https://sites.google.com/site/ewdarkerskies/setting
The year is 2022. But this story starts thirty years ago when the world changed. Some say it ended the day that the Gates appeared. Others say that it was a great awakening.
The Gates first appeared as huge dome structures that covered expanses of the world. They were solid and made of a new form of energy. Contact with anyone inside was impossible.
At the same time a quarter of the stars disappeared from the sky. All in a band leaving a dark line across the night sky.
After a week the structures disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared. However, the land that had been beyond was obviously and irrevocably changed. Some zones looked twisted as if the original landscape had been poorly merged with some alien place. Others looked as if many years had passed, but the flora observed was nothing known to Earth. At first it seemed as if all the people who had been trapped beyond were dead, but soon survivors started stumbling past the boundary with no memory of the past week.
With them some stars returned, but they were not the stars that had been there before. These were new and unknown stars.
People who were sent into the strange zones either died in inexplicable ways or went murderously and destructively insane. With the clear boundaries and alien landscapes the zones came to be called Gates. Seeing that they were harmful governments and corporations acted quickly around the world to contain the toxic borders.
The people who survived the initial Gate phenomena started to display strange behaviors at first and later the ability to do things that defied our very understanding of the world. In a word they had magic. These were the first Espers to walk the world. They were often unstable and none of them fully integrated with their abilities.
Some of them died in the early days. Through uncontrolled use of their abilities, murder, or collapsing into schismed personalities. Every time an Esper died one of the new stars vanished.
Study of a connection between the Gates, the new stars, and the Espers began in earnest.
What was found was that these Espers had a connection to the Gates as well. They were able to enter them with no ill effects. They were also able to bring back things from the other side. Things that caused a huge jump in technology. A new technology emerged that combines magic and technology, called magitek.
Seen as valuable assets Espers were rounded up by governments and corporations. To this day Espers belong to either a corporation or to a government.
With the aid of magitek telescopes it was found that every Esper had their own star. From it could be gleaned the power of an Esper and if they were using their power or not. This became a tool in finding and containing Espers.
Eventually some children started being born along with new stars. As they aged they displayed the powers of an Esper. They were dubbed the “second wave” and those that emerged from the Gates “first wave.” The naming convention has stayed even as the years passed.
You will all be playing second wave Espers that are part of the Farlight Foundation. A large corporation situated in upstate New York. New York city is now the host of two partly overlapping Gates. Farlight Foundation works primarily with the phenomena of those Gates.
In basic terms Espers have elemental powers and some have mixed elements that lead to interesting powers. I’ve covered them all as they are known, but if you have an idea please do share. I am also rather sparse on Strengths and Weaknesses. I hit a blank so absolutely feel free to come up with something awesome.
Not covered in the blip above is Urge. All Espers have one. It is like another being inside of an Esper. A being that their powers flow from. It also seems to exert some influence over the behavior of the Esper. Second wave Espers are more in sync having grown up with the influence. How active and sentient you’d like your Urge to be is up to you.
Hosted and narrated by:
Kai (Dendacien)
Started 12/11/14.
Scenes played: 2
License: Community License
