Who Are the Watcher Priests?

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS FOR THE WIZARD'S STONE, THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB, AND THE REVENANT AND THE CULT!

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There are 4 great evils that have been prophesied to trouble my Fantasy world - a topic that I will discuss in a different post (video). The first Great Evil - Hashocar - was responsible for The Great War, a conflict so terrible that it took actual divine intervention to end. And while Hashocar was the main threat in that war, there were others - his co-conspirators, so to speak - also involved. And when Hashocar was thrown down and eventually banished, those in his inner circle either fled or were destroyed.

Of course, as we've seen with Asteroth, some plagues cannot be fully eliminated. And it's those co-conspirators, these leaders of the rebellion against the Allfather, who will eventually become the other three tyrants that will wage war upon the believers of the Allfather.

The coming of the second starts a few years before the events of THE REVENANT AND THE TOMB, as indicated by the strange mark discovered on the forehead of one of the dead Yerch. Fast forward a few hundred years, and you have the rise of a new cult called The Watchers, attached to the Second Great Evil. Like the cult portrayed in THE REVENANT AND THE CULT books, this group is highly secretive, made up of members both wealthy and poor. The Watchers made their first appearance in a book I wrote (and have yet to publish) that chronicled the rise to power of a character Merrith. Yes, this is the same King Merrith mentioned at the end of THE WIZARD'S STONE.

What are The Watchers watching? Well, that's something I'll reserve for the aforementioned story about Merrith. It does, however, tie into the Frankie story I've mentioned in prior videos. What is notable about The Watchers is their priests, who are blind. No, not the seeing-eye dog kind of blind. They have no eyes. The cavities where their eyes should reside are sealed over by flesh, the priest having traded one kind of sight for another. Like the wizards of my Fantasy world, they can wield magic - a dark magic. They are wholly evil, corrupt, and bordering on insane. Insidious and powerful, they are a threat not to be trifled with. Unswervingly loyal to their master, the Second Great Evil, they are not only priests ordering their congregations, but secret prefects of assemblies and regions. When it comes to wielding arcane power, any given Watcher Priest can go toe-to-toe with a wizard, whether it be one sent by the Allfather, or other wielders of forbidden craft and lore. When compared to the Ogogalath - mentioned in the prefix of THE REVENANT AND THE CULT, BOOK ONE - any given Watcher Priest would be considered more powerful, if only marginally.

How do these priests come by their power? That is a very good question.

As implied, the power these dark priests yield was endowed to them by their master or masters. Normal wizards - Remfrey, Gregor, and even Odo by extension - have their powers granted to them by the Allfather. Those divine servants who rebelled against the Allfather did so at the cost of the power they were once given. From whence is their power is now derived and passed along? That's still a bit of a mystery.

Perhaps it's a mystery that will be addressed soon? Well...we shall see.