The sins of angels are powerful things. In this world angels are sinners, the things that go bump in the night are real, and between fallen angels, demons, vampires, werewolves, and all manner of other creatures that roam the Earth in the shadows there is definite cause to show fear going out alone at night. Humans do horrible things but none quite so horrible as what the inhuman begins coexisting with us in the darkness do.
Where / When
Our play primarily takes place in the corrupt city of Chicago in the modern day.
Terms
For most people in the world these terms hold little or no meaning, however, to the supernatural world they can be powerful insults or compliments depending on whose saying what.
- Normals / Normie / Mundane
- A regular person / group of regular people without supernatural ties at all. Vampires tend to call a normal person as cattle or sheep emphasis on their use as a food source.
- Supernaturals
- Someone who is part of the supernatural world, either a person with powers / abilities or a supernatural creature.
- Wizard / Sorcerer
- Someone who is able to use magical energy.
- Psyon / Psionic
- Someone who is able to use psionic energy.
Secrecy
At some point in the past, no one is quite sure when, it was decided that supernatural creatures should be kept secret from the mundane world. The supernatural population has fluctuated but always has stayed limited in relation to the human population. One of the main driving forces is that many supernaturals feed on humans in some way (such as vampires or some demons) and thus their numbers can become limited by the population of food currently available.
One of the few things that all the sects of supernatural creatures agree on, even between wizards, psionics, vampires, werewolves, demons, fae, and anything in between is that if humans were to find out, as their enjoyment of violence and armed conflict goes up, it could wipe out huge swaths of the supernatural population. Wizards tend to fear being enslaved (same with psionics). Vampires fear loosing so many of their kind in a fight (that they are sure they'd none-the-less win) that they would not only deplete their own food supply but would also have too few left of their own kind to manage the remaining people like cattle. Fae are not terribly concerned with humans harming them but prefer to stay in the shadows, and demons operate best when people don't know they are demons. They have no striking need to remain secret but it is easier to inspire fear and take advantage of human souls when you're just a legend that is only believed by children.
Since secrecy is so important to all, it is well known that a breech in secrecy is a high crime against the loose alliance that has formed between the different populations.
Peace
Currently, all the various factions and races are at a rough peace with each other. A powerful factor is the secrecy needed to keep their cover intact. However, no small part of this is the fact that each side fully believes they'd win but also knows they'd loose just vast numbers of their own kind. This mutually assured destruction keeps everyone roughly in check and none of the races or factions like or trust each other enough to align.
Human Blight
Recently, as of the mid 20th century, the governments of the world have started to realize that such supernatural creatures and people exist but have been convinced through threats or treaties to keep it a secret. The push of human violence has seen that some of them have adopted werewolves as soldiers or companies of magic users operating in the background. This threatens the peace at large but so far the humans have kept to tightly bound treaties keeping the numbers of humans who know about supernatural creatures to a minimum. The arrogance of the human race is unmatched even among Vampires and their tendency toward blind violence when provoked is a source of a fearful undercurrent. Even as humans experiment with gene-splicing and forced turning of humans into other creatures the powers that be have decided so long as the vast majority of humans know nothing about these things they will keep the peace.
Government
There is a supernatural influence in every village, town, and city in every county in the world. This influence guides world events and protects supernaturals from discovery except by a chosen few in power who have little choice but to do as they are told in some things. There is a give and take, vampires are well known to do the bidding of some powerful humans in exchange for things they want or need (such as help covering up a high body count in certain areas or fresh meat delivered to them). Others have similar arrangements using fear and greed as a method of controlling humans in charge.
Notes on Creation
The creation of this setting originally was done by a person known as Spook on the original IRC channels back in the mid to late 1990's and into the early 00's. Spook based the setting largely on role play done on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) in the vein as Vampire the Masquerade, what would now be called Old VtM. The setting was originally developed for the first incarnation of the Blazing Umbra Forum when it was called just Angelic Sins. Since then Spook has parted ways with us on this and we have began developing the setting based on both what she originally set forth and our own creativity, beginning in around 2013 or so.