Editing Dog of War (section)

==Abilities==
They don't have to sleep,<ref name=":0">“It’s more accurate to say I’m many fragments adding up to a whole.  If I’m good at what I do, it’s because it’s more or less ''all'' that I do.”<br><br>“So when you can improvise bombs and think those three or four steps ahead,” Lucy said, “it’s because-”<br><br>“It’s because that’s the way I think, when I have a free moment to think.  I’m ''this'', twenty-four seven, seven days a week.  I don’t sleep, I don’t ever fully relax.  If I do find distraction, it’s only a small share of me that’s distracted.  The rest is ready.”<br><br>“Are you entirely made up of Canadian soldiers?”<br><br>“No.  Canadian, American, ANA, armed citizens, others.”<br><br>“Why Kennet, then?”<br><br>“I think the part of me that thinks of ‘home’ came primarily from a man that thought of Kennet or a place very much like it.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/23 Excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.5]]</ref><ref name=":1">“He’s a Dog of War, known in some circles as Dog Tags.  I think his name is an older equivalent to John Doe, but for soldiers.  When warzones are at their ugliest and most chaotic, and people start losing track of who is where, who is alive and who is dead, certain Others may crop up on the battlefields.  Ones that fight, so long as there is conflict around them.  If the soldiers in that war are killing innocents, so will the Dogs of War.  If they commit other atrocities, so will the Dogs.  They don’t sleep, they keep the battle going, and as long as the battle continues, they don’t stay down.  Related to Revenants, but Revenants are the province of Death, not War.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/19 Excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.4]]</ref> and don't get bored the way humans do.<ref>“What’s your day to day like?  What do you ''do''?”<br><br>“I walk around at an hour before people are really awake.  I clean and sharpen my weapons.  I watch some TV.  I read and play video games.”<br><br>“Feels like you’re just whiling away the time,” Lucy said.<br><br>“Waiting, watching.  I don’t get bored in the same way you do.  There’s a stasis in it.  A… lack of anxiety.  I expect to live a long, ''long'' time, so there’s no feeling that I’m wasting my time.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/23/ Excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.5]]</ref> They're not superhumanly strong or skilled, but they are always at least partially in "combat mode".<ref name=":0" /> They can't be killed as long as it's remotely plausible they could survive an injury, and if they are killed they will reappear within days.<ref name=":3">“What can you do, exactly?  You come back when you’re killed?”<br><br>“More like I don’t die in the first place.  I can always keep fighting until I’m badly wounded enough that nobody would believe I could keep fighting.  If I get obliterated, you wait a couple days, I’ll show up again.  I get stronger with every life I take.  It clarifies me.  I and the other ones like me began with no names, no real faces.  Just… uniforms.  Piecemeal, like each part of the outfit was taken from one body.  After one very bloody, prolonged fight, I and two of my squadmates took on handles.  Then names.  Then specializations.  Skillsets.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/23 Excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.5]]</ref> If not sooner. Once the original War that spawned them concludes they can be permanently killed.

They have Other senses linked to [[War]] and conflict, which can suggest when their targets are distracted<ref>He’d waited, used extra senses, about war and conflict, to determine the moment Alexander might be most distracted, or have the most senses turned away.  Then he’d fired. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/01/05 Excerpt] from [[Gone Ahead 7.x]]</ref> and tells them the nearest location of any type of weapon.<ref name=":2">“There were others like you?”<br><br>“We rarely appear alone.  When the conditions are met for one of us to appear, the conditions are met for several.  After three years of bitter conflict, the conditions had been met enough for there to be twenty of us.  Usually… numbers vary, but for every five like me, there’ll be one more that’s a… they have a few names I’ve heard.  Dogs of Flame.  Frag Tags.”<br><br>“Hot Dogs,” Cherry piped up.<br><br>“They are…?”<br><br>“They burn, they use explosives.  They cover other bases.”<br><br>“Like?”<br><br>“Like if a practitioner wants to bind us using something like a circle, item, fencing us in?  They’ll do like I did with the can and the bucket of paint thinner, but… much bigger.  If they blow up an area… something like me will survive it.  The practitioners trying to bind us usually won’t.  Someone like me, I can collect grenades.  I won’t magically always have one, but if I wanted to set out to get a gun or a grenade, I’d know just the direction to walk.  The easiest path to take to find or acquire one, whether it’s on a corpse or in a hiding place.  The Frag Tags, they ''always'' have explosives or ways to start big fires.  They don’t come back so easy once they’re properly put down.  Gotta start a big enough fire or wait for one, and they come walking out of it.”<br><br>“Kind of getting the bigger picture,” Lucy said.  “There were twenty of you, so… four of these guys?”<br><br>“Sixteen like me, three of them.  One other.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/23 Excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.5]]</ref> Some have been able to identify comrades by the gunshots they make.<ref>The Dog Tag came through the trees with some others backing him up.  “[[Horseman]] went inside and hasn’t signaled.  One of the gunshots that came out of there, felt like ''his''.  I think they’ve been bound.”- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2023/03/21 Excerpt] from [[Go for the Throat 23.d]]</ref>

Whenever they kill someone, they grow stronger and better-defined; gaining human features and skills of their selection,<ref>“If he needs a bullet, I don’t want you to do it,” Lucy told Grandfather.<br><br>“Why not?”<br><br>“Because he’s ugly inside, he’s hurt people, he’s evil.  I don’t want that in you.”<br><br>“Hmmm,” Grandfather made a noise, almost a sigh.<br><br>“We can choose what we get,” Doe said.  “Takes effort, a shot that means something.  Shot in the heart, shot in the eye, shot in the forehead.  Different implications.”<br><br>“Let’s not dwell on that,” Grandfather said.  “Why does it matter that much?”<br><br>“Because I need you to stay ''good'',” Lucy told him.<br><br>“I’m not ''good''.  I’m a man who’s good for very little except war.  A very tired man.”- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/11/27 Excerpt] from [[Playing a Part 15.9]]</ref> specializing and refining themselves.<ref name=":3" /> Where upon first manifestation or 'birth' their 'features' are occluded by things like gore, shadow, muck, or kevler; these give way and human features are revealed.<ref name=":10"/><ref name="PDBA">'''Appearance:''' Men in combat uniforms that look to be scavenged or cobbled together from multiple combatants, generally faceless and bloodied.  Faces may be shrouded in the shadows of face-coverings, caked in dirt, or only existent by suggestion, by way of scars, war paint, or crusted-on gore. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q8ziRjPoK-8ctEKjdVzq2CNEydvG5IV308l3t1yWPFY Pact Dice Bestiary: Dog Tags]</ref>

=== Teamwork ===
Depending on the given type of Dog of War in a team the rest will collectively gain 'benefits' for working in that team.<ref name="Doom"/><ref name="Boom"/> The dogs may need to all be from the same conflict to benefit from this 'team bonus'.<ref>John had told her that Dog Tags worked well together.  Black Dogs like Yalda countered binding and stuff, made it dangerous to attack the Dog Tags willy-nilly.  That a Dog Tag could be bound, but Blast Dogs or Hot Dogs, or whatever Black and Ribs were called would be a good counter to that.<br><br>That they could confer and offer a protection to their allies.  A Blast Dog could set a fire, and the Dog Tags would wade through those same flames without suffering as much as they should.<br><br>She had runes against steel drawn on her, and she had runes against fire.  A bit of lopsided protection.  Another incremental advantage.<br><br>She and her Dog Tags could handle the heat in this frying pan. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/11/22 Excerpt] from [[In Absentia 21.12]]</ref> In a possibly related phenomena Dog Tags also get along well with other [[War]] like others.<ref>It was a unique thing to John and the other Dog Tags, that they had the affinity for a variety and type of Others that they did.  Like, it wasn’t unusual for an Other or individual to sort of vibe with or understand Fae, and it wasn’t unusual for an Other or individual to sort of vibe with or understand goblins.<br><br>But John had been able to joke with Toadswallow, and duel for fun with Guilherme, no big issues.  Like he occupied a safe and workable middle ground.<br><br>Doe recognizing how the goblins operated seemed to be similar. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/12/17 Excerpt] from [[Hard Pass 22.3]]</ref>

=== Weaknesses ===
They draw power from a specific conflict; it's a potent source of power as long as it lasts, making them difficult to bind, but once it ends they eventually lose their immortality.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1" /> If cut off from their war by a strong enough binding circle, they will also be rendered mortal.<ref>“Okay, so… just so we know, how do you deal with a Dog of War or any of its variants?” Verona asked.<br><br>“By putting a bullet in them, or some other means of execution, after cutting them off from their power source.”<br><br>“How do you cut them off?”<br><br>“Draw a circle around them.  I can teach you the basics of binding Others at a later date.  With John, don’t bother trying.  The act of finishing the drawing of the circle gets harder the greater the source of power is.  His source of power is a big, long-running conflict with no sign of ending, even if Canada pulled out six years ago.  Like a large body of water with a narrow hole feeding out the bottom to this particular output, the pressure is immense and the stream violent.  You’re not positioned to put that conflict to rest and you’re not equipped to close a circle.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/19 Excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.4]]</ref> Injuries that weren't inflicted by weapons of war take them longer to heal.<ref>“Are you going to be okay?”<br><br>“Yes.  Harm through medical tools takes longer to heal than harm through weapons of War, but… I’ll be fine.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/08/14/summer-break-13-4/ excerpt] from [[Summer Break 13.4]]</ref>

They don't have an innate understanding of the [[Seal of Solomon]],<ref name=":10"/> but like many [[Other]] they do have instincts relating to [[Innocence]], breaching it can ensure their permanent death.<ref>“Yours and theirs, both sides,” Ribs said.  “Fires left to burn in places with people inside, when they could have been put out.  Indiscriminate shooting.  Getting ''mean''.  We’re ''you'', your deeds made manifest, from the uncounted dead.”<br><br>John stirred.  He shook his head as he pulled himself together.<br><br>''Don’t.  Don’t tell them that.''<br><br>It felt wrong, somehow, even if he wasn’t sure why.  To tell when- when the journalist was there.<br>[...]<br>“He’s not supposed to die from fire or explosions,” Songbird said.<br><br>“He’s not supposed to tell innocents what we are, either.  I think the protections that he’s supposed to have failed him,” John said.  “The innocent might have been alive still when Ribs’ explosive went off.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/03/30 Excerpt] from [[One After Another 10.a]]</ref>