---Intro---
It's 1930, and the light of the gilded age has faded. An age of excess and luxury has collapsed to a decade of poverty and despair. Faith in governments and economies across the world has fallen, and millions of lives are left lost in a maelstrom of economic turmoil, fanatic ideologies, and the heartbreak of a promised bright future turning into a nightmare. The promises of growth and wealth have come to naught, and now everyone must find a new place in this turbulent time or risk being swallowed by the waves of change.
That's the story on the surface, as everyday people understand it. Unknown to them there are hidden actors pulling the strings from underneath these waves. Ancient and powerful spirits and gods call from their retreats for a great new spiritual age. The gods and goddesses of old demand to walk the earth again, and for their names to be on the lips of new followers. Some seek devotion, others blood and revenge. They poke and pull at the veil separating our reality from theirs. They cause loving husbands to murder their family, devout priests to curse their God, and committed killers to renounce their ways and devote themselves to new purposes. New religious cults are arising, for Athena, Mars, Odin, Eris, Ra and other classical mythological figures. They claim to wield incredible magics and powers from their familiar gods, and are eager to show the world what they are capable of, both good or bad or inbetween. Existing religious orders in Christianity, Islam and Judaism reject these uprising revivalists as demons and lunatics. The chaos in the material world reflects the spiritual, or maybe it's the other way around.
The walls between worlds is crumbling, and anything came come into this reality.
You find yourself caught up in this storm and left with two choices. To either let yourself become a victim of circumstance and see how this wind will take you, or to dare to try and lead the charge yourself and make a stake for yourself in this era of depression and violence. For some this is a nightmare, for others it's an opportunity.
Setting
New Haven is a fictional city set off the coast of California. It is considered the jewel of the west coast and a achievement creating a flourishing modern city out of what was once a set of grassy hills and untamed woodland. New Haven is on the cutting edge of society, technology and culture. A burgeoning film and radio industry, aeroplanes and automobiles and one of the hottest immigration spots in the world. It is also directly on the frontline of this spiritual and material cataclysm that's befallen civilization, as both the worst of the depression and religious agitation can be witnessed here. All sorts of strangeness has been reported such as angels flying high in the polluted night sky or goatmen feasting on the young in the sewers. Ra's Avengers fighting Set's possessed minions in a back alley brawl befitting a gang war.
Where do you fit in?
This is more a sandbox than a hard narrative. Although I do have narrative strings floating around in my head, I am also wanting to hear the ideas for characters others have to inform those narratives. The basic plotline is that your character is someone capable of action with an interest in solving/gaining in this great conflict that's emerging in this setting. I want to make a strange blend of ancient religious folklore and mythic tropes contrasted with the gritty reality of the depression era America, and see if I can't make some fun fantasy while I am at it. If anything, it will definitely be an adventure novel faced with achieving some sort of goal that will have wider reaching impact on the city and the future it holds for it.
It's 1930, and the light of the gilded age has faded. An age of excess and luxury has collapsed to a decade of poverty and despair. Faith in governments and economies across the world has fallen, and millions of lives are left lost in a maelstrom of economic turmoil, fanatic ideologies, and the heartbreak of a promised bright future turning into a nightmare. The promises of growth and wealth have come to naught, and now everyone must find a new place in this turbulent time or risk being swallowed by the waves of change.
That's the story on the surface, as everyday people understand it. Unknown to them there are hidden actors pulling the strings from underneath these waves. Ancient and powerful spirits and gods call from their retreats for a great new spiritual age. The gods and goddesses of old demand to walk the earth again, and for their names to be on the lips of new followers. Some seek devotion, others blood and revenge. They poke and pull at the veil separating our reality from theirs. They cause loving husbands to murder their family, devout priests to curse their God, and committed killers to renounce their ways and devote themselves to new purposes. New religious cults are arising, for Athena, Mars, Odin, Eris, Ra and other classical mythological figures. They claim to wield incredible magics and powers from their familiar gods, and are eager to show the world what they are capable of, both good or bad or inbetween. Existing religious orders in Christianity, Islam and Judaism reject these uprising revivalists as demons and lunatics. The chaos in the material world reflects the spiritual, or maybe it's the other way around.
The walls between worlds is crumbling, and anything came come into this reality.
You find yourself caught up in this storm and left with two choices. To either let yourself become a victim of circumstance and see how this wind will take you, or to dare to try and lead the charge yourself and make a stake for yourself in this era of depression and violence. For some this is a nightmare, for others it's an opportunity.
Setting
New Haven is a fictional city set off the coast of California. It is considered the jewel of the west coast and a achievement creating a flourishing modern city out of what was once a set of grassy hills and untamed woodland. New Haven is on the cutting edge of society, technology and culture. A burgeoning film and radio industry, aeroplanes and automobiles and one of the hottest immigration spots in the world. It is also directly on the frontline of this spiritual and material cataclysm that's befallen civilization, as both the worst of the depression and religious agitation can be witnessed here. All sorts of strangeness has been reported such as angels flying high in the polluted night sky or goatmen feasting on the young in the sewers. Ra's Avengers fighting Set's possessed minions in a back alley brawl befitting a gang war.
Where do you fit in?
This is more a sandbox than a hard narrative. Although I do have narrative strings floating around in my head, I am also wanting to hear the ideas for characters others have to inform those narratives. The basic plotline is that your character is someone capable of action with an interest in solving/gaining in this great conflict that's emerging in this setting. I want to make a strange blend of ancient religious folklore and mythic tropes contrasted with the gritty reality of the depression era America, and see if I can't make some fun fantasy while I am at it. If anything, it will definitely be an adventure novel faced with achieving some sort of goal that will have wider reaching impact on the city and the future it holds for it.
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