Please refer to section 2.2.9 of the Codex of Magic as you read this section.

One of the major parts of The Seven Seals is each player’s ability to play as famous mythological figures from various cultures around the world. Each such mythological figure possesses a mantle, symbolizing its legend and renown, which may be passed on from one spirit to another, in ways described in the Codex of Magic. As such, each mythological figure may simply be a spirit who inherited the original mythological figure’s mantle, one way or another, instead of the original figure itself, allowing players much more freedom in creating and playing their spirit characters. Additionally, humans have mantles of their own, and pass on to the afterlife after their mortal deaths to become spirits themselves, meaning that players can play as famous real historical figures that have since then become spirits.

Unfortunately, a player cannot simply play as any mythological figure she wants, and there may be some caveats to certain mythological figures. These limitations will be discussed in detail in the World Information section of this post.

It is possible for a spirit to possess multiple well-known mantles, as described in the Codex. However, in general I would like to make as many separate mantles available to other characters as possible, to provide more potential roleplaying opportunities. If you want to play as a spirit who has multiple famous mantles at once, your character must be exceptionally interesting and well-made, to justify why I shouldn’t instead make your extra mantles available to other characters. All in all, I suggest you don’t try to take more than two mantles, at the very most.

Please refer to sections 2.1.6 and 2.2.7 of the Codex of Magic as you read this section.

Another one of the main parts of this game is the Soul Pact, an intimate bond between multiple souls as described in the Codex. For reasons yet unknown, the Seven Seals restrict the power of any magic in the human world to roughly 1/7 of its original magnitude, unless that magic is associated with a Soul Pact between at least one human and at least one spirit. The Seals are built into the planet’s life force itself, and are thus globally far-reaching and powerful enough to simultaneously affect even all of the strongest of beings on Earth. This strongly encourages humans and spirits to find Pact partners, if they’re interested in staying in the human world and using their full powers there unrestricted. Each player is to create at least one human character and one spirit character, and she may have the characters bond with each other, or each with another player’s character.

There have been some attempts to circumvent the Seven Seals in one way or another, but none have been successful so far. The Seals recognize a being’s human status through the mana vessels that connect the person’s soul to her body, and there hasn’t been any successful attempts to create fake human mana vessels capable of fooling the Seals. Anything that doesn't have human mana vessels connected to a soul will be classified as a "spirit", i.e. non-human, and needs a human partner to achieve full power in the human world. More specifically, this applies to soulless beings and magical artifacts that are technically not spirits, but are still treated as spirits by the Seals for this reason.

As long as their reproductive organs are biologically compatible, a human and a spirit can have sexual intercourse and produce children. These hybrids may have children with other beings, some of which may be hybrids themselves, resulting in beings with varying proportions of human and spirit ancestry; these part-spirit beings are described with more detail in section 2.1.8. The Seven Seals recognize a being as a human if her body is more human than spirit, and as a spirit if vice versa. For half-human, half-spirit beings, tiny microscopic variations in their bodies will make each slightly more human or slightly more spirit. A good analogy is a ball placed at the tip of a hill, where it may roll down in either direction depending on microscopic differences; it is practically impossible for the ball to stay precisely balanced in the middle. It is thus effectively random whether a half-human, half-spirit being is classified by the Seals as human or spirit, and the Seals’ energies around such a being must be analyzed to see what she is classified as, if she doesn’t have a Soul Pact yet. Also, as said in the Codex, part-spirit beings gradually become full spirits as they approach the ends of their lifespans if they aren’t immune to aging, so a part-spirit being may even be reclassified as a spirit when it had been classified as a human before.

As stated in the Codex, if one person channels more power from her partner through the Soul Pact than her own magical potential allows, it will strain the person immensely, potentially damaging her body or even soul itself. Unfortunately, any magic in the human world must be channeled through at least one human and one spirit involved in a Soul Pact to be exempt from the Seven Seals’ power reduction, meaning that every person’s potential power is limited by her partner as well as herself. This has resulted in two main ways for humans and spirits to regain their full powers in the human world:

• The majority of spirits simply go to the human world, tolerate the power reduction for the time being, and approach humans with the appropriate amounts of magical powers or untapped potential to ask for a Pact. They may also ask for Pacts when encountering any humans in the spirit world. Similarly, humans ask the suitable spirits they encounter to form Pacts. Because the prevalence of such activities, certain services have been created to make them easier, such as online advertisements and agents that seek out potential partners for clients as a paid service.
• Though they are the relative minority, a distressingly large number of spirits simply seek out humans that they can subdue even in their Pactless weakened states, and force these humans to make Soul Pacts with themselves. Then the spirits proceed to use their full powers without a care for their “partners”, until these “partners” burn out and die from the strain, after which they simply go and seek out other victims. Demons and monstrous chaos spirits are especially prone to this, and often possess their victims’ bodies and subdue their minds as well, resulting in many an instance of almost stereotypical “demonic possession”. Conversely, some powerful human mages keep weaker spirits captive and forcibly use them as Pact conduits as well, until they burn out.

While there is nothing stopping more than two characters from forming a single Soul Pact with each other, the Codex states that such Pacts are much harder to improve upon than simpler two-people Pacts, not to mention the difficulty of building deep trust between multiple people. Additionally, if the total power of all humans in the multi-Pact is less than the total power of all spirits in the Pact, or vice versa, there will be the same problems as a normal Pact with partners of unequal power. Due to the relative inefficiency of multi-Pacts, channeling one's power through multiple weaker partners is rather noticeably less effective than through a single stronger partner. As such, while some spirits resort to multi-Pacts if they really cannot find suitable partners, the majority of Pacts are limited to one human and one spirit, out of practical concerns.

When the Seven Seals were undone on Millennial Day, large amounts of magical energies flooded into the human world; exposure to these energies released the latent magical powers that had been dormant in many humans all along. On average, humans are still somewhat weaker and less skilled than the beings of pure magic that are spirits, but it isn’t uncommon to see humans with magic on par with spirits’.

As stated in section 2.1.4 of the Codex of Magic, more powerful humans will age more slowly, and have less biological necessities. Sufficiently powerful humans are unaging and have no necessities at all. And as stated in section 2.1.3 of the Codex, humans who are more skilled at magic tend to have more reliable sixth senses.

The presence of powerful magic can cause a human’s body to mutate, with the details depending on the type of magic; the chance is much greater if one of the human’s parents is a spirit. The majority of human mages are still physically human for the most part, perhaps with some differences in minor bodily features such as hair or eye color. But for a smaller number of humans, the physical changes are more drastic, with distinctly inhuman body parts such as wings or claws. The most heavily mutated humans can look no different from monstrous spiritual beings; only their souls are recognized as human by the Seven Seals for the purpose of forming Soul Pacts. Physical mutations can grant additional abilities, but some of them may have drawbacks and harmful side-effects, especially if the magic in question is unstable or the user is unskilled in controlling it. Improving one’s magical power and learning new magic may cause further mutations to occur, while improving one’s magical skill allows the user to control the mutations more effectively.

Without exception, every soul in this world possesses one of four spiritual alignments, indicating the types of magic that they are the most closely attuned to. For the majority of humans, one’s alignment is usually only visible through her aura and the magic she uses. But for spirits, and magically mutated humans, the alignment is almost always clearly visible in the very form of one’s body. Each of the four alignments will be described below.

In case it's not clear, humans can be of any alignment too, not limited to Neutral.

Neutral
The most common and diverse of the alignments, Neutral magic is simply magic that has always been a part of the natural world since prehistoric times. Born from the ebb and flow of the planet’s energy, Neutral power is the power of life and death, order and chaos, the raw elemental forces of nature and inventions of sentient minds. Due to its sheer diversity, there is no common name, disposition, or form for Neutral-aligned spirits. They range from completely human-like to utterly monstrous to everything in between, and some are as barbaric as others are civilized.
In general, if a mythological being isn’t explicitly depicted in modern culture as angelic or demonic, then its alignment will be Neutral; this includes most of the gods in various pantheons of various cultures around the world. However, there may be exceptions, so it’s best to ask a member of the hosting team if you’re unsure about a being’s alignment.

Light
Over six thousand years ago, a blazing white meteorite of unknown origins crashed onto planet Earth, carrying with it a mysterious, inscrutable Cosmic light. The meteorite’s power was absorbed into and mixed with the planet’s life force, and thus the Light alignment was born. Light magic is typically associated with altruism, order, and ideals, but is by no means inherently “good”, as no doubt attested by many zealous, crusading well-intentioned extremists who truly believe that what they do is for other people’s own good. Light-aligned spirits are called angels, and usually resemble human-like or nearly human-like beings with white wings of various shapes, most often feathery and bird-like; their color schemes tend to be composed of white and other light colors. The majority of angels live organized, pious lives in shining, magically-advanced cities, though some wander the world in nomadic lifestyles.
Obviously, beings identified as angels in the Bible, as well as other works related to Abrahamic religions, will be angels in this game. If the being has “light” themes like sky or creation, but isn’t explicitly depicted as an angel in modern culture, then it may be Neutral instead.

Dark
At around the same time as when Light magic arrived on the planet, a rift in the spirit world opened, leading into a gaping Abyss of terrifying, maddening darkness. Like an infection, the rift was swiftly neutralized by nature itself, but its lingering taint blended together with the planet’s power to become the Dark alignment. Dark magic is typically associated with selfishness, chaos, and desires, but is not inherently “evil”, as self-interest can still motivate a person to make sacrifices for others. Dark-aligned spirits are called demons, and are often monstrous and intimidating in form, but have few common features otherwise; their color schemes tend to be composed of black and other dark colors. Many demons are bloodthirsty beasts who live only to satisfy their urges and instincts, but others are cruel and cunning and band together to oppress the weak and sabotage the strong; a rare few may even be noble and caring.
If a being is commonly depicted as a demon in modern culture, then it will be a demon in this game. For example, Orcus is depicted as a demon in Dungeons & Dragons, which is much more well-known than his traditional depiction as a Roman god of the underworld, so Orcus is a demon here. On the other hand, if a being has “dark” themes like death or disease, but isn’t explicitly depicted as a demon in modern culture, then it may be just Neutral.

Hybrid
A Hybrid spirit is simply one whose alignment is a mixture of two or more of the other three base alignments. Due to prevalent ancient hostilities between spirits of the three alignments, they do not interbreed often, especially not Light and Dark, so spirits that are born as Hybrid-aligned are rather rare, though not impossibly so. Aside from biological hybrids, the other main source of Hybrid spirits is the process of Soul Rebirth, as described in section 2.2.3 of the Codex of Magic, allowing a purely-aligned spirit to become a mixture of its original alignment and a new one; fallen angels and ascendant demons are examples of such hybrids. However, due to the difficulties and dangers of performing Rebirth, Hybrid-aligned spirits like these are not common either. Being a catch-all term for several different mixed alignments, Hybrid spirits have no common names or forms either, being just as varied as Neutral spirits. They are also often met with mistrust by spirits of the other three alignments, who questions their loyalties, so many Hybrid spirits are wandering outcasts with nowhere to call home.
If you want to play as a Hybrid spirit, then practically any mythological figure can suffice, if it is a spirit that has inherited its mantle from another, as long as you can justify the backstory. On the other hand, there are very few spirits who are Hybrid-aligned in their original myths, since angels and demons are usually from Abrahamic religious texts and thus don’t usually mix with mythologies of other cultures.

Perhaps because of their extraterrestrial nature, the alignments of Light and Dark are potentially corrupting to one's soul. If a being is reckless in expanding the potency of her Light or Dark magic, or simply gives in to the corruption willingly, her power will grow more quickly than normal, at the cost of warping her mind and soul. Light-aligned warping causes her to become more adamantly and zealously believing in her ideals, while Dark-aligned warping causes her to become more willing to indulge in her desires and urges. This will eventually make her become the worst examples of angel or demon mentality as mentioned above; the more radical of angels and demons view this as a positive change that perfects the psyche. Hybrid alignments containing Neutral will dilute both the positive and negative effects of corruption, and the Light and Dark components in a Hybrid person can warp her in ways that do not cancel each other out. Of course, with sufficient care, anyone can train safely without being corrupted by her own magic.

Please refer to section 2.2.3 of the Codex of Magic as you read this section.

Even though many spirits in this game are worshipped as gods by others, the most powerful spirits in the world are still limited to the “demideity” level of power, as described in the Codex. Ascending beyond this level of power is practically impossible, and no one is known to have achieved such a thing in the past six thousand years. Of course, player characters must obey this limitation as well.

The total population size of all humans and spirits in the world are estimated to be between ten and twenty billion. Among them, several dozen beings are fairly close to the pinnacle of demideity power, while some hundreds are at a notable fraction of demideity level. As one moves up the orders of magnitude of population size, there is a sharper drop in the order of magnitude of power level, the steepest of which is at roughly the one million mark. It tapers off after that point, with the majority of the billions being not much stronger than humans. These are, of course, only very rough estimates, and players don’t need to concern themselves with the exact power distribution in the setting, though I’m still willing to discuss it in detail if anyone wants. All in all, more powerful beings will obviously be treated as more serious threats, and other similarly powerful beings may mobilize to deal with them if they wreak havoc, so even having demideity power doesn’t let one do as she pleases.

Correlated to power level is a spirit’s “rank”, the amount of renown and influence it has in the spirit world. Higher-ranked spirits are more powerful on average, but this doesn’t mean that all lower-ranked spirits are weaker, as some powerful spirits may not wish for themselves to be well-known or simply be less influential. Overall, each rank is approximately ten times rarer than the rank before it.

Some other things to note about ranks:

• While the descriptions may imply that power levels jump discretely as one increases in rank, this is not the case. The power distribution is continuous, though described by a somewhat complicated formula, and players don’t need to concern themselves with that as I stated above.
• Humans can attain heights of power comparable to spirits, but the concept of ranks doesn’t particularly apply to them unless they die and become spirits.
• Do not feel that your character has to be low-ranked if you play as a character who isn’t very powerful or well-known in her own legend. The character could have grown much more powerful since then, or her mantle could have been inherited by a more powerful spirit; the choice is mostly yours.

The ranks and their average power levels are briefly described below.

Third Sphere: These are considered the “common folks” of the spirit world, without much real recognition, generally limited to street-level conflicts.

• Rank 9 (Angels, Spirits, Demons): These are effectively the normal citizens of the spirit world, as powerful as normal humans or only a few times stronger.
• Rank 8 (Archangels, Archspirits, Archdemons): These are citizens of slightly notable power and significance, like police officers and soldiers, and are comparable to a few dozen humans or so.
• Rank 7 (Principalities, Folkloric Spirits, Demon Esquires): These are spirits who have achieved some amounts of notoriety in their local communities, about as strong as a hundred people or two.

Second Sphere: These are the famous heroes, villains, and other beings of significant renown in the spirit world, and power levels begin rapidly increasing after this point.

• Rank 6 (Powers, Legendary Spirits, Demon Knights): These are minor heroic figures, but even their powers start to put many modern human technologies and firearms to shame.
• Rank 5 (Virtues, Mythic Spirits, Demon Barons): These are major heroic figures, who generally tend to start having sizeable territories and groups of followers. They can typically destroy buildings and other manmade structures with ease, and wreak considerable havoc.
• Rank 4 (Dominions, Demigods, Demon Counts): The beginnings of what is considered godhood, these spirits possess large territories and groups of followers, and wield power on par with weaker nuclear weapons that can still lay cities to waste.

First Sphere: These are the upper echelons of the world, the spirits who are worshipped as gods by many. However, the increases in power level begin to taper off here, so that each rank isn’t too much stronger than the last.

• Rank 3 (Ophanim, Lesser Gods, Demon Marquises): Though the relatively more minor of deific figures, these spirits nevertheless have powers comparable to devastating natural disasters.
• Rank 2 (Cherubim, Intermediate Gods, Demon Dukes): Approaching the pinnacle of power, this rank includes the majority of the well-known gods in various mythologies around the world. Their power is truly immense, capable of obliterating mountains and reshaping landscapes.
• Rank 1 (Seraphim, Greater Gods, Demon Princes): These are the most powerful beings in the world, the leaders of entire pantheons and factions. Able to carve out mountain ranges and bring entire nations to ruin, the powers of these beings are greater than that of the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever built by mankind.

Players are allowed to play as characters belonging to any rank. However, since the majority of the most influential beings in the world are in the First Sphere, so having weaker characters will make it more difficult to have larger effects on the plot. On the other hand, even if you do play as a weaker character, you may still have the character possess untapped potential, and grow stronger during the story.

Though it says a “brief” history, this section actually ended up being rather long. I suggest you at least skim the section, so that your character’s backstory doesn’t contradict anything stated here.

No one knows for sure where life had come from, but much evidence suggests that both mortal and spiritual life had existed since prehistoric times; some believe that they arose from the ancient and all-encompassing life force deeply rooted in the planet. As mortals and spirits evolved, their minds became more complex, and they began forming civilizations of their own. From what historians could piece together in the impossibly scarce recordings, the earliest major settlements of spirits formed some time before 4000 BCE. Being creatures of pure magic, the spirits of yore were far more powerful than most humans that ever walked the Earth, and many of them were worshipped as deities by humans, and other weaker spirits, as a result.

The most expansive of ancient civilizations was formed when a young but immensely powerful spirit witnessed a brilliant white star crash-landing upon Earth. Diluted by the planet’s natural energies as it was, the esoteric Cosmic Light filled the spirit’s mind with visions of an all-powerful, all-loving God, prompting him to take that power into himself and become the first of angels. Proclaiming himself Seraphiel, Avatar of God, the spirit began converting others to his newfound faith and gifting to them the power of God’s Light. Thus was born the Celestiarchy, the root of all Abrahamic religions, and its members built in the spirit world the Heaven that was promised to God’s faithful.

Where there was Light, there was Darkness. At around the same time as the Cosmic Beacon’s crash-landing on Earth, a rift into some terrifying black Abyss opened in the spirit world. Though the Abyssal Gate itself was quickly sealed by the planet itself, it still infected a large swathe of the spirit world’s energies. Those who drank in the corrupted energy grew sick and died, and Seraphiel declared it to be the very essence of evil itself, sensing an inexplicable enmity between it and the Light he wielded. For a time, all stayed clear of the Darkness.

As the Celestiarchy expanded its influence, it came into conflict with the various other Neutral pantheons that have independently developed around the world. To increase his influence among humans and gain more followers, Seraphiel raised Adam and Lilith, two humans with high magical potential, from birth to be his representatives among humanity. When Lilith refused to obey her designated husband Adam, and ran away, a new woman Eve was cloned from one of Adam’s ribs and conditioned to unquestioningly obey him. Adam and Eve lived peacefully under Seraphiel’s tutelage for a while, before they were targeted by the rebellious seraph Lucifer. Lucifer secretly obtained the forbidden power of Darkness, and presented it to Adam and Eve in the form of a Fruit of Knowledge, in an attempt to recruit them to his side. Deceived by Lucifer, Adam and Eve took the Fruit, became tainted by its powers, and were exiled from Seraphiel’s paradise. To cover up this blunder, Seraphiel told the future generations of his human followers that all of humanity were descended from Adam and Eve, and inherited the Sin that tainted them, so they must seek guidance from God to reach true salvation.

As for Lucifer, he and his co-conspirators left Heaven and traveled to the part of the spirit world corrupted by the Abyssal Gate’s power, where they managed to successfully take in the Darkness and transform into the first of demons. They aggressively expanded their forces then, converting other spirits into demons and creating more, before declaring war against Heaven and the Celestiarchy. They were called the Infernal Legion, their home Hell, and Lucifer himself was renamed Satan, God’s greatest Adversary.

Ever since Hell’s conception, it had been at war with Heaven, and their conflicts were partially why so few historical records survived the ravages of time. Satan himself seemed to have mostly focused his wrath toward Heaven, but the bloodlust of his followers could not be reined so easily; many settlements of Neutral spirits were devastated by the demonic hordes. The angels were roused to particularly fervent levels of zeal, and many of them saw anyone who refused to submit to God’s rule as demon sympathizers and threats, leading to hostilities between angels and Neutral spirits as well. The various pantheons of the world banded together to form the Mythic Accord, so they could collectively defend themselves against Heaven and Hell. A more radical faction of Neutral spirits also emerged, led by draconic spirits of chaos, intent on purging the unnatural forces of Light and Darkness and returning all to the purity of Chaos.

The next major upheaval of the world came four thousand years later. In the bloody conflicts between Light, Dark, and Neutral spirits, human lives were treated as expendable resources, used to fill up the armies of various factions. In another attempt to gain more human followers, Seraphiel used his magic to impregnate the human virgin Mary of Nazareth. Jesus, the Son of God conceived thusly, was proclaimed to be the Messiah who would bring salvation to all humanity, and his immense power rivalled that of Seraphiel and Satan themselves. Eventually betrayed by his trusted apostle Judas Iscariot, Jesus was defeated by the demonic forces, and crucified outside the city of Jerusalem as a demonstration of Hell’s power. With his dying breath, Jesus uttered that he would sacrifice his soul to save humanity, and it was at that moment that seven waves of power swept across the world to form the Seven Seals and pull all spirits back into their home plane of existence. From that moment onward, travel between the human and spirit worlds became impossible, save for the arrival of newly dead mortal souls in the spirit world. The surviving humans seemed to have also lost what magic they had, and magic was slowly forgotten, as humans repopulated the world over the next millennia.

(Note: Even if a spirit tries to go to outer space, where the Seals have no influence, and then try to enter Earth from there, it'd have still been blocked by a barrier around the planet. Also, section 1.2 of the Codex of Magic mentions that nuclear reactions are powered by tiny portals from the Sea of Chaos to the human world, so this is one exploit that could have worked in getting around the Seals when they simply blocked interplanar travel. But nuclear reactions opened portals into effectively random spots in the Sea of Chaos, and the portals didn't last very long, so no spirit actually had the opportunity to do this exploit before the Seals went down. And if enough spirits did do this exploit, then the Seals would've prematurely switched to power dampening mode like they are now.)

The various factions continued to war with each other in the next two thousand years, though none had managed to gain any significant advantages for long. Satan was overthrown and killed by the combined forces of the other demon princes in the early twentieth century, only for the Infernal Legion’s attacks to become more brutal than ever under new leadership.

When Millennial Day came, no one quite expected it. Nor did they expect the Seven Seals’ lingering effects, or the fact that humans began awakening magic far more powerful than what they had two thousand years ago. With their new magical and technological power, the humans now have far more of an impact on the global balance of power, and various factions have been grasping for control of the human world ever since.

Please refer to sections 1.2 and 2.1.5 of the Codex of Magic as you read this section.

As some of you may have found obvious by now, this game’s setting is mainly divided into two places, the human world and the spirit world. This section will describe some of the more important details of each world.

The Human World: This is Earth, a planet in the material plane of existence, where most humans live on.

• Since Millennial Day, a large number of spirits and human mages have tried to use their magical powers to forcefully take pieces of the world for themselves, and fought others who did the same. This is especially prevalent in less developed or civilized parts of the world, for example Africa and Antarctica. The energies released from the battles, along with the energies that have flooded the world since Millennial Day, have transformed these areas; some of them are even comparable to the more exotic locations in the spirit world. This, and the still-ongoing battles for dominance, make these areas very dangerous for those without sufficient magical power, and they’re colloquially referred to as the Wastes, taking up roughly half of the lands on Earth.
• The other half of the world’s landmasses is colloquially called the Bastions, places of civilization and relative peace. They tend to correspond to locations that have been well-developed and technologically advanced before Millennial Day, such as North America and Europe. In places where one culture is predominant, that culture’s corresponding pantheon and mythology tend to have greater influence, e.g. the Chinese pantheon having greater influence in China. In more multicultural locations, the citizens tend to be a more diverse mix of different types of humans and spirits, who more or less accept one another as a normal part of life, though discrimination, prejudice, and many other conflicts can still be rampant. Even though magic can potentially solve most of the world’s problems, these growing conflicts have taken up the majority of the time and attention of powerful organizations, resulting in a life that isn’t particularly better than modern real life.
• In the Bastions, technologies are comparable to what we currently have in real life, though many of them are powered by magic and operated by mages instead. Those with spirit partners tend to be preferred, as any magitech not bonded to a Soul Pact is also weakened by the Seven Seals. A number of companies are responsible for such magitech, the most prominent ones being Mikaboshi Corporation, inventor of modern computers and long-ranged communication, and Thales Industries, inventor of “Personal Combat Units” (PCUs), mass-produced artificial spirits given to police officers, soldiers, and other authorized combatants that cannot find partners of their own. Each PCU begins as a blank slate, and gradually adapts to its owner’s magic; more powerful models are naturally more difficult to produce. These PCU-wielding combatants make up the bulk of law enforcement personnel in many places.
  (Note: For convenience, we will assume that all works of fiction in real life still exist in this setting, by pure coincidence. Players can feel free to make pop cultural references as they please.)
• Deep underneath the Earth’s crust are veins of natural energies, the roots of Mother Nature itself. Most agree that Mother Nature can be thought of as a living entity, but it can only be described as semi-sentient in the loosest of senses, and has been dormant for most of known history. The power of Mother Nature easily dwarfs even the most powerful of spirits, and it is that power that fuels the Seven Seals. One can attempt to channel these energies, but if not limited to small amounts and with extreme care and thorough preparations, the channeler is more than likely to be simply overwhelmed and obliterated by the sheer power released.

The Spirit World: This is the region of stability in the spiritual plane that’s close to Earth, maintained by the planet’s life force.

• The spirit world is composed of a large number of spiritual realms grouped relatively close together, roughly in the shape of a sphere the size of Earth; each realm is comparable to the size of a nation. The Astral Sea is the sea of unaligned mana between the realms (not to be confused with the Sea of Chaos mentioned in the Codex), which is mostly safe to traverse. The four main regions of the spirit world are Heaven, Hell, the Inner Calm, and the Outer Chaos. They will be described in more detail later in this section, and the political structures of the factions that rule them will be found in the Factions section. When a mortal being dies, her soul instinctively travels to the region in the spirit world that is the most closely attuned to her personality and mindset at the time of death.
• The spirit world is not a planet. The World Axis is a vaguely tree-like structure at the central axis of the sphere, an extension of Mother Nature that circulates energy through the spirit world and maintains its stability; this causes a single direction of gravity from the tree’s top to bottom in most spiritual realms. Some of the largest spiritual realms are connected by branches of the World Axis as well. The Norse pantheon calls it Yggdrasil, the Celestiarchy calls it the Tree of Life, and it is called by many other names. Because living space in the spirit world is not constrained to the surface of a sphere, some spirit civilizations tend to be much more spread-out than civilizations on Earth.
• At the top of the World Axis is a region called Heaven, where angels of the Celestiarchy live. Thanks to the energies of order and creation drawn in by the World Axis at this part, Heaven appears to be an extraordinarily nice place to live, composed of beautiful, pristine white cities floating amid a sea of clouds, each painstakingly built by angels like a piece of art. Most cities possess magic on par with modern technology, though certain cities are more pastoral in nature. While the place is like paradise, free of war, poverty, disease, and most other problems that plague humanity, it is maintained by the Celestiarchy’s ironclad rule; all heresy and dissent will be quickly and mercilessly quelled.
• At the bottom of the World Axis is a region called Hell, where demons of the Infernal Legion live. As befitting of its name, this place is a conglomeration of caverns of hellish magma, soul-chilling glaciers, fetid bogs of poison and corruption, and all manners of other unspeakably hostile environments, born of the energies of entropy and destruction shunted here by the World Axis, as well as the efforts of demons themselves. Large swathes of Hell are constantly war-torn, due to the demons’ lust for battle and slaughter, while other sections are dystopian fortresses ruled and brutally oppressed by powerful demon lords, whom regularly wage war on one another as well.
• Between Heaven and Hell is the Inner Calm, a generic catch-all name for the territories of the Neutral pantheons of various cultures. Due to said variety, there is no consistent environment or standard of living in these realms, aside from their relative stability; they can resemble Heaven and Hell and everything in between. The dominant power here is the Mythic Accord, an alliance of most of the major pantheons, who guard their territories against incursions of angels, demons, and monsters of chaos.
• Surrounding Heaven, Hell, and the Inner Calm is the Outer Chaos, the edges of the spirit world as it bleeds into the Sea of Chaos proper, a “shore of chaos” of sorts. It is more stable than the Sea of Chaos, as large-scale structures can still exist, but the majority of it is composed of churning currents of many energy types blending into one another. The clashing of power frequently causes monstrous spirits of chaos to spontaneously coalesce into existence here, and many other monsters call this place home. The Reclamation of Chaos has its base here, and wields considerable influence, but it cannot fully rule over the expanses of chaos.

The Celestiarchy is a faction that contains the majority of all angels in the world, who worship the God in various Abrahamic religions. There is no evidence of God’s existence, but they believe that faith alone in God is enough to bring salvation. The Celestiarchy’s religious doctrines are mostly the same as those of real life Christianity, but with a much heavier emphasis on obeying God’s commandments without question and never doubting him, resulting in a culture that’s extremely devout, zealous, and intolerant of non-believers. To strengthen faith, heavy propaganda and indoctrination are regularly used on all of the Celestiarchy’s citizens.

As stated in the world history section, the Celestiarchy was founded by Seraphiel, the first angel, when he witnessed the Cosmic Beacon crash-landing on Earth over six thousand years ago.

The Celestiarchy is led by the seven seraphim. Among them, Seraphiel possesses by far the greatest authority. As the Avatar of God and founder of the Celestiarchy, his words are considered synonymous with the words of God himself. Jesus Christ is another central figure of the Celestiarchy, though only his mantle has been recovered since his sacrifice two thousand years ago. The Holy Trinity thus consists of Seraphiel (the Father), Jesus (the Son), and the Cosmic Beacon (the Holy Spirit). The rest of the Celestiarchy are divided into vast church-states, each led by a cherub or ophan; political struggles abound underneath the surface of peace as they attempt to gain more favor from the seraphim and promote their own interpretations of God’s will.

The Celestiarchy’s territory includes virtually all of Heaven. At the center of Heaven is the seraphim’s sanctum, where the Cosmic Beacon is kept. It is considered the holiest of all places, and only the highest of angels are allowed to enter.

The Celestiarchy’s central goal is nothing less than the conversion of every single being in the world to faith in God. They believe that God is the only path to salvation, and are more than willing to use force to bring about said salvation when necessary. Additionally, they believe that Dark magic and demons are the very incarnations of true evil, and will go to practically any length to completely eradicate demons and partially Dark-aligned spirits from existence. Beings of partially Dark alignments will never be accepted into the Celestiarchy, while Light/Neutral Hybrids are only trusted if they have expressed their complete dedication to God.

The Infernal Legion is the army of demons founded by Satan for the purpose of destroying Heaven and the Celestiarchy, and they are unified by little more than bloodlust and this common goal. Its central philosophy is utterly selfish and amoral to the core, advocating the use of force, deception, and whatever other means available to further one’s own interests and goals above everything else; all things in existence are seen as tools and obstacles. All demons are technically conscripted into the Legion on pain of death, but draft dodgers are not seriously pursued unless the Legion deems them truly valuable.

As stated in the world history, the Infernal Legion was founded by the rebellious seraph Lucifer six thousand years ago, who used the corrupted power of the Abyssal Gate to become the first demon Satan.

The Infernal Legion is led by the seven demon princes, the strongest among them the Prince of Darkness. Since its creation, and until the early twentieth century, the Legion had always been ruled by Satan himself through power and intellect, but he was always seen as an obstacle to the other demon princes’ ambitions. When World War II was happening in the human world, large numbers of souls of the deceased were flowing into the spirit world, the other demon princes saw the opportunity to expand their forces, and they chose that time to band together and destroy Satan. However, after the elimination of their common enemy, the princes immediately returned to plotting against each other, like they had always done; Asmodeus is currently the strongest and most influential of demon princes. Subdivisions of the Legion are led by various demon dukes and marquises, who endlessly plot against each other as well in attempts to seize more power.

The Infernal Legion’s territory includes most of Hell. At the core of Hell is the sealed Abyssal Gate, and the demon princes’ fortress are built around it. The Gate is considered a dangerous forbidden power that only the greatest of demons are allowed to witness.

The Legion’s official goal is the destruction of the Celestiarchy, and the usurpation of God’s throne, but implicit in that is the right to rule the entire world. When Satan was in power, he had always enforced strict military discipline and self-restraint in ruling, but many demons instead wanted to trample and abuse their dominated subjects as they pleased. And that was why the demon princes have overthrown Satan, and why the Legion has become more savage and bloodthirsty than ever before. Unlike the Celestiarchy, the Legion is opportunistic, and will accept anyone willing to further its goals, regardless of the person’s alignment, but anyone will be swiftly discarded if her usefulness runs out.

Ostensibly formed out of a radical response to the angels’ and demons’ increasingly bold, aggressive expansion efforts six thousand years ago, the roots of the Reclamation of Chaos can be traced further back. Though most spirits assume that the origin of life arose from the roots of Mother Nature billions of years ago, there had been fragments of pure chaos drifting in the world, bearing instinctual genetic memories of an even more ancient being. Though they cannot consciously remember it, many monstrous spirits born of the chaos can feel it deep within themselves, feelings of being parts of a greater, all-encompassing whole. And it is the desire of the Reclamation to restore that whole, and return all to the Primordial Chaos. To do so, the unnatural, invasive energies of Light and Darkness must be purged from the world. The public knows of the Reclamation’s goal to eliminate angels and demons, but not the true reason why.

The reclamation was originally formed by the goddess Tiamat. Throughout history, several other ancient draconic spirits of chaos had joined the Reclamation, and become its leaders. They are known as the Primordial Wyrms. As it is in the very nature of chaos, the Wyrms rarely reach agreement with each other on any matter. But as they all ultimately desire to return to the Chaos, they do not actively try to undermine one another for the most part. Reflecting this, the lesser monster lords and their followers in the Reclamation do not struggle for dominance, and simply work independently to tear down order and claim more souls for Chaos.

The Reclamation controls large portions of the Outer Chaos, but never the same places over time, due to the location’s ever-shifting nature. Their base is the Heart of Chaos, a vast maelstrom of chaotic energies that constantly moves through the Outer Chaos.

As known by the public, the Reclamation’s goal is the elimination of Light and Dark magic from the world. As such, they will only accept purely Neutral spirits into their ranks. Because of its relatively weaker military power and influence compared to the Celestiarchy, the Infernal Legion, and the Mythic Accord, the Reclamation is currently limited to guerrilla attacks against establishments of non-Neutral spirits. However, whenever a Reclamation member kills another being, the purified remains of the victim’s soul are sent to the Heart of Chaos as raw materials for the birth of more chaotic beasts. As a result, the Reclamation has been slowly but surely building up power for the past millennia, preparing for the time when they’re ready to realize their true goal, the return of all to Chaos.

The Protectorate of Humanity is, as its name implies, an organization that intends to protect humanity… from the menace of spirits. Having seen enough spirits treat humans as lesser beings, toying with human lives for amusement, using human vessels as tools until they burn out, and committing countless other atrocities against humanity since Millennial Day, a group of human techno-mages have concluded that the only way to keep humanity safe from spirits is to eliminate spirits altogether. But they cannot use their full powers without spirit partners of their own, which is why they make use of artificial, machine-like spirits, built and programmed from the very beginning of their lives to obey and serve humans without question. These are the only spirits whose existence they will tolerate.

The Protectorate was formed ten years after Millennial Day. It was funded by Thales Industries, the company responsible for producing the Personal Combat Units described in the Two Worlds section. The Protectorate makes use of “improved” versions of PCUs, created by capturing other spirits, dismantling their souls, and using the remains as base components to give the modified PCUs additional abilities and much greater potential. The Protectorate’s founders were in fact Thales Industries CEO Miranda Blake and her PCU “Thales”, but the public does not know this. Some have suspicions regarding the technological similarities between the Protectorate and Thales Industries, but there is no official affiliation between the two. Regardless, it was because of Thales Industries that the Protectorate was able to grow into a major faction in under twenty years.

The Protectorate’s PCUs are codenamed after human scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, and other great thinkers, though they do not actually have the mantles of these people. Naturally, the most powerful of humans and their PCUs are the organization’s leaders. For now, there is little internal struggle in the Protectorate, as most members are strongly dedicated to their cause and will work together to achieve it. However, some high-ranking members may have ulterior motives.

The Protectorate holds notable influence in some cities in the Bastions, but the bulk of their military power lies in their mobile fortresses deep undersea on Earth, hidden from the public eye, where they store armies of PCUs and other weapons. The largest of such bases is simply referred to as “Fort Hope”.

Being one of the youngest of factions, the Protectorate lacks the raw power to fight other factions in the open. For now, it is limited to various subversive tactics, mainly sabotaging spiritual establishments and using propaganda to recruit more humans to their cause. As their goal is to protect humanity as a whole, they are willing to eliminate pro-spirit humans if necessary, especially humans with non-PCU spirit partners. Furthermore, the Protectorate is secretly conducting a number of illegal experiments that many would call inhumane, including the aforementioned enhanced PCUs, grafting magitech and spiritual body parts onto humans to create super soldiers, and the creation of human-spirit hybrids.

In the past six thousand years, various cultural and national pantheons of Neutral spirits have developed independently. Initially, most were indifferent to one another, but when Heaven and Hell began expanding their forces, the pantheons realized that none of them alone had the power to match the angels or demons. In response, several of the world’s major pantheons allied together to form the Mythic Accord, for the purpose of mutually aiding each other in defending their territories from the Celestiarchy and the Infernal Legion. Over the millennia, the Accord’s functions had expanded to cover most inter-pantheon relations, and more pantheons joined, making it the most powerful faction in the world. However, each pantheon tends to have its own interests, not to mention conflicts within the pantheon itself, so it is often extraordinarily difficult for the Accord’s members to unanimously agree on any decision. This limits the Accord’s power, and made it unable to do much more than maintaining the status quo for the past several thousand years.

A number of pantheons are parts of the Accord, but its seven most major pantheons are Mesopotamian, Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Hindu, Japanese, and Chinese, each with roughly equal power. The leaders of each of these pantheons are the Godheads, the Accord’s leaders as a whole. Most pantheons are struggling for more influence in the Accord, but ultimately their efforts tend to cancel one another out.

The Accord’s territories are the territories of its constituent pantheons, which include the majority of the Inner Calm, especially the regions near the World Axis. Due to their worshippers, they have significant influence in the human world as well.

Due to the pantheons’ conflicting interests, the Accord has no real overarching goal of its own, aside from fulfilling the agreement of helping defend one another from external threats; specific pantheon goals can be decided by the players. The Accord tends to distrust spirits with non-Neutral alignments, but will not attack unless provoked.

The most idealistic of all the major factions, as well as the most liberal and progressive, the Millennial Union has freedom as the core of its philosophy. The freedom to think, to speak, and to exist without fear of prejudice or harm. They also advocate peace, acceptance, and cooperation, so that different entities can use their efforts for each other instead of against each other. This, they argue, ensures that fewer resources are wasted on petty conflicts, and can instead be channeled toward a better, more prosperous society. Naive as many find it, the Union eventually hopes to create a technologically advanced utopia without war or strife, where every person has the freedom to pursue her dreams and passions.

As strange as it may sound, the Union was founded by the Japanese chaos god Amatsu-Mikaboshi. A year after Millennial Day, he created Mikaboshi Corporation, the company whose magitech revolutionized modern computing and long-ranged communication, then used the wealth he obtained via the company to fund the creation of the Millennial Union fifteen years after that. Because of Mikaboshi Corporation’s significant contributions to human society, the Union was able to quickly gain influence, as well as the support of several powerful and well-known spirits who have similar aspirations. It has since then grown to be one of the world’s major factions.

The Union’s leaders form the Council of Unity. While Amatsu-Mikaboshi is the most senior and respected among them, they share equal executive power. Most of the Union’s lesser members all share the same idealistic goal of world peace, so they themselves are good examples of the cooperation that they advocate.

The Union has significant influence in the Bastions of the human world. Currently, their headquarters is at Millennial City, a city on the shore of North America that the Union created eight years ago, after its leaders personally cleansed a large wasteland irradiated with harmful energies left over from a small-scale war. True to its central message, the Union welcomes all to come and live in the city, so long as they don’t disrupt the peace. Millennial City has since then become the largest inter-faction, inter-species city in the world, but that means many factions are secretly trying to gain control of the city, to demonstrate their power and influence to the world.

Being the weakest of all major factions, but arguably the most cohesive one, the Union is currently trying to gain as much support as it possibly can, regardless of alignment, especially the support of other powerful and well-known spirits. Additionally, the Union is working with all manners of individuals and organizations in improving the quality of life in the Bastions, and pacifying the Wastes. However, the Union is also secretly preparing for the possibility of an eventual world war, unknown by the public, despite not officially having an army of its own, out of the necessity to protect itself against those factions whose visions are inimical to the Union’s own.

Instead of a true faction that officially exists, the Wandering Souls are a loose network of opportunists, drifters, and outcasts from other factions that band together for mutual protection and benefit. They have no real unifying goal or philosophy, aside from staying out of trouble and not attracting too much attention, as none of them have enough power or influence to fight entire factions by themselves. Nevertheless, because of the wide variety of talents, powers, and information accessible in the Wandering Souls’ massive network, being an insider to them gives one quite a significant advantage.

Because of its nebulous nature, it is difficult to say when exactly the Wandering Souls came into existence, or who its founder was. Some estimate that they began gathering a few years after Millennial Day, and gradually grew in size in the next two decades. Because it doesn’t officially exist, the Wandering Souls have no official territories either, though they have some notable presence in the Wastes in the human world.

The Wandering Souls have no unifying goal, due to their diversity; they accept all spirits regardless of alignment. However, there are a great number of criminals and other beings of questionable repute among them, who conduct a great number of underground activities of questionable legality, through methods of questionable ethics. Additionally, there rumors of questionable reliability through the Wandering Souls’ seedy grapevines (pun intended), of some more sinister force lurking within their network…

This section describes how each faction relates to one another, and to the public.

The Celestiarchy, the Infernal Legion, and the Reclamation of Chaos are all at war with one another. The Celestiarchy and the Legion are in a state of cold war with each other, while the Reclamation attacks and harasses both via guerrilla warfare from time to time. The Protectorate of Humanity is hostile to all spiritual factions, but is currently concentrating on the Millennial Union, seeing it as the weakest faction and the one whose ideologies are the most opposed to the Protectorate’s own. All these factions are hostile to the Mythic Accord, but do not dare to attack too much at the moment, due to the Accord's great power.

The Infernal Legion and the Reclamation of Chaos are both feared by the public in the Bastions, and largely seen as dangerous, bloodthirsty psychopaths and villains. However, some beings in the Wastes admire these factions and see them as paths to great power.

The Celestiarchy and the Protectorate of Humanity are received with more ambivalence by the public. Large numbers of people think they’re the “good guys” who are determined to make the world a better place, while some are highly wary of their intolerant, extremist methods.

The Millennial Union is highly popular in the Bastions, due to their friendly, welcoming messages. However, there are also many others who think that the Union is hopelessly naive, or doubt its true motives. The four extremist factions are hostile to the Union, but with the exception of the Protectorate, they aren't seeing the Union as too much of a threat.

The Mythic Accord is tentatively allied with the Millennial Union at the moment, though opinions are conflicted on whether this should be a permanent arrangement. More specifically, the Japanese pantheon is distrustful toward Amatsu-Mikaboshi, with the exception of the Union member Ame no Uzume, and the envoys Susanoo and Kushinadahime. Public opinions on the Accord are equally mixed; countries tend to support their national pantheons and be indifferent to the others.

As it doesn’t officially exist, the Wandering Souls have no official relations with the public or other factions. Unofficially, many people think the Wandering Souls are shady and untrustworthy, while others think they’re highly useful resources. The other factions think of the Wandering Souls as potential dangers, and are wary of them.