The Brute



The Brute is the first portrayal of the Fear of Anger. His first appearance was in The World Through These Eyeholes, where his powers fell into the hands of Harold Ardy. The Brute apparently manipulated Ardy into trying to bring it back in the Grove of Fetters, though he was unsuccessful. While the Brute is currently still "dormant", it appears to have slightly awaken and can extend some form of control into the world. The blog Chain Mail showed this through a metaphorical "chain" that turned whoever heard or read it into mindless berserkers. The Brute has since manifested as a wild, savage animal made up of thick, black smoke and stitched leather with horns attached seemingly at random. It can also extrude an aura that causes people to become more violent and often appears in places of civil unrest and war to exacerbate tensions even further.

It was suggested in Cresting the Wave that the Brute was not always an uncontrollable, mindless monster. It started off as a weapon used by the Fears to eliminate their enemies until it went into dormancy due to a lack of conflict. As time went by the Fears eventually forgot about the Brute and the method they utilized to command it, leaving it without a master. When it finally resurfaced, the Fears concluded that the Brute had to be destroyed, with each attempt only helping it become stronger.

The Brute's servants are The Crimson Knights.

Connection to The Burning Bride
The Brute is often written with some sort of connection to The Burning Bride. In some stories, they are the same Fear split into two separate bodies or two entities that are simply interconnected. The Burning Bride appears to represent fire, while the Brute always seems to be connected to smoke.