My campaign Unholy Preyer used the Fate Dresden Files RPG rules, but was not set in the Dresden Files universe. Its sources for magic and monsters came from a world of my own design. Though the campaign is currently shelved, I thought I’d post my notes on how the powers in this world were fueled; this may provide ideas for other world-builders and adventure plotters.
A War of Dimensions
Unbeknownst to most humans, Earth is a nexus point for multiple dimensions. Before humankind took its first steps on the planet entities from other worlds sought to claim our world as theirs. It’s not easy for any being to cross the threshold from plane to plane, and using the native creatures of our realm became essential in the feud between these otherworldly creatures. The birth and spread of homo sapiens became the best tools for these other-planar aliens to broaden their power on our planet.
Faeries and Goblins
The creatures known as the Fae predate humans for an eon. They may be the oldest of the dimensional interlopers in our realm; they certainly have had the longest presence of the beings in this age. Fae are also one of the few powers to have physical manifestations in our world. However, they gain power in this universe slowly. It requires breeding followed by an agreement of the half-fae to renounce their heritage on this plane. Many half-fae humans never make the Choice and others shed their powers to keep their humanity. The Fae also have their own political and internal squabbles. So, while they have had a grip on Earth for an incredibly long time and their abilities are great, they have never gathered enough power to make this world theirs. Fae magic manifests as physical abilities in their half-fae (also known as Blooded) offspring.
Sorcerers and The Brood
Various forms of spell-like magic have existed on Earth since humans first learned to rub stones together to make fire. Some of the entities that have granted people the ability to will changes into the world have since died off or have been pushed back to their plane of existence. What Hunters are now calling the Brood are a recent interloper to our world, only dating back to the 1200’s.
Until recently, the Brood had no physical form on Earth. They began as whispers in a potential sorcerer’s subconscious. Humans, believing they were learning and casting spells, were channeling the energy of the Brood’s universe; they were a conduit between planes. The more the sorcerer cast and the greater the power of the spell, the more they became a servant of the Brood, who would consume their spirit from within, taking over. To the eyes of humans in our world who knew of magic, this was a lust for power or knowledge that turned the sorcerer evil. To the Brood, this was a toehold on our dimension.
Because it required a human with a particular type of mind and a desire to cast spells, the Brood’s influence on the nexus is minuscule. In 2011, the sorcerer Evan Sunder devised a way to manifest the Brood physically. Select female sorcerers could become mothers, birthing multiple Broodlings at a time. Invisible to the human eye (but not magic) and weighing no more than a feather, these one foot tall humanoid creatures could latch on to the back of an earthling’s head and force a rift in the human’s mind to the Brood plane. With this army, no longer would they have to hunt and wait for specific people; now they could force sorcery on everyone. At least, that’s their plan. (See “Plans within Plans” below.)
Devils and Contracts
Red, with bat like wings and tails ending in poisonous stingers, the creatures from this plane always manifest physically. They have been called imps, demons, devils, and more. They are physically and spiritually dangerous. The devils can cast powerful spells and are physically deadly; given their powerful nature it’s no wonder they share the animosity of not only most humans but also other dimensional creatures. Their rift into our world is weak and intermittent; were it not for such an inconsistent doorway and abhorrence to the devils, they may have taken over this world long ago. Any sign of a devil and they are pushed back or destroyed as swiftly as possible.
There are humans that crave power over anything else, however, and will make deals with these devils, signing a contract that binds the creature to them. This contract also forms a spell that prevents the devil from being expelled from our world and killing them only dematerializes them for a time. The spell lingers for decades even after the binding human dies. So a devil needn’t keep their human alive if they so desire. Many do, though, to ensure a maximized stay on our plane and promote the idea that such contracts are beneficial to humans. The more contracts that can be signed, the more devils can remain in our realm.
Witches and Familiars
Older than the Brood are beings known as Familiars. Like the Brood, they have no physical manifestation. However, Familiars can only inhabit animals and their abilities with animal forms are limited. They seek out those who can channel their power: humans. The humans who form a bond with a Familiar are called witches (and sometimes warlocks). Through rites and rituals witches can conduct the Familiar’s energy into enchantments and curses. While they cannot produce flashy spells like sorcerers, the magic woven into an item can last an eternity. The more items that can be spread throughout the planet, the more power these Familiars gain.
Items, however, are physical and can be destroyed. And hunters have long held a particular hostility toward Familiars and their witches. Their grasp on this world may be stronger than the devils, but they are far from rivals to the Fae or Brood.
Nature Spirits and Celestials
While many other-dimensional beings use humans desire for power, greed, or revenge the Celestials tap into the righteousness of humanity to gain access to our world. Celestials can temporarily manifest themselves physically in any form they like—they have been seen as angels, nature spirits, and gods—but function best with a willing host. The magic they provide usually appears healing towards humans or deadly towards otherworldly beings, but Celestials are no more caring about humans than the Brood. In many ways, they are mirrors of each other. The more spells a human performs through them the more they take over that human’s form.
Celestials have had many human conduits. Champions of Faith, totem-crafting shape-shifters, shaman, demi-gods, as well as spiritual and psychic healers. The Celestial presence on earth would be greater, but their numbers are small. While they face threats from other planar forces their own numbers have been diminished by humans. Religious wars and killings continue to be the greatest threat to Celestials.
Ghosts and Psionics
It may seem like the angry spirits of the dead and innate psychic abilities have nothing in common, but both are byproducts of the rifts torn between other dimensions into ours. Spirits of the dead who don’t pass on to the afterlife gain energy from the rifts between dimensions, their anger becoming like a water wheel for the dimensional energy, as they grow in enough power to interact with the world. That’s why ghosts are normally hundreds of years long dead. With the number of recent rifts, especially as the Brood vies for power, the latent energy has allowed spirits to gain power faster and without as much anger.
These additional rifts have also affected newborns born close to fresh rifts and adolescents who experience great trauma near a rift, granting them unusual powers. These psionic (or psychic) abilities are the closest thing to a natural magic our world has but, like ghosts, would not exist were it not for the invading others.
Sapients and Subhumans
Some of the monsters and strange half-human races on earth are remnants of dimensions who have lost their war to this nexus. The curse and power of vampirism lingers, though the demonic spirits have been sealed away. The half-spider/half-human race of Arachne have long since forgotten their home plane and origins. Ghouls, werewolves, and cambion share similar stories and the strength of each magic weakens slightly with every generation, though it could take millennia before it fades from our world.
Powerful entities were also trapped here, with no way to return to their dimension and no way to further their numbers. They might appear as strange skulls covered in glyphs or as talking ravens. Some might have been considered gods. Such creatures were rare and dangerous.
Plans within Plans
Each Unholy Preyer campaign season was intended to last 16-24 sessions (or episodes) being treated like a TV show. While my group did finish the first season, we had only made it through the first few adventures of the second campaign before I determined that timing simply wasn’t on my side. I didn’t have every adventure for season two or beyond sketched out, but I did have high level notes that could have made for a very long-running overall campaign.
The player characters were “Hunters,” ala the TV show Supernatural, but even if they had magical origins would begin the campaign unaware of the dimensional war on this plane, thinking monsters and magic were a perversion and abnormal, but not alien and unearthly.
Season 1: Focusing on the Brood and the sorcerer Evan Sunder, this would introduce the Hunters to Broodlings. Some scenarios would include the Fae or devils, hinting at the greater war between worlds. The entity labeled “Burt,” a powerful magic being that fed off the life force of others but was trapped in a skull, would act as an initial knowledge source for the group, before betraying the PCs at the end.
Season 2: Though some Broodmothers remained, the larger threat of the Brood was to be relegated to side adventures as the Hunters dealt with ghosts, psychics, and Familiars (with their witches). This season would would end with a battle with the entity known as Burt (who had accidentally been given by the Hunters to an Arachne who collected magical artifacts). The season would solidify the concept of other dimensions and the war of magics in our realm. It was also going to be a largely character-focused season as some characters would realize exactly how their powers came into being.
Season 3: With the knowledge of the rifts between dimensions and the realization that Earth could be magically torn asunder if the war progressed, the Hunters would use this season to find a way to seal the rifts. If only hinted at in Season 2, it would become clear that even the so-called “holy” powers were part of this war and would need to be locked away.
Season 4: The knowledge of the dimensional war would no longer linger in the shadows. Humankind could no longer turn a blind eye to the supernatural forces that inhabited our world. While the Hunter network expanded to fight the insurgents, other humans would welcome and encourage the growth of magic; their blind eye would now be towards the peril in which they put our world.
Season 5: Conceptually, this would be the final season, but how it would end would be in the hands of the PCs and their actions over the previous seasons. Would this be an end to magic; a full-scale war; or a return to a lower-level of magic, resetting Earth to the status quo?
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