The Loom of Fate was a magical device used by the Fates to weave the fate of mortals.
It needs a minimum of three immortals to weave with it. It is implied that the more immortals that work with the Loom, the easier it is to use it.
History[]
Theft[]
The Loom was used by the Fates to dictate the destinies of mortals for eons before one of their number, Clotho, defected and took it with her. Finding the power the Loom granted too great to be possessed, and wishing for mortals to determine their own destiny, she broke it into three[1] pieces and scattered them across the multiverse, disguising them as rings.[2] They remained scattered until the rebirth of the universe after the Crisis inadvertently coalesced all the pieces onto one Earth, drawing the attention of the other two Fates to retrieve their power.[3]
Quest for the rings[]
Clotho left one of the pieces in 1594 with William Shakespeare, who ultimately gave it to Philip Henslowe to give him more time to write his play Romeo and Juliet. They eventually took it back to the Waverider, planning to use it to find the other two pieces. During a mission to rectify an anachronism with William Shakespeare, caused by John Constantine and some of the Legends, Sara and the girls found the first piece of Loom of Fate, disguised as a ring.[2]
Later, Sara, Charlie and Constantine sought the second piece of the Loom of Fate. But Atropos arrived, destroying the jumpship, berating her sister for her betrayal, and seemingly killing Constantine. Charlie and Sara found the second piece. But Atropos, disguised as Constantine, intervened, seemingly killing Sara and taking the piece. She proceeded to go to the Waverider and took the second piece. Behrad tried to stop her, but Atropos killed him by cutting the thread of his life, sensing that he was dead in the original timeline. She was about to leave but got intercepted by Sara, while the Waverider took off and returned to the temporal zone. Atropos was shocked that she survived their last encounter and they fought. Sara discovered Atropos was unaffected by the Hellfire sword due to her nature as a God. Atropos was about to finish Sara when she ordered Gideon to open the cargo doors, but Atropos caught Sara's leg. Charlie arrived, cut Atropos's hand with the pieces of the Loom of Fate, and sent her into the temporal zone, saving Sara. The Legends retrieve the pieces of the Loom, but are saddened by Behrad's death.
Soon after, Lachesis found the third and last piece of the Loom in 1918, where it was hidden by the Enchantress, and sends six Encores: Henry VIII, Brutus, Black Caesar, Jack the Ripper, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie to retrieve it, in exchange for their freedom. Zari and John Constantine were sent back in time to retrieve it too. They pretended to be Encores, John as Jack the Ripper after knocking out the real and Zari as Cleopatra, and begin to seek the ring. Henry VIII got killed by Clyde before the search begins, and Brutus was killed by Bonnie and Black Caesar by Clyde; the lovers did not like the rivals. However, they teamed up with Jack after discovering him. They captured John, but Zari arrived to save him. She used her powers to push Clyde on Jack's scalpel which accidentally killed him. John killed Jack with Black Caesar's Hellfire gun and Bonnie got killed by Zari when she sent back her bullet with her powers. Soon after, John found the last piece of the Loom and they returned to the Waverider.
Assembling and using the Loom[]
Gary with the Loom rings.
Charlie tried to use the Loom to bring back Behrad Tarazi, but she was unable to without her sisters. The dog that Gary brings back from Hell then mind-controls Charlie into dumping the rings into the ship's garbage disposal. Later, the Loom is retrieved by Gary and handed to Ava.[4] After doing research, the Legends decided that they must be immortal, at least temporarily, in order to use the Loom; to that end, they obtain the Chalice of Dionysus and drink its potion, making their bodies for one day strong enough to handle manipulating the Loom.[5]
Reality changer[]
Atropos uses her Loom ring to create a zombie apocalypse in England.
Using one of the rings and looking on a globe at the island of Great Britain, Atropos cast a spell and her hand turned skeletal; she started the England Zombie Apocalypse.[6]
Shortly afterwards, the Fates used the Loom to change all of reality to create Loomworld, to suppress free will, and to have history rewritten. Clotho however struck a deal with her sisters so that Behrad Tarazi and the other Legends were alive, but as fictional characters in various television shows produced by Clotho Productions and aired on Fate+. When the Legends rebelled, Clotho took a portion of the thread of Zari Tarazi and split it; this gave Zari Tomaz a physical body of her own.[7]
Destruction[]
In "Loomworld", the Loom was kept in a room at a museum. John Constantine and Astra Logue attempted to use and focus Astra's magic to destroy it, but she became too distracted with memories of Lachesis. Atropos knew that the Legends were attempting to destroy the Loom and began a fight with Sara Lance. During the fight, Atropos was pushed into the Loom by Behrad and Zari Tarazi, using the Air Totem in tandem. Sara then pulled Atropos' life thread and entangled it with the other threads that the Loom was manipulating. The mixture caused the Loom to explode. Without the Loom, Lachesis and Clotho became mortals.[8]
Functions[]
- Reality warping: The Loom's primary function is to rewrite/warp reality (it is unknown if this is only Earth-1/Prime or the entire/original multiverse,) or sections of reality, such as specific individuals or an area like London.
- Resurrection: The Loom can bring back the dead, as Charlie used it to resurrect Sara Lance, Behrad Tarazi, Gary Green and Astra Logue respectively. It was also indirectly used by Atropos to cause all of London to fall under a spell which caused its dead to resurrect as zombies.
- Time manipulation: The Loom can be used to manipulate timelines, even ones that have been erased, as Charlie used it to restore Zari Tomaz alongside her counterpart from the new timeline.
- Immortality: The Loom is what granted the Fates their immortality. Thus, once it was destroyed, the surviving Fates were rendered mortal (albeit they are still deities) and lost all the additional powers they were granted by the Loom (in Lachesis' case, those seem to be all of her powers, but in Clotho's case, those are only some of them).
Appearances[]
DC's Legends of Tomorrow[]
Season 5
Season 6
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Supergirl[]
Season 6[]
- "The Last Gauntlet" (indirectly mentioned)
Trivia[]
- As Earths 1, 38 and TUD5 were combined into Earth-Prime, it's possible Clotho and Enchantress sent the pieces of the Loom to the former three worlds, or that the pieces had coincidentally been on Earths 1, 38 and TUD5.
- It works similar to the Oculus, but different in its own right. The Loom cannot truly control choice for mortals. The Fates only created the illusion of no free will in Loomworld by banning good food and enjoyable recreational activities.
- It would seem other deities are not immune to the Loom, given none of them retaliated against the creation of Loomworld; since the Fates were stealing away all their worshippers. Or the Loom is too powerful for them to counteract.