Who is the Watcher?

[Mor]

Here is a recap on what we know on the watcher, might have spoilers so just in-case I am posting it here and in spoiler tags:

 

 

For those who recall this whole thing started with a Teaser. Which mentions: "This world wants to drag us down, it does. It made you a Watcher. No one asks for that. And the weight, that guilt they want to hang around my neck, you don't have to carry it one more step. You think they won't let you rest, but it's not up to them. It never was." and the phrase "There is no sleep for the Watcher", which is later repeated in one of the trailers.

 

Then in update #65, we learned that: "Animancers studied folk legends about figures called Watchers who reportedly were able to see lost souls and perceive an individual's ancestral lives, but claimants to that title were typically charlatans at best or mentally unstable and violent at worst."

 

Now, I noticed on the obsidian site that the alt for the "Endless Paths of Od Nua" picture is "The Story of the Watcher" And we know that there is "a storyline associated with the Endless Paths of Od Nua, but it is separate from the main plot".

 

So my guess is that either the 'Od Nua' the crazed builder of our 15 level mega-dungeon castle is the watcher and we are going to explore his story, or eventually we become the watcher. (which might gives us a similar ability to "speak with dead" in torment)

 

Edited June 3, 2014 by Mor

[JFSOCC]

maybe we're od nua reincarnated? Yeah prophet reborn

[Lephys]

^ That's Od... I Nua guy by that name a while back.

[Nonek]

An insomniac?

[Kjaamor]

(edit: guess good file working is beyond me )

 

Also, props to Lephys for a good pun.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Kjaamor

[Karkarov]

Actually I read all that to mean that "Watcher" is just a title given to people with a specific skill set or people whose lives contain certain circumstances maybe?  In other words there is no individual Watcher, but a group of various people who are Watchers.  Your character in the game very clearly is one, as Obsidian has already said.

[Osvir]

But is it the Player Character who is the Watcher and part of this special organization... or is it the Player himself who is an omnipresent figure in the world who, quite literally, is a "Watcher".

A guardian perhaps, a direct influence, if we were to believe that "souls" exist and that we have some ourselves~ or simply in a fantasy imaginative way, wouldn't "our" souls be part of the whole PoE soul-punk-fantasy?

The "Watcher" never rests, chronologically if we were to look at the game world... it is only the Characters who rest, but the unseen "presence" that the Player embodies that controls and manipulates the characters in the world never "rests" whilst progressing the game/story.

"No rest for the Watcher".

The Watcher, in this case, would then truly be a force that manipulates with "fate" and can decide whether the world will go to hell, or to heaven.

The Watcher is you! 

 

EDIT: I recall there being some organization (I think)~ the above is a bit of a joke. I think the Watcher(s) are somehow figures in the shadows who simply observe the world take shape. Scholars and natural philosophers. Not quite like Grey Wardens who directly takes part in politics, but this is more of "shadow group" that may perhaps not conspire in any way, but guides or illuminates current generations with knowledge and ideas of history and perhaps even having abilities to see into the future or the past.

If they had this power, to see into future or the past, it could explain potential "Flashback" moments in the game: If there are going to be any (We had a discussion about "Flashbacks" a long time ago). Basically being able to go into the history of your Companions and play as your Companions only.

An example I've used many times before, for anyone who haven't seen it yet:
- You meet Minsc in Nashkel, and when you talk with him you get a meta-choice at one point:
- A) "Help Minsc save Dynaheir" (Go to the Kobold Fort and save Dynaheir with Minsc in your party)
- B) "Ask Minsc how he saved Dynaheir" (Flashback, you are taken instantly to the Kobold Fort and you are Minsc alone by the bridge before meeting the two Ogre's, to save Dynaheir). See C for what happens after Flashback is finished.
- C) "Ask Minsc where Dynaheir is right now" (Minsc joins, and Dynaheir can be found/spawns at the inn in Nashkel where you can recruit her as well. Attempting to leave Nashkel with Minsc recruited will make him leave and perhaps say something like "Friend! I can not leave without Dynaheir, perhaps we will see each other again!" or whatever~ Minsc & Dynaheir can be found in Baldur's Gate if you leave Nashkel after this choice has been made and you don't recruit them)

Edited June 4, 2014 by Osvir

[PrimeJunta]

A curse/blessing that makes the PC unique is an Obsidian thing. They had it in KOTOR 2, they had it in MotB and arguably even NWN2 OC, and they riffed off it in South Park. I suspect strongly that the Watcher thing is very much in the same vein. I don't think it's going to be an organization, 'cuz that's more of a BioWare thing.

 

So yeah, the PC becomes the Watcher through some event beyond his or her control, which confers both major benefits and major drawbacks.

[Messier-31]

^

 

*ring-a*ding*ding*ding*

 

Personally I think that we have a winner.

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

 "Help Minsc save Dynaheir" (Go to the Kobold Fort and save Dynaheir with Minsc in your party)

 

'Twas gnolls, not kobolds

Edited June 4, 2014 by Messier-31

[bonarbill]

I hope it isn't an organization that you're forced to join because that lowers RPing opportunities. 

Edited June 4, 2014 by bonarbill

[Mor]

@Osvir, if we are the watcher (or on the way there), then we could have an ability to "see lost souls and perceive an individual's ancestral lives", not exactly flashbacks, but it can be an additional way they can relate events in narrative, after all there is a limit to how many diary pages of former adventures they can leave conveniently placed on each dungeon floor

 

If we aren't the watcher, then we are likely seeking him out due to whatever supernatural phenomena we observed. With all the focus on souls, I suspect that this phenomena is the Biamhac and has something todo with either sheering part of soul or possession by a lost soul.

 

A curse/blessing that makes the PC unique is an Obsidian thing. They had it in KOTOR 2, they had it in MotB and arguably even NWN2 OC, and they riffed off it in South Park. I suspect strongly that the Watcher thing is very much in the same vein. I don't think it's going to be an organization

It certainly seems that way, a long time must have passed since the last Watcher for the folklore to become so obscure, still it is possible that its some kind of secret/dying organization e.g. the Witchers, which might also explain why would anyone give some unknown newcomer to take over stronghold and the surrounding areas, raising taxes and levies .. Edited June 4, 2014 by Mor

[PrimeJunta]

It would be awesome if it turned out the Watchers were a complete rip-off of the Witchers.

Edited June 4, 2014 by PrimeJunta

[Enoch]

Sawyer's mini-plot-hints have indicated that they don't want to tie the PC to any particular faction or background.  He/She is merely somebody who happens to be in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time and witnesses (or maybe...  Watches?) an occurrence of some cosmic significance that sets off the rest of the plot. 

 

(This is pretty much the same initial plot-hook concept as was proposed for The Black Hound)

Edited June 4, 2014 by Enoch

[Lephys]

So yeah, the PC becomes the Watcher through some event beyond his or her control, which confers both major benefits and major drawbacks.

Maybe if we're lucky, it'll confer major benefits and only lance-corporal drawbacks.

 

That, and what if "watcher" is simply the term for a watch/clock-maker/repairman? There's no rest for the watcher, 'cause everyone keeps breaking their darn timepieces. u_u

[Xienzi]

 

Speak not the Watchers,

Draw not the Watchers,

Write not the Watchers,

Sculpt not the Watchers,

Sing not the Watchers,

Call not the Watchers' name.

[Messier-31]

Three sweet switched Swiss witches
Watch three washed Swiss witch Swatch watch switches.
Which sweet switched Swiss witch watches
Which washed Swiss witch Swatch watch switch?

 

 

There's no rest for the watcher, 'cause everyone keeps breaking their darn timepieces. u_u

 

 

I'll have my eye on you.

[PrimeJunta]

Also, the sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. /thread

[Sedrefilos]

The Watcher is someone who watches...

[ManifestedISO]

[constantine]

A curse/blessing that makes the PC unique is an Obsidian thing. They had it in KOTOR 2, they had it in MotB and arguably even NWN2 OC, and they riffed off it in South Park. I suspect strongly that the Watcher thing is very much in the same vein. I don't think it's going to be an organization, 'cuz that's more of a BioWare thing.

 

So yeah, the PC becomes the Watcher through some event beyond his or her control, which confers both major benefits and major drawbacks.

 

 

The Watcher.. I like it !!

[Mor]

It would be awesome if it turned out the Watchers were a complete rip-off of the Witchers.

I don't about that.. the obvious similarities to the Witcher and torment is the reason why I wasn't comfortable calling it as the "Story of the Watcher", offering an alternative possibility first. Edited June 5, 2014 by Mor

[Sad Panda]

I can't even look at the title of this topic without this playing in my head. >_>

 

Anyways, barely even enough information to speculate, but my guess is that the Watchers are individuals who possess a unique supernatural ability, mostly likely related to communicating with and/or controlling spirits. I'm outruling more mundane skills since that would make it a trait one can choose. For the same reason, I find it unlikely it's a condition inflicted by any mortal agent. Deities, possession by ancient spirits and otherwordly lineage are still on the table. The Animancy bit further makes it seem to me that if there is an organisation for and/or by Watchers, it's a secret one.

Edited June 5, 2014 by Sad Panda

[Lephys]

I'll have my eye on you.

...Said the physicist when confronting the thief of his stolen particle.

 

"I'll have my ion, you!"

Edited June 5, 2014 by Lephys

[Sensuki]

What a "Watcher" is was described in Update 65: Animancers studied folk legends about figures called Watchers who reportedly were able to see lost souls and perceive an individual's ancestral lives, but claimants to that title were typically charlatans at best or mentally unstable and violent at worst.

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64452-update-65-ciphers/

 

The PC is probably one of these.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Sensuki

[Malekith]

What a "Watcher" is was described in Update 65: Animancers studied folk legends about figures called Watchers who reportedly were able to see lost souls and perceive an individual's ancestral lives, but claimants to that title were typically charlatans at best or mentally unstable and violent at worst.

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64452-update-65-ciphers/

 

The PC is probably one of these.

Charlatan or mentally unstable ?