Dog of War
A Dog of War or Dog Tag 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> They are classified as a type of Anima 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.<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 have an innate ability to locate weapons.<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> 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>
Whenever they kill someone, they grow stronger and better-defined.<ref name=":3" />
Use by Practitioners
Sometimes 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> 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>
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>
Creation
They're spawned by especially confusing warzones where 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> The Dogs form from bits of pieces of various soldiers on various 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" /> They start out without real names or faces, wearing piecemeal uniforms.<ref name=":3" /> 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" />
Black Dog
Also known as Sick Dogs, Famine Dogs, Rag Tags. 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 of hate crimes,<ref name=":6" /><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> generally mindless attacks, mass hysteria, and/or genocide (so that people can possibly lose track of the dead.) 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 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>
References
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