Forsworn
A person or creature becomes Forsworn on breaking a magical oath or promise. Those who have undergone the Awakening ritual and Others who are bound by the Seal of Solomon are magically bound by their oaths, and so can become Forsworn for breaking them.
Consequences
A forsworn Practitioner loses their ability to practice magic, and magical effects they have put in place (including their Demesne if they have one) come undone.<ref name=":0">“How does it work?” Verona asked. “What does it look like when you’re Forsworn?”
“When someone calls you forsworn, as he did, there is a process. He looked me in the eye, he named the oath, and he named the wrong. If there’s no person to do that, then the world has a way of telling you. A crack of thunder, a tremor in the earth, a vision. It can depend.
Then the person forsworn gets an opportunity to answer it. It’s a heavy thing to name someone forsworn. If the person answers and they didn’t actually break the oath, the person trying to forswear them is forsworn instead.”
“He was playing with fire.”
“He knew what he was doing,” Charles said. “I couldn’t answer it. His blood was drawn by my violent actions. I immediately took steps to mitigate the damage. Protections and practices I’d set in place were coming undone. My demesnes was collapsing in on itself and I had things within to rescue. I would later find he’d taken some of my things while I was distracted, before he left. He could get away with it too, because when you’re forsworn, you become a karmic sinkhole. Open season for everyone, with no rights." - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.3</ref> However, they may still be able to use magical things that an ordinary human could.<ref>“Matthew Moss places Charles Abrams at his apartment at the time of the beast’s disappearance.”
“He was once a summoner. He may be forsworn, but there’s nothing saying he couldn’t have something stowed away. He can use objects that an ordinary human could stumble onto and use, they would likely hurt him or have a chance to turn on the user, but with caution or sufficient preparation? He made Others as the core part of his practice. He could have sent something to do his work.” - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2</ref> In some cases, it may take multiple oath-breakings to totally sever a person from the Practice.<ref name=":1">“You’re going to break your word,” I told her. “I’m not picky, but I want you to start by telling us what, if any, involvement you have in Jacob’s Bell being swallowed up by the abyss.”
“Start?” the young crone asked me.
“Start. Because when you’ve told us that, you’re going to swear oaths and you’re going to break them. Over and over, until we have no doubt that you’ve relinquished all relationships with spirits and the practice.”
[...]
“I was the architect of it all,” she said. “I’ve been striving to these ends since the township was established.”
There was a dull rumble. Cracks sounded elsewhere in the forest. Birds took to the air.
“Peter?” Ellie asked, alarmed.
“No,” Rose said. “Peter’s fine, as far as I can tell. He’s over that way. The trees fell… elsewhere.”
“She lied,” Alister’s female relative said. “She’s losing her hold on this place.”
“That means she has no involvement,” Rose said.
[...]
Yes, I know who is responsible,” Mara said.
Not a single tree fell.
“Who?”
“Rose Thorburn,” Mara said.
I could hear something rumble. As if the very earth was cracking. - Excerpt from Sine Die 14.8
</ref><ref>At that last statement, there was a tremor, a reaction from the environment at the lie.
Far milder than before.
A milder lie, or…
No.<
“Mara, that was a lie, wasn’t it?”
“A victory for all involved,” Mara said, again.
Our environment reacted, but it was almost imperceptible. The same statement. It wasn’t that it was no longer a lie… she’d burned herself out. - Excerpt from Sine Die 14.9</ref>
They become a "karmic sinkhole", with bad karma and no rights under the karma system.<ref name=":0" />
They lose certain protections, having all the vulnerabilities of an Other and a human, placing them at the mercy of almost everything.<ref>The oldest of them made agreements in times well beyond us, to guarantee safety and maintain a kind of peace. Foremost among these agreements is truth. Should you lie, you may well forfeit your power for a time. Break a promise or an oath, and you will be forsworn, and you will be stripped of every protection afforded to even the common, ignorant people that decorate this Earth. - Excerpt from Bonds 1.3</ref><ref name=":2">“I swear I’m going to watch you die,” Joseph growled the words. “By my name, by my blood, I’m going to do what’s right and I’m going to free that girl.”
The words carried power. He felt stronger, the pain was less. His mental clarity improved.
[...]
“I name you forsworn, Joseph Attwell. You did not see the girl’s father meet the end you promised. You cannot.”
“I…”
“If you would argue your own defense, then do so. Name the actions you would undertake, and I will grant my assistance in allowing this to come to pass.”
Joseph hung his head. “I spoke while drunk with pain, and love.”
“Pain is something I know well. I assure you this is no defense. Love is something I’m not familiar with, but it is no defense either. Would you make another defense?”
Joseph shook his head.
“Then I bind you by that which you swore by. I bind you by name, by your entirety. I bind you by your blood, to bind all of your kin that follow after you. I bind you by your word, to claim your obedience for myself. I offer you a second chance to gainsay me.”
“I can’t,” Joseph said.
“With my claim, I offer you the protections you would forfeit. It is your choice, whether to accept or refuse.
To be at the mercy of anything and everything, all of the vulnerabilities of mortal and Other both, or to be in Conquest’s service?
“I’ll obey you to the best of my ability,” Joseph said. And he knew he was, in a way, swearing fealty to Canfield.
“You and yours,” Conquest said. “All the ones that come after. You won’t need your familiar.”
He felt his bogeyman slip from his grasp.
“Your children and children’s children, all down the line, are mine, from the moment they learn the practice. You will not bar them from it, after they’ve come of age.”
[...]
“You have no tricks. You have no power. I have magic, you don’t,” the man [Joseph] said. - Excerpt from Histories (Arc 5)
</ref> They lose all rights to defend themselves against spirits.<ref>I’d already fallen prey to magical influences with very little warning, not to mention how being forsworn was technically losing the rights to defend oneself against spirits. Pauz could probably take advantage of a small falsehood or karmic foothold, much as the Sphinx could leverage a false answer to justify murdering someone.
It would be very easy to slip up and give ground to Pauz. - Excerpt from Collateral 4.7</ref> Some find their Self torn apart as minor spirits, ghosts etc battle within them.<ref>“Lying will hurt your relationship with spirits and Others by a very
small amount. But breaking an oath or promise? It will make you forsworn. Every force that worked for you as a practitioner will work against you. The trappings of innocence and ignorance that protect most people in this world don’t protect the forsworn. The unluckiest have no refuge, no means of self defense. They become battlegrounds, their bodies open for any echo of a dead person, any complex spirit, any power to invade and try to take over, fighting among one another for purchase, and tearing up the substance of the Forsworn’s Self in the process. And that is only one of the very many ways the Forsworn become vulnerable.”
[...]
“Others, like Charles, make deals. Some become slaves. Others give up something.”
“And Charles?” Verona asked, staring at the man, who looked like he was ready to spit.
“I think we were kind, we were reasonable,” Miss said, with the hint of an accent. “Once a year we give him something inconvenient. A curse, for example, until we can deal with it. Five weeks ago, we gave him a bit of sickness and that will be our contribution for this year.”
Charles looked off to one side. He said, “You were very kind. You could have made it a daily contribution and it would still have been kind.” - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref>
The consequences of an Other becoming forsworn are less clear, but presumably similar. Guilherme the Faerie claimed that "to be an Other and to be Forsworn is to be Undone."<ref>“Anyone that can corroborate on your absence?”
“The spirits,” Guilherme said. He spread his arms. “Let them strike me down if I’m lying. To be an Other and to be Forsworn is to be Undone. Let them undo me, if they see it fit.” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2</ref> A bound Other might decide that becoming forsworn is better than obeying a sufficiently suicidal order.<ref>“Go, Buttsack!” Mags ordered.
“Fuck you!” Buttsack replied.
“You’re bound!” Mags said.
“Fuck you, you lunatic! You’re fucking crazy! Call me forsworn! Nothing’s gonna happen that’s worse than me going out there!” - Excerpt from Judgment 16.11</ref>
Becoming Forsworn
Generally, a person becomes forsworn when someone formally accuses them of it, naming the oath they have violated, and the Spirits agree. If the spirits judge the accusation false, the accuser becomes forsworn instead.<ref name=":0" />
The one naming the target forsworn gains some control over the consequences,<ref>“I promised you I’d avoid hurting him too much,” I said. “Not to kill him if- I think I said I wouldn’t kill him if I could help it.”
“My uncle is dead. It doesn’t look like it was clean,” he said. “I could call you forsworn. The spirits will get around to it if it’s deserved, but I could call you on it right here, decide how it plays out.”
I nodded slowly.
The older girl said, “Nothing to say? No words in your own defense?”
“If you’d name me forsworn,” I said, “I’d challenge you to walk through the last ten minutes in my shoes. See what I saw, feel what I felt, and then decide I was out of line and that I didn’t try.”
“The wording was, with minor differences, that you’d avoid hurting him too much, full stop. You’d avoid killing him if you could, circumstances allowing, full stop.”
I did what I could to avoid flinching or showing doubt.
I even did what I could to avoid thinking about my doubts.
I needed to sell this, not just to them, but to the spirits that were observing.
“In terms of quantity of blows, it was only the one,” I said. “In terms of the pain inflicted… I think it was a very low number on a scale of one to ten. I offered him some help after the fact.”
[...]
“Maybe I can’t call you forsworn,” he said. His voice was small, and it sounded like it might break. “Don’t want that backlash. But I can say I wish you suffer everything bad that’s coming to you. I can appeal to the greater powers and the least powers, and tell them that if you have upset things, if you’ve got something bad coming your way, then they should make you lose whatever it is that made you feel happy and- and safe.” - Excerpt from Void 7.8</ref> such as being able to bind them<ref>“I’m doing both. Will you move out of my way or will you be forsworn?”
He didn’t respond.
She kept walking, even though the position of the page blocked her view of the goblin. The smell of him was thick in the cold air. If she happened to trip over him, there might even be a solution in that. The question was, how fast could she name him forsworn, demand he obey her and sic him on the other, smaller goblins?
Was it faster than another goblin would reflexively respond to her weakness and attack her? - Excerpt from Signature 8.3</ref> or their entire bloodline in exchange for them not suffering the normal consequences of being forsworn.<ref name=":2" />
The spirits themselves may also judge when you blatantly violate an oath, generally accompanied by a crack of thunder, earthquake, or similar.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>“I’d kind of expected a… clap of thunder?” I said.
“Barring the exceptional moments of idiocy, such as the breaking of an oath, you typically only discover what you’ve done when you reach for power and find it gone.” - Excerpt from Damages 2.4</ref>
Examples
- Fell's ancestor Joseph Attwell was named forsworn by Conquest which had consequences for his descendents.<ref name=":2" />
- Pauz threatened to name Blake forsworn, but Blake persuaded him he had too much wiggle room to risk it.<ref>“The circle was the Lord’s action, not mine,” I said.
“The circle was drawn by your hand. You betrayed your word when your mouth spoke of my secrets to Conquest. I can see, and I am aware.”
Rose’s hand was my hand, her words my words?
Damn it.
“The hand was forced to move. It was the Lord’s action,” Rose said. “The mouth was forced to speak.
Pauz hopped, turning. It pointed an accusing finger at Rose. “It speaks! I might call you forsworn, Thorburn. Mere excuses.”
He looked at me, pointing with his other finger. He screeched, “Are you forsworn!? Defend yourself!”
Fuck me. I hadn’t expected this angle.
I managed to hold my composure. “By the terms of our contract, you can take this dispute to a neutral third party. Your argument would be a hard sell, I think. I’m not responsible for what the Lord of Toronto does, after I brought you to him.” - Excerpt from Subordination 6.4</ref> - Duncan Behaim showed up forsworn in Void 7.5 after Blake escaped a building he'd sworn to keep him in. However it's unclear what actual consequences this entailed, as e.g. he was still able to practice.<ref>Things were slowing down, in action and thought, and it was getting worse. I knew my actions were slowed, but my thoughts were gradually catching up.
[...]
The music shifted, the effect doubling down. Duncan moved as if he’d expected it, choosing that moment to spring forward.
Maggie stepped back, adjusting the angle of the gun, gauntleted hand closing on the trigger. Excruciatingly slowly.
Duncan moved faster.
His hands moved faster.
The runes he’d drawn on his wrists in marker.
[...]
His body was as affected as mine was, but his hands and his arms weren’t. - Excerpt from Void 7.6</ref> It was possible he was only gainsaid. - The Behaims threatened to call Blake Thorburn forsworn in Void 7.8 for killing Laird, but he persuaded them he had too much wiggle room for them to risk it.
- Crone Mara was forced to forswear herself in Sine Die 14.8 under threat of death.
- Charles Abrams was foreworn prior to Pale.<ref>Lost for Words 1.1</ref><ref>Lost for Words 1.3</ref>
References
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