Off game information
Most of the information below are not (yet) known to the player characters - they are taking their first steps into the supernatural world. However, we know that as players, you are very often interested in the history of the game world. So below is an outline of the history of the Evermist Society world for those who like to know. At the same time, we would like to point out that you will be able to learn this and much, much more during the game from NPCs and other players.
World History
Since the dawn of time, humans have been battling the supernatural. But for almost as long there have been alliances and acts of cooperation between our kinds. The more we learned about each other, the more we realized that it was not only the best solution, but also a necessity. At least if we don't want to destroy the world as we know it.
There is magic in our world that all living things contain. In some cultures, it was called anima, in others mana, in still others prana or qi. A small part of it floats in the air and lies dormant in inanimate matter, but only a few can extract it from it (and it is not easy for them either). In plants, its amount is minimal, almost imperceptible. In animals - larger, but still small. There is much more of it in humans - but only supernatural beings can accumulate and use it unlimitedly.
Moreover, the amount of magic in our world is constant. There is always the same amount of it, it can only change where it is located. Collecting it in various ways, supernaturals gain power, but at the same time, they cease to be themselves. Gradually, they lose their humanity, becoming beings of pure magic - unrestrained, untamed, wanting only to grow more and more, until the annihilation of our entire world. This is why both humans and most supernaturals are concerned with preserving the status quo. The total annihilation of humans would be a moment of complete cut-off for some supernatural beings from the possibility of obtaining magic. From the human point of view, the more supernaturals there are in the world, the more diffuse the magic is, and the less likely one of them will have what the Society calls "The Contamination" reaches a critical level. Therefore, both fight against those supernaturals who have passed the critical level of Corruption and who are already fully governed by the maximizing elemental magic. And this cooperation led to the creation of the Evermist Society.
Evermist Society's History
The Society was officially established in the summer of 24 BCE. on the Greek island of Lesbos, where the Roman patrician Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and the supernatural, the leader of the alliance of Saharan jinn and ifrits, Eriastes met. Already then, they agreed on the three most important principles, which still form the basis of the Society:
The Alliance
The alliance and cooperation of humans and supernaturals to achieve common goals.
The Security
Combating all those who could threaten the existing status quo.
The Mist
Hiding the existence of supernaturals and the role they play in our world.
The Mist Principle also applies to player characters - during their stay at Evermist College, supernaturals take their human form and become similar to the human society that surrounds them. Of course, dryads can keep their green hair, efreets will have red eyes or flaming red hair, and dragons or nymphs will have delicate scales. However, colorful wings or lush horns should be saved for visits to other worlds and dimensions.
From the beginning, in accordance with the Roman tradition, collective leadership was also emphasized. The Society has been headed by two Consuls, appointed for a term of office (in the beginning - one year, today - five years) by the twelve-person Council (its other competencies and the method of selection are a separate topic). Until the beginning of the 17th century, the official language of the Society was Latin, then, for over two centuries - French (the Society was then known as Société de la Brume Eternelle), and from the mid-19th century to the present - English.
Members and employees of the organization are almost 80 percent human (which is simply due to demographics - supernaturals in general are only
a base point of the human population).
They are divided into three divisions with overlapping competences: Researchers, Defenders and Administration.
In addition to them, there are two types of Allies: Associates - people who work for the Society (or rather - for one of the numerous companies and organizations behind which it stands), without being aware of the existence of supernaturals, and Initiates - people, usually high positions that the Society decided for various reasons to inform about what the world looks like beyond the Eternal Mist. Some of the Initiates become members of the Society, but there are those who choose to remain outside its structures.
The Society, in addition to numerous companies, social organizations, and research institutions, also runs a network of pedagogical institutions: from primary schools to universities, where it educates both supernaturals and people. They differ from ordinary schools in that, in addition to the classic curriculum (languages, mathematics, biology, geography, etc.), control and mastery of magic is taught there. One of such schools is Evermist College in Międzylesie.
Calendar
around 3000 BC - the first historical images of supernatural beings on seals and fragments of pottery from the city of Ur.
around 1750 BC - the first discovered records of an alliance with supernatural beings (cuneiform writing on stone tablets) from Akkad and Larak (secret, stored in the Society's vault).
331 BC - conclusion of the First Covenant. At Thebes, Alexander the Great allies with Falchaeus (Greek spelling), the leader of an alliance of efreets and jinn of the Great Desert, and together they face Cambyses, a powerful and long-lived Persian vampire. The covenant ends with Alexander's death, but the Egyptian supernaturals remain benevolent and helpful to humans.
24 BC - Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa meets Eriastes, a descendant of Falchaeus, during his stay in Lesbos. They spend several weeks together, during which Eriastes reveals to Agrippa the truth about supernatural beings and the rules of magic in our world. The result of these talks is the Aeterna Caligo (Nebula) Societas project. A Society aimed at developing cooperation between humans and supernaturals in order to protect our world from beings who accumulate excessive magical power. Rome is chosen as the seat of the Society.
400 CE - the authorities of the Society, noticing the growing power and influence of Christianity, weave some of the Society's structures into church structures, providing their researchers with access (together with Christian missionaries) to the farthest borders of Western civilization.
1490 CE - thanks to the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, one of the Society's most famous artifacts, researchers are recording a powerful, ever-increasing magical potential west of the shores of Europe. Isabella of Castile, Initiate, finances in 1492 CE a research expedition, which includes the Pinzón brothers who come from a distinguished family of the Defenders.
1519 - 1535 CE - Western Wars. Led by the Society, the Spanish conquistadors, in cooperation with some of the locals, defeat the most powerful supernaturals of South America and restore the magical balance on the continent. At the same time, Pedro de Alvarado, who oversees the expedition on behalf of the Society, a member of the Inner Council, is dismissed from his post and imprisoned for the acts he and the soldiers under his command committed during the campaign (genocide and forbidden magic).
1576 CE - in Guadalajara (Mexico), the first official school of the Society, Escuela de la Reconciliacion, is founded, educating supernaturals and Defenders.
1774 CE - Prince August Kazimierz Sułkowski, a descendant of the old Defenders family, founds a boarding school for supernatural beings in Rydzyn (officially - for the descendants of the poor nobility). Two years later, he creates the Sułkowski Estate, the income from which is to be used for the needs of the school. In 1820, after the Prussian authorities seized the building and closed the school, it was secretly moved to the part of the castle's rooms.
1789 CE - bloodthirsty and power-hungry coterie of Parisian vampires through behind-the-scenes machinations lead to the outbreak of the French Revolution. The bloody terror, which lasted almost 10 years, ends the coup d'état carried out by the Initiate Napoleon Bonaparte, but the war turmoil among people lasts until 1815.
1933 CE - the machinations of the blood magicians of the German Thule Society lead to the seizure of power by the Nazi party. The orgy of blood and human suffering again covers Europe, spilling over parts of Africa and Asia as well.
1942 CE - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the USA, Insider, commissions the researcher of the Society, Professor Robert Oppenheimer, on a mission to create a weapon capable of destroying the most powerful of the supernatural. "I don't care what it is, I just want the whore to be able to tear apart the biggest dragon or the oldest vampire," Roosevelt says in a private conversation with Oppenheimer. On July 16, 1945, a device code-named Gadget - the first atomic bomb - is detonated at a test site in New Mexico. For the first time in history, people are given absolute weapons against supernatural beings.