Protectors

Protectors are family lines of humans who's specific purpose in life is to protect someone else, one specific person. It started as families designed to protect other families. Due to demonic involvement way back when, they are also cursed. Severely. In usually unpleasant, terribly inconvenient ways. Since that happened, the lines have gotten spread out a bit. There are still the Protector family lines, but many of them no longer have a specific family they protect--they merely choose someone during their life to dedicate themselves to.

There used to be a hell of a lot more family lines of Protectors out there. A huge amount of them, however, were cut down during the past few months, which leaves only a handful of lines left. These lines all have their own natural affinity for something, to help them on, and even if normally whatever their line has isn't inheritable--it is for them. They carry whatever gift is prominent in their family, along with the curse. Protectors must come from a family line, though. Protectors do not pop up randomly in any society.

Protectors are martyrs. All of them, at the core. Their entire existence is built around keeping someone else alive and well. This includes sacrificing themselves to achieve this. This fact is why Protectors just hit the endangered species list. So many of them were taken down in the past few months that there really just aren't many left--but self preservation isn't a part of who they are.

They will choose someone - in some lines this is free choice, in others, it just happens. They're predisposed to do it. If they don't have one, they will feel restless and incomplete until they do. It will drive them to distraction, will ensure they are never content or happy, and will eventually lead to a mental breakdown if they continue to deny their natural urge.

Whether the protector is able to choose their protected themselves, or whether their choice is simply made one day, the protected will always be someone who needs a protector. Protecteds never turn out to be people who are very capable of looking out for themselves.

They are not allowed to be involved romantically with their chosen to protect. Often times it is close friendships, but it doesn't have to be. Some family lines pride themselves on protecting others without them ever knowing about it. While it's happened from time to time, it's highly frowned upon and cautioned against. Part of the reason is because any children resulting from a pair of them are marked with a heavy destiny, and universally it's something traumatic for pretty much everyone involved.

If a Protector manages to accomplish what their curse guards against, it will backlash and kill them. There is no way around this. For example, say your Protector is banned from setting foot on holy ground. This doesn't necessarily mean that they can't. They're free to walk anywhere. It's simply that if it happens, they will die. So say their chosen was being strangled by a maniac killer just inside a church? They could definitely run up and whack the guy with a shovel. They just wouldn't be around long enough to watch his brains dribble out the back of his skull. It's anywhere from instantaneous to about three minutes, but time is most certainly short.

Protectors breed like rabbits. Or, not quite in the multiples sense, but because they're really set up not to be long lived people, they are extremely prone to pregnancy/fertilization. More often than not, their first time proved to be enough. None of them are infertile, and they even have a tendency to have 'miracle' children with people who are. Contraceptives are largely ineffective. Children of Protectors generally follow a pattern, and not every child born to a Protector will be one. Generally their first child is, hands down, but any subsequent children may not be. Pattern-wise, it depends on the line. For example, in one line, it could switch back and forth between males and females. A father would pass it to his daughter, she would pass it to her son, etc. This pattern also dictates that when they reproduce, they will produce the required child to complete the pattern.

If a Protector's charge dies, there's a spiritual backlash that hits the Protector, which often kills them outright. Very few survive it, and most of that small portion who do wish they hadn't. It's a wound that'll never heal, and even if they find a new person to protect, that'll always be something that haunts them deep down. It's devastating, and more often than not, fatal.

~Family Lines~
Family Lines all have specific curses and gifts. Most of these families don't actually claim to be any part of the official line title, as those have been lost to the sands of time by now. Surnames, etc are unique to the Protector (ie, not all Witch Protectors will be called, say, Smith), and sure, while others of the same Line may be distantly related in some obscure way, that doesn't mean they even are aware of that or each other. There is no great Protector historian around keeping tabs on all of the vast family trees the lines have created.

Left in the world today there are family lines for dreamwalkers, psychics, elementals, several witches lines(spanning the different types of magic). There used to be willworkers and psychic vampire lines, however they both have recently been wiped out.

Each family line is cursed, with the curse being specific to that family line and past down from protector parent to protector child (any non-protector offspring is not cursed). Because there were originally only a few protector families and the lineage has spread around the world, there are only, in fact, a handful of curses. These curses are as follows:-

• The Dreamwalker family line curse is that they cannot lie. That isn't to say that they always have to tell the entire truth, but they cannot ever tell another something which they know to be false, either verbally or in writing. If they believe something to be the truth, and it turns out to be wrong (eg, they were misinformed about something), then the curse will not kick in – they have to know that they are lying about something.
• The Psychic family line curse is that they cannot use aggressive physical action against another. They can only use aggression in defensive actions (either self-defense, or defense of another).
• There are a number of family lines for witches, and each family line has their own curse (one curse per family line). These curses are:-
  • They cannot talk about being a protector. They cannot explain their motivations as a protector to anyone, including their protected and members of their family. A parent-protector can only tell their child-protector about their duty and destiny in life on their sixteenth birthday – the curse has a twenty-four hour window which allows discussion, but that's all.
  • They cannot kill another person directly. They can harm them, even seriously. They can refuse to save them, but they cannot deliver the lethal blow. This curse does not apply to supernatural foes.
  • They cannot use black magic. Any other form of magic is potentially available to them, but any use of black magic will kill the protector instantly. Unfortunately, this family line tends to have a natural ability with black magic over any other type of magic.
  • They cannot walk on blessed, consecrated and holy ground. Note: this does not stop them from using blessed weaponry, holy water etc.
• The Elemental family curse is that they must be the one to save their protected. If they are in the presence of their protected, or in the vicinity thereof (ie, they could get there in time) and their protected needs help or assistance, they must make sure that they are the one to give it. If anyone else gives this help or assistance instead, it will be fatal to the protectors.

If a Protector manages to accomplish what their curse guards against, it will backlash and kill them.