Others (Night Watch)
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The Others are a fictional group of people with supernatural abilities in Sergey Lukyanenko's Watches novel tetralogy (Night Watch, Day Watch, Dusk/Twilight Watch and Final Watch). They also appear in the Night Watch and Day Watch movies.
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[edit] Background
The Others are humans with supernatural abitilites who are split into two opposing groups. Those of Light, believing it was their duty to help the weak and the helpless. And those of Dark, doing what they wanted, regardless of morals, and consequences.
This division had always existed between the Others. For many millennia, the two sides fought a vicious battle. Both were willing to use any means that would lead them to victory. But eventually they realized that if they continued their battle, neither side would survive. So the leaders of both sides forged the Grand Treaty - a set of laws to govern the way the Others used their powers. The Light Others created the Night Watch, to ensure that the Dark Others would not violate the Treaty. The Dark Others created the Day Watch, to ensure that the Light Others would not violate the Treaty. And the Inquisition, a group composed of both Dark and Light Others, was created to ensure that neither side became too powerful.
Since then, the Night Watch and the Day Watch kept their eyes on each other, diligently policing every violation of the treaty. But just because the battle was over didn't mean the war ended. The old leaders continued to plot, using humanity and the Others as their pawns. Only time will tell which side would prevail.
[edit] The Gloom
The Gloom (or Twilight, depending on the translation) is a magical realm that exists beneath the surface of all things. The Others gain their powers from the Gloom, giving them incredible abilities.
By entering the Gloom an Other becomes invisible to humans. Time flows at a much slower rate there, giving Others in it an incredible speed and reaction time. The Gloom doesn't offer its gifts freely however, feeding off the strength of those Others who enter it. If sufficiently weakened, they are consumed, never to return to the ordinary world.
It is said that the Others go to into the Gloom when they die, although meeting one of the dead ones there is very rare.
The Gloom also has multiple "layers". Each step deeper, an Other moves further away from the conventional reality, as the environment around them changes from resembling the real world to something completely different. Also, the time dilation effect increases with each step and so do the strength requirements.
[edit] Initiation
To be able to use his/her powers to full extent an Other must be initiated. This usually happens the first time the Other enters the Gloom. This is also when the Other must choose between the Light and the Dark side. The choice is heavily affected by the Other's emotional state, so both the Night Watch and the Day Watch scout for potential Others in order to guide them through their initiation, turning them to the their side.
Vampires and werevolves can initiate both humans and Others by feeding on them. Here the choice is between the Dark side or death. Both vampire and werewolfes are inherently Dark. They are usually regarded as lower Others, because anyone can become a vampire or werewolf by being bitten (one cannot, however, become one of the "regular" Others without being born as one).
[edit] Powers
Others are very good at manipulating humans, easily changing their memory and making them do things they don't want to do.
Others can see a person's aura, which shows emotions and possible Light/Dark aligment. The aura can then be sent to other Others, and used to identify that person later.
Most Others have precognative abilities, allowing to them to see and somewhat alter the probabilities of events happening. This can be used, for example, to avoid traffic accidents when speeding. Grand Mages like Geser and Zavulon can predict some events day or even weeks before they happen, allowing them to forge complex plots that go ahead a long time.
Other can also drain Force directly from humans, Light Others by sapping the positive emotions and Dark Others by taking the negative ones. The difference is that the positive emotions disappear when taken, while the negative ones get worse. This makes this method usually unacceptable by Light Others.
[edit] Light Others
Light Others often have little choice in their actions, forced to act for the sake of greater good.
They cannot lie outright, although they can conceal information and manipulate the truth.
Light Others also have a kind of "fail-safe" mechanism: if a Light Other cannot justify his actions to himself, he instantly dematerializes(?), banished forever in the Gloom.
