Everlasting Night

Everlasting Night is loosely based upon Jim Butcher's, Dresden Files about a private investigator and wizard Harry Dresden who recounts his investigations and supernatural disturbances in modern-day Chicago. It also touches upon the World of Cthulhu, but writers are not bound by the details of those writings and are free to develop whatever horrors they so choose.

The story takes place in an Earth setting in a time period that encompasses the 1920's and 1930's. The world of magic is very real and always has been but the use of magic has been highly regulated since the turn of the eighteenth century and many communities have banned it all together. Frighteningly enough, there are even some places in the world where witch and warlock trials are still held and these people are publicly executed with no more remorse than one shows a rabid dog.

Not everyone realizes, however, that there is another world behind the veil of what people perceive as reality. A sinister realm, void of day, perpetually night where monsters and demons stalk a medieval and modern landscape that borders at the edge of the known world. It is in these places, where the two realms overlap, that these creatures find their way into Earth and find spread out before them a new land to consume for theirs is not but a barren, bone picked carcass by comparison.

We begin in Chicago, where the setting is an amalgam of 1920's to 30's time periods. A generic time, that is lenient with the inaccuracies that can commonly occur when writing a retro-period story that should maintain historical accuracy. While it will be accepted that writers will not always portray the time periods properly, it is expected that no one will stray outside of the twenty year period (1920 - 1940). Attitudes of the times should be reflected, but there is not need for female characters to be forced to regress to the common mentality that beset that era. This world, depicts a fictitious time where equal rights and our modern attitudes exist in the golden age.

Since the turn of the century, the world of Everlasting Night, is beginning to become more prominent in the world. Sightings of dark creatures are becoming more common place and those people outside of the magic-community are beginning to encounter things they cannot explain and yet they still do not want to believe. The very existence of these monsters and supernatural creatures conflicts with the common man's acceptance of reality, and thus when faced with the reality their minds choose not to acknowledge it. Many people who have dealt with something unexplainable cannot remember what occurred or recall it in an acceptable manner, so the world of Everlasting Night , literally remains hidden from public view.

THE PREMISE

The World of Everlasting Night, is about people living in a 1930's time period where the supernatural is very real. Nobody doubts the existence of were-wolves or vampires but because the appearance of them is very rare, people are still naturally skeptical should one claim to have seen one. A dark world of eternal night is slowly, enveloping the natural world everyone accepts as reality, and your characters, aware of this have chosen to either take a stand against it or embrace it. Your first character should be on the side of light, but as you become more familiar with the world other characters to follow could be part of the very evil your first character is fighting against.

The world is not a Nazi regime. Even though magic-use is illegal for the most part, it is treated the same as someone carrying a weapon illegally, although the penalties are a little more harsh. Witnessing a magical battle on the streets of Chicago is as rare as seeing a gun fight, which is more common for some and never before seen for others. There are also secret places where incantors and supernatural beings dwell. Places that even the cops know about, but dare not venture into them unless they have to. Magical markets and buildings that are magically connected via portals that can span the width of the city in one single step across the threshold.

WRITING STYLE

Collaborative Free Form. Writers should always write their posts in the form of a story, closely matching the opening post. You are expected to be constructive and attempt to be fairly accurate when writing anything pertaining to the time period.

Posts which are non-constructive, by not offering anything that can be elaborated upon will be deleted (Except in those situations where characters are exchanging dialogue that is completely reliant upon the response of another writer).

This is to be an expansive story, slow moving and reliant upon detailed posts required to construct a rich setting where we can develop our characters. While the background does not always have to be defined, writers should attempt to paint scenes which are more than just a grey room with a couple of chairs beneath a spot light.

INCANTORS

While everyone in the world can perform a few minor feats of magic not everyone is gifted with the abilities to truly harness it's power and become an incantor. Strict regulations have been placed on these individuals and magic in order to protect the people and so police are allowed to use deadly force when they encounter a person who is casting spells in public. Performing any feats of magic, not sanctioned by law enforcement personnel, in any public place is a crime and even punishable by death. Still it is not illegal for people to move about with charms on their person, with the exception of staves, which are also considered a mace and an illegal weapon, but there are specific components which are banned, and thus being caught with them one's person could be punishable with prison time.

The reality of the world is that magic is rarely performed in the open and when it is used, it is with the upmost secrecy, but there is a double standard. Certain incantors, known as Witch-Hunters are tolerated in society because they perform an invaluable service in helping to catch rogue incantors and also assist in dealing with supernatural phenomena which are increasingly plaguing rural and urban areas alike. These Witch-Hunters work closely with the police and are closely monitored to the point that they have to report in if they are going to take a stroll down to the local pub. For this reason alone, many incantors who choose to live as vigilantes often will not reveal themselves and live under constant surveillance for the rest of their lives.

There are also those who specialize in healing magic. Those gifted with a propensity for healing are held in high esteem, but they too are viewed with scrutiny and though they perform an invaluable service to society are not free. Their gifts are controlled by the government and squandered by the wealthy, who pay to have their lives lengthened and serious illnesses cured while the innocent and the poor are left to fumble their ways down dark allies in search of hope.

Many incantors in fact live two lives. Their existence in the day, where they work their nine to five, meet friends for lunch and mow the lawn and then they have their night time world. A world where they prowl the streets and dark magical corners in search of demons and supernatural beasts. They gather rare charms in the secret markets and magic shops spread out all over the city in underground labyrinths and back street dwellings. Some even know of passages that take them into the world of Everlasting Night, where they explore strange landscapes and search for rare treasures in a realm populated by the supernatural.

ORDERS OF MAGIC

Incantors can dabble in all orders of magic but some will have a greater aptitude for specific types than others. It is entirely up to you what you would like your incantor to excel at. In the world of Everlasting Night, you should have an idea what kind of magic your character(s) can perform. Listing the spells is entirely your choice as you may just write them in as you see fit when the time comes, but always remember, nobody likes the omnipotent hero who has a spell for every occasion. Magic is part of the world of Everlasting Night, but does not define it, there should be much more to your posts than just your character walking around and casting spells, in fact for some magic may be very secondary to their gun or other weapons they may carry.

MAGIC

In the world of Everlasting night, wands are staves, not diminutive sticks made popular by stage magicians and wizards and witches do not fly around on brooms. The use of magic is reliant upon charms, without them, an Incantor, as magic-users are known, is powerless.

A common effect that magic always has on the natural world is that it will turn fire blue and when some types of supernatural beings are in the presence of wards the conflict will cause any flames to turn green.

CHARMS

Staves (Wands), jewelry, coins, clothing, bones, tattoos, anything that can physical hold 'mana' is a charm. The more powerful the spell the more complex the charm or the more of them an incantor will require to power the spell, for that's all that charms are is a power source to generate the magic. Once the spell is cast and the energy used, the charm is either drained or completely disintegrated.

There are five types of charms:

1. Component
The incantor combines the charms into a vial or small sack either ahead of time or when required in order to empower a spell.

2. Sigils
These are protective drawings, often in the shapes of a pentacle, triangle or square that are used for protection when performing summonings or defending one's self against other spells. Some sigils are etched or branded into an incantor's skin. These can be used more than once, but eventually they will loose their potency and fade away, then have to be re-made once again.

3. Sacrifices
These are live components. Living animals or insects in which life or blood is required to complete an incantation.

4. Talisman
These are physical objects that the incantor magic's with components. The component's are transformed into mana which permeates the item which has been specially prepared through the INFUSION ritual.

Infusing is one of the first things that an incantor learns and the stronger they become the more powerful talisman they can create. Depending on the size, material, and magical preparation an item can only be infused with certain kinds of mana and only so much. Overloading a talisman during the infusion ritual can destroy it so incantors must be very patient when performing the ritual.

Certain items like silver for instance, will not hold the mana necessary for necromantic magic and gold does not allow healing mana to be infused within it. (Other conflicts are entirely up to the writers, and when these are added to the story they should be documented in this section for a quick reference.)

Once an incantor infuses an item and creates a talisman, others can use it, but no one else can ever infuse that item, once it is expended it is lost. Thus there are very little ancient magical artifacts in the world aside from grimoires, since all charms are disposable items.

An incantor will always be able to sense how much mana is within a talisman and they receive a mental picture of all the components that have been infused within it. The incantor must rely upon their own knowledge to decipher the ingredients in order to learn what spells they can used to cast and very often when a talisman is found the spells are not known.

5. Commanded Talisman
These are infused items that have been created, to release their magic, by a specific incantation set by the incantor that created it. They do not make up the words, but rather they chosen for it, and the knowledge passed on to the incantor. Anyone, who learns the command can release the magic from the item and use it as they choose.

WARDS

In order to countermand the presence of magic, people have created wards, which are iron talisman designed to dampen magic and repel supernatural creatures, however, for every type of magic and creature a different type of ward is required. There are generic wards all over the place, embedded in walls, hanging from streets signs, even gargoyles are a ward against certain types of magic and of course, real gargoyles. Writers should always be aware that the more common and frequented an area is the more wards will be present and so many types of magic will be weakened if not useless.

Iron by itself counter acts magic, but it has to be pure. New world steel just doesn't do the trick, it has to be old world wrought iron, and usually the older it is the more potent it's defenses. The mere presence of iron has a dampening effect on magic, and no spell can penetrate iron, although magic can repel it if necessary. An iron cross is powerful ward against all supernatural beings and magic but the person using the ward has to believe in it. The belief empowers it, and without that it just has a minor dampening effect on magic.

Pure silver is also a powerful metal used as a ward, but it effects more specifically supernatural creatures and does not countermand magic as well as iron.