Brown Note: Difference between revisions

* The [[Chuck Palahniuk]] novel ''[[Lullaby]]'' is about a poem which kills anyone to whom it is recited. Or even those toward whom it is '''[[Paranoia Fuel|thought.]]'''

* Palahniuk also included a box in ''[[Haunted 2005]]'' with an eyepiece. Looking inside had some horrible effects such as madness and consequent suicide.

** Passing references to books that burn out the reader's eyeballs. And also books that can't physically be put down -- readers are cursed to go around reading those books for the rest of their lives.

** A more harmless example is the occasionally-mentioned ''Sonnets of a Sorcerer'', which makes you speak in limericks for the rest of your life.

* In ''[[Doctor Who]],'' the Master was forced to stare into the time vortex as a child and was driven mad by the sound of drums calling him to war. This sound has been running through his head without a break for close to a millennium now. It preys on him so much that {{spoiler|the last time he died, his last words were "Will it stop, Doctor? The drumming, will it stop?"}}

** We find out in ''The End of Time'' that {{spoiler|the sound is actually a signal sent back from the Time War by the future Time Lords. That's right, the ''Time Lords'' did this to him. The Master is ''not'' happy.}}

** In "The Time of Angels" we learn that any image or recording of an weeping angel can become an angel. {{spoiler|This goes double if you look an Angel in the eyes...}}

* [[Blipvert|Blipverts]] in ''[[Max Headroom]]'', supercompressed TV commercials that occasionally make [[Your Head Asplode]].

**** Tenebrous's/Orcus's last word was so powerful that the utterance could instantly slay even deities. In fact, it was so powerful that unless you were a true god, usage of this word would eventually burn you out. After Tenebrous's shenanigans, a cabal of greater deities greatly lessened the power of the word.

** Cyric of the [[Forgotten Realms]] created a tome called the Cyrinishad that would brainwash anyone who read it into being a devoted worshipper of Cyric. Things got bad when he accidentally read it himself. As a result he became even ''crazier'' and came to believe his own hype. He eventually got better, but this misadventure did cost him a lot of power.

** This a rather favorite tactic of Chaos. There was an old story about the forces of Chaos capturing a Janitor or somesuch, and then returning him back home... after telling him a word. Cue the inquisition purging the planet continuously for ''a thousand years,'' before finally resorting to Exterminatus.

*** In addition the Imperium have their own Brown Note in the form of the Culexus Assassin. These rare mutants are like psychic black holes, whose bizarre ''non''-presence seriously puts the wind up anyone (including their own allies) within a few feet.

** There's a good example of this in the [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel Traitor's Hand, in which Cain witnesses an Imperial Guard trooper bleed from the eyes after staring at the symbols on the walls of a shrine to Slaanesh.

** Speaking of Slaanesh, any mortal who looks directly at his true form will ''instantly lose their soul'' and [[More Than Mind Control|willingly become his slave for all eternity]].

** Basically anything involving Slaanesh would result in this. His champion, Lucius, has a set of armor that [[Involuntary Transformation|turns you]] [[Body Snatcher|INTO him]] if you kill him and feel even the slightest sense of accomplishment. Then there's also the ability to [[Glamour|make yourself so irresistable]] that the enemy will lose the will to shoot at you.