Editing Dog of War (section)

==Variations==
===Dog of Flame ===
Also known as '''Frag Tags''', '''Hot Dogs''',''' Blast Dogs'''. Rarer, perhaps one for every five standard Dogs of war. Unlike other Dogs of War, they are always armed with explosives at all time. However, they require a large fire to "respawn".<ref name=":2" /> Tend to arrise from destroyed and damaged environments which the perpetuate with flamethrowers and bombs and such.<ref name="Boom">'''Dog Tags (Flame-type)''' - Arise from areas with Dog Tags already active, where areas are damaged and destroyed.  Roughly one will appear for every twelve regular Dogs of War in the area.  Avoids direct combat, instead attacking the battlefield with seemingly endless supply of explosives or fire-starting methods.  While a flame-type is in the area, other Dog Tags can’t generally be bound by salt, circle, confinement- explosions or fire will habitually and seemingly inevitably disrupt attempts.  Their explosions don’t tend to knock out or take out their own kind.  If found and taken out, stays out of action for longer, generally requiring at least twenty-four hours and that a building burn down, allowing them to appear from the smoke.  Lesser Dogs will set the necessary fires for this to happen. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q8ziRjPoK-8ctEKjdVzq2CNEydvG5IV308l3t1yWPFY Pact Dice Bestiary: Dog Tags]</ref>

===Black Dog===
Also known as '''Sick Dogs''', '''Famine Dogs''', '''Rag Tags'''.<ref name="Doom">'''Dog Tags (Famine-type/Black Dogs)''' - Come about in areas where conflict is prolonged and a great many innocents are suffering and dying by the secondary effects of the conflict.  Roughly one exists for every twenty Dogs of War in a given region.  Appears as the elderly, a child, a waif, a disabled individual, or other clear noncombatant.  Either does not fight or does not fight well, but sticks close to their own kind.  Interferes with ''non-physical'' attempts at binding other Dog Tags, but can be bound as any ghost or incorporeal being might.  May have a mild aura effect- could include attracting bugs or rats to an area, encouraging disease, mental afflictions, inflicting mental scars, or slowing the rate of healing wounds, though depleting food and supplies are the most common.  If slain or even sometimes if harmed, will effectively or automatically curse the one who attacked them with a dramatically exaggerated effect of whatever their aura was, lasting until the conflict that spawned the Famine-Type comes to an end.  Slow to evolve or develop as independent entities, which generally requires that the curses they inflict finish off multiple individuals in turn, they respawn, they get killed again, etc.  However, the ones that do evolve are often known as angels of death for their respective area, with the aura getting stronger with each kill (or manifesting if there wasn’t one already). - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q8ziRjPoK-8ctEKjdVzq2CNEydvG5IV308l3t1yWPFY Pact Dice Bestiary: Dog Tags]</ref> Perhaps one will form for every twenty standard Dog Tags. They are to innocent, vulnerable civilians what Dogs of War are to soldiers; the young, the sick, the old. Whoever kills one is cursed (they are as immortal as regular Dog Tags); some are strong enough to curse whoever hurts, or even slights them. They serve as leaders or guides, giving the others direction.<ref>“A leader?” Lucy asked.<br><br>“Another kind.  For every twenty or so of the rest of us, you might see one Black Dog, one Rag Tag.  They come from civilians like I come from soldiers, but… they come from wrongs, from pain, attrition.  They’ll look like kids.  Or like old men or women.  Kill them, you get sick, or something twists inside you and you can’t eat enough anymore, or… you get cold and you can’t warm up.  A curse.  The strong ones, you can’t even hurt them or say an unkind word without them laying something on you in turn.  And they come back too.  They protect us, walk into firefights, stop other kinds of binding than just the circles.  They give us direction, motivation.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/23 Excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.5]]</ref><ref name=":6">“I don’t know much.  She was gone before I was a practitioner, and she’s a touchy subject for him.  Dogs of War have a multitude of subcategories and varieties.  Labels are rarely tidy, and Dogs of War are something that emerges naturally, for lack of a better way of putting it.  Dog Meat emerge from multiple killings at the hands of serial killers or more violent goblins, Hang Dogs from lynchings and hate, Blast Dogs from areas that have been traumatized, and Sick, Famine, and Black Dogs are rare ones from the more vulnerable innocents killed in those crises, usually the leaders or guides for collected packs and combinations of Dogs of War.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/19 Excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.4]]</ref> Sick Dogs tend to spread sickness.<ref name=":5"/> They tend to be less human, since they can't kill people as easily to clarify themselves.<ref name=":4" />

===Dog Meat===
Aka '''Mad Dogs.'''<ref name=":7">Dog Meat / Mad Dogs - Arise from rare mass-serial killings, 
goblin-ridden areas, or other similar circumstances where the requirements of blood soaked into ground, endemic and exaggerated violence, and unclaimed & unnamed bodies or mass graves are all met, coinciding with degradation or stripping away of humanity/human features.  Come unarmed, often feral with desperation, with eerie improvisational instincts, natural stealth, feral capabilities (climbing up walls, moving on all fours, or keen senses of smell, among other things), and tenacity.  Often mutilated or scarred, adding to intimidation value.  Tend to appear alone, reflecting some piecemeal version of all of those who almost got away or almost got the upper hand.  May appear alongside Goblins as a pet. - [https://old.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/goyerk/_/frpaibe/ Wildbow on Reddit]</ref> Formed from the victims of serial killers or [[goblins]],<ref name=":6" /> on the rare occasions where they kill people en masse. Often scarred, with animalistic powers (e.g. superhuman sense of smell, climbing on walls, painful screams) and behaviour. Generally just one will form, from pieces of those who came closest to escape. Sometimes used by goblins.<ref name=":7" /><ref>“I’ll get you a gift soon,” Munch said.  “Been thinking, but I don’t have much.  Got a thing with some goblins this summer.  Guy and his gun nut buddies are getting spare animals from shelters, using them as moving targets for practice.  It’s like the Bedsurf camera couple.  Universe doesn’t like it if you invite someone or something into your home and mess with them.  We were going to try to make some Dog Meat.”<br><br>“Dog Meat like…”<br><br>“Like we get enough of them together, they invite their friends in from the States, including some who can maybe make some fostering and adoption paperwork disappear for kids.  Then we see if we can’t kill enough of them in a messy enough way that there’s a Dog at the end.”<br><br>“Like Stiles, but not,” Gash clarified, a smile creeping out around the sides of his face.  “Different breed.”<br><br>“Want to borrow it if it works?” Munch asked.  “Could be my gift. [...] a feral, crazy murder beast with some really cool scars.  Won’t die easy, and they can turn up with powers, I’ve seen one that could climb walls as fast as you or me could run, and another that could immobilize people with deafening screams, for as long as she could scream." - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/06/30 Excerpt] from [[Stolen Away 2.7]]</ref>

===Hang Dog===
Formed from the victims<ref>'''Q:''' To clarify about Hang Dogs - do they take after the aggressors, or the victims? Like, if a Hang Dog arose from the Salem witch trials, would the Dog target inquisitors, or potential witches?<br>'''A:''' They take after the victims. - [https://old.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/goyerk/_/frxkln9/ Wildbow on Reddit]</ref> of hate crimes,<ref name=":6" /> generally mindless attacks, mass hysteria, [[Wikipedia:democide|democide]], genocide to the extent that the exact number of the dead are lost track of. They begin more human than standard Dog Tags, and may have powers based on their death or the reason they were killed, but possess less equipment. Powered by hate, they generally have a "favoured enemy" who they are more effective against; and can grow in power to the point where they can entrap [[soul]]s, send people to [[the Abyss]] or other places, or inflict a negative afterlife on aggressors. They can act as protectors but tend to encourage the conflict that spawned them in the process.<ref name=":9">Hang Dogs - Come about from mindless, often group-targeted mass-lynchings and killings (to meet the criteria for the faceless dead or the 'dead as statistics, not people'), sometimes with hysteria involved.  More focused against one side in a conflict, with ‘favored enemies’ that they are more effective against, have weaker equipment, more personality from the outset.  Stem from hate rather than war, very effective against their favored enemy and against the unaware, are difficult to track and pin down, may have other abilities relating to their means of death or the hysteria surrounding them.  May be protectors of 'their' people, but their way of going about this (targeting and mutilating/killing the aggressors) has a tendency to perpetuate or escalate hostilities and do more long-term harm, where such is possible.  Can arise from genocide in war, in which case they would band together with other Dogs, but can just as easily appear in groups on their own in a rural area, if there's sufficient murder of a subgroup.  Hang Dogs tend to swell in strength more than other Dogs, especially as time passes, and Hang Dogs of sufficient strength may be able to claim souls and imprison them (a consciousness forever embedded in an object, tree, or corpse, watching and unable to speak/act) or to drag or send aggressors to other realms, such as the Abyss or the darker places that lie beyond the gates of Death.  Many are put to rest by the very groups that they came from. - [https://old.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/goyerk/_/frpaibe Wildbow on Reddit]</ref> Can spawn with other Dog types given the appropriate conflict.<ref name=":9"/>

===Failure===
Practitioners can become powerful Dogs of War if they fail in their practice, usually war mages though others may also exist.<ref>Zed paraphrased from the screen.  “It’s called a Grasping, it’s a visceral Other.  Lots of practices have a fail case.  You know, you’re looking to get power, or solve some issue, but if you lose your humanity along the way, screw up, you become something Other.  Hydes can become Fraward, the Hyde side takes over.  Aspirants become Awestruck, war mages can become a strong subvariety of Dog of War, yadda yadda.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/05/25 Excerpt] from [[Wild Abandon 18.z]]</ref>