The Lost Ones are a class of beings that exist between life and death, outside the material plane. They do not eat, drink or sleep, and when killed they dissolve into dust and re-form at a cost in hope.
| Type | Concept (class of beings) |
| Location | Ante-Inferno (threshold); circles of the Pit, past the Acheron |
| Subtypes | Illuminatus |
| Spanish entry | Lost Ones — los que perdieron la esperanza |
Nature
“A Lost One does not exist on a material plane.” Three marks define them: they need no food, drink or sleep; they do not inhabit the material plane; and they return after death. They are a people with internal lineages rather than a single creature: the Illuminatus are “a type of Lost One”, and “the Lost One is not the only thing that exists”. In the gestas of Vala, a companion can be a Lost One, as others are elves.
No description of a living Lost One exists. They are distinguished only by contrast with the Old Ones: “you see him and he has wings. He is an Old One… but he is not a Lost One.”
Death and re-formation
A fallen Lost One leaves no corpse: it becomes “a strange dust” that “starts to go toward the lamp”, then comes back. Re-forming costs Hope (the amount is not fixed) and takes four combat rounds; earlier accounts ranged from two to four. The dust’s pull ties the whole class to the Lantern of Revelation: “the one of the Lost Ones” is the Lantern’s. Whether the lamp returns them, gathers them or only receives them is disputed.
Appearances
- In hell: a freed Lost Soul said “I was sinning in hell” and confessed before Villegas to having killed someone’s father; such souls can be freed by others.
- In the ordinary world: one “fought against the pitofienses” and traveled with an elf.
Open questions
- What a Lost One looks like.
- Whether re-formation is unlimited, and what happens when hope runs out.
- Whether “Lost Soul” and “Lost One” are the same thing, a state of the damned, or separate entities.
- Whether one is born a Lost One or becomes one, and how.
- What the Illuminatus are beyond a type of Lost One; the explanation breaks off mid-sentence.
- What the pitofienses are, and why one Lost One fought them.