Shadow Watch (New Kingdoms)

Shadow Watch
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Leader	Nelfyion (former), Sorin Steelfang (former), Raydin Steelfang (former), Siris Steelfang (current)
Locations	Global
Headquarters	College of Winterhold (nominally). No fixed HQ
Key Members	Raydin Steelfang Siris Steelfang Horus Steelfang Nelfyion Claude Vauban Louis Cyphre Divayth Fyr Mannimarco the second Agustus Cicero (Deceased) Tavion Koranus Driftwood +six deceased members Sorin Steelfang (former) Alyssa Steelfang (former)
Alignment	Unaligned, biased against the daedra
Enemies	Daedric and Cosmic Threats
Founder	Nelfyion, Divayth Fyr, Louis Cyphre
Founding	Second Era

The Shadow Watch is an organization that fights cosmic threats such as daedra. All members are extremely powerful battlemages who are adept as large scale energy projection and sword combat.

History[]

Originally created in deep secret in the second era, after the invasion of Molag Bal, by Nelfyion, Louis Cyphre and Divayth Fyr, to prevent repeat events. The three mages were unable to prevent the Oblivion crisis themselves, thus they went about recruiting new members.

The Shadow Watch grew to encompass 13 members by the fourth era. The number was reduced to seven after Tarrov's summoning of Mora, but increased to nine after Tavion and Koranus were inducted into the organization. Siris and Horus, sons of the Battlemage Raydin, later joined.

Most of the Shadow Watch later joined the void when they realized their purpose was rendered futile by the change in the conditions of the land. They thus avoided the destruction of the Aurbis by joining the mental network as beings of pure energy.

Defining features[]

The Shadow Watch is not simply a circle of very powerful magi, although it appears so at first glance. In fact, there are three key features that all Shadow Watch members share.

Firstly, all Shadow Watch members have manipulated souls that are bound to themselves. It creates a paradoxical loop which makes them immortal, completely immune to poisons and diseases and immune to daedric corruption. Shadow Watch members are also immune to soul trap. Their souls become Animus like, allowing some more powerful members of the Shadow Watch to rebirth from Aetherius if they die. Not all are capable of rebirth, though.

Secondly, all members have a skill that allows them to generate magicka without harvesting it from Aetherius. This technique allows the members to regenerate magicka constantly, without being affected by other influences. This regeneration is so fast, the magicka flowing from Aetherius is considered negligible.

Lastly, all members wear special self repairing armor that can be banished and summoned at will. They also carry nigh unbreakable swords that feature enchantments that never deplete. Their swords all possess sentience and in the hands of anyone else other than their wielder, they do not manifest the enchantments placed on them. Most of the swords don't even require the Shadow Watch member to hold them to use them.

All Shadow Watch members and some non members are capable of communication via a psionic network that cannot be accessed by anyone else. This allows them to share information instantaneously. It was created by Nelfyion in the earliest days of the Shadow Watch, refined and made into it's current form by Sorin and Alyssa, later strenghtened by Raydin, Annalyse and Siris to make it totally impermeable.

All Shadow Watch members are also known to be able to fly, although that is a coincidence, for all of them mastered a form of flying before they joined. Most can summon wings of some kind to aid in flying, or turn into intangible mist entities. (all the Steelfangs possess wings)

Current members[]

Raydin Steelfang[]

Main article: Raydin Steelfang

Raydin Steelfang is the former leader of the Shadow Watch and the second most powerful member. He is also an adept reality warper, and possesses many great abilities and spells. Raydin has many bloods flowing in him, predominantly Breton blood, from his mother. Raydin possesses a generally apathetic and irresponsible demeanor, and hardly does any work, leaving it to his underlings

Still, Raydin has shown himself to be insightful and intelligent when required. Raydin is known to be handsome, in a feminine way and is also known to enjoy erotic stories ... a bit too much, especially for an Archmage.

Refer to the article for more information.

Siris Steelfang[]

Main article: Siris Steelfang

Siris is the son of Raydin and Astrid, who has exceeded his father in powers and a very, very powerful man who can manipulate logic, reality and even imaginary concepts. As the Archmage who succeeded his father Raydin, Siris knows all conventional magic in existence, and most unconventional ones. He is the leader of the Shadow Watch currently. Siris has a nordic mother, but he is still considered by many as a sort of raceless Half Breed, given the many different races of his ancestors. He rejects the very concept of being labelled as a Nord, even if his mother was one.

Siris is known to have a serious and very emotionless attitude towards life, analyzing things, even people, as statistical objects and scientific curiosities. He has shown considerable affection for friends, though, so his emotionless state many be a facade ... or maybe he really only feels for this friends.

Refer to article for more information.

Horus Steelfang[]

Main article: Horus Steelfang

Horus is the son of Raydin and Virlomi. He manipulates the powers of entropy and chaos to destroy his foes, and is also extremely adept at energy projection. Horus, unlike his brother Siris, is a full blooded divinity, because both his parents are technically gods, even if he's still considered a demigod. Horus has shown himself to be very lax in Shadow Watch duties, and prefers to do his own things.

Horus has a generally cavalier attitude towards many things, and he tends not to use his considerable intellect, especially around ladies, even though he truly is a very intelligent man with deep insight into the world. Horus doesn't care much for those around him, except his friends and siblings.

Refer to the article for more information.

Octavian Cicero[]

Main article: Octavian Cicero

Son of Agustus Cicero and a new member of the Shadow Watch, after his father died. Refer to the article for more information.

Nelfyion[]

A powerful Psijic, one of the founders of and the first leader of the Shadow Watch, Nelfyion is an Altmer who strangely does not share his brethren's common distaste for the other races. He is of generally friendly deposition and rarely gets agitated. He is the oldest member of the Shadow Watch, as he's a few eras old. Nelfyion looks like a middle aged magus with golden eyes and a relatively human looking face, for an elf.

Nelfyion is capable of massive scale energy projection, dimensional warping, teleportation, mass transport of other beings, precognition and mental magic. He is known to be able to link telepathically to multiple individuals and served as a communications hub, although in this role he has been superseded by the mental network. Nelfyion rarely participates in open combat. Of the Shadow Watch, he has the poorest hand to hand combat skills, but he is not to be underestimated in close combat. He is capable of defeating multiple Akaviri blade masters in sword combat.

Louis Cyphre[]

A Breton sorcerer who is is the very opposite of magic - instead of firing magicka at others, he absorbs all of it. Louis Cyphre was originally a wizard who dedicated his life to creating a spell that could defeat all other mages. He succeeded in creating his magicka devouring powers, at the cost of his own usage of magicka. It also started to make him age in the reverse, thus he looks the youngest among the Shadow Watch, at about 17 years of age. Louis also was the one who created the procedure to bind his soul to his own soul, which prevented him from regressing into an infant and granted him immortality. This was the "Shadow Watch procedure".

Louis Cyphre is capable of negating the magic and powers of any being, at range or by touch. His power negating aura around him prevents magic and powers from being used and Louis can expand or reduce the size of his aura. Louis also can tear out the magicka, stamina and life of any individual with his power, or completely negate all their abilities. Energies torn out of others can be absorbed to replenish his own reserves, redirected as fatal projectiles or just dissipated directly. Louis is also the most capable swordsman in the Shadow Watch, possibly capable of defeating even Raydin as he might be able to negate Raydin's powers. His powers also make him immune to all forms of magic, powers and energies, thus only true physical damage inflicted by a physical weapon can hurt him. He was incapable of negating Sylarys' great powers during the invasion of Molag Bal, although that could be due to Sylarys' massive scale reality warping, which shielded her from Louis' unnatural power. Sylarys was unable to hurt Louis at all.

After continuous training, Louis is capable of projecting his stamina as a weapon, either as claw like projectiles, energy blasts, bolts and beams or directly scratching the opponent, tearing them apart. His stamina also seems infinite and regenerates at unrealistic speeds. His hands turn into claws covered with blue fire when performing such an attack. His power negation abilities seemed to have improved to be able to negate anything. Louis can even stop weapons with his palms.

Divayth Fyr[]

A powerful Dunmer mage who massively extended his lifespan before even receiving the Shadow Watch procedure. He is the most well known of the Shadow Watch and is said to have met the Nerevarine before. He is well acquainted with the daedric realm of Oblivion and various forms of obscure magic.

Divayth is capable of performing powerful elemental magic and uses mainly Pyrokinesis in the fourth era, although he is said to know other forms. He can also use powerful incantations to draw upon the power of Oblivion and Aetherius to perform devastatingly powerful spells, such as summoning a rain of meteors, banishing daedric princes, mass necromancy or a rain of solar flares. He is vulnerable to attack while performing such incantations, though. He is actually surprisingly good with using swords and he uses a daedric katana covered with glowing runes. He uses the sword to channel his incantation magic as well, to increase precision of his attacks.

Claude Vauban[]

A Breton Battlemage who is also a vampire. Vauban was originally a member of the Volkihar court, turned by Lord Harkon into a terrifying monstrosity. His moral compass prevented him from committing mass evil and he eventually split from the court with considerable acrimony. He was the first vampire lord who was able to use his vampire lord abilities without transforming and he slowly lost the ability to transform, except for opening his pair of vampire lord wings for flight. He was inducted into the Shadow Watch after he joined the College of Winterhold, when Nelfyion was still a member. He is now the Master Wizard. Vauban is known to love his beard and he has a strange taste for exotic material of unsavoury content.

Vauban is capable of extremely high level electrokinesis that he can use to rapidly decimate armies. However, his electrokinetic abilities pale in comparison to his ability to manipulate kinetic energy, giving him the ability to perform Pyrokinesis, Cryokinesis, Molecular manipulation, Atomic manipulation, telekinesis, wind control, extreme mobility, flight and healing across the Aurbis, even with no line of sight. His reception of Raydin Steelfang's blood gives him the ability to manipulate life forces in addition his his vampiric skills. Vauban also can teleport by traveling through Apocrypha and he also has photokinetic powers. It is possible that he can manipulate all four fundemental forces, even though he never showed control over gravity. His control over swords is uncanny and he is one of the best swordsman in the Shadow Watch, after Raydin, Siris and Louis. Despite his abilities, Vauban nominally is not the second most powerful Magus in the Shadow Watch, as his powers do supposedly have limitations, but he is one of the most powerful members, if not the true second most powerful.

Mannimarco the Second (Rythiel)[]

Mannimarco the Second was a bastard child of the worm god himself, originally named Rythiel by his Altmer mother, whom he grew up with. Since he was a child, Rythiel showed an extreme affinity for conjuration magic and had the ability to stare into people's souls. An accident with his powers killed his mother and he began to train so he could control his abilities. Eventually, he became one of the most powerful necromancers to ever live, but he stayed out of the spotlight of fame. Rythiel changed his name to Mannimarco after he learnt of his birth story.

Mannimarco wields cryokinesis as his normal attack magic, which he can put to devastating effect, freezing and shattering even undead enemies or spirits. He can manipulate thousands of souls at once, allowing him to perform mass soul tears to kill many people at once, use souls as projectiles or explosives and raise thousands of dead. Mannimarco can also summon and banish undead with ease due to his powers. He is constantly solicited by the Ideal Masters, but he simply ignores them, even though he will summon and utilize Bonemen, Wrathmen and Mistmen in battle. Mannimarco can cast Soul Snares as well. He can devour souls to heal himself in battle. Mannimarco is a decent swordsman, but he is dependent on using the special powers of his sword during fencing. He can punch souls out of an opponent's body in hand to hand combat.

Agustus Cicero, Imperial Battlemage.[]

Agustus is a former Grand Imperial Battlemage. His past is murky and not many know that he was originally a bandit who somehow sneaked off to Akavir. He learnt many powers from the mages there, mainly from Tsaesci and some from the Kamal. It is unknown why he was not killed and/or eaten by the Akaviri, as they are known to do to humans and mer. Agustus was also the one who developed the technique that allowed him to create illusory copies of himself that can cast spells, which Raydin, Siris and Octavian learnt. He was killed in The New Kingdoms chapter 7 by Adawulf as he had foreseen his death. He did not rebirth from Aetherius as he had no will to live on.

Agustus is capable of extreme levels of photokinesis and energy projection, on a scale large enough to siege a city on his own, by directly ejecting massive magicka flares from himself or calling directly upon the magic of Magnus, through the space and time. He can create and control nearly 500 copies of himself, all capable of casting powerful spells and all will detonate violently if dispelled. He is the only Shadow Watch who fights with a duel wielding style, carrying his sword in his right hand and a bound sword in his left, should the need arise. Agustus is also the one who hates close combat the most, despite his capabilities with weaponry.

Tavion[]

Main Article: Tavion Wolfbrood

Tavion is a powerful vampire Battlemage who was inducted into the Shadow Watch. He was originally a warrior in the Wolf guard of Whiterun, but after he was turned by Sylarys, he gained the abilities of a Steelfang vampire and he also proved to learn magic at an extreme rate. His magical skills were learnt from Nelfyion, Raydin, Vauban and Mannimarco the Second. He is rumoured to be the up and coming second most powerful mage in the Shadow Watch, before Sylarys took him away. His fate is currently unknown, although it can be assumed he is living happily with Sylarys.

Tavion is capable of manipulating kinetic energy, giving him the ability to perform Pyrokinesis, Cryokinesis, Molecular manipulation, Atomic manipulation, telekinesis, wind control, extreme mobility, flight and a healing factor. He received blood from Sylarys and so is a full blooded Steelfang Vampire. He can also tear souls and manipulate them like Mannimarco the Second after studying souls magic. Finally, like Nelfyion, Tavion can perform massive scale energy projection and limited mental magic. His former life as a lycanthropic warrior grants him a decent level of skill over the sword. Tavion practically was nigh omnipotent, lacking omniscience and omnipresence only (although he could teleport.

Koranus Driftwood[]

Koranus is a Maormer battlemage and former sailor. He was a captain in the navy who was given a dishonourable discharge after his actions caused the deaths of many of his own side, even though it eventually led to a victory, as he summoned a massive hurricane over the seas, keeping his fleet in the eye of the storm. Koranus learned his powers on his own and he was only inducted into the Shadow Watch for his efforts to exorcise Sylarys. He is also in line to become the next conjuration head if the current one dies or retires. He is currently just a conjuration teacher in the College of Winterhold, having put his days as a naval captain far behind him.

Koranus is capable of creating and controlling water in an extreme show of hydrokinesis. He can even dehydrate an opponent completely, or tear their blood from them. Koranus can also perform extreme electrokinesis. When combined, Koranus can summon thunderstorms or use a unique, plasma based magic, which he uses to form wings for flight as well as for combat, where they prove to be an extremely effective substitute for fire spells. It is created by passing electricity through water and ionizing it. Koranus is also an extremely powerful conjurer and is able to use soul magic or summon many, many daedra. He can also summon spectral sea serpents even deep inland, which prevents him from being limited to sea battles. His left eye can see anything that exists. He is also an excellent swordsman, due to his considerable experience with sea borne sword fights, which also gives Koranus far better balance than any other swordsman. He is nearly Louis Cyphre's equal with the sword.

Candidates[]

Trivia[]

The Shadow Watch are loosely based on a fusion between the Grey Knights of the Warhammer universe and the Illuminati.
Most of the members of the Shadow Watch are perverts, as can be evidenced from their behaviour in The New Kingdoms.
There are people who have a soul similar to the Shadow Watch members, but are not members of the Watch.
There has never been a Shadow Watch member that was a werewolf and part of the Watch. Tavion was turned into a vampire before he joined.
All the Shadow Watch are male. Alyssa was the only female Shadow Watch member, but she was not considered a full member.
There was never a Khajiti Shadow Watch member. The closest is J'zargo, who is only a candidate.
Louis Cyphre's sword is based on the Infinity Blade from the game Infinity Blade 2.
Koranus' sword is based on the Dragoor Blade from Infinity Blade 2.
Divayth's sword is based on the Muramasa blades commonly found in games. Basically, cursed swords.
Tavion's sword is based on the Ember Edge sword available for the dragonknight character in DoTA 2. Coincidentally, the knight is called Davion.
All the Shadow Watch, except for Tavion and Raydin, possess a flaw. Nelfyion cannot swim, Divayth is very arrogant, Louis is very easily distracted by pretty ladies, Koranus has a bad temper, Mannimarco loses control of his power sometimes, Octavian has no honor, Vauban is too vain and Agustus took honor too seriously.