 We all know the story. From dawn of time they came, moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives, struggling to the time of the Gathering, when the few who remain will battle to the last. No one is ever known they were among us, until now. While a very descriptive introduction, it's not exactly accurate. I mean during the original three or four films, it was, but the series revealed something slightly different. You see there were some who knew of the existence of immortals. They knew of the game and the rules. They swore an oath to observe the immortals and keep record of the game, as well as to whereabouts of nearly every immortal throughout history. Once all immortals are gone, only then would they tell of their existence to the world. Created by Amaletu, the Akkadian, after witness saying the immortal Gilgamesh returned to life. The Watcher Order has existed since roughly 2000 BC. A little over a thousand years later, Mithos, the oldest living immortal, discovered their existence in 904 BC. He was able to infiltrate the organization due to his low profile and the fact that he was viewed as simply a myth for many centuries. The Watcher Order is split into many different sub-orders, a structure which has served them well over the centuries. The Tribunal governs over the organization, three members which are responsible for the final decision made by the Order. Originally, the Tribunal was appointed, but after immortal Jacob Galati ruthlessly executed dozens of Watchers during the scheduled execution of Joe Dawson, which later became known as the Galati Affair. Members were democratically elected. Directly under the Tribunal were geographic leaders who were appointed to be in charge of a watcher group in different parts of the world. Under the geographical leaders are the field operatives. Field operatives follow immortals out in the open from a safe distance. They are the eyes of the organization and report back their observations to the leaders. Other divisions in this status include philosophical operations, functional operations, historic operations, and special operations. Usually new field agents are assigned to safety immortals. What this means is that they're assigned to watch immortals which are more peaceful or moral in nature. Then we have the research operations. These Watchers usually have advanced skills and an aptitude for detailed research ranging from the collection and safe storage of ancient manuscripts and documents to computer, language, forensic, archival, and investigative skills. Many operatives actually prefer research to field work. The research operations of the Watchers maintains a regularly updated database of known active immortals, officially designated the active roster of immortal. In addition to Watchers, there's a rogue group of Watchers known as the Hunters. The Hunters viewed immortals as an unholy abomination and were bent on killing every last one. Originally formed and led by Joe Dawson's brother-in-law James Horton, it was Horton's time spent assigned to the Kurgan in the 1980s that most likely led to his opinion of immortals. Watchers who broke the rules of the organization were placed on trial before the Tribunal and if found guilty, depending on the severity of their actions, would either be reassigned, expelled from the organization, or executed, the latter often being the result of a guilty verdict. In July of 1996, the democratically elected Tribunal replaced the original. The Watcher organization had a number of locations which held special purposes for the order. The Hall of Martyrs was one of these institutions, which was a location where Watchers who were killed in the line of duty were honored. Immortals who had grown tired of the game or otherwise requested were placed into the sanctuary, basically a safe house for immortals ran by Watchers. The immortals were drugged and held in contraptions intended to immobilize them and ensure immortal humanity would never be ruled by an immortal. For the most part, this basically designed to ensure that no immortal could claim the prize by being the last. The Watchers assigned to sanctuary were heavily armed in order to defend against attacks. However, Jacob Kellan Immortal with the highest amount of confirmed kills in history destroyed sanctuary in the early 21st century and beheaded all the inmates, save for Connor McLeod, who had been there for the past 10 years. Watchers are generally tattooed with the symbol of the order on their left wrist just under the palm of their hand. This is to help identify them to other Watchers. The organization has only ever been infiltrated once over the centuries by an immortal, as mentioned earlier. This was performed by Mythos, the oldest living immortal, whom we'll talk about in a future video. But since this video is about the Watchers, I will talk about all the times Mythos has become involved in the organization over the centuries. In 904 BC, he learned of their existence while in Jerusalem. When overhearing a group of people discussing immortal names, he recognized he was eventually invited to a meeting where he met and fell in love with a Watcher named Ruth. Under the name Alexander, he installed himself into the group and learned that due to his low profile over the centuries, meant that his actual name was relatively unknown in their records. After he devoted himself to the organization, he learned of the game. Mythos left the Watchers in 825 BC after Ruth, who was his wife at the time, died. His second infiltration of the organization came about during the 16th century, while living in Italy where he made friends with his Watcher. The Watcher kept a separate private journal, recording their friendship due to the Watcher's code prevented any open acknowledgement of their existence to immortals. In 1984, Mythos adopted the identity of Adam Pearson and studied ancient languages at St. Aden's College, Durham University. He enlisted with the Watchers as a historian as a way of keeping track of other immortals to avoid the game. Graduating from the Watcher Academy, sixth in his class of 103, by the mid 90s, he had become the lead researcher on the Mythos Chronicles. In one episode of the television series, he stated, I'm in charge of finding myself and I make sure that never happens. Mythos created the database reference earlier, alongside Don Salser, a Watcher historian. Shortly after the Galadia Fair, Adam Pearson was listed as absent without leave from the Watcher organization. There is one other rogue Watcher organization, which there is very little known about. That is the cult known as the Eye. The Eye was created by Adami Nahuru, who left the Watchers at some point in the late 1900s, early 2000s, when no one would listen to her conspiratorial rants. After this she founded the Eye. The Watchers managed to infiltrate the Eye only once with a single undercover operative, who was discovered and returned to the Watchers in pieces. Though little is known about the cult, it is revealed that they used at least one immortal to detonate a nuclear weapon. By placing a metal collar around Edema's immortal acolyte, Nibala's neck, the collar served two purposes, protecting Nibala from decapitation, and if it were to be destroyed, it would detonate a nuclear weapon. Currently, the fate of the Watchers is unknown. Also, make sure you check out one of these two playlists on the side, for more videos just like the one you just watched. I'm Shannon for Comic Getting TV, the only place on YouTube where all geek culture collides. Take care Geeks!