Backstory
It is 2118.
The United Nations has evolved into the world-uniting New Earth Government. Mankind has achieved space flight, establishing colonies all across the inner system and pushing to the outer system and beyond. Revolutions in medicine have increased lifespans, cured most cancers and resulted in a healthier, smarter populace. Nanofabrication is starting to come to the fore and resulted in a transitional economy where food, clothing and shelter is essentially free. Researchers from Venus to Jupiter are starting to push the boundaries of science.
Oh yeah, and magic is real.
It started in the 2020s, when Miskatonic University postgrad Teresa Ashcroft discovered the long-lost mystical arts and began to fuse them with the scientific. Though her work drove her mad, it didn't stop other scientists expanding the field she pioneered and developing her theories into the Dimensional Engine, a nigh-infinite power source which revolutionised the world by 2035.
And then the Yithians came. Refugees of some galaxy-spanning empire in the throes of some catastrophe, these aliens came in humanoid bodies of their creation to trade advances in arcanotechnology for a place to start anew. The NEG accepted.
By 2050, advances in sublight space travel made possible in arcanotechnology put colonies on Mars, Jupiter's orbit, Titan and Venus. Construction began on Venusian aerostats and an array of space stations across the solar system. These colonies expanded until, today, they are cities (and even countries) in their own right which challenge the Earth on system-wide policy in the formative Sol Council.
And then, in the 60s, the Mi-go came. The reclusive insects from Pluto struck the historic Charon Treaty, in which humanity agrees to leave Plutonian space alone in exchange for limited trade and the Mi-go agreeing not to blow humanity up. Humanity looked at the stars and wondered: Were there more aliens out there?
Unfortunately for them, hell yes. And most of them aren't nice.
Dark creatures are waking up from million-year slumbers. Dark magic is being rediscovered, and there are people who want to use it. The NEG is scrambling to put down cults taking root across the system before they summon something that can't be contained. The Mi-go could be screwing humanity and nobody would know. And who knows what else out there has noticed us - or may already be here?
If you're lucky, it won't be your problem.
You live in the Chicago-Milwaukee Metroplex in the north-eastern United States. Together you run an occult detective agency - busting up cults, finding occult tomes and dealing with nice old ladies who think you can scry on their missing cat. Sometimes the Office of Occult Intelligence or even the Eldritch Society comes knocking at your door. It's good work for good money.
If you're lucky, it'll stay that way.
Other Stuff
everything here will be edited and maybe changed later, it's just a placeholder so you can know stuff until I clean it up.
- The Yithians are aliens who can travel through time by projecting their minds into the bodies of creatures in other time periods. They briefly lived on Earth before moving to the distant future, though some possible instances of Yith popping in to observe humanity have been recorded. At some point, they genetically engineered a new race from human stock and concealed the dormant bodies in a hidden city as a backup in case they ever needed some empty bodies to possess. The Yith faction who fled to Earth (now nicknamed the Thetans) seem to be willing to trade, though they speak little of the circumstances that forced them here and appear to lack access to the bulk of Yithian knowledge and culture. They have assimilated into human society, more or less, and their numerous humanoid children (the Akathar) can be found in every major city.
- The Akathar are playable. Their external appearance is humanoid, slightly shorter than humans on average with grey skin, pure black eyes and greyscale hair. Though their parents are (mostly) Yithian, they are closer to human than alien and are trying to balance assimilating with forging their own cultural identity. Though Akathar are accepted on most colonies and in the major cities and metroplexes, many humans fear them and find their "dead eyes" unsettling. They have an affinity for psychic power.
- In Ctech the Eldritch Society is a secret society based around Tagers, warriors who bond with alien symbiotes to gain a powerful alternate form and fight a secret war with the agents of an evil corporation; here, instead, the Eldritch Society is a gentleman's club of scientists, occult scholars and Tagers who throw themselves against the various cults. They cooperate with the OOI and lend knowledge and assistance, and in exchange the OOI quietly turns a blind eye as the Eldritch Society fights with not-strictly-legal tactics and conceals some of its doings from the government.
- The Office of Occult Intelligence investigates magical crimes, busts cults and looks for ways to safeguard humanity from alien threats. They can shoot anyone they like and have great health benefits.
- The PCs run a little occult detective agency (you pick the name) and can be regular dudes, ex-cops, mages, psychics, Tagers, ex-Eldritch Society, ex-government, ex-military, diplomats, Yithian kids, scientists, doctors, arcanotechnicians, Earth natives, Martian immigrants, the guy who hits people, the guy who drives a car, that one Ghostbuster who just wanted a job, whatever!
- Powered armour suits are often used in heavy labor work, and the police force has their own division of mecha pilots. Powered armour theft (known as "mechajacking") is a serious crime even if the perp doesn't go on a rampage.
- The state of affairs between humanity and the Mi-go at the moment is essentially a cold war, with a little spying and saber-rattling on both sides as each race tries to work out what the other's deal is. Before the treaty was struck there was a brief 12-day hot-war skirmish which set outer system expansion back several years and made both sides wary of a protracted war and the damage it could cause.
- Cultists are a serious problem. The major ones have used ship theft and mechajacking to establish strongholds outside Earth and cause trouble, while on Earth roving bands of mechajackers and cultists harass country towns and wreck developing nations. Cultists are a particular problem in South America and Africa. Three known problem cults are the Green Fury, an ecoterrorist fertility cult out of South America which targets industrial centers with an army of jacked mecha; the Xing Shen Tong, a Chinese crime syndicate which appears to be spreading across Earth and going after occult relics in the name of some unknown god; and the Disciples of the Cold Ones, an anarchist group which raids scientific institutions across the system and is rumoured to have a starship fleet somewhere.
- Though communication between planets takes a long time, wireless internet access across most of human civilisation is ubiquitous and micro-chips are embedded in almost everything. Most people access the Net through optical computers or data pads - flexible, stretchable devices which serve as computer terminals, PDAs, locators, holo-projectors and camera-phones.
Chicago-Milwaukee Metroplex
City creation in progress: Here
