Omen

A Omen is a broad term encompasing others that bring about events, they are generally derived from Incarnations but can also represent things like Elemental Storms.

Nature

Omens are counted among the sorts of things that stem from Incarnations.<ref>“The Doom would come back stronger each time. Incarnations and things stemming from them, like omens and the doom, they lean heavily into the inevitable, or the illusion of the inevitable,” Matthew said. “It’s in their makeup.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.5</ref> Generally found in the Spirit World, they are both attracted to and causes of disaster.<ref name=":2">“The bird-people-things on the roof are acting like something happened.”

The things looked like shadow-people, pale and indistinct, perched on the rooftop. In place of arms they had triangular shapes that could be described as wings.

“They’re carrying swords, like the ones I see with my Sight,” Lucy noted.

“Hurt and harm done,” Alpeana said. “They’re omens. Somethin’ bad is goin’ ta happen ta someone tonight.” - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6</ref><ref name=":3">“The culprit in the stealing of eyes. I suppose the logic I just outlined would apply here. A young female practitioner sends an omen spirit to go sniffing around, because it has a nose, so to speak, for trouble. Where one omen settles, others gather, until events come to pass. She went looking for trouble and trouble happened, when it might not otherwise.”

“She hurt Melissa through her carelessness?” Avery asked.

“Hurt was set ta happen, see?” Alpeana said. “But the minging lass might’ve made tha situation worse, stickin’ tha particular nose into thins.” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6</ref> They aren't necessarily obvious to the Sight, although they can be seen with the right training<ref name=":4" /><ref>“Be careful,” Miss murmured.

Lucy looked around. There were more swords than before. A shadow of crimson watercolor spread from the tree with the eyeball animal zombies toward her.

“What is that?” Lucy asked, backing away a few steps.

Miss answered, “You can’t see it from here with your Sight as it is, but omens gather. He or she is looking from a few angles and ways, to try to find a way to deal with you. Once they find it, it will be hard to shake the outcome.”

“Good to know,” Avery said, from the treeline. “Back up?”

Lucy retreated a bit more as the blades and staining advanced, reaching out to either side of her, as if to surround her and swallow her up. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.8</ref> or if you're in the Spirit World.

Omens are shadowy figures,<ref>Omens look like shadows on a sunny day, but kinda three dimensional. Blurry like other spirits. Is their “thing” stuff that hasn’t yet happened? Or just badness? - [2.7] Location Diary</ref> which can resemble bird-people wielding swords,<ref name=":2" /><ref>The omens were gathering inside. More and more, the darker overlaps where two of the simple, silhouetted, ‘winged’ figures were next to one another suggested images. Alone, they were so transparent they could be mistaken for tricks of the eye. Two overlapping made a deep shadow. Three overlapping made black. There was black to suggest the edge of a person. A hand. Movement as someone ran. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6</ref><ref name="swcr">An omen silhouette with larger wings than the others, sword in hand, dove. It never touched her. It only followed, as she went up, lost her footing, slipped over, and plunged down on the far side, her body mostly vertical, feet down. One foot down.

It met her as she met ground. Sword met ankle, and the impact shook almost every other omen nearby, scattering them. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6</ref> cat-children, or agitated women,<ref>There were more omens collecting. More shadow-figures, in various shapes, too indistinct to clearly see, but suggestive of animals, people, and things. A kid that looked like he was wearing a cat hoodie. A woman’s silhouette, tall, thin, and see-through, conveying some agitated emotion. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6</ref> among other forms. Omens of interpersonal strife can resemble little girls carrying golden apples,<ref name=":4">Her Sight was clear enough that they were more than vague shadows. A type of omen, they were dark and small, like little girls, excited and pushing at one another in their haste to follow. Some carried small golden spheres.

Omens of eris, of discord. Depending on how long he took to catch on, they would potentially do a lot of harm to his friendships with that boys club, in that hazy room. To his relationship with Alexander. With Chase. They would swell in size over time, until it became obvious, but she’d have countermeasures before it became so obvious it was a problem.

She hadn’t used her fingernails to scratch him, but a feather. The drawing of the dagger with the apple for a pommel had faded, the blood she’d put into it was spent. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref> the fore mentioned sword wielding birds mean injury of some kind,<ref name="swcr"/> those of romantic failure can carry dilapidated bouquets of roses.<ref name="bouquet">

• Shae thought she could see ghosts, and she thought she could see the ghosts interfering in events, women with battered rose bouquets hanging around couples just before the couples broke up.  She would later discover they collected around her… and that her innate abilities made it so she didn’t only see them, but sent them to anyone she spent enough time looking at, especially if she had ill-intent in her heart.  She would later be brought in by a teacher, who made sure she Awakened, and began her explorations of the lesser incarnations and the Ruins.  Her innate ability and the knowledge provided by her teacher weren’t especially extensive, and in the end, she found it was easier and most productive to track down items that she could excavate from the Ruins and ‘awaken’ to their true power, with the added benefit that each item she makes part of her collection also makes her stronger, empowering that evil eye that can now send things other than loss and heartbreak to her targets. - Pact Dice: Collectors</ref>

Their immaterial nature can allow them to travel along the connections formed by sight,<ref>“With the practices of Seeing, whether it’s the future, studying omens, looking out over distances, a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that when you look, they can look back.”

“Another entanglement thing?” Avery asked.

“In a sense. Look too hard for your demise and Death looks back, and he may find you sooner. Look too hard for omens…” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6</ref><ref>She made her gaze a bridge, by which the omens could travel. There were people who could do this naturally, with varying types of evil eye, but she wasn’t one of them. [...] As the omens gathered on the other side of the connection, the girl continued to back away from them. The others reacted too. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref> as well as occupy or possess nearly anything.<ref name=":2">“The Doom that chased me would settle down, seeking traction where it could find it.  It would occupy places, things, people.”

“Hallows?” Verona asked.

“Shallow and incidental ones, yes.  There weren’t many prepared ones I was aware of.  It would be a voice in the radio static of a television left on overnight, the words shouted by a person left insensate after a car accident.  As it gained more strength, it would take on forms in reality.  Sleek figures without a face or any features.  Slow to move at first, then faster, bigger, stronger.  Either it would draw the attention of practitioners and forces in the area, like hostile Bogeymen or Goblins, hoping they would end me, or I would have to fight back, to diminish that Doom, or stave off the attacks… and that would draw the attention of practitioners.  Then I would leave, going to the next small town, the next place out in the middle of nowhere that was willing to give food and shelter to a girl with twenty dollars in her pocket.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.5</ref>

Omens are employed by Incarnate practitioners with their various professions, but are not restricted to them, Augurs for example are known to use and track omens.<ref>The Belangers, as it happens, are exceptional when it comes to gathering information. Clairvoyance, future-sight, omens, seeing sendings, and all manners of using the Sight. They are information gatherers and they sell that information. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6</ref><ref name=":3" /> They can similarly be an element of a curse being used in the construction of one.

Abilities

Their primary ability comes from being able to bring about the specific event they represent.

Weaknesses

Like many Others, it can be blocked or discouraged by a protective circle.<ref name=":1" />

A Host can bind one inside themselves and pull it back to them if it escapes,<ref name=":1" /> using ritual diagrams on their skin.<ref name=":0" />

Varieties

Omens are omens whatever incarnation they derive from, however, the specific circumstances of their creation and interaction with Other s can create specific varieties.

Bodement

Hypothesized the be futures shucked off by innocents bereft of opportunities now looking for a way to carry out their purpose.<ref>Bodements are a form of Omen.  To many, they appear as shadows, but as they draw closer to a target, they gain more definition.  Believed to be the offshoots of prophecies and endings that were unable to come to pass, often because the target died first (drawing power from said death), a bodement could even arise as a consequence of non-practice, non-Other matters, when enough people are on their way to a horrible end and do not reach the consequences.

The Bodement stalks its often undeserving prey, choosing that prey by some combination of physical traits, an invitation to balance the scales, and karma- a flirtation with the Other and a step toward Awareness in combination with having a vague similarity to the person the Bodement's bad end was normally for.  As they draw closer to a target, they gain clarity.  They will appear in reflections, dreams, whispers, and speak through noise- the interstitial channels while rapidly flipping through channels or when dialing through radio stations.  A voice that, when you go back, has no root.

The endings they bring about are often more sad than tragic.  Especially common in areas where the Innocent civilian populace neglects a lower class, at the borders between upper and lower class.  A daughter of a rich family is seized by a Bodement and largely through her inability to empathize or face down the reality that came from literally two blocks away, she is chased down and seized by a Bodement.  A store manager who runs a high-end jewelry business, in his anger as he chases off the homeless, resembles someone, and a Bodement latches onto him.  The Bodements give them different endings than one would expect.  The daughter looks to have fun and the safety net behind her suddenly no longer exists, and she becomes an addict, scraping by, with no family.  The store manager is baited to go too far in his anger and kills someone, and ends up jobless, an ex-felon, drunk, alone, and poor.  Another may go mad, or get ill. - Wildbow on Discord</ref>

Doom

A Doom or Moira<ref>“We’re meant ta go left, here,” Alpeana said.

Verona knocked on the window.

“What!?” Matthew called back.

“Left turn!”

He turned.

“Are you scared of him?” Verona asked.

“Scared o’ tha Moira, a wee bit closer to tha surface.” - Excerpt from Back Away 5.2</ref><ref>Moíra, Doom, was the loudest of them all, shouting after her, rather than whispering, to tell her that this could so easily end badly for everyone involved.  Herself in particular. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref> (Greek for what we would now recognize as 'Fate') is a hostile Other, along the lines of an Omen or lesser Incarnation of Doom.

Seemingly interchangeable with Omen though it seems to be in a refined state where it targets a specific person, wearing thir face specifically which means things in Practice.

Portents

A fusion with a compatible Echo that settles into a stable configuration, theirs is a cyclical existence drawing power from events related to their Echo and Omen constituent parts.<ref>Portentum "a sign, token, omen; monster, monstrosity". An Echo looks to the past, but omens mark future events. Between, if echo and omen find equilibrium, there is room for something to be held. Big, horrific events. Spirits, other echoes or splinters of the original echo may fill the space, or an elemental may settle in - usually less sapient or sentient forces, who value the hallow formed more than they mind the monotony of that particular existence. Most are tortured or put through the wringer as the echo and omen twist them and put them through the same events over and over again.

In practice, the *Portentum* marks a future event, and wanders or clarifies as it draws power and finds loose connections. Key figures who line up nicely for the event to happen may see themselves in the Portentum, or see the Portentum itself. A man sees himself burning as he's slated to do, his mirror self whispering a date. A nurse sees a school's worth of dead children in reflections behind her, her own expression in the reflection something emotionally tortured, with a seven-league stare. It's not easy, but the Portentum can be unraveled, challenged, or averted, by figuring it out or targeting the connections that tie it to reality, and this gets easier but higher-stakes as the event draws nearer. Most don't succeed in stopping it. - Wildbow on Discord</ref> Very hard to unwind.

Practitioners

• Nicolette Belanger works with many types of Omens and Dooms,<ref>Interlude 2.y</ref> stemming from her time as an aware.

Notable Examples

• The Doom that targets Edith James, hosted by Matthew Moss.

References

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