By the Accord of the Prime Physic, all that comes to exist carries within it the properties of that which already exists. Every realized form contains, as latent potential, every lesser expression of itself — simpler, partial, or diminished versions arranged in hierarchical order beneath its fullest nature. An Awakening occurs when this potential, already resident within a person, reaches threshold and becomes actual.

These are not secondary races overlaid upon the first. They are the fulfillment of something that was always present but unrealized — the rational order that underlies all things stirring into self-awareness within a living being. The same root processes that give rise to Watchers and Lurkers can, under the right conditions, awaken within the rationality of men and women. When this occurs, the individual does not merely gain new traits; a deeper pattern of their own being is brought into existence.

The outcome is never neutral. The potential contains both its most exalted expressions and every lesser version. If the person orients upward — toward the total nature of what the Awakening could become — the result is something whole, aligned with its deepest pattern. If instead they look downward from some lesser point in its hierarchy, they actualize only a partial or corrupted form. The strength remains, but it is turned from its holy pattern. The Manhunter is one such lesser expression: a guardian spirit that, through the choices of its host, became a hunter of the guilty rather than a protector of the innocent.

Awakenings are therefore not merely granted. They are decided. The Prime Physic supplies the potential and the threshold; the heart and choices of the one in whom it rests determine whether what awakens is exalted or diminished.