| Watchers | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Type |
Immortal |
|
Alignment |
Lawful |
|
Homeworld |
Rya |
The Watchers are the leaders of the SENTINEL Order and the true masters of the All Union. Originally created from a now extinct species known as the Drow by the Gods themselves, the beings who would become the Marshals were originally known as Gnomes. Bred for amplification of their intelligence and psychic abilities at the cost of physical power, the Gnomes were given the title of Watchers and made the leaders of the Holy Order, the cult by which the Gods controlled their intergalactic empire.
As the Cataclysm fell, their ingrained loyalty to the Gods was removed from them by the nigh omnipotent Shine, who wanted them to flee so that they could survive. Instead, they decided to aid him anyway in the battle against Shiva, during which many of them were killed. After Shine succeeded in sealing his mother within the Bloodstone, he tasked the Watchers with guiding the coming Age of Mortals and not letting the galaxy sink into chaos.
To accomplish this they sealed Shine's body into a power core and connected themselves to it, granting them access to all the power and knowledge he had at the time of his death. Recognizing that they lacked the martial spirit to do the dirty work of holding the crumbling empire together, they recruited the greatest warriors they could find, charging them with Shine's power and banding them together into the Order that would become SENTINEL. Through tactful political manipulation and heavy handed force, the Watchers managed to unify the greater powers in the West Kingdom into a federation called the All Union. Over the succeeding centuries they went to war with a returned God King over the Bloodstone, later ceded the Stone to the first Saran King, and later entered into a state of Cold War with a reorganized Holy Order which was based in the East Kingdom.
Physiology
The Watchers were created by the Holy Dragons from the genetic material of a race known as the Drow, and were bred for extreme intelligence and psychic powers at the expense of their physical abilities. As such, all Watchers are halflings, standing about 4'5 ft. tall. Like their Drow forefathers and Ogre cousins, they all have green skin, pointed ears, white hair, and red eyes. However, because of their connection to the Central Core on Rya, their eyes glow blue as they are living conduits for Shine's power. Unlike the Ogres, who were bred in many different varieties in both sexes, the Watchers ended up with only 2 gene stocks, one male, one female. Therefore all the males look alike, and likewise with the females. In the Heroic Age, the Watchers were mortal. However, after connecting their bodies to the Central Core, they achieved immortality. Even if their bodies are destroyed (a considerable feat in the best of circumstances), they will re-manifest within the Central Chamber on Rya. As long as the Central Core is intact, the Watchers are impossible to kill.
Powers
The Watchers are arguably the most powerful non-ethereal beings in the modern Universe. In their original incarnations they were merely powerful psychics and empaths, but after connecting themselves to the Central Battery they became living conduits of Shine's power and divine nature. The act forced open their Aura Network and evolved them a level equivalent to the Gods. Their psychic powers were greatly increased allowing them to stretch their consciousness over the entire cosmos, affecting entire populations at once or moving or rearranging matter from across the expanse of space. They could teleport themselves wherever they wished unless they were blocked by an outside force (a rare event in the post Cataclysm Universe). The Watchers were able to manipulate matter to high degrees making them capable of incredible feats, like willing planets and moons that have been destroyed back into existence. When their powers were joined they were even able to prevent a being as powerful as the God King from being able to teleport himself to Rya. Their physical powers were also greatly increased, with their speed, strength, and fortitude all being enhanced to the levels of their immortal masters.
Most important though was their new control over time and temporal energy. When backed by their SS-Class Auras, the Watchers are able to completely stop time within a given frame, speed it up to the point a target explodes, or distorting it. The Watchers were even able to temporarily time-lock a Bloodstone empowered Satan, giving them time to initiate their emergency procedure to teleport away Rya’s central core and those SENTINELs who had survived the Devil King’s initial attack. They have also shown great sensitivity to the flows of the time stream, able to observe everything that has happened or could happen and perceive time ripples and paradoxes. The Watchers possess the power to send people forward or backward in time, but rarely do so because of the dangers involved in causing time paradoxes. While they were not true Avatars of Time as Shine was at the time of his death, individually they were each as strong as he'd been during his life and together they could touch on his Avatar level powers.
Personality
Watchers are beings who exude a noble air and are completely dedicated to the ideals of Justice left to them by their patron, Shine. They are committed to preserving the peace and tranquility of the Universe, and ruthlessly hunt those who harm the innocent or threaten the carefully preserved order. In pursuit of their goals, they can be highly machiavellian, but their ultimate aim is always for the best good possible. While they are personally pacifistic and detest engaging in violence themselves, they have little qualms about ordering SENTINEL to administer the harshest justice possible against any enemies.
The Watchers are also known for their unflappable demeanors, rarely showing changes in temper. Many dignitaries, nobles, ambassadors and others have attempted to get a smile or enflame the anger of a Watcher to their continual frustration. Despite this, they are also dedicated to high ideals and are willing to take drastic actions for what the consider to be the greatest Good. Their drive to protect the Universe has been a source of inspiration to the SENTINELs who serve them, and their bravery has even drawn admiration from enemies like the sarans.
Culture and Society
Since all Watchers are effectively the same, the only difference being their specific gender, the Watchers themselves are highly communistic and egalitarian. Since they are all connected to the Central Core, it can be said that they are effectively a hive mind. They have no names amongst themselves, and will refer to eachother only as "brother" or "sister." The lone exception to this is the outcast Watcher known as Rahan. For unknown reasons he ended up different than his brothers and sisters and was possessed with a highly aggressive personality and a lust for battle. He was given the name Rahan by his siblings, as it is the word for "different" in the Watcher language. They live in the Central Chamber of Rya, and rarely leave the confines of the city except in the most dire of circumstances. From here they give orders to the SENTINEL Legions and advise the Inner Circle of the All Union.
In the days before the Cataclysm, the Watchers were the commanders of the Holy Order, adminstrating the galaxy wide empire for the Gods. They acted as governers, judges, and generals in their tasks of protecting the Gods' interests wherever they may be. They were tasked with collecting levies, settling disputes, and overseeing the Ogre Legions in battle. Like the Ogres, it was ingrained in their DNA to be unfailingly loyal to the Gods, and they were loyal servants for eons. When Shine turned off this loyalty in them to try to get them to save themselves, they were so moved by his noble actions that they decided to lend him their power in his battle against his mother.
Religion
The Watchers do not have any real religion. They honor Shine as their patron, and due to their connection to the Central Core and access to his knowledge are aware the other planes of Creation and the beings known as the Source and Celestials, but they rarely pay these entities any mind. The exception to this was when the Midplane Guardian Adam appeared to them as an oracle and told them to give the Bloodstone to the Saran King, they recognized him for what he was and regarded his presence as important enough to obey his instructions.
Trivia
- In their original incarnations, the Watchers possessed telekinetic and telepathic powers dwarfing those of even the Truans, but their true talents were as empaths. They possessed Aura Tuning to an almost unheard of degree, and were able to sense and understand the outlooks and emotions of different races and influence them to the Watchers' point of view. During the Bloodstone War, they used this ability to remove the will to fight from Crash's armies, though they were powerless against the will of the God King himself. It was only when Crash recruited the sarans that he found a race immune to the Watchers' empathy powers due to their demonic nature.
- The Watchers have had contact with other Clans of Gods who live out in the Edge of the Universe, though this is a closely guarded secret. Because of their power and status, they are considered a Clan themselves by other Gods and are respected as fellow immortals. They have held audiences with the other God Clans in a special pocket dimension where they have seek to use diplomacy to prevent the militaristic Angel Clan from making another Crusade into the Known Universe. They have found an ally in this with Ramuh and the Djinn Clan.