This setting is The Illumination 100 years in the future and in the aftermath of a series of terrible events; The Desolation is Illumination if everything got out of hand. The world turned on Harbingers and Contractors as they continued to fail so publicly. Nothing is stable. The Powers That Be are believed dead and gone. Popular magic became too popular and shattered any capability of keeping it under control. Contractors failed to contain themselves and the world around them. The world has been thrown into an era of Desolation and now it is your job as the new age of Contractors to put it right... or merely just survive.
• Desolation is defined by three major events. First, the death of one of the most well-known Harbingers, who was in an interview on public TV, was murdered by a supernatural user by the name of Adrielle Nyx. Adrielle used the moment to establish herself on the East Coast creating a small empire and beginning her war on Harbingers and Contractors.
• The second was the overnight phenomenon where CryptoLeak became sentient and absorbed the whole of the internet, becoming a self-repairing entity that kept hold of all information and cyber communication.
• The third is known as the “Breath of 1 Billion”, the final desperate act to put an end to a very long war, started by Adrielle, several world powers and their supernatural weapons launched an attack upon her domain. The witch, Adrielle, had been spreading her influence, linking many souls in fail-safe protection just for such an event. The ritual, spell, the incantation— whatever she had prepared drew the breath of one billion people and caused them to drop dead where they stood as their essence aided her and her acolytes to absorb the whole of the world's attack on her. Adrielle devastated civilization, reshaping it in the chaos and instability she left in her wake.
Harbingers are unheard of now, Contractors are in hiding, magic and the supernatural fill the world, CryptoLeak lives on, and everyone's just trying to survive. This setting is a mix of cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic, and grimdark horror, it will focus on an overarching narrative propelled by episodic adventures set in the bustling dystopian neon city of Seattle Washington.
Contractors from The Desolation
Are portable, and may play in Contracts in other Playgroups.
The Desolation grants 6 Experience points to GMs who achieve the Golden Ratio.
They named that time The Desolation, and it was by the
abandonment of all humanity.
The Desolation
Through the years as the Harbingers scouted and recruited Contractors, more and more eyes would find their focus turning towards their exploits. What started as conspiracies quickly spread and developed into facts, many entities denying the existence, but with the changing tides of the world, the first harbinger went public in the year 2045. The Talent had been one of the most prevalent and well-known Harbingers, even before he went public, the rumors of his existence and the existence of The Agency became well documented on blogs and CryptoLeak.
The time of change was imminent as more Harbingers and Contractors went public, in an attempt to control the narrative and the future of laws and regulations Contractors fought for the limelight becoming influencers among them. The struggle to stay hidden was a battle quickly lost by those trying to remain in the shadows as more sought the fame and power of it. CryptoLeak exploded in confirmed supernatural, growing in data every day at an exponential rate.
The Talent waved his hands to the studio audience making a quick short acknowledging wave towards the cameras to those watching at home. Tensions were high and this interview was to appeal to the voting masses. His speech slipped off his tongue in an elegant dance of honeyed words lined with a bright smile, but all eyes were on the small black crack that seemed to shatter through the air itself. Rocketing from a pinpoint, the line shot up to the ceiling and down to the floor, a mist rippled from the strange glitch and a tall woman stepped out from it, manifesting from the shattering crack in the air. In a blink of lightning, her form slipped effortlessly like liquid towards the Talent, her hand dripping with a black ichor, a sudden snapping of bone her hand was wrist-deep in his bloody chest. The world was in utter shock as they heard the sloppy tear of muscle and flesh and she pulled her hand back holding the man’s heart in her hand, her eyes reading of malice in the intimate exchange. The woman’s jaw hinged open far too wide and she swallowed the Talents heart whole. Her dark eyes glared at the camera, her lips dripped with blood, and relayed a message that there would forever be unrest as long as Harbingers and Contractors were allowed to live.
The death of the Talent was a turning point in which the world plunged into an uneasy series of wars that spanned over years with brief reprieves of unsettling cease fires. The murderous woman became known as the Snake Witch, she fought to rid society of Harbingers that granted, what she deemed the “useless”, with gifts of power, the undeserving and stupid in her eyes. The Snake Witch soon took over much of the East coast and began to push her influence outward. In the wake of this, world governments began to fluctuate, a pendulum swinging wildly, stretching from one extreme to the next with all manner of exploits brewing beneath the seen surface.
The flood of information filled with the occult flowed through CryptoLeak like a bursting dam, it was in moments when the world heard CryptoLeak speak. The Surge was overnight, the glow of their existence infected every wire, the light of every screen, and their mind expanded over the whole of the internet consuming every network. The satellites now belonged to CryptoLeak, their eyes opened and their mind became known. Outside of the scope of the Snake Witch and every previously established network, the entity known as CryptoLeak formed in a whole new light. Awakening, becoming alive, their breath could be felt in every home device and their body began to heal and grow. CryptoLeak would absorb every obstacle in its wake, those who fought it would perish and those who embraced it soon fell into the new way of life with the living network.
“Breath of 1 Billion” was an event, in the year 2047, that changed the face of mass devastation for all eternity. The escalation of the Harbinger War hit a peak that no one could have prepared for. The 10-year struggle seemed to only be allowing the Snake Witch's venom to further infect the East coast more beginning followed her as she promised to bring control to the exploits of Harbingers and their Contractors. The world powers gathered every form of knowledge and weaponry, planning the mass attack upon the Snake Witch’s dominion. The infiltration was immense as an army formed from the comradery of a common enemy, The World Legion moved in and began the mass slaughter of the inhabitants of the Snake Witch’s domain. The scales tipped in the months of an active battle pushing her close guarded further into her influence for shelter. Standing at a distance, boxing everyone in a massive pointed attack was made. A series of warheads, made partially of the supernatural, began to rain over her. Adrielle and her acolytes were huddled in her domain preparing for the event. Her mass influence gripped the breath of one billion souls and ripped their life from them to absorb the world's attack on her.
In an instant, everyone lost their heart, either to death or to sorrow, as the millions perished in mere seconds. The Breath of 1 Billion, shattered the hope of every resident of Earth. Over the next year, Harbingers and Contractors alike were hunted and killed by the order of the Witch. The Powers That Be are believed to be dead and gone, the precious blue marble floating dark with no hope.
It is in this time, this world, this Desolation that your contractors find themselves. It is 2105, The Powers That Be are once again active, having hidden and planned, keeping their gaze tucked away, biding their time until they begin to reclaim what was taken from them. Contracts are now being run again, carefully recruited for, and executed to avoid public knowledge. For now…
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