Incarnation

"There are ways you can ask to play chess with Death, or one Death. War, Innocence, Pain, Hope, Mischief… all are forces that can take form in this world, you can meet them, you can deal with them." - Charles Abrams, Lost for Words 1.4

An Incarnation is an abstract concept or idea,<ref name=":7"/><ref name=":10">He’s used to interacting with incarnations, often lesser ones. Incarnations are literal, they are personifications of concepts, and are stubborn, single-minded, even short-sighted. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.2</ref> a particular human reality,<ref name=":1" /> which reify into various forms often have a kind of volition, some even being sapient.<ref name=":6">“The Lord is an incarnation of Conquest. He’s a sapient embodiment of a concept, and he’s been here for some time, in one form or another.”
[...]
“A living manifestation of conquest?” I asked.

“I would hesitate to say ‘alive’.”

“He’s the horseman? One of the four riders of the apocalypse?”

“Yes and no. There are other Conquests, who take different forms based on their history and the eras and events they drew power from. For all intents and purposes, you can consider incarnations to be powerful spirits, often ones with human hosts or an attachment to an object of particular design, an implement without an owner. Some agencies contrive to bring these incarnations into being to suit their devices. Is there an agency invested in the apocalypse and Conquest’s part in that? Yes, but not in the way you’re thinking.”- Excerpt from Collateral 4.1</ref>

Incarnate Practitioners specialize in the category or in specific Incarnations.<ref name=":5" /> Those Practitioners who specialize in immaterial things, such as Augers and Finders will frequently deal with Incarnation and related concepts and others.<ref>When dealing with an Augur, a key point is that when they see, they open up a vulnerability for you to attack them through. [...] They focus primarily on immaterial things. Echoes, spirits, incarnations- often especially incarnations. Any sentiment or pillar of human nature can be something they specialize in. Alexander was good at seeing the kinds and shapes of Strife, capital S, and karmic flows. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.1</ref><ref name=":0" />

Nature

They are a singular idea, they can not be as complex as a country,<ref name=":7">

Going off of incarnations, could a country be a incarnation? Would these incarnations engage in battle to save their own hide, or were they powerless to do anything?

A country could not be an incarnation, as an incarnation is generally an idea. Death, war, famine, faith, conquest, dream, desire, destruction, etc. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref> or a festival, but principles and labels,<ref>They were of the incarnate. They came from a principle, ideas largely unique to the framing mankind gave them, and the fact it was so defined by man was a crude and cruel insult, drawing on her background. They were of Hunger, and they were eating her. - Excerpt from Summer Break 13.3</ref> despite this there are nuances to them, like the difference between conquest and war.<ref name=":8">“But if there’s no war-”

“He isn’t War, but Conquest. Massed forces, takeovers, forced change. He continues to find power in other ways. Yes, he prefers warfare and bloodshed, but he can draw power from the steady expansion of civilization into nature, from real estate, from business takeovers, government, law, and other small forms of tyranny. As an Incarnation, he can invest his power. Where Death might bring death to things by touching them, or Love might strike a couple through their hearts with a metaphorical arrow given form, Conquest can do the same.” - Excerpt from Collateral 4.1</ref> They also have states of health and how well their individual ideas are expressed, positively or negatively.<ref name="de5"/>

They cannot go against their nature as incarnations without a loss of power, which makes them somewhat predictable.<ref name=":10"/><ref name=":11">Conquest stopped, weapon poised. The blood formed a line between us.

Blood of a free man. I thought, still backing away. Once captured, rescued and given liberty. By you, no less.
[...]
“Freedom may run contrary to my nature, but blood doesn’t,” Conquest said. His deep, eerie voice felt like it could carry across the neighborhood, over a good portion of the city, even. “Suffering doesn’t. Death and dying don’t.”

He stepped over the line of blood.
[...]
He can’t turn down a fight, I thought. He has to crush the weak.

The mirror stuck in the middle of the circle I’d drawn. The blood of a free man, Laird.

The circle would be lined with Rose’s hair. Hacked off. Caught by Conquest, freed by myself.

Maggie had torn out the pages of Black Lamb’s Blood, weighing them down so they wouldn’t fly away. I couldn’t afford to lose them. The pages that had bound an Other, now free.

Thrice bound - Excerpt from Void 7.7</ref> An Incarnation will need to absorb humans every so often to keep itself relevant to humanity.<ref>“I prefer subjugation over death. I surrender my self,” Canfield said. “It’s my understanding that an incarnation needs to root itself in humanity from time to time, to stay relevant and rooted in the doings of man.”

“Yes.”

“All I ask is that my daughter is taken care of.”

“You’ll have it.”

With that, the Incarnation stepped forward until it intersected Canfield.

For an instant, Canfield was the one wearing white.

Then, a moment later, the one wearing white had a trace of Canfield’s features.

Those features were soon swallowed up in a greater ocean. - Excerpt from Interlude 5</ref> They use these absorbed humans as "fuel" which they "burn" in order to be more flexible and unpredictable, to depart from their mechanistic role. Without them, they become entirely rule-bound and mechanical, a part of the mechanics of the world.<ref>“He isn’t human,” I thought aloud, interrupting the conversation between husband and wife. “He follows a set of rules. There are things he can do, but there are an awful lot of things he can’t.”

“Yes,” Rose said. “But any Incarnation will tap the ranks of humanity for fitting subjects and sacrifices, to give themselves a reservoir to draw from. Pride might be able to perform actions that don’t raise its standing or gain the ability to bow to others in a pinch. If they go too long without sacrifices, they start to become more… I don’t know how to phrase it…”

“Mechanical,” I said. “They become more mechanical.”

“Basically. Parts of the overarching machine of reality.”

“Well,” I said, “That’s a weak point. How often do they need sacrifices?”

“Depends how often they break their own internal rules. Once every thousand years? Once every hundred years? Daily?” - excerpt from Collateral 4.4</ref>

Similar to a powerful Spirit but possessing a physical form,<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":1" />, in some cases, an Incarnation's physical form might be an artifact rather than a person.<ref name=":6" /> Ritual and Pomme Incarnates can take more diffuse and immaterial forms.

Abilities

It is an idea given life and thus unkillable with weapons. It is supported and fed through certain ideas, and weakened by taking the strength from that idea.<ref name=":9">“And nobody’s about to remove the local Conquest from the picture, to keep that from happening?”

“There are bigger things at play, and an Incarnation isn’t a monster you defeat with a sword or gun. It is an idea given life. You support it and feed it through certain ideas, and you defeat it by taking the strength from that idea. Most often, you accommodate them. But anything powerful enough to become sentient and sapient isn’t something that’s going away anytime soon.” - excerpt from Collateral 4.1</ref> Multiple copies/versions/emanations exist concomitantly and can absorb the lesser versions of themselves for strength.<ref>Some agencies contrive to bring these incarnations into being to suit their devices. Is there an agency invested in the apocalypse and Conquest’s part in that? Yes, but not in the way you’re thinking. [...] Such agencies want a narrative, and an Incarnation of Conquest arising from Toronto is a weak narrative at best. If such things come to pass, speculation suggests that another, greater Conquest would find, best, and absorb all its lesser kin for strength before taking action. - Excerpt from Collateral 4.1</ref>

Incarnations will have abilities based on the thing they embody.<ref name=":8">“But if there’s no war-”

“He isn’t War, but Conquest. Massed forces, takeovers, forced change. He continues to find power in other ways. Yes, he prefers warfare and bloodshed, but he can draw power from the steady expansion of civilization into nature, from real estate, from business takeovers, government, law, and other small forms of tyranny. As an Incarnation, he can invest his power. Where Death might bring death to things by touching them, or Love might strike a couple through their hearts with a metaphorical arrow given form, Conquest can do the same.” - Excerpt from Collateral 4.1</ref> They are among the types of Other that can become powerful enough to affect the area they inhabit as a sort of pseudo-Demesne.<ref>“To be in Conquest’s domain is to be in a constant state of transition. Emotions rise and fall, there is fire and rebellion at first, then we make peace with the state of things. Broken things erode away, and then there is only defeat. But to be the Conqueror is not a simple thing either. They either take on a different role, which my lord cannot do, or they find new territory to seize, people to subjugate. The territory changes as he finds new ground.”

“I didn’t know a demesne could be this… out there. I mean, I read about apartments covered in flesh, but…”

“This isn’t a demesne, as you understand the term,” he said. “Some beings are strong enough to influence their surroundings simply by residing there.” - Excerpt from Collateral 4.2</ref>

Incarnations and related Others tend to be somewhat "inevitable", or at least give off that impression, tapped into overwhelming power sources or growing stronger with each failure.<ref>“That may be the case. In any event, we need protection and security while we call her out and bind her. She’s rooted to a huge power source, and that, to my understanding, makes her rough to deal with.”

“If her origin is Incarnation related,” Alexander said, “she’s going to have power like that. Incarnation related others tend to have something inevitable about them.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref><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>

Origins

An incarnation can come into being when a person summons and melds into it, or a major event helps crystalize it.<ref>“He’s an incarnation,” Rose said. “A being tied to the intrinsic workings of the world, at least on an abstract level. They have no technical beginning or end. They just are. What we see is kind of a crystallization of that essence. Some jackass decided to invoke a force and absorb the force in question into themselves and fucked up, they gave themselves over to the force for some reason or another, or a big event helped it come into being. Now it’s autonomous. You can weaken it, but you can’t really kill it. He’s… major enough to count, I think.” - Excerpt from Subordination 6.1</ref><ref>“And the host?” I asked. “I learned my lesson last night. Fuck of a lot easier to deal with something that’s human at the core.”

“Conquest was human once,” she said.

“I almost forgot,” I said.

“Kind of similar, really. Let a mote get carried away, you end up with something that isn’t recognizable as human. Our advantage is if this thing isn’t that far gone, there might be something human at the core.” - Excerpt from Collateral 4.4</ref> Another scenario would have an echo, one that gained enough power and influence, which might become a site for an Incarnation to emerge.<ref>“A boy drowned in a dip in the river, when the water level was high enough the flow was pronounced. There was a drop in the water flow, and it formed a tube that trapped him inside, flipping end over end. Enough of a violent and remarkable end to create an echo. Enough left unresolved around him that it encouraged spirits. He became a petitioner spirit, plaguing people by the water with whispered questions.”

“Like a ghost by the side of the road who asks for a ride,” Verona said.

Verona sounded so casual, in the midst of this. Like she didn’t care about where they stood. Avery was unsure if she was a good actor or so focused in on the practice that she’d lost sight of the danger.

“Yes. But he wasn’t mature or coherent enough to ask good questions. If such a spirit learns to ask questions with a design, or to attach a pattern of action to the questioning, the actions can gain strength. Your roadside spirit could gain enough strength to punish the wrong or unwanted answers with a push, putting the victim in the way of incoming traffic. He wasn’t that strong. He whispered nonsense about being caught in the wash. Left to his own devices, he could have become a wraith, a spectre, a malign spirit, or connected to a thing of the Abyss, or enough collective sentiment to become a spot for an incarnation to emerge. I burned him, ending him.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.5</ref>

Nascent Incarnations in the Ruins may absorb neighboring Others, such as appropriate Echoes, that are associated with their concept until they have enough strength to emerge in reality.<ref name=":5">“The Others native to this place are predators that feast on echoes,” Miss said. “Echoes will find their roots here, what you see in reality as the tips of the icebergs, if they’re complex or multifaceted enough to have icebergs. When they’re spent, they dissolve out here, reduced back down to spirit stuff, if they aren’t taken apart for other purposes.”

“What purposes?” Verona asked.

“Some might make Others and send them out. Others might be similar to Alpeana, building nightmares or scenarios, like a funnel spider might build a web, but using scenes and memories instead of webbing. Nascent incarnations might seek out echoes that tie to their natures, an Incarnation of Innocence eating child and elderly Others until it has the strength to take form in our world. [...] Incarnate practitioners who specialize in things like the Hungry Choir ritual or dealings with a specific Incarnation, such as Dream or Bondage, will have cause to come here.” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6</ref> Upon emergence the pseudo-Incarnation matures and clarifies itself.<ref name="de5">Incarnations and incarnate things aren’t even a single clear concept when they emerge, and absorb a lot from their surroundings in early days. If a Desire isn’t healthy, she can reflect something stunted, something frustrated, or something loveless.” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6</ref>

Incarnations with enough strength to take human, sapient form are always fairly powerful; Practitioners generally accommodate them rather than fight them.<ref name=":9" />

Varieties & Servants

There are a variety of beings which are creations or, in some sense, extensions of Incarnations.<ref name=":0">As for the general Others that they'll run into & operate with, they're from the immaterial and interaction tracks. So...

Concept-driven Others - especially the riff-raff surrounding things like Incarnations. The agents or soldiers of Dream, Death, Fate, Nature, Ruin, Innocence, etc.

Envoys - These Others persist by making deals and furthering the ends of the incarnation they represent/are. They may be urban legends or itinerant Others. The deals are usually tricky or really loaded. "Did you hear? They say that there's a way to summon a little old man who will ask you for a name. He'll destroy a person you name, but he'll take what you cherish most from you in exchange. Everyone always regrets it." A girl with strangely colored hair finds people in enough torment that they've lost their senses- the sleep deprived, the maddened, the drunken, and she offers them a deal. She'll take the memory of whatever it is that is maddening them out of their head and the heads of everyone around them, but they're given the task of re-enacting or forcing that same agony on three other 'deserving' people, or she'll give them the memory she took from the last person she visited, and somehow it's always worse than (and somehow related to) what they were dealing with before. These Envoys visit our world and seek out targets who fit their schema and generally push deals that net an overall positive contribution to [incarnation], but when they aren't here, they're somewhere, and that's often the Paths. If found or visited, they may offer similar deals, or barter with whatever it is they've collected or done.
The Leftovers - these are like incarnations, but writ small. Isolated bits of 'incarnation' that splintered off or exist in isolation. Especially common in the Paths because there's a whole lot of isolation there. Characters (and 'character' is the operative word here) that are defined by single attributes and personalities. Shored up by spirits and other things. A fragment of Regret splinters off due to circumstances, gets isolated in the Paths (where it naturally ends up), and gathers up enough pieces of other things, like a mask of a mouse and a party dress, picks up on ideas and the tatters of echos surrounding those things, and builds up a persona as the Cringing Mouse, a girl with a mouse head and a garish dress, who can't help but do cringeworthy things at the worst moments and then agonize over them. Once they solidify as such, they tend to resist being absorbed elsewhere. Leftovers love to attach themselves to others as traveling companions, or recur on the paths. These form some of the 'wildlife' in the Paths. Not all are sentient or sapient. Unwittingly, they tend to further the cause of their parent Incarnation.
Pawns & Playing Cards - The forms these guys can take is impossibly varied. Extensions of an Incarnation with some power that wanted soldiers, messengers, servants, builders, or whatever else, they end up in the Paths if their parent Incarnation dies and they don't go with it. Tend to congregate in groups, all with a theme. The Victims of Innocence, who are wide eyed children, beautiful, all dressed in pristine white clothes, with a penchant for hurling themselves into the most horrible fates available, if there's any chance it'll break people's hearts to see it. The Rats of Plague, who wait and multiply in anticipation of a chance to deliver a plague worse than the Black Death upon humanity- except they're quarantined. All they need is an open door or for one rat to sneak through and they can do just that. Tend to be really, really stupid, however, while appearing in great number, leaving diplomacy as the key to dealing with them.

Echoes & remnants. Ghosts, vestiges. Because they intersect with the Paths, they might deal with other kinds of echo.

Wild Echoes - Overlaps with Incarnations, above. Echoes (ghosts) of humans who were done away with by very dramatic Incarnation-type events. Tend to be flavorful, hard-to-deal-with echoes who don't follow the usual tropes or tools of necromancers, so most necromancers won't bother. Tools and approaches with Death in mind don't apply if we're talking about an Other who was done away with by Ignonimity or Lust.
False Echoes - Echoes of people who didn't exist, except by rumor. A real pain in the ass for necromancers, but not so much a problem for Finders.

Spirits - Spirits are bread & butter, and not exclusive to the Paths, but frequently found are...
Petitioner Spirits - Spirits consolidated around a question or set of questions. They often ask people they see and then may get power to act if the answer is right or wrong. Can be hooked into echoes or have echoes as central points, depending.
Abstract Spirits - Spirits of consolidated Path-trash, may be even less defined or consistent than usual spirits, but can be useful as a kind of wet clay for those looking to mold them. The problem is that if these guys are a blender of weird, well, sometimes that blender has blades inside. The trick is finding out what's at the center, holding them together. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

Anthro

In wiki term for those incarnations that are anthropomorphic personifications of their incantation literally.

Envoys

Messengers which make deals, usually following a pattern and inevitably skewed so that they further the Incarnation. May reside in the Paths when inactive.<ref name=":0" />

Leftovers

Scraps of concept-stuff that fall onto the Paths and pick up concepts and symbolism, becoming a sort of weak and alien Incarnation. Unwittingly tend to further their "parent".<ref name=":0" />

Locus Incarnate

Incarnations that inhabit a location that impresses upon reality making a well so that everything is downhill and hard for anyone to get out.<ref>Locus Incarnate

The Locus Incarnate is a location that has become a 'well', where power, presence, and the impact of events drive the location into a metaphysical depression, such that power of a certain type and theme gathers within. The 'incarnate' aspect is due to the locus's trend toward pitching heavily toward a theme, which in the modern day is often death, murder, or madness, in residential areas, but could in the past be nature or some such in a place in the wilderness.

The areas take on a particular cast and tone, things gain a certain pronounced nature, and the people who find themselves within will often find it difficult to leave; the depression makes all paths and connections outward an uphill trip. More likely, those connected to victims will be drawn in, following trails or retracing their steps until they arrive at the location, and fall prey to the trap. Can be mistaken for a 'haunted house', but echoes are incidental, not at the root of the place (or if they are at the root, aren't responsible for the design and nature of the space). Successful escape requires finding what ~is~ at the heart and weakening it sufficiently to make the depression less steep. In the most severe cases, when the place is forgotten and nothing within has a connection to the outside world, it often falls to the Abyss, taking the contents with it. - Wildbow by Discord</ref> Things are pulled into such a incarnation include echoes and more but what causes the incarnation to manifest is a 'heart' within the location, which if disturbed can allow escape.

Pawns & Playing Cards

Extensions of an Incarnation who wanted a servant for something. Generally a group of similar beings, and not very intelligent. Tied to the Incarnation and will be Lost to reality if it dies.<ref name=":0" />

Pomme Incarnates

Also know as Kernel incarnates are a concentration of Incarnate power found somewhere in a immaterial realm, non-sapient, sessile, not even a rudimentary personality guiding it, tend to accrue over hundreds of years.<ref>The Pomme Incarnate is a kernel of Incarnate power, typically manifesting in Earth-adjacent realms, from a 'seed' of some kind of power, be it an item representative of an incarnation, an item in one of the echo-touched realms that has stored sentiment and power (such as a Ghend's treasure), or something left behind by a practitioner. It draws echoes to it and grows in size and power. Typically very powerful, the most notable thing about the Pomme Incarnate is that it doesn't have motive force. It doesn't move, attack, or defend itself. They range from the size of a baseball to the size of a house, but trend smaller, and often have intense appearances, throbbing with power while being framed with echoes. Pommes take centuries to mature to even the smaller forms.

Those who meet the Pomme halfway (taking a bite of the 'apple', inserting one's arm into the aperture, or passing within, as examples) will be confronted with the Incarnation's force majeure, the full weight of the inevitable. The most unworthy are absorbed into the Pomme in a merciful end, the most worthy, should they be willing and able to face the Pomme's power to the end, are granted wisdom, power matching or dwarfing typical embodiments of the Incarnate, and/or the ability to rewrite events, past, present, or future. This isn't an easy task, and many will only pass halfway between the two extremes, often destroying themselves or going mad, but gaining the ability to change events or perform a great act in the process.

Would you be able to reach within and keep hold of the power inside, if you had to experience every childbirth ever to occur in human history, one after another, in what seemed like a million or more years to you but were minutes to others? Would you be able to bear the full weight of every individual dying around the world over the hours you spent in the Pomme's embrace, without tearing yourself free? To have an impossible child? To bring one person back? - Wildbow on Discord</ref> Most who try to 'eat' a Pomme's power are overwhelmed and absorbed or too addled by the experience to use their new abilities as intended. Any attempted use will cause the Pomme to relocate, size changing whether it absorbed or spent power on a person, someone who secures the unalloyed boon will use up the Pomme.

<ref> - Wildbow on Discord</ref>

Ritual Incarnates

Possibly some overlap with Nex Machina.

Also known as Incarnate Rituals. These are rituals which are (generally) created by Incarnations and leaked to Innocents to entrap them. The clear warnings and a possibility (if slim) to fairly "win" the ritual and be rewarded help to temper the karmic backlash. Some Practitioners will find the way to win the ritual, then repeatedly do so until it's drained of power and destroyed.<ref name=":1">Lost for Words 1.4</ref> Some can manifest what appear to be Others, but these are merely a person-shaped symptom of the ritual itself.<ref>"Choir knew already. Could smell ’em coming.”

“You could smell them coming, or they were already there?” Lucy asked.

“Couldn’t say, dearie,” Toadswallow said.

“Why not?”

“Because they’re not a group or anything like that. They’re like a storm or a clog in the sewer. The kids you see? They’re just the raindrops or the bad smell that comes with. The whole thing? Bigger and vaguer.”

“The storm was already there? Gathering? On its way?”
[...]
“We need to check in with the Choir. Figure out what they are, try to interview them.”

“Even if those kids are raindrops from a storm,” Verona added. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.5</ref> Being rooted in the Incarnate, abstract, they can find themselves linked with and drawn to the Ruins.<ref>“The bleakness of this place reminds me of the Hungry Choir’s realm,” Avery said.

“If you were to map out the connections between worlds, that one would be a close sibling or child of this one. The Ruins are a place of the eroding abstract. Incarnates and echoes. The Hungry Choir is of that abstract, a living ritual rooted in the Incarnate.”

“Case in point,” Avery said. She pointed.

There was a figure that could have been mistaken for an echo, but it didn’t flicker.

A waif, standing in the rain, watching them.

“The bleakness of this place reminds me of the Hungry Choir’s realm,” Avery said.

“If you were to map out the connections between worlds, that one would be a close sibling or child of this one. The Ruins are a place of the eroding abstract. Incarnates and echoes. The Hungry Choir is of that abstract, a living ritual rooted in the Incarnate.”

“Case in point,” Avery said. She pointed.

There was a figure that could have been mistaken for an echo, but it didn’t flicker.

A waif, standing in the rain, watching them. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6</ref>

Although generally associated with Incarnations, they can also form naturally<ref name=":1">Lost for Words 1.4</ref> or be created by something on a par with a powerful Incarnation, such as a lesser god or greater goblin.<ref>That much power that fast has to come from somewhere, and then be given form as a ritual by someone or something. A strong incarnation, a lesser god, a great Goblin. If it had appeared in the last month, I might think it had something to do with the current state of the Carmine Beast. That could be a big enough power source… perhaps. [...] There are things that have that kind of power, like gods and strong incarnations, but I’m not aware of anything that strong that could have any connection to the Choir, and I’ve done some extensive searching. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.2</ref>

Omens

Omens and Dooms 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>

Omens are sometimes employed by Augurs.<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" />

Cursed Items

Main article: Cursed Items

Similar to Incarnate Rituals, some Incarnations create items which - when some attached warning is ignored - inflict a fate on the Innocent victim which furthers the Incarnation.<ref name=":1" /> This behavior is not exclusive to Incarnations, e.g. Faeries have been observed doing this for amusement.<ref>She was pretty certain that presents and boons like the ones Keller was giving out were traps. That they’d be wonderful and fantastic up until the point that things turned sour. Maybe they became too much of a good thing, maybe there was a rule that had to be followed, with some horrific backlash if it wasn’t. Maybe there was a catch.

Exiled Faerie weren’t allowed to go after innocents, not directly. But, Maggie was fairly certain, they weren’t forbidden from doing something like giving a kid a flute that would summon a sprite to do their chores for them, with the caveat that the sprite would blind them if they ever tried to watch it while it worked.

End result? The kid would be stupid, the sprite would eat the kid’s eyes. People, the kid included, would rationalize it away as an accident, an infection, or just a freak occurrence. Life would go on as normal, and the local Faeries-in-exile got their jollies without breaking the rules. - Excerpt from Signature 8.2</ref>

Token

Similar to cursed Items but meant for different purposes.<ref>“Call Brie,” Jessica said, pulling something from a tree trunk. It looked like a coin, but it was lumpier.
[...]
“What’s that?” Avery asked, indicating the bit of metal.

“A token. Certain inevitable forces will leave them places. Like an Other closely related to Love leaving behind roses or rose petals, or an Other related to Mania leaving a pitchfork embedded in something.”
[...]
“What’s got you guys spooked?” Avery asked. “Does it have to do with that token? The bit of metal?”

“A group of lesser incarnations,” Jessica said. She reached out, holding the token like she was going to drop it. Avery put her hand out.

The bit of metal, slightly triangular. A squashed bullet, edge sharpened. It was wrapped up in cord.

“My best guess is this is Hunt,” Jessica said.

A bit of glass wrapped in more cord, curved and smooth on one side and broken on the other, like it was from a magnifying glass or marble. There was blood on the pointiest corner, worked into the cracks.

“Inquest or Inquisition.”

And a ring, snipped, the band twisted so it formed a curl, where the snipped ends didn’t meet but crossed instead. There was a heart shaped hole at the center of the band, opposite the mis-aligned ends. The cord was threaded through the hole and around the ring itself.

“Which one is this?”

“I don’t know. But it’s compatible with Hunt and Inquisition, that token represents it. If you let them drop from your hand, they fall into a position that forms a triangle. Don’t actually drop it. I don’t want to waste the time.”

“Okay,” Avery said, holding the tokens in her hand.

“They fall equally distant apart. The triangle shape appears in the tokens, too. They’re a team of three.” - Excerpt from Vanishing Points 8.3</ref>

Dogs of War

Main Article: Dog of War

Patchwork members of a large group that died under chaotic circumstances, usually war. Although classified as Anima<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> these beings may stem from Incarnations (War, Famine, Hate etc.)<ref>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>Hang Dogs [...] Stem from hate rather than war - Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

Leathermen

Main Article: Leathermen

Notable Incarnations

Conquest of Toranto
Hungry Choir
List of Incarnations

References