The Chained Watcher

Xisuma's Notebook (World Building)

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Some of the other hermits asked me how the respawn works, so I figured I'd write it down to avoid repeating the explanation. Let's start with the magic twisting for respawn. Respawn is a complicated and touchy piece of magic, with the reason it works being pocket dimension shenanigans. Respawn is put into place on a world-by-world basis by the world's administrator or administrators (admins). Hardcore has either not been changed (true death), or boots you back to the hub and refuses entry. The more skilled the admin(s), the less side effects respawning has. A truly skilled (or dedicated) admin can reduce the side effects down to just a loss of energy; nothing a good nap wouldn't fix. Less skilled (or lazy) admins end up with respawns not fully healed, and the worst wounds pre-respawn are only partially healed. In between, where most of the admins lie, fatal wounds are usually reduced to a faint scar and a minor headache.

The way it works is the magic identifies the death of the "player" and restores the body according to the stored information from when they came through the portal (or from genetic information for those born there) before dragging the soul back down into the now fixed body. As a precaution against repeated deaths from the exact same thing (ex. lava), the body is transported to where they last slept, or the area around the portal if none is found. Again, some admins are more or less skilled at this, so some worlds may only respawn you at the portal to avoid possible complications such as being stuck physically inside the wall next to your bed.

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What do Watchers look like? A good question, and one that is hard to give a definitive answer to. Watchers have few things in common, with those being purple wings, purple eyes, and purple magic. Other than that, while most have a humanoid form, some outliers don't. They each have their own form unique to them and them alone, but are fairly malleable in terms of the exact shape and size of various body parts. Some might have a head the size of the rest of their body, while others might not have one at all.

The only guaranteed feature I've noticed is their wings, which are almost exclusively large purple feathery wings. The exact shade of purple varies, as does the wing shape and quantity, but they will always be recognizably purple bird wings. Of note is that the deeper the purple, the stronger the magic tends to be. A lilac winged Watcher would be much weaker than average, while a Watcher with wings the same royal purple as their cloaks is a truly terrifying foe.

Wing quantity seems to be hierarchy/maturity related, as Watchers with one set of wings always act deferential to those with two, those with two sets defer to those with three, and so on and so forth (Presumably. Not like gladiators would be allowed in the presence of a higher tier Watcher lest they "taint the air with their presence".)

A bit of author clarification: When the concentration of magic in a Watcher's body reaches a certain level, they will begin to grow a new pair of wings. Thicker (darker) magic makes it harder to progress, but has better results long-term. Some Watchers lack the talent to progress any farther than two pairs of wings, and so amuse themselves by tormenting those they deem "lesser". This is why the gladiators rarely saw 3rd tier Watchers, as they would derive much more pleasure from ordering around the 2nd tiers than from bullying gladiators. 4th tier and above would see it as below them to interact with the gladiators.

A Watcher's voice, both mental and physical, is quite headache inducing. Some of the more scholarly gladiators, though they didn't last long, were able to identify the language they were speaking as some form of Galactic, though a more archaic version than the one used in enchanting. Their mental commands, though, are less speaking and more pushing a concept through. Always gave me a headache with the amount of irritation they felt at having to touch the minds of us "mere mortals", and it didn't help that they were rather forceful with their commands either. 

As a side note, some of those who got experimented on by the Watchers ended up being tainted with the purple of their magic, so unlike what some people back in the hub might say, just because someone has purple eyes or wings does not make them a Watcher.

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