The Formor


As per my other thread, I have just finished reading all of DF books and short stories. Here is everything we know so far about the Formor.

As a quick aside, after reading the books quickly end to end. I have come to the conclusion that the long break between the recent books has very much skewed the way I think many people look at the series. Before the books came out every year, and the time between the books pretty much matched the time in book. So, we got used to basing it off that, now that has not been the case since Cold Days. This becomes very evident for something like the Winter Knights Mantle. A plot point many people are annoyed with and want to finish. But in universe, Harry has been WK for fuck all time. He was WK for 1 day in Changes, then he died so that time doesn’t really count, being WK had no bearing to his Ghosthood. Then Cold days covered 78 days, a month and a half. After that he spends most a year on the Island learning about Demonreach and training while containing Bonea. So, in universe, he has only been WK for slightly over a year in practical terms pre Peace Talks, in Peace talks we are probably pushing the 2 year point.

The timing has also become an issue with tying real world events into the book, but that’s another point… onto the Formor!




The Formor were mentioned to be signatories of the Accords, and that is pretty much the only reference we get to them for the first dozen books in the series.

The first time we see them in action is the short story “Even Hand” set before Turn Coat. Justine shows up soaking wet with a small child at one of Johnny Marcones buildings undergoing renovation. She asks for sanctuary and protection. She has escaped a powerful Formor sorcerer who had kidnapped several children, she had been sent by Lara as a messenger, but it is later shown she had gone to steal some files/information.


Marcone decides to help as there is a child involved which is one of his core principles. The Formor attack his building. They send in a wave of beasts to attack that are brough down by his people on the roof with guns and Hendricks with a minigun.


It turns out the Formor at the expects at biological manipulation. Splicing various creatures together, the dog monster the Denarians used in previous books are hinted at being Formor creations.


They also use coral based grenades that do a lot of damage, throwing acid and needle like projectiles that fuck all sorts of shit up.


Then the main Formor sorcerer attacks. He is a humanoid creature, but with very frog like features. Thick lips, out of proportion limbs, and very amphibian. It is seen that are also master of Water Magic, unsurprisingly. One of Marcones traps is a sprinkler system that would ground most magics, but do fuck all to him. This guy survives a few dozen claymore landmines blowing up in his face, while being rained on and gunfire.


Ms Gard also unloads with her enchanted Axe and goes all out and is knocked down. She is about to go on a suicide run when Marcone stops her. He draws the Formor into his Panic room where the sorcerer uses water/entropy magic to instantly rust/dissolve Marcones gun. But at the last moment Marcone pulls out a 1700’s pistole and shoot the Formor with a heavily enchanted bullet which finally knocks him down and kills him. Ms Gard mentions that she cut that bullet out of Admiral Nelson and it took her several weeks to enchant it. Its essentially a BFG, Marcone wants more but she says men of that calibre don’t come around very often. She also said that even that bullet might not have finished him off if he hadn’t of been tired from with standing the rest of the traps.


It finished with Marcone realising Lara and Justine had tried to set him up in a confrontation with the Formor. He takes the files Justine stole and arranges to send a Weregild to the Formor. This is obviously a foreshadowing of the Formor wiping out his people in Peace Talks and giving him a weregild.


We next see the Formor in Aftermath, which takes place in the hours after Changes.


Billy the werewolf finds Murphy and tells her his pregnant wife Georgia and Andy have been kidnapped. After investigating they go to Marcone who points them in the direction of a add placed on Craigslist using coded language, it has shown up in the hours after the Red Court were taken down and is asking for low level magical talents and offer large cash rewards. The adds are world wide and showed up with in hours.


Murph poses as a seller of Billy and Marci (Who is back) and sells them to a Turtleneck guy. A servitor.


He pays for them and takes them to the docks. Murph infiltrates the docks and find cages containing multiple people. There are large barnacle like growths on the walls that are projecting some kind of mind magic to contain people, as well as being some sort of security system. She watches the multiple Turtlenecks move around before the Boss shows up, this guy has similar properties to the sorcerer from last story, but not as froggy, so likely a rung below on the power scale.


She head shots him taking him out, and then with Billy and Marci proceed to take everyone out. We get a taste for the servitors ability which vary person to person. They use a form of sonor clicking to communicate, so she blasts the gun fire to “blind” them. After killing them all they open the doors and let the sunrise wipe away the sleep spells, showing she has learnt a fair bit from Harry.


Ms Gard shows up to congratulate her and offers her a job with Monoc Security but Murphy says no.



Then we see them in Cold Days, the Better Future Society talks about how dangerous the streets have gotten, that they have been putting up the good fight in Chicago with them, Marcone and the Paranet doing what they can, but other cities are almost totally under Formor control, there is reference to the White Council fighting them in the Mediterranean a bit. Wild Bill, one of Harrys Wardens has been fighting them well in Texas, Carlos was said to be heavily injured and most of his region was descending to chaos. Lara and the White Court are fighting them as they won’t let the Formor poach their territory.


We see Lea set Molly “Raglady” up to fight half a dozen servitors. Again we see a range of skills and power from them, much beyond vanilla mortals. She uses her mind magics and illusions to scare them off a bit of help from Harry. She mentions that she has fought them a dozen times, that they take kids off the street, that she kills them when she can, but one “Listen” has escaped her several times, he is the leader of this little group.


We later see “Listen” appear to the Grey lady (Corpsetaker ghost) and negotiate with her, it seems she and the Formor have a deal, she can take Tier 3 talents (The lowest) but they get the Tier 2 (Like Morty). She says that she needs this one to get a body and then fight the White Council and its Wardens (Tier 1) for the Formor. But that once she had Mort possessed they can take all the Tier 3’s she has. It is also shown that Listen has changed since we last saw him, he has had more modifications to give him more power and abilities. He shows total loyalty to his master and is not concerned with his own life. It is implied that Corpsetaker and the Formor had dealings in the past and that is how she struck this deal to start with.


The next time is “Bombshells” Justine comes to Molly asking her to help rescue Thomas. He was on a mission for Lara and is being held at a compound. Lea who has been mentoring/training Molly tells her that is the Svartelves HQ and there is a party that night. They are celebrating a signing of a peace deal between the Svartelves and the Formor. Johnny Marcone and several other big wigs will be there. It’s said the Svartelves are obsessed with beauty, Lea tells a story of Frea from Norse myth striking a deal where she must sleep with every Svartelf there is to get back some jewellery stolen from her.


So, Molly, Justine and Andy rock up to the party. Once there, Molly and Andy sneak into the building with a map provided by Butters and the Paranet. They find what looks like a guest wing. Under a veil they see “Listen” the servitor from Ghost story and some others enter a room which seems to be a guest suite.


Sneaking in under a veil they see another top level Formor Sorcerer exit a bedroom, seeing the dead bodies of several naked women in there. The Formor again is humanoid but very frog like, also naked and ugly to start with.


They talk about this peace deal, and how this guy is using it as a front to get revenge. The Formor killed by Marcone in “Even Hand” was his brother. He has brought a bomb with him, a massive seashell, the size of a small coffee table. He mentions that it is big enough to take out a significant portion of Chicago with a nerve agent, hundreds of thousands, maybe a few million dead. He mentions how the one he made for the Redcourt killed dozens of Wardens and thousands of civilians in the Congo, this is obviously the attack made possible by Peabody in Deadbeat that killed most of the Wardens, showing the Formor were working with the Redcourt way back then.


One of the Servitors says that “The Empress” won’t be happy. This would seem to be reference to the Titan we see in Peace Talks. It seems she wants the Peace Deal with the Swartelves, that this is her plan, and this guy is using his own game to get revenge on Marcone who is present, and he doesn’t care about the collateral damage.


This points to a feud with Marcone, but also a lack of unity in the Formor. It is said they are the remnants of several defeated groups, this shows that they almost seem more like a Feudal society, and while they have a head, and a given goal, it seems they each play their own games as well.


Molly and Andy ambush them, a fight happens, Molly disarms the bomb, Thomas helps kick the shit out of some Servitors.


It winds up with the Svartelves capturing the Formor sorcerer. Them pledging a debt to Molly which ends up with her having their respect and the apartment. It turns out Thomas was captured, but his debt to get out was agreeing to fuck a bunch of them which he was happy to do. This also sets up the president of him shagging the Svartelves that we see in Peace Talks.


Lea tells Molly at the end that Harry is alive and that the Formor were traitors and that they can’t be allowed to divide and conquer us.


We only get a little of them in Skin Games. Anna Valmont the thief Nic hires to break into the Vault has stolen a file from the Formor for him (Not knowing it was for him), she mentions the Formor have been buying info from everyone for awhile now, buying all sorts of info and throwing around massive amounts of money. She also said they had been after her for days once she took this folder.


Then we get the fight with the Gorilla/octopus hybrid. Another biological weapon the Formor have made. Tough and smart, we don’t know if this also has a human base to it, but I think it might, the low level talent Formor have been taken either get spliced into monsters or are being used for something else, maybe a summoning? Maybe they were used as a sacrifice to free the Titan?


We also see two Servitors use high powered machine guns on Harry, showing a range of weapons.


That is the last we see of them until Peace Talks where we get King Cob who shows up under the chain of the Titan. Throws the head of the Fae King at Mab. He has the same look of the other high level Formor sorcerers but even bigger, implying stronger.


They also show up and kill all Marcones people before throwing a weregild at him, an obvious mirror and revenge to his killing of another Formor in “Even Hand”.



So that’s the Formor.

Biological engineers.

Kidnappers

High level sorcerers, especially water/entropy magic.

Uses human muscle and weapons where needed.

Obviously been around for a long time and been doing stuff, but just not hugely visible.

 

Awesome, save for one thing: It's "Fomor". Just one 'r'.

 

Ha I think I say Formor in my head as they were Formerly in power.

 

The Fomor are the Fomorians, a race that inhabited Ireland before the arrival of the Tuatha which resulted in them being driven into the sea.

Something to think about is that the Tuatha are the Faerie folk which are all wrapped up into the Side in Dresden. The whole thing with Dresden being WK at the minute seems to me like the setup for Dresden and the Sidhe getting rid of the Fomor again, an arc that would mirror the Red Court and lead us nicely into the BAT.