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paleontology and D&D stuff
Oh HEY here’s something cool;
Canines first cropped up in North America- either C. leptophagus or Eucyon davisi. At some point C. dirus evolved as a heavier larger American form. By this time recognizable C. lupus wolves had evolved in Eurasia and crossed back over into the Americas. These were “Beringian wolves” - they had shorter muzzles with thicker teeth than modern wolves and the wear pattern on those teeth suggests cracking bones.
paleontology and D&D stuff
So 1) I think that might be a good way to go for D&D wargs - a shorter more easily humanized muzzle and more vaguely hyena appearance. And
2) literally only one hyenid made it to North America, a “running hyena” (there used to be three hyena clades, where one was a lighter built running type). If the local wolves were all big bone-crunchers that might explain why the local hyena was one of the more gracile types rather than a competitor.