No one is entirely sure where the fomorians got their curse from. Some say it was archfey that forced them to show their internal ugliness on the outside. Others believe it was the gods, for the fomorians themselves give praise to no higher or lower powers. Perhaps they were once gods themselves, cast down by other divines for their cruelty. Mages speculate their attempts at fully mastering magic backfired, or that they are the result of exposure to arcane fallout.
The fomorian curse is focused on the malice and cruelty in their hearts. The more wicked a fomorian's thoughts and intent, the more disfigured their bodies become. This results in an almost neverending spiral, as the uglier the fomorian becomes, the more spiteful and self-loathing it feels.
No two fomorians turn out entirely the same. Some are covered in warts and monstrous growths; others have vestigial twins embedded in their flesh; some look angelic but reek like cesspits and speak like scraping metal sheets.
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| The Fomors by John Duncan |
The curse cannot be easily lifted. Spells and potions that change the fomorian's form do not succeed if they are designed to make them less hideous (they do however work turning them into another creature- said creature will be equally disfigured). To truly lift the curse, a fomorian must commit an act of genuine altruism. Such acts are hard to come by, for the fomorians rarely surround themselves with individuals that they would wish to selflessly aid.
Instead, they surround themselves with those they can brutalise into treating them as the beings they once were. Their slaves are scarred and mutilated in hopeless attempts to make their masters seem less horrid in comparison. It is always a fruitless task- for every twist of a blade or limb, their deformities only grow more prominent.
Fomorian schemes focus on depriving others of what they long for in life and hoarding that which they crave. Often these goals focus around people or objects of beauty: shining jewels, fair maidens, handsome princes, glimmering weapons. They stick to the shadows and ambush when possible, for their deformities can make physical combat painful and strenuous. Tales of wheezing beasts dragging daughters from their beds or suffocating travellers in their sleep are not unheard of. Those that seek to deprive others of beauty more than take beauty for themselves may deface sculptures with carrion smears and mangled corpses or lead stitched together monstrosities into settlements and parades. These creations are short-lived and crudely joined.
Other goals could include:
- Finding a way to transfer their mind into a new body in order to escape their curse
- Starting a cult to scar and deface elves, half-elves, and generally attractive people
- Waging war on an underground fortress to loot its hoards and have a new den to wallow in
- Blackmailing a lord into betrothing their child to the fomorian
- Creating a fey trap then forcing the captives to fight each other or become dinner
Fomorian machinations are needlessly cruel, to the point of ignoring simpler methods of obtaining what they want in favour of causing more misery. This makes them likely allies to other misanthropes, such as hags and demons.
The fomorians have not forgotten what they once were, nor can they. Behind every pretty smile they see a snigger, every compliment or cry of fear hides whispers that mock what they have now become. It is unknown whether this is part of the curse or simply a result of broken pride infused with paranoia. Those that encounter them may find themselves noticing hints of their former existences: they move with attempted grace, and fight with swaying arms and strides (potential epilepsy warning- flashing light).
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| Asking for Directions by Ahmad Hilmi |
Fomorians can be found in the Monster Manual on page 136. I'd also recommend checking out sources for the original fomorians of Irish mythology.
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