#julija

[tegabiart]

Julija

[steddiecaz]

Today's contributor spotlight goes to Julija, @xgumiho !

She will be recreating Bacchus & The Lute Player, by Caravaggio 🌟

[zorlok-if]

Local Factions — The World Within Casper

For more on the Global Factions, click here.

The Casper Fey Council

The Casper Fey Council, often referred to as just "the Council," is a local fey council centered in the city of Casper but presiding over a large portion of northwestern Washington and southwestern British Columbia—a territory that includes the entirety of Redcliff Forest.

Fey councils—or courts, as some people still call them—are governing bodies whose primary function is to oversee and protect supernaturals living within their territory. They are referred to as fey councils because historically these councils were solely run by and concerned with the affairs of the fey. However, these days most fey councils are actually made up of and in charge of all types of supernatural beings (if a group still refers to itself as a fey court, it is more likely to be composed solely of fey and to claim territories on multiple planes of existence).

The Council's main tasks are to hold beings accountable to the laws of their faction and to maintain a masque (a web of lies which hides the existence of the supernatural). Many councils will also attempt to gain control of local human societies, but this is supposed to be limited to endeavors that aid all supernatural beings, not simply to increase an individual's power.

In general, fey councils are found in either major cities or areas near arcane fonts/planar gates. The Casper Fey Council is an example of the latter. Casper is the closest city to the Northern Tear, a gateway in Redcliff Forest that connects this plane of existence with several others. The presence of this gateway produces an arcane font that enhances power and magic across the Council's territory. The Council was founded by people seeking to secure and control access to this font, though its existence is also important since supernatural beings are naturally drawn to fonts like moths to a flame. This means that despite Casper's modest population size, there's an abnormally high number of supernatural beings living in and around the city.

The Casper Fey Council operates democratically. Any person who is aware of the supernatural can appeal to become a member of the council (or in rare cases they may be invited to join). Councillors are then nominated for positions of power by their peers. Elections are held once every five years. The leader of the Council is the Commissioner.

Fey councils are able to make their own laws, but they cannot overrule the laws of an individual's faction. They can claim authority over beings, but cannot enforce their own laws if faction laws override them. Sometimes councils have to contend with factionless beings who may or may not be willing to cooperate with them. For example, Harlow Mars, a local witch, refuses to align with any faction or acknowledge any authority.

Members of the Council:

Lester Morton – council commissioner, city mayor

Deirdre – second-in-command, patron of the arts

Milo – champion of the council and "Defender of the Gate"

Vigil

Vigil is a human-owned monster hunting agency employed by the Council (and masquerades as a private detective agency). Vigil's main purpose is to watch over the Council's territory, investigate strange occurrences, and collect information about supernatural beings. In addition, Vigil occasionally receives contracts from the Council. The nature of these contracts varies from requests to locate missing persons, eliminate threats, collect objects or materials, research a topic, etc.

The agency only employs teams of hunters with three or more members. It is also accepts nonhumans into its ranks (unlike most hunter agencies run by humans).

Agents:

Rebecca Giles – director of Vigil, founder and owner of the agency

Nasir Rashid – second-in command at Vigil, assistant to Giles

Ainsley Sirico, Lucía Reyes, Ciel Renault – hunting team

The Coven

A local coven of (mostly) human magicians. The coven is technically factionless—refusing to accept the authority and ideals of the Magi—but they aren't openly defiant of the Council. They refuse to acknowledge the Council's authority or admit that they adhere to its judgments and laws, but they aren't hostile and will work together in specific circumstances.

Members of the Coven:

Julija Blazevic – leader of the coven, "witch queen"

Caitriona and Aoife Flynn – twins, Julija's left and right hand women

Henry Wu – first apprentice to Julija

Rangers

Rangers are beings who take care of the forest and make sure that it and its residents are kept as safe as possible (which means actively repelling Slayers). Rangers lack formal structure or organization. They're mainly just individuals with similar interests who share information—a bit more like a network than a group. Rangers are often used as mediators between the monstrous denizens of the forest and the other local factions, though some rangers resent the Council for its attitude towards "monsters." Some rangers are associated with Vigil (being employed as hunters or occasionally collaborating with agents) while others refuse to work with Vigil (resenting them due to their strong association with the Council).

It's worth noting that only a few official Redcliff park rangers are included in this group. Most park rangers are unaware of the existence of the supernatural.

Some Rangers and their Associates:

Ainsley Sirico – freelance survivalist

Lucía Reyes – Redcliff park ranger

Milo – the Council's chosen "Defender of the Gate"

Rebecca Giles (former ranger)

Casper Police Department (The CPD)

The human group which is supposed to protect and serve the general population. With so much supernatural activity in and around town, the CPD often deals with things related to the paranormal. However, the members of the force aren't aware of magic, monsters, or any of these other local groups (beyond any cover stories they use). In general, the CPD believes that Casper has an abnormally high number of strange occurrences. Upper-level administrators often dismiss cases where dead ends are reached or no reasonable explanations can be found. Supernatural beings are good at covering their tracks and, fortunately, most humans are predisposed to make leaps in logic as they attempt to understand things they can't explain. Most. Some people remain deeply unsatisfied.

CPD Officials:

Galena Murray – captain

Chris Kane – sergeant

Adam/Eve Park* – detective

Viola Jarndyce* – detective

* = partners

The Redcliff Monsters

The Redcliff monsters are the monstrous denizens of Redcliff Forest and other areas surrounding Casper. Despite how people refer to them, they do not have a formal group or power structure. In fact, the name and group distinction are things that are forced upon these beings by others who lump the monstrous residents of the forest into one collective when discussing them.

Most of these monsters are factionless, members of the Natural Order, or Outsiders hiding among the boughs of the forest.

Notable Examples:

The Monarch of Fell Hollow – dragon

Nana – batsquatch

Sim and Filuro – an elf and a goblin (husbands)

The Witness – (unknown)

? ? ?

A nameless, shadowy coalition who the monsters (see above) have pointed to as the true culprits behind a recent string of violent attacks. Not enough is known about the group to be sure that it even exists or if it is an invented scapegoat meant to cast suspicion away from the true threats.

Beings (Assumed to Be) Working with Them

McCoy – vampire, serial killer, at large

Lariat – (unknown), serial killer, at large

[Other Assailaints]

Images from Unsplash

[hadeskitchen]

My brain is absolutely fried from working on exams, so I was messing around on picrew. Here are some of the main characters from the secret IF project who you (probably) won't see in the demo. (source, @baydews)

[aprilskyforever]

got reminded that today marks three years since i went to esc in lisbon and good god i miss it more and more every day

[shearingsheeps]

remember when futch scales were popular and a bunch of people were makin em? i swear i started this around that time. i swear. anyways! i missed some gals,but i essentially ran out of room, so... oops. i feel guilty, but i just didn’t have the space to avoid having it look too crowded////

[ach-du-liebe-zeit]

»Wollen wir wirklich wieder da runter?«

Ich ging in die Wälder | Girl Cave | Folge 8 (2017)

[mygirlcave-blog]

DO IT!!!