The Watcher in the Window

The Watcher in the Window
Origin	Light
Titles	The Lost-Named They-Who-Remember
Names	none
Aspects
Date of arrival	Unknown
Owner(s)	Lapis

The Watcher in the Window (The Lost-Named, They-Who-Remember) is the Ninth Hour of the Fansus, created by Lapis. It is a God-From-Light that decayed long ago. Its aspects are Moth, Winter, and Lantern in decreasing order of importance.

Its tarot card is Strength.

Appearance

The Watcher manifests as a humanoid figure in a rocking chair, covered in blankets, shawls, and scarves. Within its’ domain of the Mansus, it typically appears facing out of a window, and on the walls around it are countless pictures and paintings, each of which give the impression of meaning until one looks too closely, and realizes they are merely smudges on canvas, containing only phantoms of meaning.

Principles

The Watcher in the Window rules memory, and longs for the past. What it once was is long-lost, and it believes the motes of its past self pass from history to history, from mortal to mortal. Precious scraps of what-was are sometimes found by humans, and mistaken for dreams, or inspiration, or their own distorted memories of their childhoods. It roams the dream-roads at the edge of the waking world, searching for these precious moments, and when it finds them it will pluck them from the minds of the dreamer, leaving behind a memory of the upper Mansus, shining and resplendent, in its place. Sometimes, it takes a little more than it means, and these memories it will treasure and remember, until their owner comes for them.

Or perhaps, this is untrue. Perhaps the Lost-Named was never something more than what they were, and it is truly nothing but a thief, stealing the memories of others that it may feel more complete than it is. It takes the perfect moments of the past, those moments that define people, and it uses them to define itself. It will return memories, yes, but those who make the journey to the cold rooms above the Glassgarden are certainly forever changed, and perhaps this its mark upon them.

The Watcher is not unkind, and may be called upon to fix what is broken, or to find what is lost. Moth is a yearning for the unknown, but filtered through the cold remembrance of Winter, we may remember the Lantern-light of the past we strive for.

Worship

Servants

• Glorious Risen: Even after death, the bodies of mortals contain fragments of will and memory. Mix blood with wine, and pour into the mouth of the deceased while speaking words of cold and light. Prop it outside, where it can see the sunrise, and it will rise, animated by a spark of Glory within.
• A Nameless Dead:

Locations

The Fansus

• The Frozen Gallery: In the Mansus, the Watcher in the Window has always resided in the highest rooms, in a cluster of chambers overlooking the Glassgarden. Her domain is a maze of rooms, each wall clustered with paintings, the memories she has plucked from countless mortals. Somewhere within is the Lost-Named itself, looking outwards. Despite how dangerous such a thing sounds, it is surprisingly hospitable to those who make the journey, most often those lead by the shining Mansus-snatches she leaves in dreams as she performs her work. To those who visit her in her rooms, she will return those memories they wish to claim (She says that she returns those she took on accident, because they are the ones that do not belong to her. But she has never been seen to refuse giving memories back).

The Histories

• A Lost Shrine: Once, a tribe dedicated themselves to the Lost-Named, and learnt how to call her to their dreams, where memories would be plucked from their skulls like grapes from the vine. Why exactly they did this, appropriately enough, is lost to time. The memory of where they lived, too, is lost. But if we’re careful, perhaps we can find traces.

Items

Tools

• A Missing Page (4): The final page of a book, which may either be a work of fiction or the journals of a truly exciting individual. Utterly mundane, save for the golden sheen that appears over the page as dusk falls, and the vibrant warmth that makes the page feel as if it were a living thing.

Ingredients

• Fearful Dust (2, 4, Pigment): A fistful of oddly weighty dust, gathered from the hidden places long abandoned by people. Mix it with resins and alcohols, and it will assume a color that cannot be found elsewhere. Speak the proper words over it, words of death and memory, and it will serve as fuel for a Work.
• Eldest Wine (4, 8, 12, Poison 1): A bottle of wine, so old the label has long rubbed off. The fluid within is neither white nor red, but a deep, shining gold. Said to somehow be brewed with one of the Motes the Lost-Named prizes above all else (or a potent drug which burns the blood and sears the mind), those who partake of this communion will experience glorious visions, which may change them forever (or they will be hollowed out by the tainted fluid, their minds burnt with lantern-light). Those who survive the experience will surely attract the attention of the Watcher in the Window, who may grant a boon (or steal even more of what you are).

Books

• A Tale with no Ending (4): A book detailing a grand adventure, one which seems too fantastical to be true, but which is written in such detail that it seems as if the author was writing from memory. The final page of this book is missing, and without the words contained within, none of the plot lines are resolved. Curiously, the book is readable even in utter darkness, the words apparently being limned with a soft, golden light.
• A Mote of Memory (6, 8, 10): A shining pinprick of light, suspended in oil after it fell from the completed book. The pages are now utter nonsense, and are discarded. This spark of knowledge is potent, and I must treat it with utmost care. I could pluck it from its jar and place it under my tongue before I sleep, rejoicing in the taste of Glory. This will surely beckon the Watcher in the Window to my dreams, but on my own terms. Or… I could purchase the necessary medicines and instruments. This mote cannot remain in my memory for long, but if I am careful I can extract and preserve precious knowledge from within.

Relationships

• The Architeuthian:
• The Anaconda:
• Snake Tail with Appendages:
• The Engine of Cycles:
• The Peacock:
• Old Tarnished:
• The Spark:
• The Cuckoo:
• The Silver Owl:
• The Elder Sister: After the Forge-Hours, the Watcher is the inhabitant of the Mansus that the Elder Sister wants dead the most. She sees it as an upstart attempting to usurp her, due to the overlap in their spheres.
• The Apple-of-the-Eye: Both the Watcher and the Apple long for the past, the Mansus that was, even if the Watcher does not altogether remember it. The Apple considers their relationship to be that of good neighbours and occasional allies.
• SWOUP:
• The Archivist:
• The Bright-Delver:
• The Harvester:
• [    ]:
• The Insidious:
• The Snow-Stained:
• The Fanged Bramble:
• The Aged Bones:
• The Mendicant Without:
• The Anvil:
• The Maker:
• The Deceiver:
• The Huntsman:
• The Great Serpent: