Tokamak

• Citizenship: Active Players are expected to GM Contracts from time to time. If you have played as a Contractor in your most recent six Contracts, you are barred from playing in The Illumination again until you GM.
• Supernatural Powers: All non-mastery, non-concealed Powers must be obviously supernatural when activated or grant a mutation that marks the wielder as supernatural or bizarre if discovered.

NARRATIVE CONCEPT 

For almost three-hundred thousand years, humans and fae shared Earth without much tumult. Of course they fought among each other for resources; but no more fervently than fae fought with fae or man with fought man, or than man and fae fought with Neanderthals when those beings still made their rounds. Each kind recognized in the other an affinity that they themselves lacked, and dared not raise their power against something they truly could not comprehend.

The fae intuited energies and rhythm unseen by mankind, what they called magic, and used them to change the state of matter, enchant minds, and even fold back time. But powerful as their magic was, the fae could not fathom the skills of humans, who transformed the world around them by sheer force of will and thought. Humans, who lived shorter lives than fae, adapted to change far faster, and seemed more inventive by cosmic measures.

And that was well and good when human inventions were rubbing sticks and creating fire. The fae simply laughed and applauded, creating plumes of fire from their hands to mock their meager human fellows. But as the ages passed, and wooden clubs became spears, the fae began to humble.

The Dawn of the Iron Age marked a change in the balance of power between humans and fae. Refined iron burnt fae skin beyond repair. Even the finest fae healing spells could not undo the damage done by iron weapons. As iron grew more commonplace and more fae died at human hands, it became evident that human advancement could no longer be ignored. If iron was only their latest invention, who was to say what humans would have in another hundred years? A thousand?

The fae considered war or an extermination campaign. Each plan was struck down as too risky. Even one pocket of humans left alone might be able to contrive some invention dangerous enough to strike down fae kind. Such was their rotten nature. The Four High Courts of the Fae convened under the guidance of their KIng. For the sake of all fae kind, they created a new Realm apart from Earth, Elphyne, and walled off all magic there behind a great barrier. 

The fae departed on June 15, 763 BCE.

They returned, very unhappily, on February 20, 2026 thanks to the hard work of the scientists at ITER Tokamak and other associated physics projects. 

The general idea being this: it has plagued particle physicists for a long time that, for some reason, certain unobserved particles can be measured as being “here” and “somewhere else” simultaneously. How can something be two places at once? That is very hard for anyone to understand, even a particle physicist. And when they finally lined up an experiment to really test a proper theory on it, said particle physics were very excited!

But they weren’t expecting to destroy a near three-thousand year old fae magical barrier, obliterate the fae homeland from existence, and spill tens of thousands of irritated fae back onto Earth.

The fae Courts, and the fae within them, reacted to the situation differently. Many unlanded fae, who had not owned endless rolling fields of honeysuckle in Elphyne, found themselves enchanted by modern Earth. Contemporary human inventions seemed worth the losses--refined sugar products like frappuccinos and candy, constant stimulation from Netflix and apps; why, they couldn't understand the fuss! Even the gentry fae of the Spring Court seemed to favor the change; their beautiful looks and charming personalities often took them to next-level fame they could have never dreamed of on old boring Earth or Elphyne, where everything was lovely.

But those of the Winter Court were less forgiving. They reasoned that the humans had robbed them of their home, and that the fae had been very kind to leave Earth in the first place. In turn, they demanded the humans surrender half of Earth’s best arable land to faekind. When this demand was not met, and the current fae king Oberyn did not support the demands, the Winter Court broke rank and declared open war on the humans. They seized upon environmental unrest on Earth and conquered what the felt was a good, isolated land mass to begin with--Australia. Ten years on from that decision, the icey Winter Court wishes they’d gone someplace colder.

By 2036, the other Courts, under the guidance of Oberyn, have brokered a somewhat acceptable place for themselves on Earth as uncomfortable refugees. They long ago realized that the destruction of their magical barrier left this dimension too delicate to try and construct another homeland, and that they are stuck trying to make peace with humanity. For the most part, that means playing self-police to the Winter Court’s land grabs, trying to produce enough uncontroversial famous fae for the public to have a positive view of faekind, and perhaps developing a cure to ironsickness--fae’s one remaining true weakness. 

Oh, and figure out how to use a touchscreen. Or a microwave. That’d be nice.

GAME CONCEPT

We will be playing a collection of fae living in Auckland, New Zealand. New Zealand is the closest territory to the Winter Court-controlled Australia that is not currently occupied, so our job is to ensure nothing funny happens on our turf! 

Character options include: Summer court fae, Autumn court fae, Spring court fae, Winter court fae who have defected, AND humans who are living with the fae to help them navigate basic modernity. For example: I am fairly certain I want to play a middle-aged woman hired by the fae just to use the oven to make baked goods. And I feel like this is a fairly common job to have in this new world. Because baking is something beyond fae in this universe; the concept of combining the different ingredients or whatever and using the oven should feel kind of hard for them. Not impossible. But hard.

This should be a monster-of-the-week kind of game where we stick around Auckland and other NZ areas, interact with some of the same NPCs, be kind of silly. We need to visit and critique the accuracy of the Hobbit set.

Also yes. Spring court fae are “manic pixie dream girls.”