The name "Rose Farrar" has been attributed to a creature which impersonated a disappeared eight years old girl of the same name, after she had vanished mysteriously in the vicinity of Angel Down, Sussex in 1872.
The creature was found by a farmer and a priest in 1925, and looked exactly like the real Rose did when she disappeared, even though more than fifty years had passed since then. As revealed later on, she doesn't have any appearance or features of her own; instead she assumes the form and behavior of whatever is feared, hoped or expected of her from those around her.
Although her origins are not known, it has been stated that the Earth isn't her world, which might mean that she came from outer space, although it's more strongly implied that her origins are extradimensional rather than extraterrestrial.
History[]
"Rose" shapeshifting into a reptilian beast.
The "Rose" creature was found by Reverend Bartholomew Haskins and Sam Farrar, the latter being the nephew of the disappeared girl. She first assumed the appearance of Rose Farrar because her discoverers knew about the case and believed the girl had been taken by angels. The Reverend, who suffered a severe phobia of wasps, was left alone with "Rose" and watched horrified as she assumed the appearance of a gigantic wasp-like creature and stung him, killing him immediately before reverting to Rose's form and behavior. Similarly, she would later develop fangs and reptilian features in response to Catriona Kaye's fear of snakes, and also attacked Catriona, although in her case not lethally.
When interrogated about what had happened to her following her disappearance, "Rose" gave the answers that were subconsciously expected by each interrogator. To Edwin Winthrop, who believed she was just an ordinary girl convinced to take part in some hoax, she gave contradictory evidences, mentioning a telephone when telephones hadn't been invented yet at the time of her disappearance. To Arthur Conan Doyle, who believed her to have been in contact with angelic beings, she described the angels' world in vivid detail. To Aleister Crowley, who believed her to be some feminine antichrist (which he jokingly dubbed "Anti-Christine"), she assumed a demonic form and came close to truly creating the apocalypse he expected. This was prevented by Kaye, who helped direct Conan Doyle's faith in her goodness to actually bring "Rose" back to a more innocent and benevolent form.
At the end, she was taken away by the secret society of the Undertakers. As she bid farewell to Winthrop, Kaye and Doyle, she told them not to worry because she would be alright. Winthrop later mused that she probably said that as a defense mechanism, reasoning that, if they believed her to be safe, she could never be in danger. It was later revealed that she spent the next fifty years or so in the Undertaker's Mausoleum; a so-called collection of oddities which is actually a prison. It is also implied that the only thing which prevented her from escaping was the widespread belief (expressed by the other prisoners and wardens) that the place was inescapable.
At some point in the 1970s, "Rose" was one of the many extraordinary individuals and beings who helped the Diogenes Club in the war against the Cold. She still looked exactly as the eight years old girl which was her first known form, but briefly turned herself into a huge fire elemental as part of the plan to defeat the Cold. This transformation was immediately reversed by Ariadne, supreme Elder of the Kind, who spoke against directly attacking the Cold since that was Derek Leech's plan and he'd never been trustable. Instead, the Cold was persuaded to spare humanity thanks to a telepathic connection established by Richard Jeperson. After the crisis had passed, "Rose" was taken away from the Undertakers - a decadent and mostly dissolved organization by that point - and held in custody by Ariadne. Kaye wondered whether the Elder intended to return "Rose" to the world she came from or raise her as one of her own, but concluded that she would be in safe hands either way.
Appearances[]
- Angel Down, Sussex, by Kim Newman
- Cold Snap, by Kim Newman