Death (mythology)

Duroc
Main aliases:	Death Hunger
Appearance:	Dead Man Walking

For the Eternal known as Death, see Death. For other uses see Death (disambiguation).

Duroc, more commonly known as Death, was a mysterious being and a figure in legends. It was present to Suzie Costello and Owen Harper in the afterlife, and was believed to be a personification of death. Owen stated that its name means "hunger".

Biography

According to Suzie Costello, when one died and entered the afterlife, Duroc would stalk them in the darkness. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie)

Duroc was both worshipped and feared by Weevils. Once in 1479, it manifested itself in Cardiff after a girl named Faith was brought back to life with the resurrection gauntlet. Duroc killed twelve people, but Faith managed to stop it before it could collect a thirteenth victim, which would have enabled it to enter the universe completely.

During this time, contemporary chroniclers also recorded the presence of Weevils, which seemed to have inspired imagery of the Grim Reaper.

Duroc possesses Owen.

In the early 21st century, when Owen Harper was resurrected with the same gauntlet, Duroc used him as a gateway into the universe, and possessed him repeatedly. While doing so, it repeated "I shall walk the earth and my hunger will know no bounds" in a strange language.

Eventually, the energy from Duroc that was keeping Owen animate fully transformed Owen's cell structure; allowing Duroc to cross through into the universe. After manifesting in the universe through Owen, Duroc had the physical form of a human skeleton shrouded in grey vapour. It travelled to St Helen's Hospital and began killing and collecting the souls of the staff and patients that Torchwood failed to evacuate from the hospital in time.

Duroc claimed twelve of the thirteen souls it needed to fully enter the universe, but before it could claim a thirteenth victim, Owen used faith to literally fight off Duroc and dissipate its energy; sending it back to the darkness. (TV: Dead Man Walking)

See also

• Death
• The Fendahl

Notes

• Thirteen, which is the number of souls Duroc needs to collect after entering the physical dimension in order to enter it permanently, is considered the unlucky number.
• It is unknown whether, when Duroc enters the physical universe, it can use the souls of anyone who dies to add to the thirteen souls it needs to permanently manifest, or if these souls need to be collected from those Duroc personally kills. However, as Duroc apparently only collected twelve souls when it entered the universe through Owen, even though it was in the universe for approximately an hour or less, the latter is most likely; unless in the Doctor Who universe death rates were extremely low at the time when Duroc entered the physical universe.