Fraward

Fraward, also known as Fromweard, Pervertir or sometimes Hydes,<ref name=":0">

Fraward

Also Froward, , Hydes (as Other), Pervertir

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Relevant Schools: Hyde, Alchemy

Appearance: Living on the boundary of being human and being Other, the Fraward tends to take a rather striking appearance - very muscular, very beautiful, very poised, very noble.  There tends to be something offputting about them, even if there is something alluring about them at the same time - this may be something of the uncanny valley, where clothes don’t fit entirely right, or the spacing of features is too symmetrical or spaced oddly. - Bestiary: Fraward</ref>

Abilities

They are typically exponents of rarefied skills that humans could not easily gain, at least not without decades of practice.<ref>Strengths: Fraward are tough, exceptionally competent in at least one major field or broad department, and by virtue of being born on the border of human and Other, they are especially good at navigating the borders of innocence and awareness. Some of this is skill learned by necessity, but some of it is a natural expression of power - the Fraward or Hyde who gains enough natural power or recognition will tend to emanate an aura that makes it easy to get caught up in their sway. Innocents may be slower to contact authorities or find the thoughts don’t cross their minds. Spaces dominated by the Fraward tend to carry this as a culture, reinforced by other innocents. - Bestiary: Fraward</ref> Their skill is comparable to that of anima or Fae in their skill and general adroitness. As with everything their exact abilities come from how they were created as an alternate hyde, which can be close to human or some paragon or even a monster from the outset.

Formation

When the Self gives way in a Hyde for whatever reason the Fraward will emerge, the original self might be damaged, or the original is poisoned or shot, perhaps even the alternate self is used so much that a Pattern emerges and that pushes the original personality out of prominence and the fraward.<ref>Background: Fraward come about when someone is alchemically changed in personality and body to something else, often related to the original individual.

The balancing act of the original person and the other self (sometimes called the Hyde, especially before the Other self becomes the dominant personality) often parallels drug use in mentality and the issues that arise: ‘I can stop/make [other self] go away at any time’, growing tolerances, a deterioration of the original self, and permanent changes to mind and body. Typically, this is a course that ends with the transformations no longer being sustainable, because the tolerances have risen too high or because the other self was arrested. The Fraward scenario, however, is when the balance becomes such that the human is put away for good, or becomes a negligible existence, while the alter-self becomes the form that sleeps, wakes, dines, and employs itself.

This tends to occur by one of several mechanisms. Commonly, this happens because the human Self is damaged or destroyed. Because the two sides exist in balance, one side losing out does help the other side grow (though the whole may be weaker). A poisoning a bystander intends for the dangerous and successful Hyde may bring the practitioner low, or an arresting officer could open fire and hit the practitioner instead of the Hyde that entered the building. The Hyde self may, out of self-preservation, seek out its own education or cocktails of drugs that help them to prolong their transformations. This isn’t as uncommon a result as one might imagine, as the Hyde does have some access to the practitioner’s mind, awareness, and education, and even a Hyde that is strong and stupid as a contrast to the practitioner’s frail intelligence may retain some awareness that one thing or another is dangerous or added to the transformative drug with great caution. Even in a failed case, this points back to the first example: it may poison the practitioner, weakening their Self.

The third (somewhat rarer) case requires more grounding in what Hydes are: they tend to bring about something the practitioner doesn’t have. Grace, talent, strength, force of will, beauty, sexual prowess, intelligence- the list can go on. They may walk a tightrope of being human enough to remain in the human world, but Other enough that they operate by other rules, including a tendency to embrace patterns. A Hyde’s successes can strengthen them, as can their prominence in society and the public eye while the practitioner may be more secluded, doing their alchemy. This grows the self, and a pattern of success may lead to a pattern employed against their human side. Other patterns will attach themselves to the war of Selves, and the practitioner who regularly imbibes in the throes of jealousy may find they start to change when jealousy grips them. The final loss of humanity tends to come about as a result of ultimate jealousy, in this case. Anger, grief, lust, fear, loathing, and ambition can all form their own patterns.

Whichever path leads to this, it comes about by crossing the hurdle of the baseline ‘addiction’ pattern. Following a final war of the Self, the human succumbs, and Hyde becomes Fraward. The human, if they ever turn back to human, is typically broken, their worst traits magnified, left to fight to avoid even a hint of the things that might trigger their transformation back to their Other self - the wrong emotion, drugs in the wrong broad categories (such as painkillers of any sort, even some herbal teas), or harm to the body of any sort, even from a shove. When a practitioner has more than one body they transform into, one must win out to become the Fraward- multifacted Fraward don’t really exist and fall into another, less stable category of Other. - Bestiary: Fraward</ref> The kind of Hyde they emerge from will also influence whether they become a Fraward or something else entirely.

Behavior

Will find their niche in human society, often as some kind of parasite.<ref name=":1">Behavior: Fraward don’t dwell in society so much as they perch there, finding a niche that they can occupy. The elegant and intimidating violinist might avoid society, aside from a select cast she keeps in her periphery, having food delivered, only really meeting the most dedicated fans and audience members that she invites to her loft. The brutish and chauvinist athlete who overflows with sexual prowess may lean further into the prowess part of things after the world bucks his involvement in the greater world of sports, defaulting to owning a shady nightclub where he can sleep with groups of women every night, and run a small gang of pimps and dealers. This niche they occupy may overlap with the world of Others, or they may slip into that world, occupying an Undercity, inverted space, or another knotted realm, almost inevitably as a stand-out figure in whatever realm suits them, be it information, entertainment, violence, or politics, among others. This is a very comfortable space for them and could even be considered a default in the longer term for the longer-lived Fraward who would draw suspicion for retaining youth for too long.

Fraward are very good at whatever it is they do. They typically are created to fulfill a desire that the original individual couldn’t, and they fulfill that desire with uncanny ease. Because of what the typical Hyde is, the Hyde also tends to stand as a stark contrast to the conventional. The ‘default’ Hyde might mark a savagery that contrasts civilization, and a private persona to rival the comfortably public (or vice versa), and this carries forward to the Fraward’s nature. Savagery is often blended into the Fraward’s demeanor, and may be reserved for when there are no witnesses. Privacy may be violently enforced if boundaries are crossed. Boundaries in general (especially because they may have their residual human self, the drugs they continue to take to keep the transformation perpetual, and any crimes they may have done) tend to produce terrifying, hair-trigger reactions if they are crossed by the errant individual in the Fraward’s life.

Unfortunately, Fraward may become serial killers, sexual predators, and other criminals. Being pushed to extremes, existing in stark contrast to humanity and civilization, and existing on the fringes where they are less accountable, it’s an easy position for them to fall into. Most maintain (and often enjoy) an intimidating demeanor. - Bestiary: Fraward</ref> <ref name=":2">

- Bestiary: Fraward</ref>

Variations

Dark Reflections

Can appear in Knotted Places and Undercities, like the fraward they may lack social graces but aren't "exaggerated" like Fraward are being complete rounded people even if they are in contrast to their originals.<ref name=":df">

Dark Reflections are dark inverses of either people on Earth or representative of communities on Earth.  Their general patterns, mentality and nature resemble the Fraward or Hydes, being anti-civilization, anti-society, anti-nicety, or something in that realm, but are typically less pronounced in just how stark this may be.  Dark Reflections may appear in groups when they appear, and generally crop up when an entire community is reflected.  Often violent and transgressive.  Are less about being an idealization of everything their other half isn’t, even when directly reflecting someone. - Bestiary: Fraward</ref> Unknown if they have anything to do with mirrors.

Glazed, Models, or Gazed-upon

These are people who have been changed by others instead of people experimenting on themselves. The ideal strived for is one imposed from outside rather than one looked for from within. The victim is essentially beaten into a different shape.<ref name=":gmg">

Glazed, Models, or Gazed-upon come about when the alteration (typically alchemical) of someone else is done by the practice or by some Other; Glazed are to Frawards as Glares are to Hydes.  Less about the duality of one person, more about existence in the eye of an often predatory or abusive beholder, Glares exist in a tortured struggle between who they are and who someone else wants them to be, sometimes witting, sometimes unwitting, and sometimes under the false impression they are possessed or something else is going on.  Should the original human triumph, they may fight off the change, but if they lose, then they become Glazed; Others with qualities defined by their ‘makers’, existing in stark and often dark relation to the one that defined them. - Bestiary: Fraward</ref>

Hemi sapiens

Genetic experiments gone wrong; byproducts of incomplete Visceral practices. They try to become complete people by feeding on others but this doesn't work in the long term.<ref name=":hs"> Hemi Sapiens tend to come from very visceral practices, particularly ones with interplay between practitioner and parasite, practitioner and apparatus, alchemical mitosis, cloning of the self, or some other means of multiplying Self or humanity.  When multiplication is incomplete, interrupted, or when the mechanism is corrupted, this can result in a partial human that cuts or tears itself free and then flees into the night.  They may act parasitic or otherwise attach to others, in a desire to be whole.  Has parallels to the Fraward, in that they can perch somewhere within humanity, but has less concentrated strengths and more fluidity to their immediate nature.  May retain the ability to shapeshift, parasitically control others (and even gradually turn those others into the original, whole self, at least for a while), or multiply.  Tends to have a noticeable trait or scar whatever the form. - Bestiary: Fraward</ref>

Known examples

• Arietta, from Henrietta Belton
• Athena Hillson, Glazed Familiar

References

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