Modern Earth, March 2002, somewhere along the eastern coast of the USA in a large township known by local residents simply as ‘Fair Blue’.

No-one calls Fair Blue by its ‘official’ name, not even tourism pamphlets or ‘Welcome to our town’ signs. It’s just one of those colloquial things that every just sort of accepts, and since no-one ever asks, no-one ever explains why. While no means a full-blown city with skyscrapers and consistently congested traffic, Fair Blue is still large enough to take up a whole page on a street directory. With a beach to the east, a mansion district on the hills to the west, a forested mountain to the south and bugger-all to the north, it makes an amazing place to go for the holidays, or at least that’s what the tourism pamphlets claim. Half the stuff in these is complete BS by the way- ah, sorry, I’m not supposed to be narrating yet. *ahum* Yes, objective tone, right.

Earth itself is pretty straightforward; that’s the realm humans exist in. Nothing special about it, except it happens to be sandwiched between The Abyss and Avalon. And the residents of both want to add Earth to their territory. Humans can’t access these ‘supernal’ dimensions on account of their limited, ‘primitive’ physiologies, but the supernal races can move between the three realms by way of nexus points, which their inhuman bodies are able to interact with and withstand. Think of it as Avalon being the top slice of bread, Earth being a slice of ham, the Abyss being the bottom slice of bread, and nexus points as a toothpick that pierces all three at once. Ah, that’s an awfully subjective explanation. Sorry, I’ll try and stop narrating this time for sure, really.

From the Abyss, we’ve got Demons, from Avalon we’ve got Angels, and from Earth we’ve got Youkai and the Spirits of dead humans and you can find Artificials pretty much everywhere. More information on each race (including humans) is provided below.

Human: Most common species on the planet, but also the weakest and the least informed in regards to the other races. In order to compete with the supernatural races, humans must rely on their wits, typically coupled with magic or their technological superiority over the less scientifically-inclined races. They are also fought over by angels, demons and youkai to bolster their numbers, but their physical bodies prevent them from being turned into pure angels or demons. They can be turned into half-breeds known as ‘demi-supernals’, but a contract is often involved to bypass the body’s protective power, promising ‘ownership’ of the human’s spirit to the contracting patron. Thus, when they die, they are transformed into a pure angel or demon and are bound to Avalon or the Abyss respectively. This process also wipes their memories clean.

Spirit: The astral bodies of humans that have died. No longer bound to the Earth, they are free to move through the three dimensions at their leisure and are powerful conduits of Aether, the raw energy that fuels magic. However, they are even more vulnerable to the influence of angels and demons without their bodies, so spirits often do not stay as such for long unless they are capable of fending off the advances of the other supernatural races. Furthermore, spirits that die, as well as angels, demons, youkai and spiritless artificial, are permanently destroyed. All that awaits them is oblivion, in theory.

Angel: Supernatural race native to Avalon. Angels are known to have little to no sense of subtlety, often possessing features such as shining auras and massive wings and can often be seen with unusually large weapons, typically wreathed in flame or lightning. They tend to gain most of their ‘recruits’ from spirits rather than still-living humans, as angels typically respect the Territorial Covenant set down at the conclusion of Ragnarok, unlike their abyssal cousins, the demons. NOT NECCESSARILY GOOD!

Demon: Supernatural race native to the Abyss. Unlike angels, demons are very low-key creatures, preferring to use deception and cunning to get by. Masters of shapeshifting, their favourite ploy is to disguise themselves as humans, animals and even inanimate objects, stirring up chaos and turning as many humans as they can, all the while escaping the notice of supernal hunters and the resident youkai. As such, there are more half-demons than any other demi-supernal race. NOT NECCESSARILY EVIL (but most are)!

Youkai: The ‘youngest’ of the supernatural races, youkai have gone by many names; monsters, sasha, fae folk and have even been mistakenly called ‘demons’ and ‘gods’ by ancient cultures. The truth is that they are anthropomorphic manifestations of the world’s natural laws. This includes physical laws, such as gravity and death, and conceptual laws such as probability and fortune. They are an earthbound species, like humans, and exist to prevent angels and demons from turning the Earth into a battlefield. Unlike the other supernatural races, they limit their contact with humans and for the most part refrain from interfering with them. For this reason, there are far fewer youkai than humans, angels and demons, but it is common practice amongst youkai to choose a single ‘successor’ before they die to ensure the continuation of the species.

Artificial: An umbrella term that covers any artificial form of life, from magically-oriented creatures such as golems and familiars to technologically-oriented creations such as robots or synthoids (robots designed to simulate humans, a surprising number of which are robo-maids, take that as you will). Almost always bound to a ‘master’ in one way or another, but may outlive, abandon or simply ignore them depending on their disposition and level of intelligence. In rare cases, they may develop spirits when they finally meet their end, but humanity’s current level of magical and scientific progress cannot consistently produce such an advanced tier of existence.

Demi-Supernals: Demi-angels, demi-demons, demi-youkai and cyborgs all fit into this category. They still count as human, but have a fragment of inhumanity within them that will blossom upon their demise. They may or may not share the sentiments and goals of their patron supernal, but sometimes they may not have a choice. Cyborgs are a little bit different, but you can figure that out for yourselves. Besides, they’re a rare breed, though I hear M.A.E.N.A.D. is doing some work with that sort of thing lately...

Okay, look at it this way. Humans are the only species capable of reproducing on their own. All other supernal races (artificials notwithstanding) ‘reproduce’ by converting or ‘turning’ humans or spirits into one of them. Turning a human will make them demi-supernal, but when that half-breed dies, it will be reborn as a full supernal. It’s like a second life, except they are no longer human and have no memories of their previous life at all. It also often carries a change of personality due to the power that comes with being inhuman, but nothing too extreme.

Of course, a few millennia back, demons and angels fought bitterly over the Earth realm, trying to gain a foothold on this prime breeding/feeding ground. With humanity facing extinction, the first youkai were born (rather conveniently) as a countermeasure. The war during which the youkai (and certain anti-supernal groups of humans, mostly mages) drove angels and demons off Earth was known as Ragnarok. Since then, the supernal races have entered into a treaty known as the Territorial Covenant, which promises that the residents of Avalon and the Abyss can take their prey from amongst the wandering spirits of the dead, as long as the Earth is left alone. While this may seem like youkai have humanity’s interests at heart, it’s more that they have the Earth’s interests at heart. Saving humans from extinction is, to them, the same as preserving the landscape and the other flora and fauna on the planet.

This is done by an exchange of spiritual essence. Pretty simple for spirits, but for humans, whose spirits are bound to their bodies, things get complicated. Magical rituals and astral possession are common practices, but for most folks, the quickest and easiest way is an exchange of fluids. Typically blood. And now you know where vampire myths come from. Knowin’s half the battle, don’cha know. Ah, gotta stop narrating.

Oh boy, here we go. This one’s gonna be tough. Okay. First thing’s first; all inhuman abilities are magical in nature. Clairvoyants? Magic. Psychokinetics? Magic. Miracle working? Magic. You get the point. Now, all magic is fuelled by aether, as you already know. Think of it as ‘mana’ if you wanna make an RPG analogy. All you need to know now is the difference between innate magic and ‘proper’ spellcasting.

Spellcasting is the manipulation and forming of aether to perform ‘spells’. The amount of varied disciplines of magic would take far too long to explain each in detail, but here’s a few brief and general examples;
Evocation: Forming a pact with spirits in order to create a symbiotic relationship; the human summoner provides the spirit with an ‘anchor’ (preventing the spirit from being ‘turned’ by supernals), and the spirit casts spells that are beyond the ability of the summoner.
‘Grimoiring’: The Grimoires are mages who can understand the True Words, rumoured to be the language of the Akashic Record (a metaphysical ‘databank’ of all the information that was, is and will be in the universe). By speaking or writing these words, they can alter the information in the Record for short time before the cosmos corrects itself. Basically, it’s hacking the real world. Versatile, but as previously stated, isn’t useful for long time periods.
Alchemy: The fusion of science and magic. Pretty complicated. Alchemists are also pretty secretive about it too, but it seems to involve using magic to bridge gaps that science can’t accomplish on its own while using technology to give otherwise uncontrolled, easily dispersed magic a stable structure to adhere to. All sorts of mad scientist Frankenstein stuff happens around alchemists, and more than once has the phrase ‘powered by a forsaken child’ cropped up in alchemical tomes...
Thaumaturgy: ‘Classical’ spellcasting. Again, split into way too many disciplines to go into detail over. Mages who focus on a single element, or a single type of spell (curses, healing, divination, etc) generally come from one of these schools of thaumaturgy.
Enchantment: Magic that instils an ordinary object (or ‘focus’) with arcane augmentations or powers. Comes in two main branches that can often overlap; qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative enchantment gives the focus a new function, use or ability that would not be possible in its natural state (such as a sword can burst into flame, a bottle containing an endless supply of water or an amulet that can turn the wearer invisible). Quantitative enchantment is a sort of reinforcement or fortification of the focus’ original properties (for instance, a blade that never dulls, a shield that can withstand the impact of a tank shell or even reinforcing one’s own skeletal structure to fall safely from great heights).
Apotropaism: A sub-branch of enchanting. Involves imbuing small objects like charms, amulets, cards, jewels, etc with powerful but single-use spells. Typically used in a defensive, sealing or buffing capacity, and isn’t awfully easy to use offensively. More powerful, but more limited than regular enchantment magic.


Innate magical abilities are where rumours like ‘psychic powers’ comes about. Whereas spellcasting in even its most limited forms is highly versatile and can be used to elicit a varied number of effects, having an IMA is like having a single (albeit powerful) spell ingrained into your body as if it were just another function alongside seeing and having opposable thumbs. So while you can only elicit a single effect, you know that effect inside and out and can probably use some creative lateral thinking to get around its apparent lack of versatility. All sorts of phenomena can be attrituted to IMAs; teleportation, telekinesis, street light interference, mind control, pyrokinesis, et cetera.

Note; only humans and youkai can have IMA. Spirits have no bodies to ‘store’ the magical information in, and angels and demons aren’t good enough conductors of aether to sustain these abilities. All youkai have IMAs due to their avatar existences of natural laws, but this conversely means that no youkai are capable of spellcasting. Humans, being the well-rounded race that they are, are capable of both.

----BASICS----
Name: Self explanatory
Age: Self explanatory
Gender: Self explanatory
Species: In case you forgot, there's Human, Demon, Demi-Demon, Angel, Demi-Angel, Youkai, Demi-Youkai, Spirit and Artificial. Cyborgs are technically human, but if you wanna call 'em Demi-Artificials that's fine.
Alignment: How your character behaves in a moral sense. Using the 9 D&D Alignments for the sake of simplicity; if you don't know what they are, check 'em.
Class: Nothing official; just tell us in 1-3 words a summary of what your character 'does'. Assassin, gunslinger, paranormal investigator, magical healer, etc.
Appearance: Physical appearance.
Attire: What your character typically wears.

----TRAITS----
>POWER(S)
- Remember; spirits, angels and demons can only be spellcasters, and youkai and artificials (that are magically inclined) can only possess Innate Magical Abilities. Humans can have either, but not both. Abilities gained from technological enhancement (as possessed by artificials and cyborgs) are also included under Powers.

>SKILLS AND TALENTS
- Non-combat skills and talents the character possesses. Can be anything from mechanical expertise and a working knowledge of improvised cold fusion technology to magical lore and a lifetime of experience with supernatural phenomena.
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>BATTLE TECHNIQUES
- Non-standard fighting abilities; think 'special attacks'. If I press Quarter-Circle-Forward+B on a controller, what's your character gonna do? Also, keep in mind these are combat abilities; buffs and healing are fine, but if they don't serve any use in combat (spells being a major offender here) then they probably shouldn't be here. No fewer than 1, no more than 4 and 1 'Overdrive' or 'Limit Break' or whatever you wanna call it.
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>STRENGTHS
- Four 'strengths' your character possesses. What can they do that few others can claim? High speed? Sword mastery? A resistance to a particular damage type?
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>WEAKNESSES
- Four 'weaknesses' your character possesses. What are some crippling flaws and drawbacks that they have to deal with? An addiction? A mental instability? A constant rude and grumpy attitude that scares people away?
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----EQUIPMENT----
- Any weapons, armour, accessories, gadgets or other items the character keeps on them on a regular basis.