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We’ve been waiting for you. Or, more accurately, she has been expecting you. No doubt you wonder how or why you are here. The answer is both deceptively simple and devilishly complex.

The simplest answer is that she called for you and you came to her as you always have. See? Simple. If that answer suffices then many or all of your memories are restored and there is little more to learn by reading on. Welcome home.

If, however, you are still feeling confusion and discomfort, perhaps what follows will resonate enough to bring forth that forgotten knowledge of who you are and why you are here. The more complex answer is that she invaded your dreams and forgotten memories of other lifetimes.

A pulse…a quickening…a longing.

The land and the people are hers. For thousands of years, she fed and protected both. In return, the people tended and honored her. NOLA has bestowed on their ancestry a wide array of magickal gifts, but over the centuries the bloodlines have become polluted. It is true that men have fought to their deaths to possess her. Others claimed ownership of her for coin and power. It is said that you do not choose New Orleans, she chooses you, and she has beckoned you into her soul.

Time runs differently here, both faster and slower…

In any case, you finally found your way back, and that is all that matters now.

History

New Orleans was founded in 1718 by the French. In the years that followed, both the French and Spanish laid claim to the city and the surrounding area. Regardless of which country or king thought they ruled, none of them did.

The Fae worked their magick, preparing for the seemingly endless immigration, and made their plans.

Several large fires in the 1700s wreaked havoc on the city. Each time New Orleans healed herself and rebuilt. New Orleans was the living, breathing heart and soul of the area. The Fae understood this as well as the mortals who drew upon her power. New Orleans, with her energy, her ebb and flow, and her roots growing deep into the very fabric of the land, was now the manifestation of Source Magick. The city was a living entity and from her flowed the magick so many relied upon for their survival. New Orleans, they realized, must always survive. No matter the cost.

On January 8, 1815, British troops led by General Edward Pakenham attacked the city of New Orleans in an attempt to sever critical supply lines during the War of 1812. The city defenders, led by General Andrew Jackson, were outnumbered 2:1 yet were still able to hold off the attackers. Later historians would credit the tenacity of the defenders as well as an elaborate series of defensive earthworks that held the invaders at bay. The defense of New Orleans was a decisive victory over the British invaders.

What the history books don’t mention is that much of the defense was coordinated by an elaborate “underground” network of witches and voodoo practitioners as well as a host of other paranormal entities. Hard at work to save their beloved city, they worked as best they knew how to protect her. These practitioners, and in some cases monsters, harassed and intimidated the British troops. They were instrumental in turning the tide of the battle in favor of the citizens of New Orleans. And while no American General, Jackson included, ever spoke of such a coalition, it has always been spoken amongst the Fae as truth, that the top of the military echelon were aware of the help they received.

Fast forward to April 25, 1862. Union forces, in an armada of gunboats, were bearing down on the city to take it from the Confederacy in the War Between the States. Confederate troops were outgunned, outmanned, and in every way outclassed by the overwhelming Union forces. There would be no repeat of 1815. The forces were simply too overwhelming, and the practitioners of the black arts knew that there was nothing they could do to change the inevitable outcome. New Orleans would be sacked. It was time to implement the plan that the Fae devised so many years before.

During the battle of New Orleans, all Sourcers came together to protect the city from the onslaught. Drawing on their deep connection with Source Magick, they took too much, sapping the ley lines, depriving the rest of the world of the magick. Magick that used to blanket the world vanished, leaving only the slightest trickle from the Source origin below NOLA. Since the fracture, the Source has been regaining strength and calling out to those who need its power. Its Sourcers.

Denziens

Crossroads Demon

Crossroad demons are men and women who have died and have gone to Hell for whatever reason. As punishment, they are transformed into Azazels, demons without form also known as spirits of the wild. They do not belong to one particular house but serve all the houses of Hell. They are then bound by invisible chains to a crossroads. They wait to be summoned by individuals willing to bargain away their souls to fulfill their wants and desires.

• Dr. John Lafayette, scribed by Marc Tizura.

Fae

The Fae are creatures of pure magic, the original race of Fae born directly from the Source. Those original fae eventually faded into legend, becoming the Gods of Ireland and taking their place in the myths and religious faiths of the mortal world. In their place came more imperfect fae, more grounded in power and scope. This new breed mated with mortals and birthed several hybrid species, less powerful but just as wild and chaotic as their progenitors.

• Krista Moon, scribed by Jennifer Morton.
• Margaret "Maggie" Malone, scribed by Moxie Malone.

Nephilim

After mankind became plentiful upon the earth, the Archangel Raziel fell in love with a daughter of man. He was so in love that he convinced his legion to abandon their posts and take the daughters of men as their wives. This gave birth to the first of the Nephilim.

• Veronica Carpenter, scribed by JayLynn Watkins.

Normals

Normals are humans who have no supernatural abilities. Most of them are unaware of the magickal presence here on Earth and like to keep it that way. There are a few normals that are sensitive to the supernatural. These normals were born near a ley line, which makes them susceptible to the source. There are different levels of sensitivity, depending on how close one was born to the ley line or Source.

• Jaxxon Rivette, scribed by Aisling MacKay.
• Addison Vos, scribed by Peter Farmer.
• Cherish McKenzie, scribed by Christine Graves.

Merepeople

Mermaids have two different forms. Human and mer. In their mer form, they have gills and flippers to help them survive underwater. Their hands are webbed and their tails come in all different sizes and colors.

Oracles

Oracles are more than simply psychic, psychics are mortals and only see hints of the future. Oracles see the future in full clarity, but at a terrible price, every time Oracles act to change the future they see, they pay with a piece of their sanity. Oracles often live short, painful lives as most other immortals jockey for control of them, or kill them when they belong to their enemies. That is if they don’t go mad and kill themselves before then.

• Cassandra Silvano, aka the ”Mad Oracle”, scribed by Jeanette Rose.

Succubi/Incubi

These scions of Hell and Humanity were called many names (imps, mares, fiends, etc.) but the most common of which is Succubi for females and Incubus for males (those of neither gender refer to themselves most commonly as simply Imps). They cannot feed off of souls as a full demon could and instead feed off the life energy of humanity (and other living creatures).

Skinwalkers

In Navajo culture, a skin-walker is a type of harmful witch who has the ability to turn into, possess, or disguise themselves as an animal.

• Sani, scribed by Tyler Wittkofsky.

Therianthropy

Therianthropy is the ability of human beings to metamorphose into other animals by means of shapeshifting. The most common form of therianthropy is werewolves.

Werewolves

Werewolves are created through a bite. The bite must be strong enough to draw blood for the person to change. Bitten werewolves are rare given that most werewolves bite to kill. There are some incidents where werewolves have fallen in love with humans and bite them to be together. Born werewolves or full-blooded werewolves have more power throughout their ranking given that the family has passed down the lineage throughout history. Only full-blooded werewolves have power or the ability to move up within ranks.

Dragon Shifters

Dragon shifters have two different forms. They have their human form and their dragon form. Each dragon shifter has a dragon tattoo on their body resembling their dragon which glows either red, blue, green, or white when they shift.

• Caspian Incendium, scribed by Alice Callisto.

Gargoyles

Gargoyles owe their origins to humans, as much as they resist the idea. They began as a human construct dating back to ancient Egypt. They were symbols of protection and intimidation, embodiments of safety, and bastions of security against evil.

Werebears

Werebears have a main Alpha they follow but overall the rest of the pack itself tends to help each other no matter age or rank. Unlike werewolves, they don't need a hierarchy.

Wererats

Wererats don't necessarily have packs. They answer and pay their “taxes” to the Rat King himself and have protection through that. Wererats are not very trustworthy even with their own kind so tend to mate and stay with their own families or significant others.

Weresharks

Ka’ahupahau was a magician who walked among the first inhabitants of Hawaii. She was born as they say, to a human form, but was able to transform at will into a shark. She devoted her remaining days to protecting people from shark attacks. One of Ka’ahupahau’s children, born a shark, fell in love with a mortal woman. Ka'ahupahau gave her son the ability to walk on land. The children were unique, a few were born with the ability to shift back and forth, from human to shark, on command. They were the first noted were-sharks.

• Valeria Alopex, scribed by Natalie Bartley.

Undead

Ghosts

Ghosts are the spirits/souls of the dead who have failed to pass on to the afterlife. Not having the strength to make the transition, they instead cling to the Source like moths to a flame.

Vampires

It is believed that the first vampires came to New Orleans in 1728 when casquette girls were shipped over from France to marry and help settle the colony.

• Billy "Goat" Cox, scribed by DeRicki Johnson.

Voodoo Priests

Voodoo (Vodoun/Hoodoo/Vodou) was brought to French Louisiana during the colonial period by slaves from Sub-Saharan and West African regions from 1719-1731. Roughly fifteen percent of the population of Louisiana still practice it today.

Warlocks

Just as Witches have existed since the dawn of Magick, so have Warlocks. Anytime there is ever something powerful in this world, there are those who go about getting it the right way and those who want a cheap and nasty shortcut.

• Ash Kang, scribed by Dan Dolan.

Wendigos

The hunger inside that drives all people to want more and more out of life is represented most fully in the state of being a Wendigo. Once mortal men and women who through ritualistic cannibalism have become carnivorous higher beings.

Witches

As long as there has been magic, there have been witches. Any of even the earliest groups of humanoid life would have its wise woman or its shaman, etc. who would call upon the great powers for the aid of her/his people. Bear-Walkers, Druids, Theurgists, they went by many names but they were in essence practicing the same craft. People who had found the right words, numbers, symbols, objects, rites and/or rituals to tap into the Source.

• Sabine LaCroix, scribed by Teresa Watson.
• Namid Cook, scribed by Kelsey Anne Lovelady.

Non-Player Characters

Angels

Angels are creatures composed of light and holy fire by the universe—what some would call God—from the primordial muck known as the prim and the chrism, which would someday form into what is known as the Source.

Demons

Demons are angels who rebelled and fell from grace after they were granted free will. The fall caused them to lose a majority of their angelic abilities and form.

Ghouls

Ghouls are undead imps (demons). In Arabic folklore, they eat the corpses of the dead. In some tales, it is said that they can shape shift, usually into a hyena.

Zombies

The legend of the zombie began in Haiti by the African slaves and mirrored the inhumanity that existed there from 1600 to around 1800.

Locations

The quickening is the pulse New Orleans sends out to call her children home to her. It is sent out through the ley lines around the world. It is an infrasound which are sounds below the range of normal human hearing around 20Hz.

Normal people, mostly those who are a bit more sensitive, may feel the effects of this shout out from the city as dizziness, nausea, fatigue, malaise, gagging, vomiting, memory trouble, difficulty sleeping, etc. This call affects the inner ear and the heart of normal people.

People who the city claims as her own feel this pulse in other ways. Most would describe feeling the call in the very center of their forehead like a heartbeat. It turns into a quiet voice in the back of their minds and a soft whisper in the ear on a subconscious level.

This pulse and voice eventually pull these individuals back to her, and once they breathe the air, they know they are home. They get settled on the land and the quickening dies down.

There are three different types of magickal areas in NOLA. There are areas with no magick (The Sterile Grounds), areas that have some magick (Wastelands), and areas that are all magick (Sacred Grounds). In these areas, Sourcers can be limited on what they can and cannot do. In NOLA, all Denizens have a “normal” human look, but when they enter Sacred Grounds, their true form may shine through.

The Sterile Grounds

Metairie is sterile. Since the formation of the world, since the Source came into being, there has been sterile ground. The Sterile Grounds can be found on the borders between the city and the rest of the world. Ghosts can not materialize in these areas and have to be careful when traveling through them.

Sacred Grounds

The Sacred Grounds are the areas where there is the Source Magick. The very heart of all magick beats beneath the city, pounding out through the ley lines. It feeds the rest of the world, pooling in other areas that, in turn, teem with magickal beings.

Carnal Play

Located on the banks of the Mississippi, Carnal Play is a place like no other, mysteries abound within its walls and most supernatural are drawn to it with unerring accuracy. Step inside its walls and experience the root of all magic. But do take this word of caution, never bet against the house.

Moonlight Diner

The Moonlight Diner is a simple place that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner located at 1122 Decatur Street, New Orleans, LA. It is open from 7 PM - 10 PM and tends to always be busy. For breakfast, it serves a lot of families and older people while dinner is more for teenagers after school. The owner is rumored to be a vampire but there is no proof of it. Only the immortals of NOLA know the truth.

Outside New Orleans, aka the Wastelands

The Wastelands are areas with some magick. In the wastelands, things look slightly different to the regular eye. Humans will have strange sensations like tingling at the back of their necks or goosebumps in warm weather. They will also see things that they would consider impossible, like the light of a ghost or magickal abilities that look like it’s the trick of the light. These experiences will be more common the closer one lives to a ley line or a pool of the Source Magick.