A magic-punk noir set in a humid Florida town where the Authority manages what magic survives, the Syndicate moves what it can’t, and the Spanish moss does not move at all.
§ 1 — What you need to know
Before the Enlightenment, unnatural dynasties ruled alongside human ones — vampire lords, wizard-kings, faerie courts with real political power. That world was monstrous in ways that are still remembered. The Enlightenment did not defeat the supernatural. It produced an ideology incompatible with it, and a quiet apparatus to contain it. By the end of World War II, no supernatural entity openly held political power anywhere on earth.
Shadow Beach is set in what came after.
None of them is the good guys. None of them is the villain. They work against each other, and occasionally with each other, as circumstances require.
Protecting humanity from what magic does to it.
International containment system. Government agencies, secret from the public, that manage and suppress unnatural power. They believe they are protecting humanity from Delirium and from any return to the old order. They are probably correct about both. They also press supernatural criminals into currency, and that is policy.
Read moreOrganized crime in the shape of the old courtly order.
Primarily fae and their mortal associates. The operating framework for unnatural society in the mortal world after the courts fell. Traffics in magical goods, artifacts, people, and lachryms — crystallized units of suffering used as supernatural currency. Not a resistance.
Read moreRevolution, classified as terrorism, deserved both labels.
A movement whose members range from those seeking genuine freedom for the oppressed unnatural to those seeking to restore unnatural dominion over human society. The Authority calls them terrorists. Many unnatural call them the only legitimate resistance to an unjust system. Both are right.
Read moreThe Otherworld is shrinking. The currency is suffering. A corporation in Cape Canaveral sells to all sides. The West got here on purpose, more or less.
A liminal reality, once the seat of faerie civilization. Now being consumed from within.
Read more 02 / CurrencyCrystallized suffering, used as currency. Each one carries the imprint of who it came from.
Read more 03 / CorporateThe corporate empire of Samson Day. Supplies the Authority, deals with the Syndicate, profits from both.
Read more 04 / HistoryHow the West got from vampire lords to the containment regime, century by century.
Read more§ 4 — On the register of the setting
Shadow Beach is a game about playing inside that.
The complete theme documentation — old order, cascade, fall, Otherworld, lachryms, NextGroup, regional traditions. A long read. Not required to play.
Open the theme index For playersCreate an account, build someone who lives here, and log in. Free, persistent, no client to install. Telnet also welcome at shadow-beach.com:4000.
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