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.[1][2] However, they may still be able to use magical items that an ordinary human could.[3] In some cases, it may take multiple oath-breakings to wholly sever a person from the Practice.[4][5]
They become a "karmic sinkhole" or "karmically dead", with bad karma and no rights under the karma system,[1] for example the Innocent are automatically suspicious of them,[6] and even practitioners will go harder against them.[7] At the same time they are far easier ignored and forgotten which allows them to make certain moves.[8]
They lose most protections, having all the vulnerabilities of an Other and a human, placing them at the mercy of nearly everything.[9][10] They lose all rights to defend themselves against spirits.[11] Some find their Self torn apart as minor spirits, ghosts, etc. battle within them.[12]
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."[13] A bound Other might decide that becoming forsworn is better than obeying a sufficiently suicidal order.[14]
Forswearing someone means that you gain what they lose making you more powerful.[15] The exact scale and fidelity of such a transfer is unclear.
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.[1] The process of arguing someone foresworn is heavily legalistic.
Failing to accuse someone successfully can lead to the accuser being foresworn in turn.[16] Alternatively the accuser can withdraw the accusation at a cost.[17]
The one naming the target forsworn gains some control over the consequences,[18] such as being able to bind them[19] or their entire bloodline in exchange for them not suffering the normal consequences of being forsworn.[10]
The spirits themselves may also judge when you blatantly violate an oath, generally accompanied by an environmental aberration such as a crack of thunder, earthquake, or similar.[1][4][20] Other times assumptive forces such as judges step in to arbitrate exactly who becomes foresworn in a given scenario.[21][16]
Some practitioners are intentionally targeted for forswearing given they're seen as a threat or a valuable source of power and knowledge.[22]
Examples[]
- An Early practitioner[23]
- Fell's ancestor Joseph Attwell was named forsworn by Conquest after joseph had made an oath upon his bloodline,[24] which had consequences for his descendants.[10]
- Pauz threatened to name Blake forsworn, but Blake persuaded him he had too much wiggle room to risk it.[25]
- The Behaims threatened to call Blake Thorburn forsworn for killing Laird, but he persuaded them he had too much wiggle room for them to risk it.[26]
- Crone Mara was forced to forswear herself in Sine Die 14.8 under threat of death.
- The Allaire Family makes use of the phenomena as a matter of habit.
- Alexander Belanger foreswore several practitioners, known ones include:[27]
- Charles Abrams was foresworn prior to Pale.[28][29]
- Griffin Lytle was foresworn prior to Pale.[30]
- Seth Belanger was foresworn during Pale.[31]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 “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 - ↑ If they should break a promise or an oath, then they are Forsworn, stripped of all ability to practice, they are rendered utterly defenseless against hostile practices and Others, and their karma becomes irrevocably bad.
To be Forsworn means that there are no natural protections against being possessed, no natural sanctuary against an attacking Other, all practice will work on them with little to no chance of prevention and resistance, their soul is there for the taking for any who know how to take souls, and the arbiters of aging, war, sickness, and poverty hold nothing back. With karma being as bad as it is, anyone who hurts or hampers the Forsworn gets a reward of good karma. Those faced with a threat of being Forsworn may attempt to argue their case or make a claim that they could still fulfill the oath, and on the rare occasion they may appeal, but for most it is not only a death sentence, but a guarantee of the worst sort of end. - PACT DICE - ↑ “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 - ↑ 4.0 4.1 “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 - ↑ 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 - ↑ “This guy’s not giving you trouble?”
“Him?” Clementine looked surprised, turning to Charles.
[...]
“You’re with adults. One with mental issues, and another is…”
The cop trailed off, but he was looking at Charles. He didn’t seem to have the words for why he didn’t think highly of Charles.
[...]
The officer looked at Charles, and again, couldn’t seem to articulate his reservations. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.5 - ↑ “Ugly, ugly, ugly,” Lucy said. “This is awful to say and really tricky to handle but Charles is… it feels like we’re inclined to treat him more harshly than he deserves because he’s Forsworn.”
“You are,” Rook said. “Karma affects how the world frames you and how the world’s inhabitants see you.” - Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.8 - ↑ “Charles. Abrams,” Raymond said. He washed out the coffee cup, speaking to the empty room. “He did something monstrous. Tried to make something aimed at us. A test. I think you and Luisa would have passed. I think I would have failed.”
“He’s still forsworn. I reach for the idea of him and…”
[...]
Was this what they wrote about, when describing the forsworn as offputting?
[...]
Charles was forsworn, and a sturdy lock would likely do. If someone were to carelessly leave the door unlocked, then there was a good chance Charles’s misfortune would see the door jam instead.
[...]
“It’s in the nature of the forsworn to be overlooked,” Durocher said. “Paradoxically, the karmically dead are often first to be eaten when a monster needs to pick a target, but among the last to be given attention. It’s because attention is often earned by way of respect, and they get little. That can be an advantage, if they want to reap the rewards from killing many monsters, or if they don’t want the scrutiny a real threat would get.” - Excerpt from Break 1 - ↑ 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
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 “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) - ↑ 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 - ↑ “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 - ↑ “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 - ↑ “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 - ↑ Everyone who could See was aware. There might have even been a thunderclap and the beginning of a storm to mark the occasion.
Seth was a goner. No practice, no life. Condemned. His power forfeit, taken by Alexander, his body and mind now vulnerable and weak. - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.z - ↑ 16.0 16.1 The brother finds her again, and he names her forsworn. She made promises, sober and of her own mind, that contradict oaths she made as Arietta, not truly herself, inebriated on chemicals, less binding. On the one hand, she is to repay family, she is to honor father and mother, she is to wed one of her brothers. That last extracted in a moment of desperation.
On the other, Arietta has sworn heart and body to Edward. She swore to repay him for being her savior, to wed him.
These contradict.
The Carmine Beast has not been invited to this scene of forswearing, but in the clashing of two promises, spirits aren’t readily equipped to act. She judges.
[...]
“Can I like… just say no?” Lucy asked, looking at the three. “Forswearing not granted, fuck you, eldest brother guy, you eat the forswearing instead?”
[...]
Henrietta and Edward together. The eldest brother dropping to his knees. Hairs on Lucy’s arms stood on end as she saw the look on Henrietta’s face change, realizing what had happened. From defeat to joy, to a victory she’d never thought she’d have. - Excerpt from Summer Break 13.2 - ↑ If there was even a glimmer of hope, resolution, or something, I could withdraw the forswearing.”
“Can you?” Nicolette asked.
“At a cost. - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.z - ↑ “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 - ↑ “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 - ↑ “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 - ↑ - Excerpt from False Moves 12.6
- ↑ “He’s talented,” Miss said. “Many are. People like Alexander who treat forswearing as a way to get a prize like to go after threats, or people who’ve accumulated more to forfeit.” - Excerpt from Let Slip 20.8
- ↑ False Moves 12.z
- ↑ violetfaith: I'm not sure whether you mentioned this or not, but the reason his children and so on belong to Conquest is that his oath was on his blood (line) and so when he is forsworn his blood is forsworn too. This wouldn't apply to Charles or Seth.
Wildbow: Yep! I told them that on Discord. It's what I use for searching and referencing my own writing. - Conversation on Reddit - ↑ “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 - ↑ Void 7.8
- ↑ Charles absently dusted off Avery’s arm with one hand. “Some. I hoped to get unforsworn, if it came down to it. I know [Seth] at the school got forsworn. [...] Alexander has probably forsworn many more that we don’t know about. It’s a power thing. He’s gainsaid others as a matter of habit, I know.” - Excerpt from False Moves 12.6
- ↑ Lost for Words 1.1
- ↑ Lost for Words 1.3
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 “Let me finish. Because many of these people, they aren’t seen. They aren’t recognized. A Lord took over Peterborough just before Musser came here. They shook Allaire’s hand and agreed to work with him, and I don’t think they’ll ever realize on their own, but if they do, I’m not confident they’ll care enough to act on it. Thirteen under Allaire. Four still alive, Forsworn by his departed mother. One, soon to be, under the child. Seth Belanger. Griffin Lytle, forsworn by Alexander, far worse off than I ever was, he’s in the deep woods, barely holding on to humanity. There are five more, and those are just the ones who’ve survived this long. Joel Richardson, Lenard Lily, Yiyun Jen, Josef Miller, Helen Kim.”- Excerpt from Wild Abandon 18.5
- ↑ Cutting Class 6.z