This story takes place in Japan—but not quite the Japan you know. It’s a parallel version where most things are familiar, yet the edges of reality are frayed with strangeness. The supernatural and magical do exist, but they tend to linger in the shadows. In certain rural pockets, strange happenings are common knowledge, but in the cities, most people live unaware of what moves beside them.
Hidden in deep forests lives a small race of elves—quiet, graceful, and territorial. Rumors suggest there are other non-human races living among everyday people, blending in well enough that most never notice.
Many years ago, a cabal of eccentric, pleasure-obsessed mages created a collection of powerful artifacts. Most would call them “cursed,” but to the right (or wrong) person, they’re tempting prizes. Here’s the known list:
The Old Necklace
At first glance, it’s just a tarnished pendant. Wear it, and every passing hour your belly swells until you appear nine months pregnant. The curse keeps you in that state forever—unless you fulfill a certain, very specific condition. (No one’s writing that part down. Use your imagination.)
The Ring
This one’s subtler. It only activates after sex with a man, triggering a pregnancy that grows over a few days rather than hours. Once you look nine months along, you still have to carry for a full nine months before giving birth. Unlike the necklace, the ring has a secret secondary ability—one that will be revealed later in the story.
The Choker
Elegant and dangerous. Wearing it grants you a single wish—anything you can imagine. The effect is permanent, but the artifact works only once. You could wish for endless money, eternal youth, or something far stranger. But once that wish is made, the choker becomes just an ornament.
The Piercing
Harmless in appearance, this artifact lets you control your breast size at will, adjusting it like a video game slider. You can change size instantly, as often as you like.
These are the only known artifacts… for now. More may emerge as the world’s history unravels. That’s all for the setting’s groundwork—time to dig into the individual lore.