The Watcher Series

From LoveToKnow Sci-Fi

The Watcher series is a five-book urban fantasy/romance series by Lilith Saintcrow. Starting with Dark Watcher, we are introduced to a world where witches are real--only they're called Lightbringers, because they "shine" to psychic sight. The Lightbringers, as agents of creation, are virtually helpless in the face of psychic predators. They also face danger from the Crusade, a fictional fanatical Catholic association bent on destroying anyone with psychic power; and the Brotherhood, a company who seeks to use anyone with psychic talent to maximize their profits.

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Circle Lightfall

Created in the 1400s to counter the threat of the Crusade, Circle Lightfall was the brainchild of Jeanne Tournay, a French Lightbringer, and her husband Gideon de Hauteville. An attack on Jeanne provided the impetus for Gideon to make a "bargain" with a semisentient psychic symbiote, a tanak. This bargain gave him superhuman strength and speed, but at a terrible price: near-constant pain.

Since the tanak is a Dark predator, Lightbringers are theoretically inimical to it. A Watcher suffers not only from the presence of the symbiote in his body but also from the psychic "glow" emnating from particularly psychic women. The "glow" is dangerous and painful--but if a Watcher finds a psychic whose glow doesn't hurt him, he is considered "bonded" to her. The effect of bonding is almost cliche: the Watcher experiences drugging pleasure from the touch of the one psychic whose glow doesn't hurt.

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Watchers

Watchers are drawn from men who feel they have committed a terrible act or series of acts for which they wish to atone. Despite the criminal element (a significant percentage of Watchers are former criminals) the recidivism rate approaches zero. The intensive battery of personality and psychological tests tend to weed out anyone truly unstable.

Once accepted into the training program, Watchers are taught the use of edged weapons, firearms, the basics of cover and hand-to-hand, and the theory behind several basic combat magics as well as being exhaustively drilled in Watcher tactics and strategy. After a period of training ranging from one to five years, a tanak symbiote is placed inside the trainee. This ceremony is excruciating, and marks the beginning of real training. When a Watcher has completed this stage, he makes his own knives and is considered a full Watcher, capable of being sent "on assignment."

Assignments range from intelligence-gathering to standing guard at a safehouse. The most common assignment is, of course, watching over a Lightbringer until a member of Circle Lightfall can make contact and bring the Lightbringer in safely, with a minimum of trauma.

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Lightbringers

All Lightbringers are psychic, but not all psychics are Lightbringers. Lightbringers tend to be female (though gay males comprise a small but definite percentage, and heterosexual males an even smaller percentage) and exhibit certain definite characteristics:

Aural glow, the "light" visible to psychic Sight
Marked psychic ability. Empathy, limited telepathy, precognition, and limited telekinesis are common among Lightbringers.
An element. Most Lightbringers tend to fall into one of the Four Elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water.) The exceptions (Mindhealers, techwitches, etc.) may be manifestations of the Spirit element. Techwitches are a relatively new classification, but are readily distinguishable by their metallic aural glow and their love of all things tech.
Personality pattern. Lightbringers tend to exhibit marked empathy and optimism, as well as a near-codependent urge to take responsibility and guilt for the world's problems. A Lightbringer will more often than not seek to offer comfort and healing even at the expense of his or her own well-being.

Lightbringers are at risk because the marked aural glow they exhibit is tempting for any number of psychic predators, for whom the Lightbringers are tasty little morsels. Added to this danger are the organizations who for one reason or another wish to capture or kill Lightbringers, and the risk of severe decline in the population is even more marked.

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