Odds-Takers

Overview

The Odds-Takers are the natives of the Probability Fog, the mist where luck is the only law. They have adapted to its chaos so fully that its random changes no longer touch them, while their own shapes shift with every step. They call themselves gamblers and survivors, and treat the Fog as one long game. They are not the Odds-Takers of the Veil, the Sky Isles, or the Tidal Mirror, who share the name.

Appearance

An Odds-Taker is roughly the shape of a person, and never the same shape twice. Watched for a minute, one may have a face and then none, two arms and then three, skin that runs from grey to green to the colour of the inside of a shell. Their outlines blur at the edges, like something seen through moving water. Most wear bright, mismatched scraps, chosen, they say, at random. They move with a loose, sauntering gait and sometimes arrive before they have set out. Their voices change pitch mid-word. They smell of wet wool and static, and of whatever the Fog smells of that moment.

Habitat and Range

They live in the thick of the Fog, where it is most changeable, in small shifting groups. When the ephemeral Fog lifts, they are gone with it, and no one knows where; they turn up again when another Fog rolls in.

Behaviour and Temperament

Odds-Takers are erratic, playful, and unpredictable. They value luck, adaptability, and the ability to take what comes. They think outsiders rigid and unlucky, and they like nothing better than a wager with one: a coin, a secret, a direction. What they say rarely means one thing. They are not cruel, but they find a visitor's ill luck funny, and they never warn anyone that a run of fortune in the Fog is about to turn.

Abilities

They draw sustenance from the Fog's chaotic energy, and they are immune to the random transformations that take everyone else. They seem to know where the lucky spots in the Fog lie, and to read its turns a moment before they come.

Life Cycle

Nothing about their birth or death is known. Some say Odds-Takers were visitors who lost so many wagers to the Fog that they stopped being one thing; the Changers are that, and the Odds-Takers deny it.

Uses and Dangers

Gamblers and the desperate come to the Fog chasing a lucky break, and an Odds-Taker who takes a liking to one may lead them to a lucky spot. An Odds-Taker's help is a wager too, and it can go the other way.

Lore and Belief

Moorland folk say an Odds-Taker at the crossroads at dawn will toss you for your luck, and that you should always call the edge. Gamblers keep charms said to have come from the Fog; most are ordinary coins.

Where It Appears

• The Probability Fog
• the Writers' Guide chapter The Resonant Zones