First appearance: S4E14, Vythorn’s Return Part 1 · watch it on YouTube
Fil, also called Philomena and the God of Fate, is a true existential threat. She is a true god, far more powerful than the Grandmaster, the Arbiter or anything in all of D&D lore, and she treats mortal lives as chips on a betting table. She steered the Arbiter’s lost soul back from the dead, put an apocalyptic tome in his hands and crowned him in a vision of power. Then she left smiling, with a debt still owed.
Story
Vythorn’s Return Part 1
After the Arbiter, Vythorn, died at the hands of the Shadow King, his soul clawed its way out of the Sands of Eternity. On the way out, Fil sidetracked it. She told Vythorn that he had lost his parents to his own uncontrolled chaos. It was a story that would not survive the next chapter.
Vythorn’s Return Part 2
Here Fil showed her hand. She was a chestnut-haired woman who called the silent forest her “home,” and she shaped beings out of dirt. Both Ise and Biff were shaped from the ground by her. She ran tests, and those who failed would “hang out with me for the rest of eternity,” either as dirt or in the “sleep of the ages.” She spoke of “bets going on up above” and of the “God of Fates,” plural, and of having “less to bet on.” She also kept up a correspondence with Master Skreca, writing to him and sending him gifts and visitors.
Fil had bound Ise to her as a crow “pet,” and she granted Biff eternal sleep. She has one known pet peeve: she hates the phrase “fate’s decided this.” Ise, meanwhile, showed Vythorn a different truth from the story Fil had told him: the Shadow King had killed his parents. By the end of the chapter, Fil had given Vythorn the Testaments of Morir’s Cataclysm, a tome of enormous power and destruction.
Vythorn’s Return Part 3
Vythorn woke far from his companions and no longer in the Ruins of Giant’s Breath. He lay on soft ground under a sunset, with birds, bugs and distant yelling, screaming and cheers around him, and dug his hands into the warm dirt. He had found home. Fil shook him awake: “Get up, Vythorn… Wake up.”
She explained that she and her side had “placed our bets” on him, and that bringing him home was “a gift.” When he needed a push, she froze time itself to urge him on. With the Cataclysm in hand, Vythorn destroyed the Shadow King’s body, though the King’s soul escaped. Fil wrote him a contract that made him Lord of Fate, with full command of the Void. She attached one condition:
“We will be watching… or it will all go away. Because we can do that.”
All the way through, she spoke as “we.” She never said who the others were.
The Season of Fate and Vythorn’s Return Part 4
The Season of Fate that followed, with Vythorn ruling as Lord of Fate, turned out to be a vision of what ruling could look like, and only he lived through it. At its end, he found himself back in a familiar scene: torn-up ground, angry clouds and a downpour of rain, a memory “that has not yet been completed.” Fil whispered in his ear the question she kept asking: “Who are you going to become?”
She reminded him of their deal: “The book was given. The void laid out in front of you.” Then came the warning: “We will have to come to collect.” Fil left with a Cheshire Cat smile and an echoing chuckle. As she went, the frozen rain began to fall again and the Grandmaster could move once more.
Since Then
Back in the real timeline, the Arbiter went on serving under the Grandmaster, still holding the Cataclysm. He has told her what he went through, and he has warned her about the threat Fil poses. When the Pieces of a King adventure spoke of “something big that could kill us all,” it meant Fil. The Season of Vigilance carries hints of her. In S7E10 — Thea’s Adventure, Thea revealed that as a worm she had made an offering to Fil, who gave her “control of that moment” so the Arbiter would choose her. Fil promised Thea she would one day have hands, and that she would then owe Fil a handshake. Thea’s verdict: “they’re really cool.” The Arbiter’s was “You fucking idiot! You’ve been talking to Fil!” In the same episode’s epilogue, the worms’ council opened the late Mayor Timothy’s plan to step 20: “Call Fil.” The twins of Season 4 hate the God of Fate, and Fil is the god they meant.
Personality and Abilities
Fil is playful, smug and terrifying in equal measure. She talks about souls the way a gambler talks about horses. She bristles at the idea that fate is ever simply “decided.” She appears as a woman with brown chestnut hair, and she likes to whisper to people rather than shout at them.
Her power is on a different scale from anyone else’s. She shapes living beings from dirt, freezes time, and can hand out command of the entire Void in a written contract. Her realm, like the Ruins of Giant’s Breath, lies outside all material planes, the Void included. Nobody knows whether she is one of many gods or simply fond of a royal “we.” She can wrap people in endless sleep, and those who fail her tests stay with her for the rest of eternity.
Relationships
-
The Arbiter: her chosen bet. She guided his soul, gave him the Cataclysm, made him Lord of Fate in a vision, and is owed a debt.
-
Ise: shaped from dirt by Fil and bound to her as a crow “pet.”
-
Biff: another of her dirt-born creations, granted eternal sleep.
-
Master Skreca: her correspondent, to whom she sends gifts and visitors.
-
Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer: held still in frozen time until Fil departed, and later warned about her by the Arbiter.
-
Thea: struck a handshake deal with her while Thea was still a worm, and is owed that handshake now that she has hands.
Memorable Quotes
- “Get up, Vythorn… Wake up.” (Vythorn’s Return Part 3)
- “We will be watching… or it will all go away. Because we can do that.” (Vythorn’s Return Part 3)
- “Who are you going to become?” (Vythorn’s Return Part 4)
- “The book was given. The void laid out in front of you.” (Vythorn’s Return Part 4)
- “We will have to come to collect.” (Vythorn’s Return Part 4)