• 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.
•  Powers: must have balanced abilities 

They named that time The Great Beginning, and it was by the flash of a paloroid camera.

The year was 1874. Until that point the Heart was as we had always known her. We filled her cruel vastness with legends, superstitions, and rumours. Warlocks, monsters, and gods lurked on the edge of the collective consciousness, always a possibility but never more. We lacked evidence. That evidence came as humanity filled its pockets with technology equipped to capture and transmit.

A Polaroid camera found on a young farm hand George Fort-man’s mangled corpse held a video of his spouse bone-snapping transformation into a monstrous bear creature. A Brazilian widow documented a series of conversations with the misty figure of her late husband. A Kuro fishing boat caught a mermaid in a net and put it on display in the Grand world aquarium.

Each week brought a new revelation that we were not alone. Superstitions reversed their slow death overnight. Kuro held their first witch trial in a century. The jury rendered a verdict of “guilty on all charges” and sentenced Abigail Yuki to death by Eels. A week after her body floated back up, half the jury died from food poisoning in a dinner party after eating fish. A fearful, populist movement arose to rid humanity of the creatures lurking in its ranks. Suspects are forcibly subjected to bizarre tests of their humanity, and the results are often open to interpretation. A mob’s justice is swift.

Yet the paranormal is not merely relegated to a persecuted class. Where some see monsters, some see sentience, and others see opportunity. If a vampire can sustain themselves on cloned blood and work the graveyard shift, why not legalize and tax? Politicians and Aristocrats employ odd-looking individuals as "Detectives" or "protection." Entertainment magazines publish revelations every week about which celebrities shed their human skins at home. Charlatans of all stripes, from palmistry mediums to televangelists, have flourished despite the risks. The treatment of the paranormal varies from place to place, person to person.

Long have cabals, cults, and secret societies thrived in the shadows. Their roots run deeply through humanity’s oldest systems of power. Machinations are challenged, and sleeping dangers awaken. The world is changing, forcing long-dormant powers into desperate action. And it is in the midst of this great period of change that The Powers That Be have once again turned their attention to the blue marble. For the first time in two hundred years, Harbingers approach worthy individuals with an offer they won't refuse.

The Games have returned, and a new generation of Contractors are being forged.