Evil

## EVIL 101

The Evil, introduced in The Forgotten, are extradimensional beings that are incorporeal on the Earthly plane. We first encounter them as the dark, shadowy forms that haunt the Overworld and terrify Jason almost to insensibility. If they sense strong fear, they attack the traveler and, apparently at least partially substantial in the Overworld, tear them to bloody bits. However, the Overworld is not their home, as Alastair Stone relates:

> *"The Evil inhabit the Overworld, but are not from there. Their home dimension… It was like some sort of—ghastly vision of hell, only far more surreal than anything a bunch of literal-minded religious sorts would ever come up with. More like—something out of a demented artist’s worst drug nightmares.”*
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Evil on the Earthly plane have no substance, but are typically colored puffs of something vaporlike, but not. Less powerful Evil are white/gray poufs, while high-level Evil are reddish-purple, glowing globules.

The Evil were inadvertently allowed into the Earth plane when Daphne Weldon and her team attempted to open two temporary portals simultaneously. Through a disastrous error or miscalculation, the portals connected to the Evil dimension, allowing them to enter Earth whenever the portals were active. This occurred about five years prior to The Forgotten, and also resulted in the unique powers the Forgotten acquired, as well as Verity’s mental instability.

They and their hosts refer to them as Others.

A high-level Evil – possibly their leader – Richard, explains to Stone that they did frequent the Overworld prior to the opening of the portals, that they spent, “many years of being forced to remain in such enticingly close proximity to all the tasty treats in your world, watching you mages flit back and forth on your meaningless errands." Stone posits that Evil don’t possess travelers because travelers are almost invariably mages, and mages can’t be possessed without their consent.

Mundanes, however, have no native resistance to possession by the Evil, and are taken involuntarily. In The Forgotten, Dwight describes Evil possession: “It was like—I was a passenger in my own body. Like—something else was in there with me, and it was driving…whatever it was, it was using me. Using my brain. Picking through it."

Evil are very limited on the Earthly plane, until they find a host. In fact, lower-powered Evil cannot survive long in our world, as little as seconds, and must find a host immediately or die. Therefore, the Evil became organized on their side of the portals, pre-selecting hosts to be possessed and somehow protecting their migrating members from premature obliteration.

On the other hand, Evil gain from the possession, not only the ability to survive and feed, but all the knowledge and abilities of the host. They, in fact, are selective in their targets for possession, preferring to inhabit those in power to further their own ends. In The Threshold, a Forgotten named Luke explains that, in Las Vegas, they’re,

> *“Everywhere. They got their hooks into everything—casinos, cops, pols, the do-gooders who try to ‘help’ the homeless, the papers—you can’t move without hittin’ ’em.”*
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Highly intelligent and strategic, Evil consider humans no better than semi-intelligent cattle. One reason for this is their relative invulnerability. If a human host dies, even lower-level Evil can inhabit another body if one is in immediate proximity, though losing a host diminishes them. Stronger Evil can survive longer outside a host, possibly weeks. Only Verity has the ability to evict Evil from still-living hosts, which also has the effect of diminishing their power. For example, Sam, the Evil leader in The Source, has two hosts killed inside a day, and would require significant time to regenerate his native strength.
Possession doesn't have to be involuntary or adversarial. In fact, mages can only be possessed with consent. Trin Blackburn describes the merge as 'pleasant', since her goals and that of her Other are aligned. Another black mage, Dobbs, explains,

> *Yes, it’s still me in here. I still have all my thoughts and memories and abilities. It’s not really all that different. It doesn’t force me to do anything. It’s more of a—symbiotic relationship. I give it a means for getting around in our world and help it reach its goals, and it gives me knowledge.*
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Possibly, the Evil's greatest weakness is an inability to get along. In The Source, the Evil leaders can barely stand to be in the same room, and only extraordinary patience gets them to cooperate long enough to agree on a plan to reconnect with their world. The strongest, at least tend to remain apart and carve out territories. This begs the question of reproduction. It's posited by Stone that they must be able to reproduce, and that is confirmed by one of the Evil leaders. How is not explained, but one imagines some kind of fission, like an amoeba.