Evil Eye

The Evil Eye is a natural ability to inflict harmful Spirits or Omens on a target through looking at them, often triggered by a particular condition or mood. Those with this power are called the Evil Eyed or Maji. They may be Aware, trained in their power as Practitioners, or entirely Innocent of what they can do. Often but by no means always there will be some visible eye deformity accompanying this.<ref name=":0">Maji, Evil EyedThose with the evil eye (sometimes called Maji) are capable of bestowing harm with a look. There are many variants, ranging from the tame to the terminal, with many different forms they can take. The most

conventional will direct spirits of harm or strife to those under the
Eye, but others usher in omens of Death, Exile, Heartbreak, Toil, Fear, or Madness. The eye may be opened by a specific event, it may be open at birth, or it may open and close as circumstances or mood change, or as certain criteria are met. The evil eye can be trained, but it fits into a difficult niche, where practitioners can easily refute it but careless or wanton use on the Innocent can hurt karma and bring consequences down on the owner of the evil eye. There are countless superstitions around the world to ward off the evil eye, some so ubiquitous that we think nothing of them, and the Sickness, Doom, Disaster, or Discord that is brought forth will oft turn on the evil eye’s owner if they aren’t careful. Often accompanied by strange, mismatched, or otherwise deficient eyes. We say a Maji is Aware if they

are conscious of what their eye does.  - 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers</ref><ref>They walked by a group of girls.  One of the girls was missing her right eye, with only a smooth stretch of skin where it was supposed to be, and her left eye had a light to it that shouldn’t have been there as she stood in the dark.  Her clothes and her friends’ clothes were modern, except for a belt and boots that looked like they had been made by locals, very roughly made.  The one-eyed girl and her friends watched Ben and Deedee as they walked by, the three of them smoking hand-rolled cigarettes, the haze surrounding them.

Deedee could feel the dull, unrefined malice drilling itself in between her shoulderblades as she left the girls behind, and saw Ben glance back, aware in his own way that something was fucky.

“Evil eye,” Deedee murmured. “Probably born with it, but cyclops bitch doesn’t know how to use it. She could do a lot of damage if she did.” - (Fourth) Poke </ref>

Usage

The effects inflicted by the Eye can vary widely depending on the individual, from illness, to madness, to death, to something more abstract like inflicting (omens of) Heartbreak, Exile, Disaster etc on the target.<ref name=":0" />

For some, the Eye is always open, while for others it opens and closes based on mood or some other condition.<ref name=":0" /> For example, Kevin Noone's evil eye opened only when he felt jealous of a target; initially only intense jealousy, but growing easier with usage.<ref>Kevin Noone opened his eye as a Maji when he was nineteen, on the day

of his younger brother’s graduation. [...] Kevin watched his younger

brother get announced as a prospective student at an Ivy League school, with a girlfriend to cheer him on and friends to whoop and applaud. Valedictorian.

Kevin’s eye took hold and he watched with green-tinted vision as his brother made an off-the-cuff joke about writing people’s papers for them, in front of faculty and students. Without the eye, he might not have made the joke, and without the eye, people might have laughed and treated it as the joke it was. His brother ended up losing the spot at the Ivy League school and the girlfriend.

[...]

The eye can’t be turned off at this stage, as it’s been used too often.

It remains active and anyone successful who holds Kevin’s attention for
any length of time finds themselves struggling, or events conspire

against them. This ended up causing him difficulties, as he tends to sabotage his own employers, in-laws, landlords, and people he might otherwise lean on. - 4.8 Bonus Material: Dossiers </ref>

Using the Evil Eye successfully can be difficult. Like all magic, karma will push back against it's use on Innocents, potentially doing the user more harm than good. Many superstitions to ward off the Evil Eye are effective, which may cause the curse to bounce back on the Maji. Most Practitioners candetect and ward it off fairly easily.<ref name=":0" />

References