i've been curious about this since you mentioned one of the watchers being destroyed when trying to grab xin mo, but
when a watcher is destroyed, is it just the physical form that's destroyed, or is it both the physical form and the bit of conscious used to create the watcher? does the bit of conscious return to the main body, or is just Gone forever?
That’s a great question! Let’s think of a hypothetical:
Let’s say a Watcher is attacked
Watchers are very, very weak, and their resistance isn’t the greatest, so three things usually happen (Though there may be some other variations in more strenuous scenarios)
First: If the Watcher does not take enough damage and manages to survive the attack, they will be taken by specialized healers who’ll see the best way to treat the wound (usually by using the Black River’s blessing).
At first, Shen Yuan didn’t there would be any need to specialize any Watchers for the sole purpose of healing, but after he noticed how much he— I mean, they seem to get into trouble, #55 and #56 were designated for the job. They are one of the Watchers with the greatest teleporting distance, but boy does that make them tired though.
Second: The Watcher dies. It’s a natural part of life and certainly a part of a Watcher’s life, but fear not! If they have succumbed to their wounds inside the Titan’s territory, the Black River will come to retrieve its deceased part and imbue new life onto the Watcher. It’s not a pleasant experience, death is death no matter what caused it, and the Watcher may experience some memory loss from a few hours leading up to the incident, but beyond that he will be mostly fine, and Shen Yuan #34 is always ready with a fresh change of clothes for when the Watcher reemerge from inside Xintiao Lake.
Third: The most unfortunate ending. Dying beyond the Titan’s protection is the closest thing to a True Death Shen Yuan has experienced. In the beginning of the Watchers run, a lot of them went out to the vast Endless Abyss, but it didn’t take long for him to realize the Abyss still stands true to it’s reputation, and a few Watchers were lost out in the infernal place. The Watcher cannot be healed or reunited with the Main Body so they are usually dug a special grave; a Titan’s fragment is still a Titan’s fragment, and they need to be sealed away properly.
Nowadays only Di-er goes out into the Abyss, but he always makes sure to pay a visit to those tiny bits of lost memories that can never be retrieved.
*If a Watcher’s wounds are serious enough to not be salvageable even by the Black River, he will be reabsorbed into the Main Body once again, and his memories collected. A few months later, it is likely a whole new Watcher will be born to take their place.
** A Watcher who’s died beyond the Titan’s protection cannot be helped, and any memories it hasn’t sent to the Main Body will die alongside him. Who knows what they have witnessed moments before death? Not that it is a major concern when it happens, for the Main Body, it’s like suddenly forgetting a whole week, but when you’ve lived for centuries, it doesn’t really matter in the end. Still, their horror and fear was felt, and they shall be grieved properly.
