaudan – Werewolf, Weapon, or Something Worse?

In the still silence of moonlit hills... a shadow moves. A low growl rises from the underbrush. Hooves thunder. Screams follow. France, 1764. A region gripped in terror. A predator that shouldn’t exist. This… is the story of the Beast of Gévaudan. And it may be the most chilling manhunt history has ever known.

Welcome... to Veil of Shadows.

ACT I – The First Blood

It began in June of 1764, in the rugged countryside of Gévaudan. An isolated province in south central France. A young woman tending cattle on the outskirts of Langogne was found... savaged. Her throat torn out. Her body mutilated. Locals, hardened by harsh winters and wild predators, had seen wolves before. But this was different. This was… wrong.

Soon, the attacks multiplied. Victims were found decapitated, with bodies shredded in ways no known animal could achieve. Some were children. Some were women. All were torn apart. Witnesses claimed the creature was “as big as a calf,” with reddish fur, black stripes along its back, a massive head, and a tail like a whip. It walked like a wolf… but not entirely. And it seemed to choose its victims. The French countryside held its breath. But the Beast kept killing.

ACT II – Panic in the Provinces

Between 1764 and 1767, the Beast of Gévaudan was blamed for over 100 deaths, with some estimates pushing higher. Survivors described impossible speed, brutal strength, and a disturbing awareness in its attacks. It would avoid men with weapons. It targeted the unarmed. The vulnerable.

At night, the forests echoed with howls. Parents clutched their children close. Local hunters formed posses. They tracked, they set traps, they poisoned meat. Nothing worked. Even more terrifying? Some victims were found not eaten... but arranged. As if the Beast wanted to send a message. The story exploded across France. Newspapers... still a relatively new phenomenon, ran weekly updates. The people demanded action.

And so… King Louis XV intervened.

ACT III – Royal Blood and Silver Bullets

In 1765, the King sent his personal gun-bearer, François Antoine, to handle the situation. A seasoned hunter, Antoine arrived with soldiers, marksmen, and all the firepower a monarchy could muster. After weeks of stalking, he killed a massive wolf. Its corpse was paraded through Paris. Antoine was hailed a hero. The Beast… was dead.

Until… it wasn’t.

Just two months later, a shepherd boy was mauled. Then a teenage girl. Then another child. The killings resumed. Bloodier. More deliberate. More cruel. Whatever Antoine shot, it wasn’t the Beast. Locals whispered that the King had lied… that something darker still haunted the hills.

ACT IV – The Hunter Who Would Not Miss

The attacks continued until 1767. That’s when a local man, Jean Chastel stepped forward. A quiet farmer. A devout Catholic. And an expert marksman. According to legend, Chastel loaded his musket with handmade bullets; silver ones, melted down from religious medals.

In June of that year, deep in the forest of Mont Mouchet, Chastel waited. He claimed he knelt and prayed. And when the Beast appeared… he didn’t miss. The creature fell. Its body was dragged out and reportedly unlike any wolf seen before. Its dimensions were unnatural. Its eyes… human-like. The killings stopped. The silence that followed was deafening...

ACT V – Theories That Still Haunt Us

What was the Beast of Gévaudan? Three centuries later, we still don’t know. But the theories? Oh, they’re deliciously dark.

1. A Deformed Lion or Exotic Animal:

Some believe it was an escaped lion or hyena from a private menagerie. The stripes, the tail, the ferocity—it fits. But how did it survive three years? And why the surgical savagery?

2. A Trained Killer – Human and Beast:

Could the Beast have been part of something darker? A man using a trained animal as a weapon—perhaps for revenge or religious fanaticism? Some survivors claimed they saw a man in the distance... watching the attacks.

3. Werewolf Legend:

It was the 1700s. The Church was still powerful. Superstition thrived. Many believed the Beast was a lycanthrope; a cursed man, doomed to hunt in wolf form. Jean Chastel’s silver bullets? A poetic detail... or a chilling truth?

4. Secret Society Cover-Up:

Dig deeper, and you'll find whispers of Freemasonic or Templar involvement. Some claim the region was a testing ground for mind control, assassination tactics, or even cryptid breeding. Insane? Maybe. But the 1700s weren’t exactly boring times.

5. Psychological Warfare or Mass Hysteria:

Was the Beast real… or an outbreak of collective panic? Could a series of wolf attacks, exaggerated by fear and gossip, have snowballed into one of the world’s first viral monsters?

ACT VI – The Fog Never Lifts

The Beast of Gévaudan may have died with Jean Chastel’s bullet. But its legacy remains alive and clawing. Modern Gévaudan (now part of Lozère) still bears scars. Statues of the Beast stand in its villages. Museums display replicas of its supposed skull. Tourist shops sell plush werewolves and silver bullets. But at night... locals still close their shutters. Farmers speak in hushed tones. And some say you can hear… howling. Because if the Beast was more than flesh; if it was an idea, a curse, a pattern... then maybe it never left. Maybe it waits. For the next time fear blooms. The next time the fog rolls in. The next time we stop believing... And forget to bolt the door.

Some monsters are born. Some are made. And some... just wake up.

This has been Veil of Shadows: Maniac Monday. Stay curious. Stay skeptical... And if you hear scratching at the window… don’t look.

Until next time...