| The Council's priorities were always first and foremost with the Council, not with those that they had sworn to protect. They possessed a sickening ambivalence towards 'acceptable casualties' and sorely failed to distinguish between necessary sacrifices and needless loss. In their eyes as long as the greater good was served, the means were irrelevant. He would not deny the need for sacrifice, but he very much took offense to the brutally cold way in which the Council tended to practice it.
-Rupert Giles --- The Watchers' Council - This is specifically a Council history only and spans from 1940 to present (September 2001) and covers only those aspects unique to this game. Everything on series applies here verbatim up to the 'The Gift', anything after, didn't happen here unless it's typed below. And for the advertising portion of this educational experience, for any interested, Kurt Raeder and Tamara Franklin, who will be featured below, are available for play. --- The Watchers' Council History 101: 'Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row' -* This was a book that is canon here. Given the chronological setting of 1940, it's obviously for the most part only relevant to the dead here, but it does also bear some note for those of the Watcher persuasion. In need of some entertainment, Spike promised Drusilla a gift, the Freyja's Strand. This powerful mystical artifact would allow for shape-shifting among other things, but of more thrill to Drusilla, it would allow her to see her own reflection. In order for Spike to win this gift, he made a deal with an ice demon named Skrymir. The deal was Freyja's Strand for the end of the Slayer line. Spike, being Spike, jovially agreed to the task. He and Drusilla returned to London and broke into the Watchers' Council's facility. While there they stole a list of names and locations throughout the world of roughly twenty girls that made up the potential future of the Slayer line. One by one they brutally killed each girl and, in most cases, her Watcher with the current Slayer, Sophie Carstensen, always one step behind. The Council caught on soon enough and recalled all of the Slayers-in-Waiting to London for full protection. Unfortunately for the Council, their timing really could not have been worse as the reassembly coincided with the beginning of the London bombings by Hitler. For Spike and Drusilla, however, it was ingenious. The air strikes brought much needed chaos while they were provided with all of their remaining targets in one central location. It was all well enough worked out except for the fact that Skrymir grew impatient and joined the battle. Because of his interruption, Spike was forced to kill Sophie several girls ahead of schedule. This caused a reaction down the lined as each girl was killed and the next called as the Slayer. Suffice it to say, Spike and Dru did not destroy the line and were forced to make a discreet retreat. While that was the end of the book, it's not the end of the history here, during the course of their adventure, Spike had turned a German U-boat officer, Kurt Raeder. Now after the bombings ceased, Kurt eventually caught up with the pair and much to Drusilla's amusement there was plenty of posturing on the part of both Spike and Kurt. Eventually Spike called a stalemate and Kurt pushed aside his hate for Spike long enough to work with the couple as a team to finish the job. While steeped in tradition, the Council leaders weren't fools, they knew better than to again leave a list so easily for the taking. They were also actively on the hunt for the vampires that had brought the Council to its knees. The weapon that the Council procured to complete this task was Angelus himself, or rather Angel. Soon growing bored of a calculated plan, Spike settled for increasingly riskier strikes into the depth of the Council in a simple effort to see how far he could push. Kurt throughout this attempted to be the voice of reason and keep Drusilla safe. Angel, though there under duress, knew that it was his responsibility to control, and if necessary, destroy Spike and Dru. In the end Angel was discovered as a traitor by his fellow vampires, Kurt fell for Drusilla and having decided Spike unworthy, tried to kill him. Before Spike could in turn kill Kurt, the Council discovered their location and the four vampires all again disappeared from the Council's radar. Fast forward to the summer of 2001. Buffy Summers is dead and there is no Buffy Bot to hide that fact. Upon a visit by the Council, Giles informs them of the death and is stunned by their callous response. Among other things, the Council sees it best to have Giles abandon the Hellmouth and return to London for reassignment. He refuses to leave the remaining Scoobies and rather vehemently, at times violently, responds to changes that he discovers have been made within the Council both in regards to policy and special projects. Giles quits the Council, which on record is of course written to say that he was again discharged by their order for dangerous conduct. This rumor, however, only carries so much weight with those within the Council that are friends and acquaintances of Giles. It is not long before he begins to receive calls from London indirectly requesting the complete story. Shortly after, word begins to circulate of Watchers and their Potentials being targeted by an unknown group of knife wielding, seemingly blind men. The death toll quickly begins to mount as the threat is not taken seriously by those within the Council center. Therefore those in the farther outlying locations of the Council are left without so much as a warning of possible danger. It soon becomes clear that this is less a case of the Council not seeing a legitimate threat, and more a case of them attempting to save face. There are an increasingly mounting number of Watchers who secretly side with Giles upon realizing that his warnings to the Council community were not exaggerated. The Council more than ever has adopted a policy of acceptable losses. Even if they be wholly unnecessary, the death of unknown girls is far better than possibility of the Council's image being marred. As the attacks increase in number and brutality, many Watchers find it necessary to prepare their Potential for the worst-case scenario with explicit instructions. There are those who begin to instruct their Potentials to say nothing of these instructions, but to upon their Watcher's death, proceed to Sunnydale, California rather than to London, as is official policy. Giles for his part, is completely oblivious that his warnings carried any weight at all. He is struggling merely to keep his small group alive in Sunnydale. Spike and Dawn eventually resurrect Buffy, news of which Giles very purposefully conceals from the Council. Along with the rest of Angel Investigations, Wesley arrives in Sunnydale to assist with the increased activity of the Hellmouth. Wesley too has no concept of anything regarding the Council. It is not until the first Slayer-in-Training arrives in Sunnydale that the dire state of matters becomes clear to Giles. If it is not bad enough, that the Slayer line is under direct attack from an unknown source on the outside, further deceit from the inside becomes evident when a young woman named Alasen Elisabeth Montgomery appears at Giles's doorstep. Alasen is different from the other girls in that she is not a Potential, nor is she technically a Slayer in that she was Chosen. However, she is a human girl imbued with the powers of a Slayer. Upon intensive research, it is found that Alasen is one of many children that were tested upon under the certification of Quentin Travers. The Council had been conducting experiments to harvest the essence of a Slayer in order to cheat the balance and create a force of fighters where there was supposed to be only one girl. While there were many girls used in these experiments, Alasen was the only survivor. With Faith Lehane's release from prison and the Council's inability to return her to England, Quentin Trevor himself makes the journey to Los Angeles. It is decided to remove Faith and Angel from the picture, using Wesley as the trigger. The hope is that with Wesley dead seemingly at Faith's hands, Angel will turn on Faith, giving the others reason to destroy the again murdering, Scourge of Europe. In association with Wolfram & Hart, a vision is implanted in Cordelia's head. Cordelia sees Faith dressed as a nurse, switching Wesley's pain medication with something far more lethal. By the time Cordelia has arrived to the hospital, Wesley has already gone into cardiac arrest. Once the crisis is over Cordelia tells Wesley and the others of the vision and while Fred, Cordelia and Wesley are convinced to this day, Quentin's plan falls through because Angel remains unconvinced. Angel and Gunn both know better than to think that if Faith were going to kill Wesley, she would do it by switching medications. Although Quentin returns to London, Wolfram & Hart picks up where it was left off by transferring Tamara Franklin, a former Watcher and school mate of Wesley's, from the New York branch to Los Angeles. Her primary assignment being to infiltrate Angel Investigations through Wesley. Back in Sunnydale Giles continues to struggle with the trials and tribulations of dealing with an influx of not only girls in need of care and training, but in some cases also their Watchers. Privacy becomes a premium as they flow between Giles's flat and Buffy's house. Several come with news of old friends lost. One, Ava Louvare, finds her way into Giles's heart after a second loss of Jenny Calendar. She is subsequently killed during the opening of the Hellmouth. After several decades apart, Kurt and Drusilla have again partnered for new chaos. Together they agree to go after Spike. Drusilla decides if she destroys everything Spike has, he'll have nowhere to go but to her, Kurt simply thinks it rings of proper revenge. They go after Spike via the destruction of those he protects, Buffy and her friends. Deciding to start one down from the Slayer, they go about attempting to destroy Giles. The most notable repercussions being the destruction of the Magic Box and the whole of Giles's journals falling into the vampire's hands. Kurt has separated with Drusilla to continue his mission from another side. One particularly convenient acquisition has been the aid of Watcher Jude Aidan Fletcher. The Watcher has teamed with the vampire in exchange for his pregnant wife thus far being allowed to live. Jude Fletcher is prepared to do what he must to appease the vampire, even if that includes going after the innocent friends of one Buffy Summers. Also employed by Kurt is a powerful, yet unidentified, sorcerer that has been handsomely paid for the removal of Angel's soul. Watchers and their Charges - Listing of Watchers, both current and past. Arranged alphabetically by Watcher's first name. Names following any particular Watcher or the names of their Potential, or in some cases, Slayer then Potentials. Ava Louvare: Gabriel "Gabe" Russell: Helaina Myles: Jude Aidan Fletcher: Quentin Travers: Rupert Giles: Samantha Riley Moore: Tamara Franklin: Wesley Wyndam-Pryce:
*The Pretty Maids portion of the summary contains selective events from Christopher Golden's book 'Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row ', the whole of which is canon here. |