Watchers
The Watchers, whose full title for themselves is Watchers at the Gates of the Darklands, founded Darkwatch early in the Era of Integration. Only a few hundred people began the settlement, led by five families and their elders. Their stories tell of being brought out of ruin into a new purpose; most likely, this ruin was war, though the picture painted in their histories is vague. The gates referred to by their title are two sets of huge gates, both located in the city of Gatewatch. They guard the steep passage with carved stairs that leads into the Lower Darklands and the passage that the Watchers originally took from the surface.
Watcher features bear resemblance to both Selkens and Eldran. They are pale, as much due to living without direct sunlight as to their heritage, and have black or brown hair and eyes. On the shorter side, like the two races they are descended from, they have great endurance, and the athletic among them move with both strength and grace. Only about a third of their population are mages, with a quarter of those being minor mages. Their relative lack of magical ability is more than made up for by the ingenuity of their artisans, though none even to this day have achieved the same heights as the Artisans of the Gates.
Naming Traditions
Feminine names
Feminine names end in soft consonants, delineated by having an "h" between the vowel and consonant that indicates a breathier pronunciation of the following letter. Watcher names are formed in two parts. The first half is a variation of a word or part of a word in the Tongue of the Ancestors, the language used for genealogies. For feminine names, words evoking steadfastness and beauty are most often used, such as "andir" meaning "pillar" and "malas" meaning "lily." The second half of the name identifies the person with the term used. The specific ending used does not change the meaning, which roughly translates as "born to be." The Tongue of Ancients word may be used only in part, such as the name Maliehn using only "mal," the first part of "malas." Sometimes this is done to evoke more than one word; for example, Maliehn could also come from "shimali," the word for a well-planted field. Often parents will name their children after their own parents or grandparents, to carry on the legacy and add more memories to that name. An important note to make here is that they do not name children after living people, as they do not need someone to help carry on their legacy while they are still alive.
Masculine names
Masculine names end in firm consonants, preceded directly by a vowel. The words typically chosen from the Tongue of the Ancestors to form masculine names evoke strength and courage. Some of them are the same as feminine names, such as "andir"- "pillar"- as these words could evoke multiple qualities. Other words include "joracath," meaning "spear-carrier," and "elthis," meaning "horned." While neither feminine nor masculine names are bound to use words with specific meanings, these are traditional, especially as many names are repeatedly used in family lines.
Unisex names
Unisex names are uncommon, and end in vowels. Often, these vowels are preceded by "th," "sh," "thr," or "sht," flowing from the Tongue of the Ancestors word chosen into this ending, such as Malashta, Elthri, or Andishi.
Family names
Watchers do not use hereditary family names, instead using "son of" or "daughter of." For those orphans and foundlings taken in by a Watcher couple, they use "grandson of" or "granddaughter of" instead, not replacing their unknown parents but still connecting their legacy to that of their adoptive family. Typically a woman uses the name of her father, and a man uses of his mother. Not doing so indicates some dishonor on the parent in question, something they did that made their child unwilling to carry on their legacy.
Other names
Watchers use simple descriptive names for their towns and cities. Gatewatch and Wayguard are fortified, Dayfield and Brightfield are farming towns that share a large sunwell, and Stonespring is near the cavern wall and has a rich water source. This can lead to confusion to those unfamiliar with the towns in question. Brightfield is a large farming town and a hub of trade, while Brightstream is much smaller and on a dead end of a road. Stonespring has a small sunwell and is in a lower area of Darkwatch, while Sunspring is at the highest point of the cavern system and receives direct sunlight at times.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
The spoken language of the Watchers, Xalri, has Ixalese roots, a result of their Eldran descent. It contains loan words that are Selken in origin, and some pronunciation of phonemes are different from Ixalese. Their written letters match those used in Ixalese. However, the Tongue of the Ancestors that they use for naming uses the same phonemes as Tiravelen, though there are few shared words, and the symbols used in this writing are unique to Xalri. They bear some similarity to samples of ancient Geshtelen writing, though Watchers use only straight lines to form their symbols, more easily carved into stone.
All Watchers teach Xalri to their children. Even during the time of the Darksun dynasty, with all people of Darkwatch required to speak only Avin in public, they speak Xalri among themselves. Many living in Gatewatch only learn Xalri, though most living outside of the Watcher capital speak both languages. There is at least one Watcher in each of their towns who knows the Tongue of the Ancestors and its script. The knowledge has been passed down in the Second Five Families (who along with the First Families of Gatewatch make up a full ten, a sacred number), whose descendants live throughout Darkwatch.
Culture and cultural heritage
The Watchers' culture is one of tradition and respect for their ancestors and the world around them. Some worship their ancestors and/or the spirits contained in nature, but even those who do not still hold tightly to the idea of legacy and look down upon the wasteful use of natural resources. All families keep stone tablets of their own genealogies, matching the ones kept within the archives of the Second Five Families.
Tradition is important to the Watchers, and though they embrace technological advances, they are slow to change their societal norms. The seats of the Gatewatch Council are hereditary, passed down through the First Five Families and seven others. These families do not typically leave Gatewatch, and the Council's primary goal is the preservation of their way of life. With a few exceptions, the leadership of the Gatewatch Council has been primarily a cultural one for many years.
Shared customary codes and values
Watchers defer to those older than they are. Age is seen as a mark of experience gained and a legacy built. Members of the Council and town officials are exempt from this; while they show respect to those more aged than they, their position is one of authority. While the officials are looked to for leadership, no one job is seen as better than any other, as all are important to maintain Darkwatch.
Legacy is of the highest value to Watchers. It is seen as the mark one's life leaves on the world, and maintains one's spirit long after death. This is usually accomplished by seeking a long life with children and grandchildren who will remember them. However, it is also gained by great service to the Watcher people.
The Watchers are a careful people, and do not believe in wastefulness. They make use of bones and horns from the animals that they slaughter for meat. As children outgrow clothing, it is passed down to younger children until it wears out. Even the most prestigious of Watchers will continue to wear clothing until it is past repair, preferring to patch and stitch together tears. They believe wasting anything is to be ungrateful to whomever or whatever gave it to them.
The Healers' Code gives rules of conduct for healers, as well as how they are to be treated by others. Healers do not carry weapons or lift a hand in violence against another. They are bound to no one town, but travel to where they are needed, serving the needs of their people. They do not ask for payment for services. However, it is considered the duty of the communities they help to support them with food and clothing, offering to allow them to stay in their homes. Typically healers stay with the family of a town official. While they do not often marry as this would require their spouse and children to travel with them, the Healers' Code assures their legacy is that of the many they help in their travels.
Average technological level
The Watchers were forging steel early into their settlement of Darkwatch, as the great gates utilize it heavily. The inner workings of these gates, hidden by their heavily decorated exteriors, uses a complex system of gears and pulleys. Within the cavern walls to either side, where they attached the hinges, the Artisans placed a system of water weights, pipes, and steel cords attached to gears and steel belts that run throughout the doors. When a lever is pulled, weights shift to pull the gates either open or shut. The gates also hook together internally in the middle, effectively locking them to prevent a battering ram or large creature from pushing them open. The gates to the surface have one lever on either side that both perform the same function. In addition, a second lever can be turned to disable the mechanisms and prevent the door from being unlocked from the other side. While the designs for the great gates were lost at the death of the second Artisan, study of their functions allowed later artisans to imitate their workings for smaller city gates.
The mechanical work of Watcher artisans is heavily used in agriculture. They use pump systems to transport water from the river and streams to their fields and towns through steel pipes. They also use mechanical plows, typically pulled by goats. Watermills are used for making flour. A development made soon after the Kyn first arrived in Darkwatch was mechanical threshers, the first requiring goats to power it, but later models using internal pulley systems to allow cranking by hand.
Steel is also used to make weapons. Watcher weapon designs were not meant for use in wars against other humans originally. They use hooked blades with points on the end that can pierce the carapace of shadowlings, catching the hooks beneath it and tearing it off. These blades are used for spears and for daggers referred to as claws. Straight-bladed knives are used for everyday work and cooking, and the Watchers also copied what they saw of Kyn weapons when they prepared to go to war.
Along with the use of steel, early settlers in Darkwatch found deposits of tungsten, which they determined was better for the precise carving of letters and designs into the limestone that they build with. While they continued using heavy steel chisels for creating blocks for construction, artists and genealogists use tungsten-tipped chisels.
While the flooding of the Lifegift River begins the new year, this does not occur on the same day every year. Watcher artisans have made large clockwork timekeepers, one in Gatewatch and one in Stoneguard (later renamed to Davirren). The workings of these devices need regular upkeep and take up a small building. They track minutes and hours as well as days, weeks, and years. Smaller timekeepers that mark minutes and hours are sent with hunting groups into the Lower Darklands so that they can keep track of their days without the sunwells.
The Watchers' mechanical skill has also extended into water pumping techniques (which seems to be how the water-weight system of the great gates functions). This allows the transport of water to cities, towns, and farmland, as well as allowing them to create sewer systems. While running water is not available in homes, every sector of the city has a place open to the public where they can bathe, use the toilet, and collect fresh water for use in their homes and workplaces. The sewer pipes typically lead to a covered pit a few hundred yards outside the city.
Common Etiquette rules
When addressing an unrelated person older than they are, Watchers use the proper honorific unless given permission to use their elder's name. Typically, permission is only granted to those in similar positions to the elder they are addressing. This can be specific (Councilwoman, Sergeant, etc.), or general (sir and ma'am). When speaking to family members who are older than they are, Watchers refer to them by family relation. This includes siblings and cousins. While in their home, siblings and cousins may all call each other by name, but in public it is disrespectful to refer to one's elders by name, even if it is a brother or sister.
When first making someone's acquaintance, Watchers avoid making eye contact. Eye contact is considered too intimate apart from family and close friends. However, physical contact, specifically holding hands with whomever one is walking with, is appropriate. With those they are close to, instead of holding hands, Watchers may instead put their arms around their companion's shoulders or waist while walking. When greeting a friend or family member, Watchers often kiss them on one or both cheeks, though they may instead press one of their hands between both of their own.
Common Dress code
Both men and women wear soft wool undergarments beneath a tunic that comes down to a few inches above their knees. Children, those who are more sensitive to the cold, and those who need protection from stones or underbrush wear plain wool pants underneath. The tunics are made to fit snugly around the wearers' bodies. Men's tunics have necklines and hems that come to a sharp V, while women's are rounded. Tunics worn for daily work are dyed muted cool colors, typically dark greens for men and dark blues for women. Formal tunics are brighter and warmly colored, with men wearing yellow or orange and women wearing pink or red. Women also tie long, multicolored strips of cloth around their wrists and waists that trail out when they dance.
Healers dress in plain clothes. Even their tunics, while hemmed the same way as typical Watcher tunics, are left undyed or bleached white. They wear cloaks, with hoods that they keep up as they travel between towns. These cloaks are as plain as the rest of their clothes apart from a broad black band that runs around the edge.
Art & Architecture
Watchers prefer their art to focus on form rather than on color. Paint and gilding may be added to their sculptures, carvings, or metalworking to emphasize the shapes. Most Watchers have carvings on the walls of their home, often done by a member of the family. These carvings typically take the shape of landscapes and flowers, sometimes including animals. Should a human figure be represented, no face will be carved. Ornate pots and vases made of crystal are often used as decorations, with simpler designs on pitchers and dishware meant for everyday use. Flowers often make up the simpler designs, with the more ornate ones showing landscapes or images from legend. Their metalwork takes similar forms. Any metal gates, no matter how mundane their use, will be shaped into designs while maintaining their function. The same applies to the metal frames used for beds and chairs. Sometimes carving and metalworking will be combined, with delicately shaped metal handles attached to crystal pitchers. Miniature carvings are set into metal pendants to be hung on narrow chains and used as jewelry.
In their architecture, the Watchers prefer rounded shapes. They use stones of varying sizes in their building, mortaring them together and smoothing them to form a cohesive whole from a distance. Watcher buildings have a basement, and outside of Gatewatch may be two to three stories high. They have rounded roofs of wood, metal, or a mix of both, some incorporating quartz panes on the side facing the nearest sunwell. Watcher cities are tightly packed, with narrow alleyways between buildings. There is no standard shape or size for a Watcher home or other buildings, with the design based on what is needed. The stone that is carved out to form the basement is used in the exterior wall. Other stone is brought in from quarries only once that is expended. Homes with space left around them, particularly farmhouses, often have additions made to them as the extended family living there grows.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
To the Watchers, the new year begins when the Lifegift River floods for the first time since the harvest. The Feast of First Floods begins on that same day and lasts a week. During it, coming of age rites are held, and birthdays celebrated for every Watcher child. Even those born only a few days before the flood are considered to have seen their first year once it begins. Small gifts are given to each child by grandparents or great-grandparents. Dances are held every evening of the feast that represent the movement of the waters and the cycle of planting and harvesting.
The other major celebration held early is the Feast of Gates, a single-day celebration held on the anniversary of the day the Council decided to entrust the raising of the gates to the Artisans of Gates, the 46th day of Deeproots. All people within the community bring food and drink to share until sundown. Adults and children are separated for the feast, with older children taking responsibility for the younger ones. The adults participate in singing and dancing, while the children act out battles with monsters from the Lower Darklands, with the oldest pretending to be the monsters and encouraging the younger ones to defeat them. At sundown, all gather together for a recital of the Edict of Gates, the promise made by early Watchers to guard the land from creatures of darkness.
A more private celebration is held within families on the 30th day of Fieldrest. Known as the Day of Remembrance, no Watcher works on this day besides the necessary food preparations. Instead, heads of households read out the names of their ancestors from their tablets. Either the head of the household or a family member bearing the same name will recite one memory kept by the family about that ancestor. If there are none, and there may not be for the most distant ancestors, the reciter will instead say, "May their name be kept forever."
Birth & Baptismal Rites
When a child is born in a Watcher family, their parents present them to the extended family, making introductions to each of those living in the household. Everyone welcomes the new baby, and promises to watch over them as they grow. The parents also bring the child to the genealogy tablets within the home and tells them of the legacy of their ancestors that have come before; though they are too young to understand, it is believed that this legacy will be a part of them as they grow.
Coming of Age Rites
During the Feast of First Floods, all young people who are seeing their sixteenth flood are told to stand forward on the first evening. Their parents present them to the community, who welcomes them as adults. Those who are looking to take on workers speak to them of what their jobs entail, and the new adults consider how they would best be able to use their abilities to serve their community. Before the week is out, each will have chosen a duty to perform, which they will begin training in once the feast is over. Most of these, particularly among farming communities, will choose a duty performed by one of their parents, joining them in their daily work.
Funerary and Memorial customs
When a Watcher dies, their body is left where it is if possible. One or more family members spends a full day sitting in a silent vigil by the body. Should there be no body to sit vigil by, the family member must find a secluded area outside of their home to sit. They are not to get up except to use a chamber pot placed nearby, and they eat nothing during this twenty-four hour period. Another family member or friend may quietly bring water without interrupting the vigil. Anyone who disturbs those sitting the vigil is presumed to have brought a curse upon themselves. During the vigil, the family member performing it calls to mind every memory they can of the deceased, deliberately focusing their attention on every aspect of their personality in order to preserve their legacy. Once the full day is finished, they may rise at any time, but are not to be disturbed until they do. Some vigils last for almost two days.
The day after the vigil, the body of the deceased is wrapped in a shroud and prepared for transport to the burning field, an area of bare stone outside of every Watcher town and city where pyres are built. The body is burned there, and the ashes scattered by the most senior family member who sat the vigil. After this is done, they may break their silence. The next day, the entire family of the deceased speaks together of their loved one, continuing the act of preserving their memory in their minds.
Common Myths and Legends
Watcher myths and legends often focus on the intervention of spirits into people's lives. For example, the First Five's Journey tells of the Watcher people's exodus to Darkwatch, escaping destruction. The story describes the elders of the First Five Families encouraging the refugees to take heart and to trust a light spirit that appeared to them. It led them through a long cave until they reached Darkwatch, where it vanished into the light of the sunwells.
The Ten Thousand Steps is another myth adapted from history. When the Watchers wished to explore the caverns below Darkwatch, called the Lower Darklands, they found the passage too steep to easily use. So two stonemasons petitioned the spirits of the stone to allow them to shape it into steps. The spirits agreed, on the condition that the Watchers guard the passage and slay the monsters that often tried to climb through it into the surface world. This story contains the Edict of Gates as the Watchers' response. The number of steps in the legend (it is far too difficult to get an accurate count as to whether this is exact), ten thousand, is considered the most sacred number to Watchers.
One myth is told at the Feast of First Floods about Hasrutehl, the spirit of the Lifegift River. Her name is also used in stories to scare children away from the banks of the river, as she is said to be temperamental and as likely to harm humans as to help them. The story told during the Feast of First Floods describes an agreement between farmers and mischievous land spirits who often antagonized Hasrutehl and caused her to flood her banks. They would do so randomly, causing the farmers grief as there was no pattern to follow. One wise elder met with them and offered songs and stories in exchange for the land spirits' agreement to bring the floods regularly at the beginning of the planting season and less during the rest of the year.
Historical figures
The First Five Families, whose wisest elders formed the original Gatewatch Council, were the ones who led the Watchers into the caverns of Darkwatch. They are revered as the ones who first heard the call to guard the way between the Lower Darklands and the surface world, settling in the area where Gatewatch would later stand. Their descendants are still treated with great respect, with one member of each family serving on the Gatewatch Council.
The Artisans of the Gates were a man from the first generation of Watchers born in Darkwatch, Sharien son of Andihr, and his only child, his daughter Tildreahr. The great gates to the surface and the Lower Darklands, with their intricate mechanisms that would open and close them with the pull of a lever, were Sharien's life's work to protect his people from threats above and below. He taught Tildreahr all he knew so that she would be able to finish what he began. With the developments in the Lower Darklands, she added bars on both sides of the surface gates, so that should the lower gates be breached, another barrier would stand between any evils from below and the world above. Tildreahr did not have children or pass her ideas on to others, so the design of the gates was lost with her death.
Elrishahn the Wise, daughter of Carec, was chair of the Council during the time that Gatewatch's walls were being completed. She drafted the laws of Gatewatch, and many of the codes adopted by the Watchers. Reportedly, though the accuracy of these claims cannot be confirmed, she carved these codes on the support pillars of the Council Chamber with her own hand. Included are the guidelines for inheritance and land ownership, trials and punishment for criminals, and the Healer's Code.
The most recent important figure is Pehr daughter of Ishrulin, chief of the Gatewatch Council. As a young Hunter, she sustained a severe leg injury that left her with a limp and forced her into a quieter lifestyle. Her charisma and intensity pushed her into leadership, and it was she who led the Downfall rebellion against Spiran Darksun. While unable to participate in the fighting personally, her organization and tactical skills are what brought the rebellion as far as it went, into Kirren itself. Despite the ultimate failure of the Downfall movement she did not give up, continuing to plan against the emperor in secret.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Jet-black hair is considered more beautiful than brown, and many Watcher women and some men darken their hair with dye. Hair is considered better when kept short- cropped close on men, chin to shoulder length on women, framing the face. In women, a stout figure is valued, with wide shoulders and hips. A round face with rosy cheeks and a bright smile (with white teeth) is considered beautiful. Men should be broad-shouldered and muscular, with a slight flush or tan appreciated as it shows them to be hardworking. They can be clean-shaven or have a well-trimmed beard.
Gender Ideals
While men and women are considered to be equal by the Watchers, with no jobs being expressly forbidden to either, there are duties that are typically performed by one or the other. Women are favored as officials as they are seen as being wiser and more able to relate to the people they rule, and men are favored for military leadership as they are seen as more tactically minded and able to make difficult decisions during a battle. Chores and farm work are split between the two sexes, with children learning the appropriate chores at about five years of age and helping their grandparents around the house. On a farm, men care for livestock while women work the fields. Within the household, women cook and do laundry while men keep the house clean.
Courtship Ideals
When a Watcher couple wishes to marry, they ask the heads of their households for permission. Alternatively, parents may arrange marriages for their children. The two families meet formally several times, exchanging gifts. Before the wedding, the bride's parents arrange a dowry to be given to the family of the groom, as she will be joining their household. The wedding ceremony itself is performed by the highest official of the town, or by a Council member if the groom's family is from Gatewatch. The couple clasp hands and exchange vows of love and fealty, then the families gather around the bride, the bride's wishing her goodbye while the groom's welcomes her into their home.
Relationship Ideals
Extended families live together in the same home, with men bringing their wives into the household when they marry. The oldest couple serves as the heads of the household, and the younger family members defer to them. Once they have grandchildren, an older Watcher couple will stop working, caring for their house and grandchildren while their sons and daughers-in-law support them. Though much of the raising of children is left to the grandparents, parents are expected to be involved in their children's lives and to serve as a good example to them. Husbands and wives are to be respectful of each other and follow his parents' rules. Children ought to listen to the adults in their families and follow their examples.
Above Image: The symbol of the Gatewatch Council
by Amanda Barylski
by Amanda Barylski
by Amanda Barylski
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