The Watcher's Tower

The view was much the same as it always was from the tower window. The verdancy was as encompassing as ever. The celestial expanses gazed with uniform placidity in their insubstantial eyes. The breeze mumbled its most practised song. And yet, the view could not entirely hide its secrets. An untrained eye would have missed the raven perched in the walnut grove, the thinly veiled ice in the sky's tint, and the tentativeness in the wind's phrases. Of course, there were no untrained eyes here.

Concealed from the world, the Watcher's tower epitomizes seeing without being seen. In spite of its proximity to Raseiniai, its stonework remains unobservable to all but the Watcher, aside from the trunk-folk and other creatures of the wild. Its sole inhabitant, the Watcher, resides agelessly amid its walls and about its grounds, absorbed in the methodical pacing of self-sustenance, but always watching. While the physical view, for all its beauty, remains mundane, it is from here that the Watcher perceives subtle progressions relative to the condition of the world and those who are key in its proceedings.
It is here, in the utter absence of the world, that the Watcher can best see the world for what it is.

Purpose / Function

The Watcher's Tower is a Watcher's sanctuary. The view of its grounds, especially as seen from its uppermost window, provide a metaphoric lens through which the rest of the world may be understood. The tower provides the circumstances of subsistence, that a given Watcher might persist there through uncountable years. It is a physical haven during those times when a Watcher retreats into the vision of the mind.

Architecture

The Watcher's Tower is constructed of stone from the first mining efforts in the Tylus Mountains, with fixtures of Maumedžio Pirštaian hardwoods. A winding staircase runs throughout the structure, with each level featuring a circular room. A locking door sits on the landing of the second level, exterior to accessing the second floor room, but its use is primarily to help keep out the cold. Most watchers only use the lock for the first year or perhaps two of their sojourn.
The grounds around the castle feature vegetable and herb gardens, fruit and nut groves, and pastureland for goats and chickens. Outbuildings include a small barn, a garden shed, and a generous root cellar.

History

The Watcher's Tower houses the succession of those who bear the Watcher's mantle. It is not known who has borne this mantle over the centuries, or under what circumstances, because what few records have been made were kept from libraries. They may exist within the tower itself, however, there are none beyond the current Watcher who would be able to ascertain that.

Type

Tower, Wall

Parent Location

Maumedžio Pirštai

Included Locations

• The Upper Room

Characters in Location

• Ismene Petraki