The Six-Eyed Doe (often referred to as the locus) is the last living locus and remaining source of druidic magic, stuck in the Bottle of Manifold Space and tended to by the last druid, Oorang Solace. The Six-Eyed Doe's power is constrained within the bottle, and for a long time it's been Juniper's objective to free it from its prison so more druids can be inducted.
“Sometimes it seems better to just say, ‘it’s magic, I don’t have to explain shit’.”
Loyalty Increased: Six-Eyed Doe lvl 10!
Appearance[]
As its name implies, the Six-Eyed Doe has six eyes, and looks like a doe. Beyond that, it's six feet tall at the shoulder, with pale brown, nearly white skin.[1]
Personality[]
The Six-Eyed Doe cannot speak, but it can understand.[2] It's not emotionless and expresses itself the way an animal would, crying and braying in response to sad events, or bleating in response to normal conversation. It has a strong attachment to Solace, its druid.[3] The locus seems to appreciate and encourage people's sense of wonder for nature and the world, as well as people losing themselves in the moment.[4][5]
Biography[]
Juniper first met the Six-Eyed Doe after Solace introduced it to him inside the Bottle of Manifold Space.Mairzy Doats and Dozy Doats
Notes[]
- Alexander Wales posted a mockup of the Six-Eyed Doe's appearance in his Discord server, along with a mockup of its skull.
References
- ↑ When I turned around, I saw a doe, six feet tall at the shoulder, with skin so pale brown that it was nearly white, and six eyes that were all staring right at me.
—Worth the Candle Chapter 44: "Mairzy Doats and Dozy Doats" - ↑ “Alright,” I said. “First things first, can I call you a she, rather than it? Everyone just calls you ‘the locus’, or talks around it, but I think it helps me, mentally, to compare you to a living thing rather than an inanimate object. Maybe that’s me placing a bit too much faith in Sapir-Whorf.” I’d already been making an effort on that front, but I had forgotten to ask the locus’ opinion on the matter.
The doe bent its head once.
“Second question,” I said. “Do you want me to explain references that I assume you won’t get? I don’t even know if you speak Anglish, or you’re just reading intent, or maybe feeling my aura or something, but --”
The doe shook its head once.
“Okay,” I said. “No explanations. I guess I’ll just talk then, because I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do.”
—Worth the Candle Chapter 139: "Piece of Mind" - ↑ Fenn stepped forward, with a bottle in her hand. Solace’s lily-white soul was moving within it. “There’s a bit of bad news,” said Fenn. “Solace --”
The locus turned its head toward the sky and began to yell, a weird, braying sound that set my teeth on edge. This continued for some time, until Amaryllis moved forward and wrapped the locus in a hug, her head resting against the doe’s breast. When the Six-Eyed Doe lowered its head, there were tears coming from each of its six eyes, with absurdly large drops as though surface tension had gone out of control, each tear the size of my fist.
—Worth the Candle Chapter 78: "The Sacrifice" - ↑ I tried to shut off my brain. I didn’t want to be thinking. Worldbuilding has always been my go-to for that, before Arthur had died, but after, there were too many reminders of him in everything I thought of, and the results were always twisted and cruel. Videogames had been a standby, but those weren’t really an option on Aerb. Everything else had been tainted with the memory of Arthur; he was the one that I talked with most about books and movies.
I managed it, somewhat, but as soon as I was in the moment, I was thrown right back out of it again.
Loyalty Increased: Six-Eyed Doe lvl 7!
That one I was a little less comfortable with. I probably should have turned as much of the HUD and notifications off as I could, if I was going to be with the locus. The thought that the locus enjoyed me losing myself in the moment as an escape from something approaching depression was … well, unsettling.
—Worth the Candle Chapter 117: "Beast of Burden" - ↑ “It really is beautiful in here,” I said. “This landscape, confined within a mile-tall glass bottle, is everything that I could want in a place.” I glanced over at the doe, wondering if that was insensitive. “There used to be a thing called a demiplane. If I had to guess why they were excluded, I would say that someone found a way to proliferate them too much, or nest them, and if you could stick everyone into custom demiplanes, you have to imagine that everyone in the world would do it, which would change the nature of everything. But demiplanes were always my favorite. They were cozy little places. This bottle is probably from or inspired by my microworlds campaign. I loved the microworlds, the tightly packed, highly detailed places where you would know everyone and see everything. I know it’s not what you want to hear, I know you want to be big and sprawling, but these contained worlds, with everything organic but all still in its place, they hew close to my ideal.”
Loyalty Increased: Six-Eyed Doe lvl 8!
I had just been rambling, not really thinking about what I was saying, and the message took me by surprise.
“Um,” I said. “I just got a loyalty message, which typically seems to mean that something has changed in how you view me, or something like that, but I have no idea what I just said that would have resonated with you. Surely I’ve called this place beautiful before? Or, was it that I expressed my own form of beauty?”
—Worth the Candle Chapter 139: "Piece of Mind"