1995. Over 5 years since the various supernatural entities and organizations raised the curtain that they had been hiding behind for centuries. Some say it was pressure from the younger generations, some say it was the elders wanting the prestige that they deserved and some say it was the Wellington murders. Regardless of what you believe, you now know that werewolves and witches aren't just kids stories and cool movies anymore. Some call it Thee Day, some Pandora and others the Opening (along with a myriad of others, some less pleasant) but whatever you call it, things aren't the same anymore, plain and simple.
For the first year or so, the world was pretty shook up and many people all over the world lashed out at supernaturals (SNs), and some of them attacked back in turn. America gradually stabilized, as did most other civilized countries and the Unity Act was instituted. At that point, ANY individual with ANY power described under the Unity act needed to be registered and could be investigated or monitored at any time, same as any human owning any fire arm or eccentric weapon. Failure to register known powers was a crime, the severity based on the knowledge of powers.
Eventually the US government created the Agency of Supernatural Affairs (ASA, sometimes referred to as ASNA) and this group was to monitor SNs, deal with individuals who violated or missed registrations or those who were in gross violation of the Unity Act.
As of now there are certain social policies that target SNs. For example, any law enforcement officer can ask any SN at any time for their certification, and SNs cannot run for any political office. But the more things change, the more they stay the same. The world didn't stop turning, people and nations moved forward, to more or less of a degree.
Welcome to Earth.
SN: Supernatural. Any magic user, augment, lycanthrope, vampire or whatever else have you.
ASA: Agency of Supernatural Affairs. See below. Also called ASNA on occasion.
LoM: League of Magic. See below. Also called The League on occasion.
UA: Unity Act. See below.
Yarl vs Alabama: This case involved an SN who stole a purse and was shot by local police. The case went to the Supreme Court and it was ruled that just being an SN does not authorize the use of deadly force. Just because a vampire for example, is drunk and disorderly does NOT mean that the individual can be treated any different than a "normal" person committing the same crime. Basically, if Yarl hadn't been an SN, he'd have been chased down and apprehended, not just shot.
Unity Act: All SNs must be registered to the local branch of the ASA. The ASA works closely with the ATF who handles ALL registered weapons (any and all fire arms must be registered without exception). The Unity Act give law enforcement the right to have an individual show certification at any time, although it does not allow harassment.
League of Magic: Governing body on magic. All trained individuals must be endorsed by both the LoM and the gov't. It is forbidden for any individual to train in more than one school of magic and this crime is punishable by either body.
The Test: The most simple way for the gov't or League to tell if someone is an SN or normal is to have a basic enhancement cast. Nightfire is one such spell that when cast, it simply illuminates the target. At that point, if the test is positive, more testing to narrow down the power may be necessary.
"Normal" or "mundane": a normal person. The key advantage to being human is that magical enhancements can be cast ON you (strength enhancement, night vision, water breathing etc). While other races have certain powers, no magic can affect them as buffs or enhancements.
Eccentric: This is a normal or mundane human who, by some genetic anomaly, has a unique power. This power is undetectable for the most part and these humans can STILL be enhanced. This power can be anything from an abnormally high IQ, to telepathy to a heightened healing factor. They can be useful on a personal level, employment level or power level. Some may not even know they have a power, it may just be a part of their every day life and written off as nothing. There is no actual way to prove or show someone is an eccentric.
Enhancement: This is magic that alters a human. It can create hard skin, water breathing, whatever.
Enchantment: This is magic that alters a non-human thing. It can make a coin float, a rock explode or make a wall transparent for example.
The Wellington Case: The Wellington case involved a group of rogue magic users breaking into a house and then terrorizing, torturing and eventually killing an entire family, but there were several twists. One, the entire house was video monitored, so the video evidence blatantly displayed what at the time was simply "unexplained phenomena." Additionally, the Wellington's 19 year old son was a technomancer, although he didn't know it. The second prior to his death, he entered his conscious mind into a lap top computer in sheer panic. When the computer was looked at for evidence, detectives were baffled when, after being turned on, messages started to type out giving names, descriptions and literally communicating. Eventually, between the video evidence and the boy's testimony via laptop, the 4 murderers were convicted. This ultimately led to mankind openly and actively seeking out and taking unsanctioned and illegal actions against SNs for the first time since medieval and colonial times and put much pressure on the various SN factions to come out.
More to come...
Werebeasts: Also called lycanthropes, skin changers, wild walkers. They are the were-creatures of legends, including werewolves, wereboars, wererats and weretigers. They have the ability to change form at will, but each change take a huge physical toll without sleep and sustenance. They will have constant heightened senses shared with the animal they can change to but do NOT always exhibit the traits of those animals. All werebeasts CAN utilize 3 forms; human, bipedal and fauna. However, some clans, groups or individuals can/will only utilize one or two based on religious beliefs, internal policy or simply not having been trained to make the proper change.
They are agitated by silver (depending on the individual, it can cause itchy skin to cysts) and highly susceptible to cobalt, which is extremely fatal. High amount of copper will generally lead to serious reactions like partial paralysis, comas or severe muscle cramping. A werebest in human form will heal about 10% faster, in bipedal form, they heal 25% faster and in fauna form, they'll heal about 40% than a normal human.
Werebeasts can be born or bitten. They have been reported to live for over 800 years.
Vampires: There are many families of vampires with a vast amount of different social habits and tendencies, but all are the same in regards to physical characteristics. They occasionally need blood to survive. Human blood is the most fulfilling and vampires get the most nutritional value from it while animal blood is harder on the body and harder to break down. Vampires have severe reactions to direct sunlight but the reaction to sunlight in general can be less severe for short periods. Long periods of exposure regardless will start to get more and more severe.
Vampires are mildly affected by gold and can get rashes, confusion or nauseous from it. Like many SN races, cobalt is extremely fatal to them. Holy water affects them like pepperspray would affect a human. Vampires cannot reproduce sexually, they can only be bitten/turned.The life expectancy of a vampire is directly related to how much human blood it drinks. One drinking only human blood can live anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 years while one almost never drinking human blood can be expected to live 150 to 250 years.
Telanthrop:
The ASA.
The ASA was formed shortly after the Unity Act was made active. This unit's primary function is to directly investigate or assist local authorities in the handling of SN related cases, and also tracking and maintaining the integrity of the Unity Act. It is made up of 3 parts:
Tactical: The guns. This group is comprised of both human and SN individuals. They are either training or shooting, or both and are outfitted with a myriad of technologies, many of which are available nowhere else. "Tac" is only called in when things are going to be handled via deadly force or if deadly force is imminent.
Investigations: These individuals will do anything from follow up on late/missing registration, complaints or assist other law enforcement agencies in suspected and confirmed SN related cases and stakeout suspected unregistered SNs. Many are selected from Tactical based on their mental capacity, although some do not see it as a "promotion" as knocking on an SNs door without a team with superior fire power isn't always something that is looked at positively.
Administrative: Everything else. Record keepers, computer techs and phone operators. The boring stuff.
Regarding cases, we have lots of things we could do depending on whether we want a light start or not. I do have some rough ideas that we can develop further if you wish.
Of course, we have the classical fraud, robberies, kidnapping, assaults and the like if we want to start with something easy. We could also do an investigation on a suspected unregistered supernatural who's either unable to control their abilities, or misuse them deliberately.
If we want something huge and dramatic I guess we can start an investigative case on some kind of organised SN group that have grown tired of the mundane and thus conspires to attack something or someone. Perhaps that could start as a small investigation that would eventually become something greater?
I was also thinking that if we want personal drama, Skye's mother and her SN issues could become a possible case too, as well as something related to Stan's own family and the supremacy movement? But somehow, I feel that would be better played out at a later stage.
I'd say start out light. I like to start slower and let bigger plots develop. The slow points let us focus on character interactions too.
We can introduce aspects of their personal lives now, and then leave them open to them turning into something else later.
Do you think we should only focus on these two for now, or what about Ken and Audrey? I kept them together as our other mains, but we can always focus on them later if you want. I am not sure how overwhelmed you will get dealing with multiple scenes, so let me know.
I definitely agree with you. It makes the role play more exciting if we let everything slowly develop, so let's go with something light and easy. Do you have a preference for any case or should I just go with something in my next post?
And I'm perfectly fine with managing multiple scenes if it comes to that, so we can throw in Ken and Audrey too if we want to. How do you feel about that?
Let's mix it up, you pick a case for Skye and Stanley. I'll pick up the next one. You're on the clock!!! I like it actually, because I'm not used to someone offering. Most of my RPs, I set up everything.
I figure the scene with Audrey can be less "case" and more chit chat. Maybe them talking about life, the cases, things like that. A way to get introduced to both of those characters. And if they work the case too, great.
Well, role plays are all about collaboration so it's nice to mix it up a bit! I would feel terrible for you to lead it by yourself all the time, but if you like it that way I'm willing to just enjoy the ride haha.
Just a warning though, it might take some time for me to write the next post since I just moved abroad and am still settling in, so I'm not sure when I can get it up. If we're lucky, it might be soon, but I could also be a day or two. Do you want me to write both the scenes with our two main pairings, or should I just start with Skye and Stan and then you introduce Audrey and Ken in yours?
Sorry, was a crazy weekend with juggling kids. I'm going to do some cleaning and if I'm not passing out tonight, I'll get a post up. It may be tomorrow though.
Hey, don't sweat it. I've had a very busy past couple of days too so no worries, take your time. Just remember to sit down, take a couple of breaths and enjoy your weekend too!
Don't worry, and I definitely extend the same courtesy to you. I'm not doing it out of obligation, only because I feel like it and I'm happy to keep people in the know.
