Talk:Imprinting/@comment-24927180-20140529083720/@comment-7600752-20140901042548

I think imprinting WAS considered rare at one time. The packs were usually small... about three or so. They killed the occasional vampire who might drift thru their neck of the woods. So, their wasn't this HUGE need for more shapeshifters since they didn't encounter too many vampires. The shifters had their wives and children... and pretty much stuck with them. However, AFTER the Cullen's arrived as a permanent fixture, this caused a new pack to reform, with larger numbers. The pack was kinda created by nature to combat vampires, and to protect humans from them. So, with a fairly large vampire family living in Forks, more of the native tribe is transforming and becoming pack members. Since the vampires are STILL in Fork... and the Cullen's occasionally have vampire visitors... it's causing the pack members to 'imprint' on fertile young females in order to pass on the "shifter" gene - so that there will be even MORE shifter or pack members. This will probably keep happening until the Cullen's move away. With the Cullen's gone, there will no longer be a vampire presence to set the catalyst for the tribe to shift. They'll slowly stop shifting. They'll begin to age... they'll eventually die, and there won't be any more shifters... or imprinting for that matter. But the shifter gene will lie dormant until another vampire sets foot on their land... then that would cause a new catalyst, and the shifters will come back. We KNOW that this is what happened MANY years ago... the Cullen's came to Forks, then suddenly the wolves showed up. The Cullen's and the pack made their original truce. THEN the Cullen's decided to leave Forks until all the wolves were gone. About 70 years later, they detected NO trace of the wolves in Forks, so the Cullen's moved back. They were ignorant that it was their very existence that caused the existence of the wolves. It's also the Cullen's existence in Fork's that's causing pack members to imprint left and right.