Dog of War

A Dog of War or Dog Tag, AKA Sword-type Dog of War or Swords alternatively Soldat, is a being made up of a spiritual patchwork of various soldiers (or victims; see Variations, below) which forms in especially confusing conflicts as people lose track of the living and dead.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5">“Are there a lot of these things out there?” Verona asked.

“By their nature and where they come from, they’re hard to count. All it takes is that the dead pile up in the midst of greater conflict and violence, people start becoming statistics instead of names, and the numbers stop adding up. John’s companion was a Sick Dog type. It looked like any child you could find on a warzone. He smuggled it here, it took care of him, he took care of it. But by its nature, it spread sickness and tainted everything around it with malaise. It had to be dealt with. John decided to do it himself. Before my time here.” - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.4</ref> Comparable to Revenants,<ref name=":1" /> they are best classified as a type of Anima,<ref> Dog Tags. Technically Animus by label, though it got complicated. They were spirit, and that might’ve made the spider webs easier to venture into than it was for others. - Excerpt from Wild Abandon 18.c</ref> whose defining purpose is to spread and exemplify conflict<ref>“The Carmine Beast predated us,” the Aurum said.  “But not the Alabaster Doe.”

“She was an Animus, a walking intent,” the Alabaster said.  “Much as your Dog of War is one.”

“I- I’m not familiar with that.”

“Forces between spirit and incarnation that exist for purpose.  Often malign, but not always.  Physical.  They are defined by the task they accomplish.  The Swordbearer animus exists to find the noble and heroic, equip them, and send them on their path.  The Dog of War exists to perpetuate the senselessness of war.  Muses inspire art.”

“What did she do?”

“Before she was the Carmine Beast, she reminded civilized men who had come here why their ancestors were so afraid of the deep night,” the Alabaster said.  “Henhouses emptied, livestock slaughtered.  Howling that shook hearts, and fangs that took the lives of people who were in the midst of discovering just how dark a forest can be without the torches, candles and lamps of a nearby city.”

“Was she evil?  I know we asked, but- before?”

“She wasn’t good or evil so much as she simply was.  Just as she was the Carmine Beast.  The role precedes all.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.1</ref> and may be associated with Incarnations (War, Famine, Hate etc.)<ref name=":8">The queen at the center of this particular hive is a black dog.  It’s derived from an incarnation of famine or something, took the form of a young girl in the middle of the war in Afghanistan
[...]
“I ask a second time!  Black Dog Yalda!  Casualty of war and child of Famine!  Come!” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref><ref name=":9" />

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.”

“So when you can improvise bombs and think those three or four steps ahead,” Lucy said, “it’s because-”

“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.”

“Are you entirely made up of Canadian soldiers?”

“No.  Canadian, American, ANA, armed citizens, others.”

“Why Kennet, then?”

“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.” - 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.” - 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?”

“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.”

“Feels like you’re just whiling away the time,” Lucy said.

“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.” - 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?”

“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.” - 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. - 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?”

“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.”

“Hot Dogs,” Cherry piped up.

“They are…?”

“They burn, they use explosives.  They cover other bases.”

“Like?”

“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.”

“Kind of getting the bigger picture,” Lucy said.  “There were twenty of you, so… four of these guys?”

“Sixteen like me, three of them.  One other.” - 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.”- 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.

“Why not?”

“Because he’s ugly inside, he’s hurt people, he’s evil.  I don’t want that in you.”

“Hmmm,” Grandfather made a noise, almost a sigh.

“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.”

“Let’s not dwell on that,” Grandfather said.  “Why does it matter that much?”

“Because I need you to stay good,” Lucy told him.

“I’m not good.  I’m a man who’s good for very little except war.  A very tired man.”- 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. - 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.

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.

She had runes against steel drawn on her, and she had runes against fire. A bit of lopsided protection. Another incremental advantage.

She and her Dog Tags could handle the heat in this frying pan. - 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.

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.

Doe recognizing how the goblins operated seemed to be similar. - 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.

“By putting a bullet in them, or some other means of execution, after cutting them off from their power source.”

“How do you cut them off?”

“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.” - 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?”

“Yes.  Harm through medical tools takes longer to heal than harm through weapons of War, but… I’ll be fine.” - 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.”

John stirred.  He shook his head as he pulled himself together.

Don’t.  Don’t tell them that.

It felt wrong, somehow, even if he wasn’t sure why.  To tell when- when the journalist was there.
[...]
“He’s not supposed to die from fire or explosions,” Songbird said.

“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.” - Excerpt from One After Another 10.a</ref>

Use by Practitioners

Those that naturally emerge can be bound by War Mages,<ref name=":4">“What happened to them?  These others like you?”

“Some came from nearby conflicts that ended for long enough, then took a bullet.  Others were bound by War Mages.  Combat-focused practitioners that like a good soldier and know special ways to bind us.  Others were stopped by other practitioners, caught in other traps.  To some, we’re like cockroaches.  Pests to be exterminated.  We fled.  They got two more of us while we were fleeing.  In the end, it was just me and Yalda.”

“Yalda?”

“Our Black Dog.  My friend,” he answered.  “She filled the empty hours of the day and kept me entertained, she watched terrible shows. Not, uh, not so clarified.  Black Dogs, they don’t take lives, not easily.  Only if they give someone a curse of revenge and that curse kills.  But what was there was… rich.” - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.5</ref> though they can be summoned whole cloth into an open conflict, usually so their summoners can take advantage of their resurrection abilities.<ref name="PDB">Pact Dice Bestiary: Dog Tags</ref><ref name=":10"/> The literal dog tag left when one dies is connected to, and can be used to summon, others of their squad.<ref>He pulled off the simple necklace that the dog tags and the singular ring hung off of.  He removed three tags, each of them partially melted, gouged, or otherwise scarred, well past the point that the labels could be read.  “For you.”

“What do they do?”

“They’re connected to me.  Throw one down, stride forward into conflict without looking back… I’ll be right behind you.”

“Like…”

“No more than five steps behind, armed.  I’ll give it back to you after, or give you another one, provided you aren’t being frivolous in calling me there.”

Lucy nodded.  Verona ran one finger over the one she’d been given.

“Thank you,” Avery said.

“It’s appreciated.  I imagine these mean a lot to you,” Lucy said.

“Yes.”

“Are they from your squadmates?” Verona asked.

“They are.”- Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.5</ref>

Creation

They're spawned by especially confusing war zones where people lose track of the living and dead.<ref>[Lucy]’d spent a lot of time with Dog Tags, who had sprung forth from the uncountable and unacknowledged dead, from rounding errors when people had done too much averaging and abstracting, or lost all sense of who was who in heated armed conflict. She didn’t want to take those who’d died in conflict for granted. - Excerpt from Finish Off 24.1</ref><ref name=":1"/><ref name=":5" /><ref>Are you going to use the broken souls of the uncountable dead of war to remove a school headmaster from the face of the earth? - Excerpt from Let Slip 20.f</ref> The Dogs form from bits of pieces of various soldiers on all sides.<ref>“John.  It’s my understanding that you’re a… super soldier?  A Dog of War?”

“No,” John said.  “Yes, about the Dog of War label, no, I’m strong but I’m not a super soldier, like they appear in movies.  I’ve been told I’m… a stained glass mosaic of a soldier, each segment pulled from someone.” - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.5</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>Griffin had used a practice on Horseman to bind him, levitating him into the air and splitting him into three- a Horseman that was man, a Horseman that was a blurry, vaguely camouflage-patterned figure, skin of smudged warpaint, holding a gun that was more clear than the rest of him, a red sword emblazoned on it. A third version of him had him mostly naked, wreathed in tattered flags and standards with insignias that were held in place by wind. - Excerpt from Finish Off 24.13</ref> They start out without real names or faces, wearing piecemeal uniforms.<ref name=":3" /> They are individuals onto themselves each with different personality traits and more.<ref>“I’ll let you know when this is over and I give myself the chance to decide how it sits with me.  I’m thinking a lot about my old comrades in arms.”

“Other Dog Tags?”

“Yeah.  I don’t want to shoot anyone and I think I’ll have to at some point, the way this is going.”
[...]
“What were they like?” Avery asked.  “Your friends?”

“Many weren’t friends,” John said, touching the tags at his neck.  “Comrades in arms.  Some were scary, some quiet, some funny.  Many didn’t have faces.  They didn’t get the chance to grow into individuals, and were closer to being shadows of people.  Yalda would-”[...]“-She brought out what little was there.” - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.7</ref><ref name=":10">“Sometimes his kind emerge naturally,” Musser said, his arms folded, “and they won’t know what’s happening, they’re too aggressive, many don’t even have faces.  Just… blurs, dirt smudges.  They won’t even know what the accords are, they just grandfather into them.”

“Mm hmm,” Bristow said.

“This kind of knowledge doesn’t come with the package, or with the clarification as they refine their Self, as if they were taking progressively smaller chunks of clay out of their raw Self, to create more detail,” Musser said.  “He’s either killed practitioners, or he’s seen others of his kind get bound.” - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.8</ref> It's rare for a war to be big enough to form one yet small enough not to form several; generally there will be a group or squad of them in the same place.<ref name=":2" />

It's possible that they are derived from relevant Incarnations somehow.<ref name=":8" />

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. - 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). - 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.

“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.” - 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.” - 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. - 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.”

“Dog Meat like…”

“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.”

“Like Stiles, but not,” Gash clarified, a smile creeping out around the sides of his face.  “Different breed.”

“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." - 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?
A: They take after the victims. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref> of hate crimes,<ref name=":6" /> generally mindless attacks, mass hysteria, 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 souls, 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. - 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.” - Excerpt from Wild Abandon 18.z</ref>

Trivia

• The Dogs of War was a neologism originating in the 1600s with Shakespeare, who indeed included dogs famine, sword, and fire for the warlike king Henry in the eponymous play.<ref>When conflicts are large or bitter enough, their number may be augmented by Dogs of War (Fire-type) and Dogs of War (Famine-type), labeled after Henry V’s three hounds of war. - Pact Dice Bestiary: Dog Tags</ref><ref>“The Choir was too strong for most practitioners because they lacked the critical information.  Yalda’s nature.  In the car, you guys didn’t correct Charles when he told us it was a Black Dog.”
  
  “She is a Black Dog, or was,” Edith said, glancing quickly at the Sable Prince as she made that last correction.  “The non-standard Dogs of War come in varieties that get loose categories.  They were originally named after the dogs leashed at the warrior king’s heels, the hounds famine, sword, and fire.  Then terms changed. The Black Dogs are a broad category that contains famine, contains sickness, contains plagues of insect or rats.  It fits.  Yalda affected people in ways that could be called famine or sickness, binding the gut.” - Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.3</ref>

References

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