Chapter Text
Grian, known as Xelqua for many at the time, has always been an admin who loved to cause mischief and a little chaos during admin meetings, but most of the time it was actually to break the tension in the room or bring a laugh to the ones around. Either way, he was chaotic, but the others couldn't blame him, he was a teen, with admin powers and a whole server. He obviously would love more to be there than in a boring meeting with a bunch of adults talking about things he wasn't really interested in, but actually, he was. Yes he used to skip some meetings and all that, but he still tried to attend them so he could learn and be better.
The admins always joked with him about this, he just ignored them, but the mocking stopped when one day Xelqua came to a meeting looking proud and confident. “What's up with you now kid?” one of them said, to which he responded, “Oh nothing, just watchers on my server is all.” After he said this, he sat in his place of the table and watched as the others just started asking him questions and congratulate him.
At the time, watchers were known as creatures who looked over the servers and made sure to protect them, their powers were unimaginable, but they were legends, mythical creatures from stories so old that no one could tell if they were actually real, so the others had the right to be surprised to hear that those legends took interest enough in a server of one of their members to personally look over it and even interact with the players.
After lots of questions, there was one that stood out the most, “Why you? And how did you raise their attention to your server, that is definitely a privilege” to which Xelqua had no answer, even he didn't really know why the watchers took interest in his server, it was indeed, a privilege. It was something to be proud of. And the only thing he really knew was that they wanted to help with the whole time hopping thing his server had going on.
And so, they continued their normal lives, except that now Xelqua could tell them things about the watchers, knowledge they didn't have before and even some weaknesses of them. After all, he had direct contact with them, he could peacefully have a conversation with them, but instead he decided to be silly and annoy them, they found this interesting and took interest in him in specific, but they didn't make it obvious.
Time passed, Xelqua stopped going to the meetings which, at first, didn't bother the other admins as they knew he usually skips them, but then, it wasn't just one, it was two and then five, and then he stopped going to them and the group lost contact with him. They got worried, something had happened to him or his server, and so they did everything they could to try and communicate with him. But when they finally managed to do so, the only message they got was concerning.
”Xelqua: Server down. WATCHERSS DANGERR!!”
This worried the admins even more, they tried to connect to the server but nothing was working and when they finally found what happened, when they found that the creatures who they admired, prayed to or just looked up to, when they found that those creatures had taken an admin and destroyed a whole server, no player names found, assumed dead or taken too. When they found that, their respect for the watchers got lost. And they obviously worried about everyone, but the one who they worried the most for was the admin, their friend.
Ever since the “Evolution SMP destruction” also known as the “EVO Tragedy”, admins started to learn more about watchers, they had to, to protect their servers. They studied them, were wary of them, and their ideas of them changed from “Gods who watched to protect” to “Gods who watched to attack”. New admins were taught about EVO as training and a lesson, they had to learn its history and how to fight against these creatures in honor of their admin and server.
However, as the years went by, a certain rumor started to spread amongst admins. It was said that the EVO admin had escaped from the watchers, his battle was heroic, he fought thousands of them with just a wooden sword, and the best thing was that he didn't even get injured at all! It was encouraging. It made the admins have hope, hope that they can beat the watchers, and hope to see their friend again. They even started saying stuff in his name and wishing protection to their servers from him. No more “Praise the Void!”, it was now “Praise Xelqua!”.
Admins became tougher and feared nothing, or at least most of the time they did. The impact this rumor had, made admins realize that yes, they can fear, but they can also protect and be strong for their players. And so, they learned how to make stronger and better protections, better coding and everything they could to show Xelqua respect for his bravery and for keeping them protected as they called it.