• 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.

As described in the setting summary, Nelson, NZ is, as far as an outside eye can see, very idyllic. It is, in essence, a retirement town full of older people who don't want to deal with the wider world. While the supernatural in Nelson remains very uncommon, it exists in the dark folds of the city like a mold. While it may not show to the naked eye, it pushes its tendrils further and further by the day, building until the moment it shows on the surface, much to the residents' chagrin. This has happened a few times in the past, but it has been easily suppressed and forgotten about. The residents do not want to have to deal with the supernatural, so they are quick to write it off as collective psychosis or simply succumb to memory-altering magics. Previously existing breaches that have slipped into local legend include The Boulder Bank Man, The Quinney's Bush Disappearances, SOAR, The Flipping Cult, and The August 2022 Extreme Weather Event. This has left the contractors who dealt with these events in high regard with the public, even if this is just subconsciously. Some of these contractors include Rohan O'Neill Stephens, Nick Smith, Finn Kerby-Pinguet, Ruth Dixon, Dan The Flipper, and Tia Cranefield. That being said, the public is largely unaware of the contracts outside of a vague awareness of quirky things that sometimes transpire around key figures in the city. Only head figures in Nelson such as the current mayor (and previous mayors), notable council members, and the heads of community organizations like Multicultural Youth Nelson Tasman and Whanake Youth are fully aware of their existence, with the exception of the contractors and harbingers themselves.

The following locations are key hubs of supernatural activity in Nelson and its surrounding suburbs:

Nelson Cathedral:
This old church is the reason why Nelson was crowned a city when it ought to have been a town. It is a high-ceilinged stone building with stained glass windows that cover the walls from floor to ceiling, containing images of the 12 disciples performing religious acts. It is filled with wooden pews and holds an open space at the back of the main room for preaching in front of a large cross. It is surrounded by a garden that pedestrians can walk though and is located in the city centre, next to the main shopping area of Trafalgar Street. Anglicans mainly practice here and many musical events are performed in this space. The church also has an organ, small front room for greeting guests, and back rooms behind the main church hall that contain equipment, guests, and private prayer spaces. The head of this church, Bishop Steve Maina, is a harbinger who often gives out contracts with a religious flavour. The rest of the church is fairly free from the supernatural, though some members become contractors through the bishop. Every hour and half hour, the bells at the top of a tower built into the church sound, letting the city know the time.

Civic House:
This crude, ugly building is the seat of government in Nelson, housing offices for the local council and council staff. It is a brutalist concrete monolith complete with a cylindrical clock tower spouting out of the top of it. The bottom layer of this building is filled with public service staff, while the higher floors contain the real government offices. Two elevators and stairwells allow access to all floors, albeit in a convoluted way. Most people in town hate the building, and a movement has just passed to demolish it in favour of a new combined civic-house library, but this will take many years to complete. A number of harbingers, contractors, and other supernatural entities work in this building in various capacities, imbuing the building with a magic of its own. Some believe that its destruction is a ploy to destroy some magical secret deep in its bones. The building itself is located directly in the centre of the city's main town area, near the Maitai River that flows through it.

Nayland College:
This public high school in Stoke, a suburb of Nelson, is a haven for everything 'different.' Art, culture, identity, and the supernatural all mix together at this school to create an accepting community of students who wouldn't look twice after seeing someone teleport into Level 3 Calculus. It is comprised of 3 large 2-story building blocks, one smaller block, 2 temporary blocks of classrooms, a music department, a gym, a hard materials block, a business block, a student centre, a hall connected to administrated facilities, and a library that is permanently under construction. Many of the members of the school faculty are supernaturally powered themselves and seek to make the abnormal normal in many different ways. This leads Nayland to exude a unique aura to other schools that pushes away the comfortable and draws in the freaky. This is the only real breeding ground in the Nelson area for supernatural activity at a scale larger than subtle. 

The Maitai River:
This river flows through Nelson's main town area and provides entertainment, swimming, and life to the area. Like most rivers, it has a spark of natural magic within it. It is the home to a number of slightly magical waters powered by alien microorganisms, some slightly inhuman river creatures, and tourist-types who never seem to leave it. This is the main source of natural energy for the city and the awa for the local iwi.

Trafalgar Centre:
The main performance area for out-of-town acts, this is actually a completely mundane performance area located near where the Maitai runs through the port. It is often used as a staging area for supernatural deals due to its mundane qualities, though.

The Theatre Royal:
The main performance area for in-town acts, this is actually a bit supernatural. It is located just outside of the city centre and the town has built around it. The performers who have played here have imbued the stage to be easily manipulated by the supernatural, meaning the contractors who play here have an innate advantage and any out-of-town acts who manage to reach this stage can be easily messed with by local contractors. The building itself is a tall wooden structure held up by pillars that has a small reception and then a large hall filled with removable seats with a stage connected to a network of staging rooms at the back and an orchestra pit beneath it.

Contractors generally do not appear outside of the breaches of normalcy that occur every one or two decades, but they remain contractors once they have been imbued, even after disposing of an initial threat. This has led to a small network of contractors that have banded together to create a group of 'protectors' that defend Nelson from ongoing supernatural threat and support new contractors. They meet monthly or as needed and rotate their location throughout Nelson.