The Enemy

## The Enemy (Antonius Septimus)

Mage Antonius Septimus, more commonly known as "The Enemy," is the primary antagonist faced by King Sean and The Watch.

## Name

Yes, real name of “The Enemy” is a wee bit silly. Honestly though, I couldn’t help myself. Antonius Septimus? It was just too perfect to pass up. Not only is it the most Evil Wizard ™ name in the history of Evil Wizards, but… Antonius Septimus… ugh it was just too perfect. A bit cheesy maybe, but GOD IT’S SO PERFECT SO I DON’T CARE.

And that’s not even the best part. What people call The Enemy is kinda like what people called Voldemort in Harry Potter. Those who were scared of him called him “He Who Must Not Be Named,” those who recognized his power but refused to give into fear called him “Voldemort,” and those who wanted to absolutely mock the ever-loving hell out of him called him “Tom.”

Same thing goes for The Enemy. Those who fear him simply call him “The Enemy” (and yes, from now on, I’m gonna start capitalizing that), while those who recognize his power but refuse to give into fear call him his proper title of “Mage Septimus” (or “Lord Septimus” if you followed him).

But if you really want to get on his nerves… you would call him a stupid, ridiculous nickname based on his first name. You would call him “Anti.” I don’t think I have to clue you into how funny this is. The Watch AU doesn’t have the nickname “Glitch Bitch” for The Enemy, because glitches aren’t a thing, so instead, we’re gonna make his goddamn name into an insult. It’s gonna drive him nuts.

Basically, “Anti” is the exact equivalent to “Glitch Bitch” within this universe. Almost every Watcher has called The Enemy “Anti” multiple times, usually when they’re angry or making fun of him. They know it’s probably incurring his wrath even as we speak, but heaven knows, the slight bit of satisfaction in knowing that you hit his ego in the gut feels like a major victory. This entire concept is just so funny to me and I don’t know why, but by GOD I love it so it’s canon now.

On the other side of things, The Enemy is called “The Enemy” for two reasons:

The first has to do with the origin of Anti’s irl name. “Antisepticeye” literally means “Anti Jacksepticeye” or “the opposite of Jacksepticeye.” Since King Sean doesn’t carry the title “Jacksepticeye” in this AU, the name “Antisepticeye” wouldn’t have the same meaning. Calling him “The Enemy” instead preserves that sense of intrinsic opposition to King Sean in his name.

The second is more of a lore explanation. As he made very clear in his recent taunts, The Enemy derives power from our acknowledgment and fear of him and his magic. Though The Watch never knew this for absolute certain until The Enemy sent his infamous message in December 1613, they had their suspicions, and refusing to call Mage Antonius by his true name and title was an initial attempt to limit his power. It didn’t really work, but the name stuck.

## Attire

The Enemy wears a pitch-black robe at all times, even darker than the robe in the image below. Presumably, he wears something under that as well, but it’s probably all black too. No one has ever seen him out of the robe to know for sure. It’s subtle and simple, yet doesn’t hide the pride and entitlement which The Enemy carries with him at all times… much like the dark mage himself.

While rarely used, the insignia of The Enemy is red, black, and green, with any symbol that might have been there violently scratched out. Most believe that The Enemy had planned his insignia ahead of time before realizing that the king wasn’t going to give him a house, and then scratched it out in a rage. No one knows what the original symbol was, although many joke that it was a turtle. These are only jokes, however; there’s nothing to suggest that this was actually the case.

## Powers

The Enemy’s powers are incredibly, terrifyingly undefined. There is only one defining characteristic across all of them: they break the rules. Of magic, of reality, of physics, of time, of the mind and soul… we can’t know what he’s capable of because his abilities defy everything we understand of the world.

Trying to measure the exact strength of The Enemy's powers would be like… I don’t know… like trying to measure the physical effects on objects in a black hole based on the laws of physics we observe on Earth. These are two very, very different sets of rules here, and frankly, we don’t have a metric to compare or understand the one that isn’t our own.

We know what The Enemy can do… but we don’t know what he can’t. We’ve never seen him hit his limits, or if we have, he’s hidden it from us very well. We’re probably only alive because he thrives on toying with us like a parasite.

However, while The Enemy's strange magical abilities seem to break most rules of magic and reality itself, we can guess at some of the specifics. One of those abilities is to take over the minds and bodies of others and turn them into “puppets,” to the point of what could be considered necromancy.

Necromancy is not a field of magic that is ordinarily possible. Many have tried to raise the dead, but this feat is simply beyond the capabilities of an ordinary human. Those who try only succeed in passing out from exhaustion, while others drain so much of their own energy in the process that they join their loved one in a way far different than their intention. Yet we’ve already seen that whatever dark and powerful magic lurks in the forest has given The Enemy powers beyond our understanding of human abilities.

Taking over someone’s mind shouldn’t be possible either; the magic inherent to every soul would push against the invasive magic with equal force, forcing the intruder’s magic to halt just outside of the defender’s mind. No matter how powerful or focused a mage is, their magic will never surpass the concentrated mass of magic found within someone’s mind. The victim himself might be weaker than the invading mage when they attempt to cast a spell in retaliation, but the magic that shines brightly within every single human mind can’t be overcome by the tendrils of magic sent out by another human. No matter what, it will always repel the invasion with equal or greater force than is necessary to keep a human intruder out of the victim’s mind.

However, The Enemy’s magic is stronger than ordinary human magic. It can push beyond the resistance of the magic within a mind and surround the magic in his own dark powers, forcing the mind and its magic to retreat into itself until The Enemy has released his hold upon his victim. Through this, he can control his puppets, both living and dead.

Familiars and other animals cannot be possessed by The Enemy, however. The real-life Anti’s puppeting skills seem to be direct “puppeting,” where you gotta know how the body works to make it function properly. Would The Enemy be able to puppet hundreds of human bodies at once, moving them as a unit like zombies? Yeah, probably. Would he be able to puppet humans and multiple types of animals, each with a different sort of brain and anatomy? Nope. That being said, it would set up some wonderful angst if the human partner is controlled by The Enemy but their familiar is not… but then there's also the hilarious mental image of The Enemy failing at puppeting various sorts of animals, so it all balances out.

The current, most widely accepted theory is that The Enemy's powers stem from some sort of corrupted Fae magic. We know that fae folk have a minor amount of ability to shape the Mortal Realm in weird ways (i.e. Fae Gardens and Changelings), so it's most likely that this nasty magic would also grant the wielder the ability to manipulate or control or affect a fundamental aspect of the mortal realm as well. This is the same corrupted Fae Magic referenced in *The Ranger's Tale*, and is also theorized to be a contributing factor to The Great Dragon War.

If I had to describe what it does to a person/allows a person to do in a single sentence it would probably be something like "grants you control over what you desire/care about most" or something like that. The Enemy wants power/attention/control/followers, so it gives him puppetry abilities. The ranger cared about the forest so it let them help the forest to prosper. Dragons who wanted territory? There's no way to know for sure but it'd probably give them fighting abilities beyond the norm for dragons or something like that, allowing them to try to take as much as possible and forcing the other dragons to try to take them down (forcing a massive war instead of the normal scattered skirmishes) or something like that. Again though, it's still only barely understood.

## Quest for Duilintinn

The Enemy, formerly known as Mage Antonius Septimus, was a young, charismatic mage who met Sean McLoughlin in a pub early in the future ruler’s quest to unite the lands under one banner. Septimus, seeing an opportunity to be greater and more powerful, lent his magic to the cause and became one of the first members of the future king's quest.

King Sean allowed young Septimus to join his cause because something about the mage was fascinating and familiar. Even before he discovered the strange magic in the forest, The Enemy had an ability to draw people in and spark their interest that the future king would need in his quest. Indeed, King Sean was probably a bit affected by this charismatic pull himself.

The King and his followers spent much time in the Western Forest during their quest, and it was here that Septimus discovered the dark, dangerous, and otherworldly magical source that Mage Robin stumbled across years prior. This new, unusual magic gave him the ability to show others illusions and slightly shape reality and time according to his whims.

The group of adventurers that accompanied Sean on his quest to found the kingdom were given the name “The Septic Eyes” after a nasty eye infection left many prominent members of the party sporting swollen peepers for a brief period.

However, that eye infection wasn’t actually an eye infection. Instead, The Enemy was testing the extent of his dark powers while on the quest with the future king and his lords. The magic, which definitely fell under the category of “things that should not be possible according to the laws of magic,” somewhat backfired, resulting in a physical side effect that resembled an eye infection.

If I had to hazard a guess, the Enemy was probably attempting some mind-affecting magic, something that isn’t normally possible due to how magic interacts with other magic. Odds are, The Enemy’s magic still reacted somewhat poorly to being bumped against the magic within his test targets, resulting in the eye infections.

 In appearance, The Enemy and King Sean could have been mistaken for brothers before “everything went to shit”.

After one too many times of being asked if Antonius and Sean were siblings, the members of the quest began to make a game of debating why this was the case.

**Jackie** believed that it was some sort of spark in both of their eyes, one that spoke of fated greatness. Indeed, both men carried an aura of destiny about them as they focused intently on their goals during the quest. Of course, those goals would eventually prove to differ more than they had maybe realized…

**Henrik** would insist that it was simply a coincidence of physiology; they both had the same hair, eye, and skin coloration and were about the same height and build. When he was feeling particularly snappish, Henrik would further explain that they were simply “the most bland, uninteresting, and unextraordinary humans he had ever laid eyes on in this continent.”

**Jameson** would put it slightly kinder, saying that the pair looked the most “normal” of the group. Relative to the others, Antonius and Sean likely looked even more similar to each other than they would normally through sheer contrast. This theory held a lot of merit, especially once they realized that **Chase** could also be passed off as “the blonde sibling” despite his coloration differences due to his own unobtrusive appearance.

However, **Marvin** would later suggest a different reason why Chase could also fit that mold; the longer the young man was a part of the quest, the more he slowly took after Sean in how he held himself when he felt truly confident. If you put Chase next to Antonious, few would believe they were related, but if you throw Sean into the mix, it was easy to see the three being a set.

Even though the two could pass for brothers based on their appearances, once you actually got to know the group, the facade would fall apart almost instantly. Sean and Antonious may have shared a similar goal of uniting the lands, but their methods, personalities, and just about everything else about them were all drastically different. Moreover the smaller details that set their appearances and mannerisms apart from each other would become much more obvious once you’d spend enough time around the group.

As a result, the whole “pretending to be siblings” thing was rarely useful for the quest itself, except in a few unique cases. Most of the time, the coincidence just functioned as a fun inside joke. Jackie and Henrik would bet on how long it’d be until someone else asked if Antonious and Sean were related, while Marvin and Jameson would sometimes just mention the “fact” that they were brothers while passing through a town and watch in stitches as the group tried to figure out if they were likely enough to return to the town for it to be worth the awkwardness of trying to convince people they *weren’t*.

The
 joke even spread to the other groups that had allied with the quest, persisting even into the first decade of Duilintinn’s founding. Of course, once “everything went to shit”, the joke vanished literally overnight. Not only was it in rather poor taste, but The Enemy with his strange new powers and haunting laugh would never again even remotely
resemble the king in his mannerisms. It was as if he were a completely different person, although most agree that, looking back, the signs of something amiss were there. The dark power he discovered had just fueled all of those things and brought them all to the surface.
It’s a bit sad, if you think about it. To this day, we don’t know how much of
the camaraderie that Antonius shared with the rest of the quest group was real.

## Post-Founding

He studied this magic with Mage Robin for many years in King Sean’s court in Cordoire, forming a bond with the king’s brother that few fully understand. Mage Robin has revealed little of what they learned of this magic in their studies, saying only that it seems to defy all known laws of magic and that it was too terrifying and dangerous to reflect upon, but he did mention that blood and possibly fear played a major role in strengthening and fueling its power.

When King Sean started naming his lords, Septimus fully expected to be titled. In fact, many of his followers began prematurely calling him “Lord.”

So, why wasn’t Mage Septimus given a house and title? The answer is actually surprisingly simple.

While King Sean respected the mage for his charisma and magical abilities, he never planned to give Septimus a position of power. King Sean founded the kingdom to bring joy and connection to the land, and he chose lords who would make that happen. Lord Jackie was an optimistic protector. Lord Marvin was an enthusiastic entertainer and trailbreaker. Lord Schneeplestein was a vivacious doctor. Lord Brody was a tenacious father. Lord Jameson was an expressive communicator. Everyone that King Sean titled had some skill or trait that allowed them to bring the people together and give some vibrancy to their lives.

However, The Enemy- though fascinating and powerful- had no such traits. King Sean knew that The Enemy was a useful person to have around, but poorly suited for ruling a house. Besides, Mage Septimus and Mage Robin seemed to be enjoying their studies together, though this wasn’t King Sean’s main reason for keeping Mage Septimus in the court and not giving him a house. King Sean simply thought that Mage Septimus was not well suited for the task.

This infuriated Septimus. He believed that he deserved a title and the power it bestowed. To him, lordship wasn’t a responsibility, but an award. An end goal. He wanted a small place to rule for himself and was infuriated that the king gave that to others instead. In his mind, “not well suited for the task” translated to “not worthy,” and The Enemy felt insulted, mocked, and replaced.

When Septimus realized that the king did not intend to title him, he plotted his revenge.

## War

Using his own blood and the magic of Hallows Eve to strengthen his strange powers (which were much weaker at the time) and a simple knife, he attacked the king and fled into the Western Forest. The attack left The Enemy with a scar across his neck that is constantly bleeding, though we don’t know if this is due to the dark magic it powered or if The Enemy is intentionally reopening it.

From here, our knowledge of The Enemy’s doings is entirely based on theory. We are fairly certain that he returned to the source of his magic, growing stronger and more powerful. We think that these stronger abilities are what allowed him to take over the minds of others, if only temporarily. Based on the order of events and abnormal circumstances surrounding each famine, we’re pretty sure that The Enemy’s ability to bend reality is how he caused the famines on Lord Brody’s land. Despite the lack of subtlety in The Overnight Defense, we know almost nothing about what The Enemy’s goals were that day, or if he succeeded. We know that he has monstrous creatures under his control, but no idea how or why he recruited them. We know that Lord Brody encountered The Enemy or his agents on the road based on the magical evidence, but nothing of what happened afterwards. We are, in fact, almost completely in the dark.

### Raids

The raids are aimed towards scaring the kingdom into paranoia and disarray, undermining their faith in the king and lords ability to rule and protect them, and weakening the kingdom as a whole. They are much more psychological warfare than anything else. Destruction of homes, resources, and livelihoods, planting the nasty influence-of-the-enemy curse thing in people's heads, spreading fear and reminding everyone exactly what threat lies waiting to get them.

You will have casualties, but they rarely wipe out everyone. They want lots of people spreading around the tales and looking behind their shoulder for another attack for the rest of their lives. The more attention anti gets, the better for him, after all.

In general, there will be more of The Enemy's forces in the western forest during raids, even if they aren't attacking anywhere near the forest. the forest is the enemy's main base of operations; even though he's managed to sneak his way into the kingdom's borders and is now coordinating attacks on all fronts, a lot of his troops would still be coming from that direction. They probably cut over the mountains because minions don't feel pain like cold or hunger or normal environmental dangers and it would keep them away from being detected. Watchers patrol the full range of the borders, of course, but they can't cover every inch of the ground every second of every day.

In his attacks against the kingdom, The Enemy clearly hates Lord Brody and his house specifically. The fact that Septimus wasn’t worthy of a title but Brody was???? Ohhhhh the rage. The absolute rage it created. The Enemy could understand why the first three lords were chosen, though he still holds them in great disdain, hatred, and jealousy, but Lord Brody is a living, breathing insult that must be exposed for the absolute failure he is. To this end, The Enemy has set war and famine upon House Brody time and again, hoping to destroy him and his house and prove who is more worthy of leadership. Of course, King Sean chose Lord Brody for his compassion, struggles, and perseverance and bravery in the face of tragedy, but The Enemy sees only weakness in these things. He will not rest until the house that should have been his is destroyed.

## Followers

The king’s refusal to give the enemy a house of his own is actually one of the reasons he plagues King Sean and his kingdom to this day, but that doesn't mean that The Enemy hasn't built up a following of his own since his rise to power. Some follow him outright, others quietly sympathize with him from within The Watch itself, and some have no choice but to follow him.

### Spies

People who see The Enemy and wanted to be on the “winning” side, who are disillusioned with the house system and how it failed them, who were exiled, who see the fallen/missing lords and lose faith in them, and others like these might turn to The Enemy for power, stability, revenge, etc. After all, in a kingdom focused on looking out for others, if that system fails to look out for you... you'll take matters into your own hands. The Enemy's empahsis on power and what you can do for yourself, likely holds an appeal to these people.

Unlike puppets, they swear fealty to him, working under him without being explicitly controlled by his power. They become spies, sleeper cells who join the Watch under a false identity or become a turncoat while already within the Watch, feeding the Enemy their secrets. These spies are how The Enemy is always watching. It’s not a matter of true omnipotence, but a masterful army of spies that are 100% loyal only to him.

In a way, one could call these spies The Enemy's version of The Watch. Just like the Enemy is the opposite of King Sean's kingdom because the enemy is all about seeking stuff out for yourself and King Sean is all about sharing what you have and spreading love and cooperation and all that, The Enemy's watch is a bunch of individuals all infiltrating on their own with knowledge of the others but very little cooperation, while The Watch is incredibly interconnected and reliant on the other branches of it

The hilarious thing is that these spies are so cut off from The Enemy, that they're acting more on what they THINK he would want rather than actual communication. More like an ideal. The concept of spies is still a scary angsty concept, but also THEY HAVE NO CONTACT WITH THE ENEMY TECHNICALLY. These are just people who are like "oh this guy sounds cool let's get him to like us" and then do everything they can to undermine The Watch or the lords despite the fact that THEY HAVEN'T SPOKEN TO THE ENEMY A DAY IN THEIR LIFE. Just, "oh sweet, powerful evil dude with tons of power? I don't wanna cross him whoops guess I'm now a spy for him." Y'know the average response to people more powerful than you.

### Unnatural Creatures

These are various monstrous or demonic creatures under The Enemy’s control. They fill his ranks, along with those poor human souls who have been convinced or forced to join his side. These creatures are entirely based on the strange things seen in the cameras during The Overnight Watch. They look and act more or less the same, except within the context of a fantasy AU and a lot more violent. Men with the heads of beasts, strange, faceless creatures that skitter on the ground, and pale feminine demons with hair over their eyes are all examples of these creatures.

I don’t expect to go too deep into where they came from or what exactly they are, since *The Watch* doesn’t know that, but they do still exist and they are very scary bad bad. After all, there are so many monsters and animals in the Western Forest that are magical and weird looking that I wouldn't be surprised if Anti either bred or recruited them for his forces. The main thing to know about these creatures is that they aren't puppets, so that'll probably affect how they fight and attack. Certainly, there would be less restraint... ;)

## Puppets

Puppets are people under the control of The Enemy's magic in some way.

While this power takes a variety of different forms, there are a few key signs that are consistently found in all types of puppetry. People affected by The Enemy’s magic, including the Lords themselves, have experienced itching or irritation of the eyes prior to a spike in The Enemy’s control, influence, or simple presence. In extreme cases, bleeding from the eyes can occur. Clearly, while The Enemy has far more control over the effects of his magic than he once did, some part of the mortal world and the magic within it still reacts negatively to his unnatural powers.

To review how magic *should* work: Souls are made of condensed magical energy. Mages can harness that energy with an ideological focus to influence the world around them. The magic they use is still connected to the soul, and will eventually return. Since the soul is the source of a person’s sentience and identity, the magic within each person is completely unique. Like oil and water, different magics will not mix, and often react violently when colliding with each other. As a result, any attempts to magically tamper with someone else’s soul- either to change their personality, control their actions, or read their mind- are destined to fail, potentially backfiring to the point of psychologically harming those who try.

However, The Enemy can influence the minds of others, even taking complete control of their actions against their will. We don’t know what allows him to break the laws of magic, but we do know how these unnatural powers work. Remember how I said that magic is connected to the soul? Well, The Enemy can manipulate that “string” of connection, even if his target isn’t a mage. There are three types of this control: Influence, Living Puppet, and Dead Puppet.

### Influence Curse

Influence is the most common type of control. Here, The Enemy will grab a small “string” of the target’s soul magic and replace it with his own. This is a single, instantaneous trade, with two effects:

* The target will always have a tiny part of The Enemy within their soul, causing unusual thoughts and impulses that correspond to his own. It’s basically a horcrux, only in return…
* The Enemy now holds a part of the target’s soul magic hostage. This magic will always want to return to the corresponding soul, effectively allowing The Enemy to track the target.

In addition, some victims claim they also feel drawn to the Western Forest. It’s if their soul is trying to compensate by seeking out the absent magic, rather than vice versa.

Influence is not a progressive condition. The victim will never have their soul completely drained and replaced with The Enemy’s will. If The Enemy does do this, it would be considered a “Dead Puppet,”

Unlike with Living Puppets, The Enemy knows very little about the people under the Influence Curse. Imagine that you're in school; there are people who you see every day whose faces you sorta know, and maybe know a few things about them, but you never knew their name or spent time with them? That's kinda what people under the influence curse are to The Enemy. There are so many jumbled up bits of souls he's snatched that he's not really paying attention to the individuals; it's just about getting as many people paying attention and spreading that unease as possible. Which is kinda a slap in the face if you think about it. You've had The Enemy’s voice in your head all this time and he only sorta remembers you might have kids? Ow.

Most instances of the Influence Curse occurred during raids, especially the Overnight Defense. Unless there are Watchers under the age of 10, almost everyone currently in The Watch would have been alive for The Overnight Defense, when the enemy was within the borders of the kingdom to do as he wished. We might have won that battle, but we don’t actually know what his real plans were than night, or if he succeeded. It’s not at all unlikely that the enemy took this opportunity to plant seeds of delusion or sympathy for his cause into the minds of King Sean’s citizens. This is called The Enemy's Influence, or simply the Influence Curse.

Any sort of defensive spell that keeps out unwanted magical influences (especially wards) or detect magic are going to react to The Enemy’s influence over someone’s mind. This means that your everyday commoner who has been affected by the enemy will likely never know about it. However, among The Watch, a group specifically designed to look for The Enemy’s magic… yeaaaaaah they’ll definitely know. Any mage casting a spell with the intent of detecting enemy magic will notice immediately. However, as stated above, this isn’t abnormal. Almost every Watcher who fought in The Overnight Defense pings as slightly affected, and while there was lots of panic over this immediately after the event, no one really freaks over it now.

A detection spell will simply detect that the person is affected, nothing more. A defensive spell or ward would likely cause slight resistance (like walking against a wind or current), but since the enemy influence is not nearly as strong or concentrated as the full magic of the enemy, the spell wouldn’t take full effect. Even if the spell was created with the intent to damage an enemy, it wouldn’t have enough effect to kill you, and since so many people are slightly affected by The Enemy’s magic, no one in The Watch is dumb enough to actually cast a spell like that.

If you’re a commoner living in an area with very few magical detection or defensive spells against the enemy, no one is ever probably going to know. If a detection spell bumps into you, the person who casted it will know, but likely not take much note, since lots of people are like that. If a defensive spell or ward slows you down for a bit, it’ll depend on how perceptive your companions are and how good you are at playing the effect off.

He knows of people under the Influence Curse, a little bit of their soul is attached to him, but because there's so many people under the Influence Curse, he doesn't pay much attention, nor does he really care. It's little bits to file away for later and quickly scan for relevance if necessary.

### Living Puppets

Living Puppets are the least common type of control. In this case, The Enemy grabs a “string” of the target’s soul magic, holding it like a leash. By physically manipulating these strings, The Enemy can “puppet” his victim to do his will.

Note that, in this instance, “physically” implies manipulation without inherent change. The soul remains the same as it once was; nothing changes about the victim’s identity or personality. They are simply unable to control their thoughts and will.

While magic exists that can repel or detect the magic of The Enemy to a certain degree, you can’t use this magic to sever the connection between the enemy and their target once it’s been made. The inherent connection between one’s magic and soul is stronger than any magic barrier a person could create with a part of their soul magic. Even if you tried to surround a puppet with magical barriers, the “string” of magic between the enemy and the puppet would remain sound, like a stream of water slipping through invisible holes in fabric, or particles of radiation passing through our cells.

The only way a living puppet can be freed is if they resist The Enemy's control from within. After all, these “strings” of magic are constantly trying to return to their source. If the soul is strong enough, it can wrest back control, like a dog yanking their leash out of someone’s hand. This is the *only* way for a living puppet to be saved unless The Enemy himself releases control, but it's not uncommon for strong-willed victims to successfully free themselves. As a result, most instances of living puppets are captured and tortured by The Enemy first, breaking their will and making them easier to keep under control. Some suspect that Watchers who went missing during the Overnight Defense may have met such a fate…

There are obviously moral qualms about killing living puppets during raids and such, but the situation doesn't come up very often. Recognizing a puppet as someone you know and care about is the ultimate psychological breakpoint. This is true regardless of if they're living or dead, but it's especially bad if they're living. Anti has an endless source of dead puppets he uses for his run-of-the-mill psychological warfare, but he'll want to save the living ones for when he's sure they'll hurt someone the most. Torturing new living puppets, infiltration, fake-out "hey look they're not dead!" reunions, etc. Living puppets are just too difficult to keep a hold on and too useful in the right situations to be thrown away in everyday raids.

And, while being forced to kill someone you care about is a good way to mess with someone, Anti knows that having control over someone they care about and taunting them with it is FAR worse. That gives the target hope. That gives them an obsession. They want to free this person. They dedicate their life to it. It makes them focus on Anti, bringing him more of that obsessive, focused attention that he thrives upon. He doesn't have their soul in the literal sense, but he may as well control it just like all of the other puppets.

Plus, someone who knows their loved one is dead will probably dedicate themselves to the goals of The Watch, in revenge or penance or whatever. On the other hand, someone who is obsessively trying to save their loved one, at the cost of anything else... that's not a very good Watcher, is it? In short, Anti rarely gives people the chance to kill his living puppets. He usually taunts people with small sightings of their loved one, before yanking them out of reach once again.

This version of The Enemy’s magic also gives him access to people’s memories. His magic gets inside people's heads and latches onto their souls, so the longer he has a living puppet under his control, the more he's gonna know about their life. And loved ones are a big part of that. If you remember the question about not killing puppets and how anti uses living puppets, he does use this info to get to people in a personal way. And obviously he knows people under the influence to a certain extent. So yes, technically, he knows of individual citizens. However, he rarely takes an interest in them. All these people are kinda just like little pieces of information he files away for later. Of course, when he's puppeting someone, it's really easy for him to do a quick soul check and go "oh yeah, that's the sister" if need be, but to him, it's only as interesting as maybe double-checking the technical term for a toy your pet likes playing with. Not my best metaphor, but you get the idea.

### Dead Puppets

Dead Puppets are the grunts of The Enemy’s army. While it’s impossible to return the soul to its physical form after death, The Enemy can feed his own soul magic into the empty shell, effectively reanimating the corpse.

These are the strange creatures that joined The Enemy on the night of The Overnight Defense, which had never been seen in the kingdom prior to that fateful battle but have haunted the borders of the kingdom ever since. With barely enough soul magic to power their decaying forms, these corpses are fragile, brainless, and weak. Their advantage is in sheer numbers and psychological horror.

A dead mind no longer contains the spark of magic attempting to repel The Enemy’s invasive magic, so long as the corpse contains some structural integrity, it would be The Enemy’s to do with as he wished. If a corpse is not disposed of quickly (an impossible task during deadly raids or plagues) and then vanishes, there's a good chance that the body has been recruited to The Enemy's vast forces.

Theoretically, The Enemy would eventually run out of soul magic to spread among his victims, but this is not the case. Just as his soul violates the laws of magic by interacting with the magic of others, it is also unnaturally eternal.

The Watch believes that The Enemy’s soul is no longer mortal. Something unnatural has consumed him, granting him endless access to its unending power in return for his once-mortal soul and the souls of countless others.

## Other Known Tactics

Okay, so y’all know how Magical Focuses work, right? More specific = more power, but less versatility, and vice versa. Easy math, right?

Wrong. Because nothing in life is that simple, and magic least of all.

There’s another variable to the strength of one’s magical abilities; amount of passion (i.e. the more of their soul) that someone puts into what they’re doing with magic.

So for example, if someone is really passionate about construction, they would be able to lift heavier stones with their magic than someone who’s just doing it for a job.

This means that, the more passion and enthusiasm that Watchers pour into their duties within The Watch, the stronger that many of their magical talents will become. Stronger wards to keep The Enemy’s forces away, stronger enchantments to detect traces of The Enemy’s magic, stronger firepower in combat, etc.

Which in turn… would be a *tactical* explanation for why The Enemy loves to go completely and utterly silent for months on end sometimes. He knows that inaction drives The Watch crazy, but until now, I assumed he just wanted to mess with our heads, maybe cause a bit of internal conflict as tensions rise.

By wearing down The Watch’s resolve with long periods of silence, The Enemy is literally, tangibly wearing down our ability to magically counteract his plans. After all, there is no greater enemy of passion but listlessness and despair.

Which means that, when he does suddenly pop up again, our defenses are down both mentally and magically. His return will bring about a resurgence of energy within The Watch, yes, but that won’t undo the damage he can do while we are weakened in this way.

This, combined with the sheer unpredictable and unknowable power of our foe, would explain both how his forces keep managing to sneak into Duilintinn and why The Watch is far more reactive than it is actively preventive.

### Knowing the Watch

As we’ve established, The Enemy isn’t omniscient enough to get to know the citizens of Duilintinn on an individual level. However, despite that, he can usually tell when someone is a Watcher.

Granted, this is usually because most Watchers will up and announce that fact if they come face-to-face with his forces, unless they’re a scout or some other stealthy role.

More than that, however, there’s usually an air of defiance, awareness, and even optimism underlying the fear that most people feel when facing such a threat. In a single phrase, Watchers exude an aura of hope.

Watchers truly believe that The Enemy is not invincible and can be beaten (or at least pushed back). Otherwise, why would they dedicate themselves to The Watch, if they didn’t believe that they stood a chance and their efforts mattered?

The Enemy *hates* this. It’s one of the reasons we believe he’s trying to sow despair, aimlessness, and discord within The Watch. So not only can he tell if someone is a Watcher, but he’ll take the first opportunity to break that spirit of hope if he has the chance…

It’s not personal against the individual… more just a general disgust with The Watch itself. And hey, that probably means we’re doing something right… right?

### Captive Watchers

This is more specualtion about known abilities and tactics rather than actual canon.

 the only way The Enemy can indefinitely control a living puppet is if the soul stops fighting against the control.

However,due to the “spirit of hope”, many Watchers are harder to break. Turns out, hopelessness is one of the key emotions The Enemy exploits in his unnatural magic.

Most Watchers who go MIA in the Western Forest or in the aftermath of a raid/skirmish have most likely been captured by The Enemy’s forces. Those that return are usually under The Enemy’s control as living puppets, being used to taunt or distract other Watchers in a later fight, leaving them vulnerable to capture… and so the cycle goes.

However, what happens in between? How does The Enemy break the spirits of so many Watchers, who are notoriously firm in their beliefs?

(TW, this gets dark)

Imagine a captured Watcher, incapacitated and bound somewhere in the Western Forest. There, they are forced to watch for hours as a seemingly endless line of puppets parades in front of them.

At first, the Watcher might think that this is some form of psychological intimidation or torture… but eventually, a familiar face would walk past.

Almost every Watcher knows someone who went missing, whose body was never recovered after The Enemy’s forces fled from a skirmish. Even if their fate was never confirmed, everyone knows what likely happened.

Still, it’s one thing to know, and another thing to witness them under The Enemy’s control. Their eyes might pass over them without a sliver of recognition, or worse, The Enemy allows them a moment of control, to react, to call for help, before snatching it away again.

Who wouldn’t react to seeing that?

Even if it’s only the slightest flinch, The Enemy knows what to look for. And now he knows exactly which of his puppets are dear to the stubborn, captive Watcher.

If it’s a dead puppet, The Enemy can certainly use the corpse to mess with The Watcher’s head plenty. But if it’s a living puppet, he can skim through their memories to figure out exactly what
their relationship was… and then the fun truly begins.

If the Enemy can’t mess with a captive Watcher using a puppet
already under his control, he’ll resort to ‘plan b’, typical ways of breaking someone’s spirit. Puppeting them for short amounts of time and torturing them with the guilt of what they might have done while under his control, standard non-puppetry means of magical and mundane inhumane treatment and torture, and, if absolutely nothing breaks them, eventually just killing them and using the body as a dead puppet.

Depending on how much a Watcher has already processed the fact that their loved ones might be a puppet and has made their with/hardened their heart to that fact, the Enemy might have to resort to these means anyway to get them full under control even if he does have a puppet to mess with them.