Free AI Website MakerIn the beginning, billions of years ago, the Old Gods arrived here. Born of a place outside our own, ancient in their dying home, refugees to a newborn universe. They sought to create a new place for themselves in our reality. They stripped the chaos from order, divided the sky above from the ground below, shaped the earth into mountains and valleys, and filled the world with flowing water. They seeded life on the barren ground and in the empty sky. For a while it was a bountiful garden of creation and wonders.
But eventually, as with all things, chaos seeped back into the system. Angry murmurs spread through the chorus of Old Gods. They argued over space and bickered about design. They fought with each other, and the animosity escalated until they were destroying each other's work. The wonders they had created were lost to time and rage.
Then, after so much turmoil, the unthinkable happened and one of the gods killed another. The Old Gods were not even aware that they could kill each other, or that they could die at all. Full war erupted among the Old Gods. Allegiances were made and broken. And their bodies littered the world.
The dead gods were absorbed by the earth and the first of the New Gods awoke, Gaia, it who is the world. Gaia was more powerful than any of the Old Gods, a new kind of creation, born of death, but filled with life.
Gaia was pained by the Old Gods' ongoing conflicts all across the planet, It could feel all of the destruction like cuts across its body. It said to them, begged from them, that there must be no more fighting. But the Old Gods could not stop, their sanity long lost to the corruption of chaos and rage. So Gaia, left with no recourse, banished all of them off its surface, into the depths of space.
When the Old Gods were banished, most of their creations remained, though badly damaged. Angry earth with a molten spinning core, more than half the planet covered in salt water, an atmosphere full of gasses and particulates, as well as a few small sparks of life. Gaia could not bring itself to destroy any more of it, and opted to let things develop as they would, allowing fate and chance to take hold.
For millions of years, Gaia watched over life as it grew and developed. It watched as the planet cracked and its surface moved. It watched as weather patterns and ocean currents changed. It watched as life grew more complex, from single celled things to a vast web of creatures across the surface and under the seas. Then it listened as they began to have dreams, and at last there was something truly interesting.
The children of the Old Gods became the First Ones, and started to create culture and society. They began to pray to the things that were important to them. Those prayers were the first source of divine power this world had seen, and that power would come to create a whole new kind of god. Fire, and Storm, and Sun. Animal, and Plant, and the Unknown. All these things and more would come to have their own gods born of the belief of those First Ones.
Gaia was desperate to prevent the mistakes of the past and felt the need to steward these New Gods to be different from the Old Gods.
It kept them organized, dividing them into groups and assigning them purviews to oversee. It taught them to stick to their own space and worked to instill a co-operative mentality. It set the laws they were to follow, under penalty of facing the same fate as their predecessors. The stories of monsters in the void beyond became a common trope across most cultures.
And for thousands of years, the many creatures of the earth and their new gods lived in balance. There was no strife, for Gaia's bounty held space and sustenance for the needs of all the children.
But again, chaos wormed its way back into the system, and one of the First Ones would come to upend this order and harmony.
Born of the Old God of curiosity, a weak god in comparison to the others. Its children seemed equally weak. They were not particularly strong, or fast, and were not resistant to poison or illness. They did not breed in great litters or live particularly long lives. They had no claws, or fangs, or innate powers. But the Old God did not leave its children with nothing.
Its fist gift were minds that always sought answers, they would see uses for things that none of the other children did. They were always asking questions, had an innate desire for knowledge, and the ability to adapt quickly.
Its second gift were hearts that held tenacious wills and the innate ability to work together. A single one was an easily scared prey animal. Ten of them were dangerous pack hunters. One hundred was an apex predator.
These creatures built structures to protect them from the elements and the other children of the gods. They invented weapons and armor to overcome the weaknesses they were created with. And they cultivated knowledge, passing it down across generations. They gathered together in greater and greater numbers. The humans grew fruitful and multiplied across the world.
As humanity spread across the world, the conflicts with the other children of the gods began. Humans hunted those who made easy prey, many of them to extinction. Those the humans did not see as food, would become “Monster” and become the target of fear and prosecution. They would teach their children that the land humans had taken was actually rightfully theirs by destiny. Each generation of mankind grew stronger. Entire civilizations of humans could be wiped out, but they always came back. And every time they did, they carried new knowledge, and a deeper resolve to eliminate their foe. They told stories and sang songs about the other Children, their abilities, and how to defeat them. The stories became writing, and libraries full of tomes would educate generations of human heroes.
The Gods of Man, shaped by their creators' growing arrogance, began to change. As they grew in strength, so did they grow in ambition. If their creators were destined to conquer the Earth, then should they not also be destined to conquer the heavens? But they couldn't, as long as Gaia's Law remained they would be bound to the covenant of peace and order. They could not attack Gaia directly for its power was greater than all of theirs.
But the Human Gods were clever, like their creators. They could not break the Law, but they could bend it. If they could not accomplish their goals directly, they would use the other gods as puppets to do it for them. They whispered secrets and lies in the Pantheon, and fostered animosity behind the scenes. Over centuries, they manipulated the other gods, sowing chaos and confusion. Then finally, at a convening of the Pantheon about the human invention the Steam Engine, a fight between the gods erupted.
Gaia was forced to intervene, manifesting itself before the Pantheon and bringing the fighting to an end. But the Human gods had been ready for this, and when Gaia appeared, they sprang their trap. Using a dark magic ritual, they imprisoned Gaia deep within the earth. Without it to moderate the Pantheon, they descended into chaos and war, again a thing the human Gods had been ready for.
Realizing that losing a war with humanity was an inevitability, and that there was no weapon that would eliminate all of them, the only choice was to not fight them at all. In the end, it was a lesson the rest of the Pantheon had learned from humanity, which proved to be the salvation for their own children, co-operation.
A secret meeting was held and a decision was made. They would have to remove the human gods from the equation, but after much debate and argument, it was determined that doing so would take their own destruction. They would have to destroy the connection between the heavens and the Material World, forever leaving them adrift in the Beyond. And so, resigning themselves to saving their creators, many of the gods sacrificed themselves. In a surprise move the human Gods had never seen coming, these other Gods sacrificed themselves to destroy the Firmament, the connection to the very heavens themselves, and source of all divine power. And left in its place, the Veil.
The Veil forever separated the home of the gods from the earth. The human Gods, and the Gods who chose not to sacrifice themselves, were trapped forever in a pocket of the Beyond that is cut off from the Material World. Being deprived of the power of their Gods alone however, was not enough to protect the other Children. Humanity would have to forget about them. So the Veil also covered humanities stories in a fog of disbelief. Humans no longer spoke to their gods, and the other Children became creatures of myth. Humanity stopped paying attention to them, content to focus on their own development. To the rest, humans were no longer considered one of the Children.
With the Gods no longer there to direct the actions of their Children, a new order had to be forged. Two competing opinions emerged; between those who possessed the ability and desire to blend into Human civilization and live quietly among them, and those who could not or chose not to. And so it was decided after much fighting, that there would be two governing groups. The Council of the Silver Mirror would blend into humanity and The Court of Hidden Reflections would live on the fringes of it and in the wilds where humans did not tread. Though they would have very different styles of government, they both held one rule above all others; The Veil must be upheld.
With the rise of globalization, a number of powerful families of supernatural creatures emerged. Some of them spent their long lives building up their wealth and power in this new growing world, passing it from generation to generation. With these groups continuing to have huge influence into the current day.
The Veil is a fragile thing, and no disguise is perfect. Occasionally some humans would experience supernatural events that even the veil couldn’t cover them from. Sometimes it was being exposed to magic, sometimes it was being attacked by one of the Children, and sometimes it was just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whatever the cause, most humans who experience a veil breaking event would go mad, their psyche destroyed by the trauma. However, some people survive the experience, and they are left forever changed by their Veil Adaptation.
As humans became aware of the Veil a number of organized groups began to emerge. At the foremost of these was the secretive collection of powerful individuals known as the Balanced World Order. With the magic, money, and political power to control the world behind the scene, and the Lighthouse as their military force, they work to keep the chaos at bay and maintain the Veil. For the last two centuries this group has maintained a tight lid on the secrets of the hidden world, and to this day the vast majority of humanity has no idea of the world beneath the surface.
The physical form that a creature inhabits in the Material World. It is the container and perceptual filter that the rest of a creature's components exist in. It sustains wounds when injured and fails when it reaches its maximum wound count.
Most small creatures have a maximum wound count of 2-4, medium creatures 4-6, large creatures 6-8, and huge creatures have up to 10. When a creature dies, its body remains in the Material World and decomposes.
A metaphysical construct encompassing the personal consciousness of a creature. It is their surface level thoughts, their subconscious processes, and their memories. It is what makes a creature an individual identity and shapes their nature and reactions. Most creatures start life with their Psyches in a blank state and build them over a lifetime of experiences. The Psyche is a product of the processes of a creature's brain. The Psyche can be affected by physical trauma and magical influence.
The Psyche can be attacked by certain spells and creatures. If a person's Psyche is damaged by more than their combined total of Wits and Heart, they are driven mad, and become deranged in some way by the trauma. In some cases they may die of the shock.
When a creature dies and its Soul passes into the Beyond, its Psyche slips into the Astral Deep. The longer a Psyche spends there, the more it sinks and dissipates until eventually it is no longer a distinct consciousness.
The universe's “blueprint” for what a thing is, an exact conceptual idea of them. When a creature’s Pattern changes, it changes the rest of the creature instantly, like overwriting data in a storage drive. When a spellcaster uses a spell that affects a person directly, they are putting pressure on that pattern. The average veiled human's pattern is extremely rigid. Being aware of even a single spell placed on them can strain their pattern.
If too much strain is placed on a Pattern, it can warp, damage that can only be fixed with magic. This warp causes a fundamental change in the person, usually in the form of a drastic change in personality, derangement, or disfigurement. They may lose interest in a once great passion, or become hateful of people with the name Steve, become paranoid that the birds are watching them, or have their body changed and twisted in some way.
If a Pattern gets 3 or more warps, it breaks. Without a Pattern, a creature is exposed to the raw chaos of the universe and becomes something else entirely at the Weavers discretion. When a creature dies and their soul has passed into the Beyond, their pattern quickly begins to disappear.
A cold, shadowy, greyscale plane of existence that mirrors the Material World, but is not made of physical matter. It is an intermediate space between the Material World, the Beyond, and The Astral Deep. The Shade is the realm where Souls separated from their body initially go, and the place ghosts reside. It is not a realm meant for living creatures and if a person manages to physically travel to the Shade, whether by magic or by accident, they will find it to be inhospitable. There is no food or water, it is always just above freezing, and it slowly drains lifeforce. A living being takes 1 wound of entropy damage per hour they are in the Shade.
A myriad of different realms that surrounds the Material World. The Beyond predates our universe and it is the source of every Soul on the Material World. This is the place that all natural energy, essential force, and every soul comes from. It is the domain of things like celestials, devils, demons, fae, and others not native to the Material World. Without protection, many of the realms in the Beyond are deadly to creatures from our world. Creatures from the Beyond all follow their own innate rules. The Beyond can contain all sorts of fantasy destinations to make for interesting campaigns, and the flow of time usually differs significantly between the Beyond and the Material World.
The place where all of the mental energy and Psyches from all sentient creatures eventually ends up. From our errant thoughts to our most beloved characters and stories. It is also the realm of dreams. It is perceived as an endless foggy ocean. At the surface of the ocean it intersects with the Shade. The water is not actually H2O, but rather raw formless mental energy, flowing in currents. The deeper one goes, the darker and denser the energy gets.
There are all sorts of creatures in the Deep, some of them are predatory and consume mental energy. "Swimming" in the deep is an act of will and uses your Heart instead of Physique. Creatures from the Astral Deep can usually only be injured by attacks to the Psyche. The ancient city of Atlantis is floating adrift in the Astral Deep, its logical and stoic people having turned themselves into creatures of thought. It is the one hub of civilization in the Astral Deep.
In the cracks between the realms, there is the Void. The incomprehensible madness of a universe whose rules are not our own. The Void is what is left of a universe that existed before our own, one who is dead, but whose last breath is not exhaled yet. The Void does not belong here, and none should go looking for it, lest something desperate to escape look to follow their gaze back.
Humanity has always had a knack for overcoming the limitations placed upon it, and there is no greater example of this than the BWO. It was shortly after the Veil was placed that the first humans began to break it, either willingly or by chance. These first veil broken humans went on to exploit their new found powers to become some of the most powerful people around the world during the 1500s. They funded armies and fleets, built strongholds of power across the planet, and by the 1800s they and their descendants had consolidated a network of wealth, influence and supernatural power to the point of being involved in the day to day operations of every nation.
The BWO are nearly omnipotent and omnipresent in the modern world. They have every communication network tapped and they have access to technology that is decades ahead of what is publicly available. They operate from a perspective that the status quo is safe and stable for everyone. The Veil both keeps them in power and prevents the very real threat of societal collapse should the truth ever become widely known. The BWO use their vast power to control nearly every facet of human society from behind the scenes and their control of the Lighthouse gives them heavy influence in the supernatural world.
The BWO is controlled by the BOARD. They are a collective of an unknown number of individuals, whose identities have always been a mystery. They only communicate through the Prism Phones, strange devices originating in the 1800s and passed down from world leader to world leader, with the understanding to always do what the BOARD says, or else terrible things will happen.
The BWO are always considered an Overlord level threat when using them in a story.
The Lighthouse was first founded in the early 1900s as an off-the-books multinational project among the world powers. A project designed and funded by the BWO, and administered by a BWO appointed council. After building secret facilities across the planet, they recruited the best candidates from militaries, private security firms, and supernatural groups. They trained them to be elite operatives who are called in to deal with tactical situations that the normal civilian or national military forces cannot.
The Lighthouse are able to muster military level responses quickly, to almost anywhere on the planet. They have access to teleportation and supersonic travel. They have satellite offices in nearly every major city and hire both Veil Broken humans and supernatural creatures. They have advanced energy based weapons and tactical tools. The Lighthouse is often the clean up crew for the aftermath from activities of the other factions. They detain or destroy rogue supernatural elements, and manipulate the memories of mundane humans to cover up the supernatural in order to maintain the veil.
The Lighthouse’s headquarters is a subterranean bunker complex located in Antarctica. This is also the location of the “Freezer”. The maximum security cryo-prison for those the Lighthouse can’t destroy, but need to contain in order to ensure global security. Demi-god like creatures, indestructible omnivorous monstrosities, and reality warping eldritch horrors are just a few of the containment wings of the Freezer.
The lighthouse headquarters is also home to advanced research and development labs, and portals to other realms. Giving them the ability to develop tech that is beyond what mundane militaries usually have access to.
Altercations with the Lighthouse can range from a small team of Obstacle level threats, to a heavy strike force lead by an Overlord level threat
Before the Veil dropped, the Arrow of Light existed. They originated in ancient Egypt and follow a pseudo-religious doctrine called “The Path”. Roughly translated from the original Egyption it is as follows, with interpretation of the tenants:
Mankind is the Bow, I am the Arrow
The Head of the Arrow is Sharp (You must become a master of physical combat in every form you can.)
The Shaft of the Arrow is Sturdy (You must maintain your physical health in peak condition.)
The Fletching of the Arrow is Straight (You must train your mind and learn as much as you can.)
The Arrow Hunts the Beast (You must slay sentient creatures that are not human.)
The Arrow Pierces the Heart (You must root out the hiding places of sentient creatures that are not human.)
The Arrow Follows its Course (You must not let lies or pleas of mercy sway you from your duty.)
They believe that humans are superior creatures who are divinely entitled to the world, and that they are the warriors who defend humanity from the lesser races that would stand against human supremacy. They make it their duty to hunt supernatural creatures in their territory. The Arrow of Light are willing to target any non-human creature they find, even those who do not pose a danger to humans. Due to their nature, even wiping out a whole cell of Arrow of Light members won’t get rid of them. They train and operate in small and extremely secretive cells. And the only time that there is ever communication between cells is when a cell gets too big and splinters off to form multiple new cells, with no other connections to each other. Arrow of light members are always Veil Broken Humans.
Formed by the Children who could and did choose to blend in with human society shortly after the Veil was created. The council of the Silver Mirror is a democratic republic. There are 101 seats. Vampires have 24, Werewolves have 24, Fae have 24, and the rest of seats are divided among the remaining smaller groups. Members are voted for at the national level, there are elections every 10 years. The Council votes on matters that affect the Children directly. They have the following simple charter:
Article 1) The Veil must be upheld at any cost, the punishment for intentionally breaking the Veil is destruction without right of appeal.
Article 2) Blood Wars, Genocides, Purges and any other such violent traditions or practices are expressly outlawed. Disputes between members must be settled by the Silver Scales.
Article 3) Predation on humans is permitted only with a license and when following approved feeding guidelines.
Article 4) All of the Children of the First Ones have the right to life, liberty, happiness and security, and it is the duty of all the Children to ensure these things for each other.
The Council has a judicial branch, the Silver Scales, judges who are responsible for adjudicating disputes and punishing those who break their laws. Each Nation, State, and City may have different laws and bylaws that apply. Those who travel are responsible for knowing the laws of the land before they arrive.
Formed by the Children who could not or did not choose to blend in with human society shortly after the Veil was created. The court is a limited monarchy. The 5 Hands represent the most powerful entities in economy, education, healthcare, security, and infrastructure. They advise the Regent, the strongest, most capable ruler among the Hidden. The positions of Hand and Regent are able to be challenged by anyone who thinks they can prove that they would be more effective in the position. After making a formal challenge for the position, the incumbent sets the conditions of the contest. If the challenger wins they immediately take the position for themselves, along with all of the property of the former holder, however if they fail they become indentured servants to the incumbent for 100 years. The Regent can also replace a Hand if they are deemed to no longer be worthy of the position. If all 5 Hands agree, they can remove a Regent from power in a formal public announcement, then hold a tournament for the position.
The Hands have absolute authority in any matters pursuant to their position. They are permitted to rule in whatever way they see fit and may delegate power under whatever hierarchy they want. However, the Regent can overrule any decision a Hand makes.
All members of the Hidden are beholden to whatever laws the current Hands, Regent, or their underlings create. That and the high law of the land, The Veil must be upheld at any cost, the punishment for intentionally breaking the Veil is destruction.
Not all of the Children are in agreement with maintaining the status quo. There are a small but vocal minority who believe in the eradication of modern human society. They believe that humans should be chattel to the Children for what their god did. The most violent and dangerous of these is the Severing Finger. They are a terrorist organization whose actions are designed to sow so much chaos and discord amongst humanity that they eventually bring about societal collapse. They engage in both overt acts of widespread public violence, and long term covert sabotage of key infrastructure. They often make use of powerful and dangerous magical artifacts to accomplish their goals. The Severing Finger has a number of anonymous but powerful benefactors, including what is believed to be members of some of the Great Houses. The Severing Finger has been responsible for a number of the major terrorist attacks and “natural” disasters over the last few decades.
When humans first began harnessing the powers of magic for themselves and developed skill based magic, there was a period of unregulated chaos as hedge witches and wizards were everywhere. In response to this, the 9 most powerful Mages at the time, one for each of the practices of magic, came together and created The Tower of the Beginning and End and the Majirum.
The Tower of the Beginning and End is an incredibly powerful enchantment. A structure that exists outside of time and space, a massive white marble tower, floating in an endless sea of stars. The tower contains doors to places mundane and arcane, laboratories and studies, and entire libraries of magical knowledge. There are banquet halls, private quarters, and secret rooms a plenty. The Tower is home to the best and brightest Mages from across history, those who have been personally invited to help refine and study magic. At the top of the tower's many floors, there is a room with 9 thrones, from here the Majirum rule.
The Majirum are kept eternally youthful and healthy by the power of the thrones, and are the absolute authorities in regard to matters dealing with mages. They are each responsible for directing the research in the tower for their respective practices. A Maji can be challenged at any time for their position, it is done through a formal declaration in front of the entire Majirum. The Maji and the challenger engage in a mages duel to the death, and the victor is declared the Maji.
Not all of humanity are ignorant of the existence of the Veil, and none detest it more than the Necesse Malum. This mysterious organization believes that the Veil keeps them separated from their God. They believe that in order for their prophesied day of rapture to occur that the Veil must be broken once and for all. They attempt to accomplish this by working quietly behind the scenes to orchestrate mass Veil Break events. Due to their views being antithetical to nearly all the other major powers, the Necesse Malum operates in nearly total secrecy. Members are trained to resist torture and interrogation, and are immune to most psycognition magic. Very little is known about the origin of the organization, but it is believed to have ties to the Vatican, though the papal powers deny all knowledge of the Necesse Malum.
Many Veil Broken humans, supernatural creatures, and primal magic practitioners end up making their living working as mercenaries and consultants for hire. Often referred to as “Contractors” these people are often exceptionally skilled at handling difficult problems through methods that average people would not be capable of. Private security companies, powerful corporate entities, government agencies, and the mega wealthy are just some of the clients willing to hire a Contractor when things become a big enough problem.
While the small-time, untrustworthy, or uniformed contractor might operate as an independent, all the best ones work with a fixer network. These are well known organizations that vet and hire contractors, perform client background checks and manage jobs details and payments. Fixers live and die by their word, and well established ones are considered some of the most trustworthy people you can find to broker deals and find work in the supernatural world.
In major urban centers, the quality fixers will be household names in the supernatural community. Some of them and the top contractor become the fuel for myths and urban legends.
If you were to look up a list of the wealthiest and most powerful families across the globe, most of them owe their vast fortunes to powers of the Veiled world and some of the most powerful people in human society are not human at all. Bankers, industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats, and other powerful positions have for hundreds of years, been infiltrated. Long lived creatures have pretended to be their own descendants to maintain control of companies, magic users have manipulated things for their own personal benefit, and the unscrupulous have used and about supernatural creatures to maximise their bottom line.
The Great Houses are arguably the second most powerful entities around behind the BWO. They have sweeping control of the lives of billions of humans and Children alike.
Some people just want to watch the world burn. Or in this case unmake itself. The World Eaters are a doomsday cult of supernaturals and veil broken humans who seek the power to be able to usurp control of the 9 Primal Domains from the Dragon Avatars. They will go to any lengths, and follow any lead to seek out the key to that goal.
Founded by eccentric millionaire Asmond Starling in 1975, and known publicly as the religious organisation the “Star Followers”, The World Eaters cult is hidden at the highest levels of the clergy, drawing its membership from only those most devoted to the cause and deeply brainwashed. Thanks to the exploitation of prosperity gospel teachings, recorded confessions, and the backing of a number of high profile celebrities and politicians, Star Followers and by association the World Eaters have amassed an exceptional fortune and a mountain of blackmail material on influential figures.
Though now publicly led by Asmond Starling Jr. following his fathers death in 2020, the truth is that Asmond Starling had himself cloned and his original psyche placed into the new body. Asmond plans to take any measures necessary to live long enough to see his dream of remaking the entire world.
All of the major governments around the world have secret agencies dedicated to dealing with the supernatural world. The United States has the Department of Veil Control (DVC), Canada has Joint Task Force Black (JTFB), The United Kingdom has Secret Community Oversight (CSO), the European Union has the Panoptes Obscura (PO), China has Guàiwù kòngzhì (Monster Control), Russia has Sekretnyy Nadzor za Lyud'mi (Secret People Oversight), Australia has the Australian Non-Human Services Organization (ANHSO). There are many others.
All of these agencies have different operating practices, budgets, and levels of government oversight. But they all serve the same function, they keep track of the supernatural entities in a nation and work to prevent the use of supernatural forces to destabilize national or global order.
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