~Half-baked idea time~
I've been turning over various ideas as to exactly where the Others abilities originated. The storm/illness was apart of it, but I'm imagining it's only one piece of the puzzle. I had a vague idea a few years ago when I first came up with this plot, but I have no clue what that idea was now.
Recently though, I've been toying with the idea of re-purposing/revamping an old deity that was apart of an even older scrapped project of mine, but could have some potential for being involved with this plot. Considering he was an ancient deity of impurity, corruption, death, and time - I figured it was possible to involve him somehow. In regards to the past, he was known for getting involved with and spoiling prophecies that inconvenienced him, or simply ruining them out of spite of someone else who would potentially benefit from them. In the case of this RP, I'm thinking he might have involved himself either with a prophecy centuries ago and somehow the repercussions are only just now coming out, or he's currently in the process of disrupting a prophecy that will soon be coming into play.
In all honesty, this information won't really effect anyone for a very, very long time. But it's possible that if I go this route, I might have said deity living under the guise of being an 'Other' and involving himself periodically in various affairs for the simple pleasure of pot-stirring amid whatever else it is he's doing.
It's also possible I'll completely ditch this idea and crank out a new one, but I was curious as to other possible turns the exact origins of the abilities might have stemmed from. At the very least I'm imagining magic or some kind of divine intervention though. I'm definitely open to ideas though - because this is slowly driving me crazy to think about :)