It is the year 2010. Somewhere in a small town, a cult is trying to summon an eldritch god. At the diner down the street, an elf siphons neural energy from an unfortunate victim. And in an alley, a man wields a magic wand, with very ill intent.
Embedded Files
Once upon a time, the plains and forests of Ertta hosted great sorcerers, adventurers, kings, dragons, castles and villains. Tales and myths were born every day, and history books were stuffed with stories of heroism, evil and grand adventures. To many, the age of gold and prosperity seemed never-ending. The crops were healthy and the gold flowed like water, but unbeknownst to all but a few labeled as mad, the world was escalating - infinitely, catastrophically tumbling forward with no brakes.
More adventurers, more knights, more stories, until gold lost its value, food became sparse, books became overcrowded. And when desperation set in, sons slew their fathers, knights struck down their kings, and blood spilled on the fertile soil. Worldwide chaos and war, of which sorcerers were the protagonists. Taut became the fabric of magic, until one fateful day when, like a string, it snapped.
Two millennia (and ten years) later, the stories of adventure and glory are dusty books. Spells and sorceries are myths. Mages are extinct. All that's left are dysfunctional governments, conspiracy theories and:
Dead Magic.
The Setting
Dead Magic has some powerful inspirations and themes, which help shape it up. Overall, DM2010 is an gothic/folk dystopian setting, based on folklore like Bigfoot and the Mothman and set in an American-inspired town somewhere in the nation of New Fedregalia. Shops on the verge of bankruptcy, a lone white church, a rickety old police station and very weird residents.
A few other pieces of media influenced Dead Magic or could be helpful to understand the setting:
Welcome to Night Vale: a weird town with weird stuff happening, essentially the core Dead Magic experience and a major source of inspiration, on top of a really well made podcast.
Bright: needs to be mentioned. A huge let-down and maybe the first example of modern fantasy ever made by the mainstream movie industry. The core inspiration for Dead Magic, which is itself an attempt to make Bright but good.
True Detective: a great series featuring paranormal occurrences in an American town. Maybe the second strongest source for Dead Magic.
Wellington Paranormal: a spin-off of What We Do in the Shadows featuring two Australian cops trying their best to tackle aliens, zombies and vampires. Made by Taika Watiti! A fun light-hearted take on paranormal town horror.
SCP's UIU: the SCP universe's FBI paranormal division, usually failing at its job consistently. Very on-par with Dead Magic's federal agencies.
Disco Elysium: I can't not mention DE in all my worldbuilding projects.
The World
The history, the why and the how of the chaos. The nations and people involved, and the different races that inhabit the world.
Compendium
Creatures, real or not, extinct or alive, that inhabit the world. A list of all the creepy crawlies and poorly recorded folklore creatures.
Characters
The poor souls who inhabit the world, be it player characters or written ones: workers, cops, disheveled exiled warlocks and others.
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