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I don’t really know much about doom omens beyond what they are. These are warnings about disaster approaching. Sometimes they’re specific, but they tend to be vague and riddle-like. I keep thinking of Casandra from Greek mythology too where she has visions, but nobody believes her. That seems to be fairly common too. So, what exactly are the point of fictional doom omens?
I’m not really sure if I’ve ever used them in my stories. Foreshadowing is one thing, but this is a specific declaration made in the story. Maybe Gabriel telling the champions that at least one of them won’t make it to the final battle intact counts? This did make Legends of Windemere fairly interesting to me because my heroes were all continuing on with the knowledge that at least one will die. I always thought of this as twisting the prophecy/chosen one angle in a way that the audience starts to look for clues about who won’t make it. This does sound like a doom omen too, so I guess I’ve done it once without noticing it.
The reason I’m not sure is because I’ve noticed that authors tend to create doom omens that are incredibly vague. Gabriel was fairly direct. Still, I think this may have created similar reactions. The characters are made aware of a looming situation, which gives them a chance to prevent it from happening. Doesn’t really help when it’s vague, but at least they’re on alert and not blindly walking into danger. That is if they believe the omen, which doesn’t happen all the time.
Authors may use doom omens for the audience’s sake too. Even if the characters are ignoring the danger, the readers are now aware that doom is coming. It’s kind of like having eerie music in a horror movie, which plays in a way that you just know a jump scare is coming. Of course, the difference is that you never know how many pages you have to go before the doom happens. A reader can become tense at every encounter by thinking ‘this is when things go wrong’. You run the risk of wearing a person down and they no longer care, but you can also make them think you’re bluffing. Then, the doom happens and it has a stronger impact. Honestly, it’s a lot of juggling and emotional back-and-forth, which can be really tough on the author.
Aside from verbal prophecies like the ‘Ides of March’, you have events that count as vague doom omens. A common usage of this is one appearing when a character destined to cause trouble is born. Eclipses, comets, mysterious fogs, and a bunch of other celestial and weather events are popular. Sometimes an author may go further with another character dying right away in a gruesome manner. Many times its the one wanting to warn everyone about the danger. So, their death turns into the new doom omen, but only the audience realizes what is going on. I do enjoy these types of warning because they are so unclear that you can’t have the characters know exactly what is going on. They just go ‘well, that’s weird and might mean something, but damned if I know’. It feels realistic because we’d all do the same thing. How many eclipses have we seen and we don’t think a child is being born at that moment who will destroy the world? Although, now I’m starting to wonder about that scenario.
Anybody know more about doom omens? Again, I’m just flying by the seat of my pants on this one, so an expert would be appreciated.
