Omen

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.

Nicolette Belanger works with many types of dooms.<ref>Interlude 2.y</ref>

Appearance

The Doom of Edith James is the size of a small building, formless and shifting, manifesting tentacles and scythe-like limbs as well as the crying form or face of Edith. It may be white with black highlights,<ref>It poured out of him, pale and twisted, fighting to get loose and doing everything it could to hurt him on the way out. A mass closer to the size of a house than the size of a man, escaping his two hundred pound frame in a matter of seconds.
[...]
White shot through with inky darkness and veins. The body was without set form, and for one moment, it was a morass of something between flesh and smoke, its back half like a kraken, the front half like a praying mantis, but with Edith’s face mounted atop it, twisted with emotion and crying darkness. It picked up the red haired woman, not by closing a limb around her, but by sliding one of those scythe-like limbs beneath her and holding her against the hard edge by the force with which it moved her around, instead.

In the next moment, it was closer to a bull, hunched over, muscular, and head low, surging forward, to separate Matthew from the drenched woman. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.d</ref> or a shifting mass of shadows,<ref>Shadows shifted. Matthew had let out the Doom, and it surged. - excerpt from Playing a Part 15.9</ref> but is most often an oily black.<ref>Host of the Doom of Edith James. Big, oily black, dangerous. - excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.1</ref><ref>The Doom came, in through the bedroom window, through the bedroom door, and down the hall. [...] There, it stopped. The oily blackness of it consolidated briefly into a macabre version of Edith, then it receded. - excerpt from Playing a Part 15.11</ref><ref>The Doom poured out of him, flowing out as something black and oily, taking on a shape that momentarily resembled Edith, then tore that same image apart.

It flowed along a course that stayed out of sight of the car, carrying the milk.

Going over the little hut with the candy, milk, Tashlit, and the glowing guy inside. Hurling the milk into the air.

The jugs were torn open as they were mid air, by way of many small claws.

- excerpt from Fall Out 14.5</ref>

When it was weaker, it was initially unable to appear as anything but a symbol in susceptible people and things - a voice in static, the rambling of a person with a concussion, etc. Then as it grew stronger it began to appear as a sleek, faceless thing.<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>

While hosting one Matthew Moss' eyes are shadowed (especially to the Sight), and when it presses close to the surface the diagrams binding it turn black.<ref name=":0">Matthew looked uncomfortable in his own skin, rubbing at his neck, then his wrist. In the wake of the rubbing, bindings appeared, magic circles and lines drawn out on skin, in what could’ve been flesh-tone ink on flesh, glowing black as they were agitated. - excerpt from Back Away 5.2</ref>

Abilities

The Doom's inevitability allows it to come back stronger after each time it's defeated.<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><ref>I noticed the doom and followed it to her. She was fending it off, but the way a curse, an omen, or a sending works, if you can’t bounce it back at the sender, or if there’s no sender, it can magnify. The doom had swelled, going away for a time, picking up strength, then returning. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.4</ref>

It will draw back, then strike with inevitability. It's blows may be direct and/or cause some "coincidental" harm to befall the target, but they cannot be avoided, only mitigated.<ref name=":1">“If the Doom gets loose, get far away, and try to put a circle, any kind of circle, around yourself.”

“What happens if it comes for me?”

“It draws back, poised, and then it strikes, in a singular blow. It’s strong enough that it can be direct, or it can be circumstance. You can’t avoid it, but you can dampen the blow. If I’m alive and my wardings are intact, it should be drawn back to me eventually. You may have to deal with this skeptic woman to let that happen.” - Excerpt from Back Away 5.2</ref> For instance, it slammed a Vessel into a tree, arranging the branches so that they would pierce all the chakra points that might hold it together simultaneously;<ref>It reached ahead of where it was pushing her, moving tree branches. When it slammed her into the tree, the branches of that tree and the branches it had put into place slammed through the seven ‘host’ windows of her body. Crown, mind’s eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, stomach, and groin. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.d</ref> then dropped another Vessel onto a treetop, breaking it and knocking a branch free which speared a third. The other two it simply decapitated.<ref>The Doom returned, depositing the heads of the smoker and the girl who had had the oxygen mask on in the clearing’s center. It let the woman with red hair drop from a height above the treetops.

Her body broke on the landing.

The bloodstained Mirror Other crawled out, and was speared from above by a belated branch that the falling body had knocked free. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.d</ref>

When the Doom was weaker, it would shallowly occupy susceptible things, appearing as things like half-heard voices in static or the ramblings of a person with a concussion. It would draw hostile attention to Edith.<ref name=":2" /> Dooms are one of the things that might afflict a Forsworn person, twisting things they try.<ref>“Does you arguing for something possibly make it less likely they do that something?”

“The deal for me in Kennet is they protect me from most of it. That includes the strife, doom, whatever else that might flock to me to twist what I try.” - Excerpt from Back Away 5.5</ref>

If the Doom's host had a child, they would serve as a powerful Hallow for it in the womb, allowing it to flow around most defences and occupy the unborn child. Possibly twisting it into something monstrous, or simply inflicting complications on the mother.<ref>“If the child is of me, in the same way it’s half Edith, the mother’s body won’t protect it from my influence. The Doom could and would slide into the child without resistance. With the way the hallow would be far better at holding something like the Doom than my own body is… it would be like water flowing downhill. No resistance, and it would go around most barriers.”

Edith spoke, eyes on the barbecue and the fire that licked the meat. Her eyes glowed. “If I as the Girl by Candlelight didn’t find myself drawn into the child and trapped there until it was born and grown, then the Doom would enter the child and he or she would kill Edith James before Matthew or I realized what had happened.”

“What would happen? Again, don’t have to get into it,” Avery said.

“Aneurysm. Blood clot. Blood poisoning. If the child was large enough, it could claw its way to something vital,” Matthew said.

“Could it?” Lucy asked. “Babies aren’t that strong.”

“Given time, and the fact that an influence on an unborn baby would shape its growth… possibly to something less human, it’s a risk,” Matthew said. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.5</ref> Any Practices or powers channeled by it's host could also serve as a potential escape route.<ref>“If you wanted to, could you have hurt it?” Lucy asked.

“I don’t think so,” Matthew said. “Not in a way that would take it out like that. Disappeared or dead. I- maybe with the right tools, the right practices, but I’d run the risk of the Doom inside me slipping free of its confines. Anything I channel through my body or spirit is a possible escape route.”

“Could the Doom have hurt it?” Verona asked. She was talking the least and making the most progress through her burger.

Avery looked down. She hadn’t touched her burger, and thinking about it made her tense. She ate more vegetables.

“Possibly, but not killed it. It’s not that strong, and I’m not strong enough to keep something capable of killing the Carmine Beast inside me.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.5</ref>

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" />

Notable Examples

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

References