[Enginseer-42]

"Seek not the creators will in the stars. Seek it instead in the movements of the world, Seek it in the flowing currents and the pale corners of Time, And seek it in your own sight. These the Creator made, and each bears his signature." ~ Jriel of the First Watch.

A Brief History of the Watch

The Cult of the Watch is a fringe religious movement that rose following the teachings of the sage Jriel In the year 1550 in the southern reaches of Esshar, swiftly gaining nearly one thousand adherents... only to lose most of those converts within sixty years, A steady decline that left the Cult with little more than 300 members when the 5 remaining sages of the Third Watch, dedicated the remnants of their order to fighting the menace from Rhoynur following a cryptic prophesy. A task that the order of scholars and fortune tellers was ill equipped for. Though the C of the cult inflicted terrible costs upon the Rhoynish, they took many casualties in turn. The members of the Third and Fourth Watches were eliminated entirely, leaving the remnants of the cults Acolytes, the Fifth Watch to pick up the pieces and bring their faith into the modern day, With little more than a hundred left. In an odd twist of fate, their willingness to bleed for the country has won the remnants the gratitude of the crown, and a degree of grudging tolerance for the faith.

Beliefs of the Watch

Adherents of the Watch, or Watchers as called by the peasantry, Believe that the Creator left his true will written upon the very fabric of reality. Rather than being expressed solely in the stars, or in divine will, they believe in the study of what they call the three pillars of creation Time, Space, and Perception. As such, their magi tend towards the branch of Metaphysical magic. Furthermore, they believe that Arcane Magic is detrimental to this search as Arcane magic alters creation directly. Allowing the creators message to the people to be obscured, or even erased. Leading to their dislike of what they refer to as Shapers (Holy Mages.) And open hatred of those they refer to as Unmakers (Occult Mages.) Though the cult is largely democratic in function, great deference is given to the oldest Watchers, and each Watcher's apprentice is of the next Watch. (IE: An apprentice to a member of the Fifth Watch would be a member of the Sixth Watch, That Apprentice's apprentice would be a member of the Seventh Watch and so on so forth.

Perception of the Watch

To the Common people of Esshar, those who have heard of the Watch in any case, the Watchers are little more than mad-seers, fortune tellers, or heretical Charlatans. Their secretive and superstitious ways have done little to redeem them to the commoners of Esshar. However, perhaps strangely, the Watchers seeming willingness to bleed for the country has earned them some friends amongst the people. Soldiers in particular tend to have a measure of comradery with the Watchers, and though not a militant order, many of the Fifth Watch who survived have taken up the mannerisms of the soldiers they served alongside in the latter parts of the campaign. To the Faith, they're an uncomfortably popular generation of a declining Heresy. And to the Nobility the Fifth Watch represents an opportunity to snatch up Mages with a predilection for uncommon branches of spellcraft. Patronage of a Member of the Watch is not unheard of, though Uncommon among those nobles most closely tied to the Faith.