THE
WATCHER
PHANTASM |
"Watchers"
are phantasms, which are said to be encountered at eerie nightly locations like
moors, swamps,
deep ancient forests and cemeteries. They appear in the form of roughly
humanoid, grey-cloaked shapes, who are only
visible from afar, and will not move at all when encountered. They are supposed
to be neutral, standing between evil haunts and good spirits; they may represent apparitions of dead people, whose presence is meant
either as a message of
some sorts to those they left behind or as a warning to those, who try to enter
perilous territory.
Appearance.
Watchers, like many
other apparitions which can be categorized as phantasms, are difficult to
describe, as their existence is not entirely verified. Actually, it could just
as well be that Watchers represent only a mirage the mind itself creates for
some reason, due to weariness, fear, out of solitude for example or simply
because certain travellers have a baseless conviction that they are being persecuted.
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Picture description. An artist's interpretation of a watcher in the ruins of ancient Tak'dinal Image drawn by Seeker. |
Anyway, people who claim to have had Watcher experiences tell us that they look
like dark or grey-cloaked, unmoving figures, recognizable only in the
far-away distance, at times half-transparent, at times solid as stone. These grey
or dark cowls appear only at night, preferably at eerie
places like moors, cemeteries, or isles in foggy seas. They are said to often
fool viewer's eyes by blending with the darkness, making them very difficult to spot.
But just when a nightly rain-drenched wanderer already comes to the conclusion that
he must have been hallucinating because of the bad weather, lightning
might strike the earth - and all of a
sudden a whole army of Watchers comes into view, terrifying him to death before
they fade again back into nothingness as if they never existed.
Watchers have no
features whatsoever. Nobody ever reported a Watcher with distinctive eyes, and
even the head part is often mentioned as "being just an indication", nothing
more. What you can read in Master
Tribell's "Miraculous Narrations" on the Watchers is indeed purest fantasy
and fiction and shouldn't be confused with better-documented encounters; but "confirmed"
sightings (by different people at the same time) only speak of barely visible
featureless humanoid shapes wearing grey
cowls. Many doubters say that Watchers must therefore simply be a certain kind
of tree or rock formation people fail to recognize in the darkness of the night, but those who
have seen these apparitions strongly deny that simplification. As a matter of
fact people also spot Watchers when traveling in parties, so it seems they
cannot be taken for the product of a single confused mind. On the other hand,
what is very interesting to observe though is that Watchers seem to never appear
alone, but that there are always many of them, even whole masses lining up on
the other side of a moor... Obviously with only one single purpose: to be
there... silently... unmoving... watching.
Special Abilities.
To suddenly appear and disappear seems to be the only special ability Watchers
are capable of, which isn't actually much for an apparition. Nevertheless this
seems to suffice to make them a legendary threat.
Territory.
Watchers are sighted only during nightly hours and often also under rainy and/or
foggy weather conditions. Furthermore they seem to be completely bound to their
location. Preferred places for their unexpected appearances are, as noted above, moors, swamps,
deep ancient forests, cemeteries and spooky locations in general. Sightings
of Watchers near former battlefields are also quite common, a fact which
supports the supposition that Watchers might be ghosts of dead people, who
return to the world of the living again for a certain reason.
Watchers also don't seem to be solely a southern
Sarvonian phenomenon - there are also
similar accounts of such presences especially in
Northern Sarvonia and occasionally
even from the continent of Nybelmar. In
Santharia most tales about the Watchers
are recounted referring to the notorious Despondmire, a dreaded part of the
Silvershire, but also within the Seanian Swamp, and the
Paelelon Forest, home to the
Eophyrhim dark elves. We also know
of confirmed sightings from various independent sources at the eastern part of
the Heath of Jernais where the bloody
Battle of Four Swords once took
place, and at the Maehetilon Woods, where
Diraton of Caelum led a dark elven army to their deaths into the Anaios Gap.
Habitat/Behaviour.
As already stated before, Watchers cannot be said to interact much with people
they encounter. They appear and disappear, and even if and what they actually
watch - as their name suggests - is unsure. Even whether they show up at their own
will or purely at random cannot be known. About their existence and meaning one
can thus only speculate, and indeed there exist many wild
speculations on this subject.
Some say that these beings are most likely only a fantasy or hallucination of
nightly travellers, arising from the sight of an motionless
swamp stalker which are also often mistaken for a distorted tree. Or people might see
strange rock formations, which appear to be
humanoid. Even the fact that several people see the Watchers at the same
time and they tend to appear in masses, doesn't seem to be reason enough for
many scholars to accept their existence. They argue: If travellers expect to see a
familiar shape in something in front of them and believe in it, one might see
even more familiar shapes close by if one is aware of Watchers stories - the
rest is
contributed by some extra imagination. If you're convincing and tell a
companion what you see, others might believe they see the Watchers as well.
"Quite
interestingly people who have never heard of Watchers also don't encounter them"
- at least this is the dubious theory of the scholar Waudrin Ghortz, a self-declared
specialist in demonology and phantasms, who'd like to see himself awarded with
the title "myth-abolisher" for his unimaginative view on things. There are
exceptions to Ghortz's statement, though - but exceptions only confirm the rule,
don't they?
Rumour also has it, by the way, that one shouldn't try to move
closer to a Watcher, as unspeakable things might happen if one does... Maybe it
is this rumour that prevents adventurers from investigating whether they only
saw a tree in the far distance or a being. It seems people are usually too
terrified anyway to try to find out. It's a pity though that "Phantasmologist"
Ghortz doesn't venture out into the
Silvermarshes
himself to investigate in an apparition - even with the useful justification that he wouldn't be able to see them
anyway due to his conviction.
Others of course - and this includes also a handful of respected scholars - see the Watchers
as an undeniable reality, and focus on interpreting them. Scholars have
discovered
that this phenomenon was also already known thousands of years ago in the
Eyelian culture, where spirits
played a key role. The ancient Eyelians
saw the appearances of Watchers as a sign from the spirit world to remember the
dead and continue tradition. As such these "ghosts" neither were a positive or
negative omen, but were seen as part of everyday life.
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"Watchers clearly are no spirits, nor are they haunts", the Astran mythologist
Minch Thorenth claims. "They are neither good nor evil, but neutral entities
standing in between these extremes. So say the
Eyelians, and similar stories we've
read in elven myth. Whether they have a purpose
or not or which purpose in particular that might be, only the one who sees them
can determine and interpret for himself or herself." Thorenth continues with a
fascinating observation: "Maybe the name they have earned is a bit misleading.
Some say that Watchers are products of our own imagination. Well, if so, the name of
these 'entities' might as well point back to those who see them - as once you
see them, you are the one who watches. And as a watcher yourself you have to
determine what to make of such an apparition - is it a sign meant for you to be
seen, a bad omen, created by yourself or by another power? A pointer from the
Gods perhaps? If you look at it that way it might not be that important to know
whether Watchers truly exist - or not. Maybe they just have their place
between reality and a person's mind. And you, being the Watcher, have to decide
where their reality lies."
Some legends suggest a similar conclusion to Thorenth's, saying that Watchers can only be seen by those who have committed horrible
crimes and are confronted through the Watchers with their undeeds, though
without judging themselves. Through the silent Watchers, only the apprehension of
judgment and justice is incited in the foul hearts. Well, this is only one of
many, many legends of course, which might contradict others - but like many
Watchers stories it helps to inspires new thoughts on the matter.
Diet.
Watchers don't eat, definitely not in the common sense. Rumours that they do are
strongly exaggerated, to say the least, and attest to the vivid imagination of a
storyteller. Watchers observe passers-by, but they don't devour them, because
all they do is "be present". They also don't seem to feast on fear as other
beings of the shadows are said to do; they merely remain on their spot, silent, not communicating,
as if trying to understand - or as if looking at another reality from a realm we
cannot reach ourselves.
Mating.
Nobody knows precisely what Watchers are and how they possibly exist aside from
their brief encounters with travelers. Therefore we also don't know how they
come to life or perish (if at all), yes, we can't even say if such apparitions
can be categorized as life forms. Suffice to say: We just don't know - probably
because we actually cannot know.
Myth/Lore.
Many a tale exists of the phenomenon of the Watchers. Not all of them
reach the reader or listener in the same way as they were initially related to
an audience. A reason for this might be that Watchers - aside from their
irritating or intimidating presence - don't interact with other beings at all,
and therefore represent a challenge to any storyteller to make a good tale out
of an encounter. Coming across Watchers all alone and in the middle of the night
when crossing a moor might be a horrible experience, but when recounted at a
tavern a few extras are easily added to spice it all up. Thus, accurate reports on
Watchers are hard to find.
One of the perhaps most remarkable encounters was the tale of the heavily-wounded Kahlim Mirathar, a young
Erpheronian soldier, who fled the hopelessly-lost
Battle of Four Swords towards
Jernais with little hope to ever arrive at his desired destination. Was it luck,
divine intervention or simply the Watchers bringing him savely home?
The Rescue of Kahlim Mirathar. I had seen
them die. One after the other. All of them. A helping hand in battle - cut
off, a longtime friend - run through, a soldier - maimed, a captain -
crushed, it mattered not. They made no difference. They hit me as well. I
fended off an attacker when a brute of an orc felled me from behind. I
didn't even see it. Oh, Seyella with me!
Seyella, All-Knowing! I remember
it still so clearly, but I must have been gone for a while as I sensed the
beating of the Kiivosh's wings closing in already and was perplexed when
he didn't come to take me with him. As when I looked up I didn't see the
Blindfolded, no, only the starry night's sky, and the sound of battle in
the distance somewhere, men strewn over the sacred Jernaisan Heath, I
thought, like garbage tossed out into the streets of a dark
Voldarian
alley. - I was alive, but the battle was lost. |
Information provided by
Artimidor Federkiel
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