Character List- The Shape Shifters and the Weres

Alcide Herveaux

Alcide is a full-blooded werewolf who owns a surveying company with his father. Sookie first meets Alcide when Bill Compton is kidnapped by his "maker" Lorena in Club Dead. Although Sookie and Alcide seem to have a mutual romantic interest, their relationship does not consolidate because of his complicated relationship with Debbie Pelt. In the eighth novel, From Dead to Worse, Alcide becomes the leader of his pack. Joe Manganiello portrays Alcide in HBO's True Blood series. On the show, Alcide takes Sookie to a were bar called Lou Pines (Club Dead in the books) and they see Debbie become intiated into the neo-Nazi wolf pack headed by Cooter. They are loyal to Russell Edgington, who has always had an army of weres. Alcide helps rescue Bill from Russell’s estate.

Coot (RIP)

Leader of the Neo-Nazi wolf pack in league with Russell Edgington and Debbie Pelt’s boyfriend. He kidnapped Bill Compton at the behest of the King of Mississippi and nearly drained him twice. He also participated in Debbie’s branding and zapped by Sookie’s magikal powers. He was shot in the head by Alcide Herveaux in Edgington’s estate.

Calvin Norris

Calvin is a full-blooded werepanther and leader of the werepanther community in Hotshot, a close knit and secretive community ten miles from Bon Temps. He is first introduced in the fourth novel, Dead to the World, and he is portrayed as a man in his late forties, with trimmed beard salted with gray, short hair and green golden eyes. He is a small man, around five foot seven inches with an agile build and muscular arms.

Because Hotshot takes care of its own justice, Calvin has a good deal of power over its residents, including the power to decide who is executed for their crimes. Calvin is Crystal’s uncle. When he first meets Sookie, she senses that Calvin and Crystal’s relationship is more than the authority of an uncle. The author explains that generations of inbreeding in the Hotshot community have weakened their shifting traits. Calvin explains to Sookie that though Crystal is a full-blooded panther, she can only change at the moon and is not even “full-powered.”

In order to preserve the shifter traits, and to bring in new genes, Calvin offers Sookie protection and tells her he will be “her man.” He is a respected man who works as a crew leader in Norcross, a lumber processing company. Even though Sookie turns down his offers for a relationship, she still remains friends with him and enjoys his company. She often sees him after her brother and Crystal become involved, although they fall out a little when he starts dating a woman named Tanya, with whom Sookie has a negative past.

At some point, following Hotshot community rules, Sookie must break some of his fingers with a cement block in order to punish Crystal for being unfaithful to her brother, Jason. Calvin is very upset when Crystal is killed, and ends up ordering the death of her killer when he is discovered. In True Blood, Gregory Sporleder plays Calvin Norris. In the show, Calvin is portrayed as a meth dealer and a leader of a dodgy band of white trash people. His daughter Crystal is betrothed to Felton and she is an abused meth cooker Jason Stackhouse falls in love with. This change in the character has been a much despised and disputed change from the books.

Felton Norris

In the show, Felton is Crystal's boyfriend and long time promised husband.

Colonel John Flood

Colonel Flood is a full-blooded werewolf and packmaster of Shreveport. He is a retired Air Force colonel, formerly stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana. He is first introduced in the fourth novel, Dead to the World and is depicted as having thick, white hair cut very short with a mustache that must have been trimmed with a ruler because it was so exact. Colonel Flood dies in a car accident in the fifth book, Dead as a Doornail. In True Blood, he is played by Grainger Hines. On the show, Col. Flood has been portrayed as a cowardly person who fears the Vampires and the King of Mississippi and let his pack be split in the King’s service.

Crystal Norris Stackhouse

Crystal is a full-blooded werepanther and niece of Calvin Norris. She is first introduced in the fourth novel, Dead to the World and is depicted as being a "short, thin, dark twenty-one-year-old." Crystal appears in subsequent novels and eventually marries Jason because she is pregnant, though she miscarries the baby. Shifters tend to have low birthrate and Crystal has already had a miscarriage before, but she becomes pregnant again and it seems like she will be able to carry this pregnancy to term. While pregnant, she has an affair with another man and Jason finds out, manipulating Calvin Norris and Sookie into being witness to the infidelity. Their relationship deteriorates after that; Crystal moves back to Hotshot. She and her fetus are killed in the ninth book, Dead and Gone. Lindsay Pulsipher portrays Crystal in HBO's True Blood; however, at the start of season 3, she has a fiancée that is not Jason. Crystal is betrothed to Felton and she is an abused meth cooker Jason Stackhouse falls in love with.

Debbie Pelt

She is first introduced in the third novel, Club Dead, and Sookie describes her hair as being "straight and cut in asymmetrical clumps, tiny locks of different lengths." She is mean-spirited and vindictive, and her relationship with Alcide has been tumultuous. When she left him, she quickly got engaged to a Were-owl. However, she became jealous when she saw Alcide with Sookie. In this novel, she pushes Sookie into a car trunk where Bill is being concealed after Sookie rescues him from being starved and tortured by Lorena. It is revealed in the fourth book, Dead to the World, that Debbie had participated in Bill’s torture. Alcide then abjures her from the Shreveport pack. At the end of this book, Debbie shoots at Sookie, but Eric takes the bullet instead. Sookie then kills her and Eric disposes of the body. In subsequent novels, Debbie’s family looks for her and causes Sookie some problems because they believe Sookie has something to do with her disappearance. Brit Morgan will portray Debbie in HBO's True Blood. When first introduced in the third installment of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, Debbie Pelt identifies herself as a Were-lynx from Jackson, MS. However as the storyline progresses (due to lack of continuity) , she is said to be a Were-fox adopted by a Werewolf couple who could not conceive. She is described as a "tall young woman with gleaming short black hair, athletic build, and a long narrow face." On the show she is portrayed as a werewolf addicted to V and initiated as a servant of Russell Edgington. She is engaged to Cooter and participates in the torture of Bill Compton and eventually tries to kill Sookie in her own home.

Luna Garza

Luna is the second shapeshifter, after Sam, that Sookie meets in Living Dead in Dallas. It is implied that she shapeshifts into a bat. Luna is a Hispanic woman with dark eyes and hair. While working undercover at The Fellowship of the Sun (FotS), she helps Sookie escape from the murderous members of the church. Through Luna, Sookie learns that there are many other ‘supes’ (supernatural beings) in this world.

Maria-Star Cooper

Maria-Star is a full-blooded werewolf and packmember of the Shreveport pack. She is first introduced in the fourth book, Dead to the World, when Maria-Star, in wolf form, gets injured in an attack by the witch coven. Sookie takes Maria-Star to the hospital. Maria-Star has "beautiful light-toast skin and curly dark hair." This character appears in subsequent novels, and becomes Alcide’s girlfriend, though she is brutally murdered in the eighth book, From Dead to Worse.

Mel Hart

Mel Hart is a full-blooded were-panther who becomes good friends with Jason Stackhouse, following Jason's falling out with his other friend, Hoyt. Mel seems overly devoted to Jason, always seen hanging out with him, drinking, eating, and even going on double dates with Jason and Crystal (his wife). Mel, a full-blood panther, was once a member of the Hotshot Community, but left it to live in town. He let it be known it was his choice to leave, but it turns out that he was exiled from the community because he was gay and did not want to produce a child with a woman, as the community demanded of him. Sookie later finds out that Mel was involved in the murder of Jason's estranged and adulteress wife, Crystal. When Mel stopped by Jason's to get some wood, Crystal made some cruel remarks about his homosexuality and his love for Jason. Mel, already jealous of and angry at Crystal, slashes her with a half-transformed clawed hand. He then quickly leaves the scene with Crystal unconscious but alive. However, after Mel leaves Crystal in that vulnerable position she is kidnapped by two faeries and crucified. It is unclear whether or not she could have survived Mel's attack. However, because he left her there, Mel is punished by being torn apart by the Hotshot pack-members.

John Quinn

John Quinn is a full-blooded weretiger who first appears in the fifth book Dead as a Doornail. Quinn is portrayed as being at least six and a half feet tall, impressively muscular, bald, and having purple eyes (often compared to the color of pansies). As a supernatural coordinator for the Extreme(ly Elegant) Events company, his job is to arrange and emcee all types of supernatural community events, such as a packmaster contest or a wedding. He becomes Sookie's romantic interest for a while. He does not reveal anything about his life to Sookie, but she only learns about his history through other people—when he was 15, he kills a bunch of humans who had been raping his mother, then seeks assistance from local vampires to clean up the mess. In exchange, the vampires demand his servitude for three years as a weretiger in gladiatorial events. Quinn has a mentally ill mother in addition to a teenaged sister, and both require his attention and protection. Sookie breaks up with him in the eighth book. In the ninth book, Dead and Gone, Quinn returns to see Sookie at her home in Bon Temps, but ends up in a fight with Bill over Sookie's protection. While Bill walks away with minor injuries, Quinn suffers several broken ribs and a broken jaw.

Tray Dawson

Tray is a full-blooded werewolf. He is first introduced in Dead as a Doornail and is portrayed as being a “slab of muscle… a barrel-shaped man.” Sookie thinks he looks “dangerous.” In this novel, he is hired to be Calvin Norris’ bodyguard and is injured when Sweetie Des Arts shoots him while he is protecting Sookie. He lives apart from the Shreveport Pack, and is the owner of a motorcycle shop. Because of his strength, Tray is often used as a bodyguard. Tray starts dating Sookie's roommate, Amelia Broadway, in the eighth novel, From Dead to Worse. In Dead and Gone, Sookie hires him for protection, but while guarding Sookie, Tray drinks poisoned vampire blood and ends up being captured and severely tortured. While in the hospital, on the verge of death, he grabs hold of the fairy Breandan with the last of his strength, successfully causing a diversion. Breandan kills Tray, but Dawson's final act had given Bill time to deliver the killing blow to the fairy. Tray may have been portrayed as the door minder and bartender at Lou Pines in the show.

Jannalynn Hopper

Jannalynn is described as a flashy dresser with a violent streak. She belongs to Alcide Herveaux's wolf pack and she starts to date Sam Merlotte in Dead in the Family. She becomes Alcide's second in command after Annabelle, another new arrival to the series, betrays his trust and was banished from the pack.

Tommy Mikens

Sam Merlotte’s brother and fellow shifter who turns into a pit bull. He at first resents Sam because he thinks Sam had this great life and looks down on him. But Later, Sam offers him a chance to get out of his situation, which is pit fighting for gambling. He is interested in Jessica and jealous of Hoyt Fortenberry.

Melinda Mikens

Melinda Mickens in Sam’s biological mom and is married to Joe Lee Mikens. Joe Lee Mikens exploited her in the pit.

Daphne Landry (RIP)

A shifter and devotee of Mary Anne whose main goal is to seduce Sam so Mary Anne can sacrifice Sam to conjure the god Dionysus. She is killed in S2 by Eggs and her body is left in Merlotte’s to try and frame Sam. Her shift was as a fawn though her go to shift was a pig.

Sources: Wikipedia, The Sookie Stackhouse Novels, Daydreaming http://black-celebration.net/caps/index.php?cat=376 Screen Caps and Raki