Lore

Technology

Instead of electricity, some appliances in this world are powered by runes. Like fridges, which have runes ingrained in them that keep its insides cool. Runes come from the Realm of the Fae and are originally a Faerie art, but just as Fae contracts, they’ve been fading from the general public and replaced where they could be, like in lighting. They need a Faerie to engrave and imbue them, which costs the faerie a lot of energy and they usually don’t like to do it unless for a high reward. Fridges are nearly the only thing they’re still used for, because there hasn’t been an alternative found yet, and it’s a simple rune that only keeps something cool, so a faerie doesn’t expect as high of a reward.
For lighting, people use candles, but these days also oil and gas lamps.
Transport like trains and trams are steam powered.

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Species

Human

Regular people with no special abilities. In the early days, it was difficult for them to accept the strange and scary people they shared the world with. However, today, most don’t care that much anymore.

Faerie

Origins
In the beginning, there were humans and faeries, each in their own realm. Faeries came into the human realm, humans accidentally wandered into the fae realm. They mingled.

Where
Faeries are originally from The Realm of the Fae. Throughout the course of history, faeries have entered the human realm out of curiosity, malice or boredom. Gateways from and to the fae realm are only found in the East, resulting in most faeries in the human realm living there. All faerie bloodlines originate from the East, too.

Bloodlines
Faeries divide themselves into full-blood and mixed-blood. A full-blood’s whole bloodline consists of only faeries and they have most likely never left the fae realm. They see themselves as better than mixed-bloods, who meddled with ‘lower life forms.’ Nearly every faerie living in the human realm is mixed blood. Most are very disconnected from the fae realm and aren’t aware of this distinction. A lot of faerie children come from full-blooded faeries coming to the human realm for some secret, taboo fun, impregnating some random lady and then fleeing, not wanting anyone in the fae realm to know they have a mixed-blooded child and have thus tainted their bloodline.

Magic
Faeries have the capacity for the most powerful magic of all races. It’s trickster magic based on contracts, usually meant to screw at least one party over. They could do anything if they can come up with a contract for it. The more powerful the magic, the bigger the cost. But this needs to be taught. As such, it’s a lost art form among mixed-bloods in the human realm. No one bothered to write it down there because they have the texts in the fae realm. But now most outsider faeries don’t even know how to enter the fae realm.

In The Realm of the Fae
Their appearance changes to something more mystical. Horns, tails, wings, odd colours and the like. When they exit, they return to their more human form. But after they enter the fae realm for the first time, their shadow and reflection is forever changed into their fae form.

Vampire

Origins
One night, a group of humans tried to steal some faerie blood for it supposed magical power. In turn, the faerie cursed them to become blood sucking monsters who could never walk in daylight again.
This first group really were monsters. The faerie gave them the ability to turn other humans to make them more feared and hated, but made faeries immune.
After several hundred, maybe even thousand years, vampires mingled with the other races, weakening the curse every generation to the point that they’re now simply slightly dead looking people who need to drink a blood-like substance and are extra sensitive to sunlight.

Where
Most common in the North. It has the least sunlight. In turn, the least common in the South.

Dead
A vampire’s body is kind of dead, the skin has a grey tone to it. Their blood is constantly dying, but they do need it, so they refill it through external sources. Either by taking it from someone else or drinking artificial blood.

Healing
Vampires heal flesh wounds to keep the precious, dying blood inside their body. They don’t regenerate lost body parts, only keep themselves from bleeding out.

Sunlight
It doesn’t kill them, but it’s incredibly painful and can leave third degree burns if bad enough. Being in the shade, out of direct sunlight, is enough not to burn. Most vampires wear hoods or carry umbrellas.

Lifespan
Twice as long as normal. Children age regularly, their age freezes at 20, then continues at 40.

Artificial blood
A long time ago, artificial blood was invented so vampires wouldn’t be forced to prey on people. It was a win for both parties. Ever since then, vampires have been integrated into society like regular people with some quirks. It even comes in different flavours.

Discrimination
Even after the invention of artificial blood, some people were afraid of vampires. There were groups formed to hunt them down and ‘take care of them’. By either staking them through the heart, or the more ‘humane’ option of ripping their fangs out so they couldn’t bite anyone.
If someone was turned against their will, these groups would encourage them not to drink blood, even artificial, to keep them ‘pure’. They would even force them to eat regular food they couldn’t digest anymore, making them sick. If the new vampire went along with this, they’d eventually die.

Turning
Drink until you’re full, make yourself bleed, let the blood drip into their mouth until the wound closes. The person will be out for a few hours, then wake up as a vampire after their body has gone through all the changes.

Bloodbond
Turning links the turner’s and turnee’s souls, amplifying the connection they already have, or giving a want for a connection if there is none. This means vampires have to think carefully about who they turn.

De-aging
When an older person is turned, their physical age will return to what a vampire’s physical age should be. A 50-year-old will return to 25. It refers to how long the body has existed, how old the bones are, not how long it’s been alive.

In the Realm of the Fae
They turn into their original, aggressive, bloodthirsty form. They’re back to normal as soon as they leave with no lingering effects.

Werewolf

Origins
A couple hundred years after the first vampires, another group of humans, on a night of a full moon, tried to take a faerie creature away from a faerie. This faerie cursed them to become dangerous, uncontrollable wolf-like monsters every full moon. Originally, they could also spread their curse through biting. But over the generations, their curse had weakened to what it is today; people with heightened senses who can turn into a slightly animalistic person. The ability to turn others faded away.

Where
Pretty much everywhere, but occasionally in big groups in small, rural towns. Some of those towns are completely filled with werewolves and nothing else.

Stronger senses
Mainly smell, but hearing too. While shifted, werewolves can’t recognise faces. They recognise people by smell or voice.

Shifting
Can turn into an animalistic, wolf-like person with movable, pointed, hairy ears, fur-like body hair, cat-like eyes, sharp teeth and claws. They can’t speak.

The inner wolf
It’s not a different entity, it’s the other side of the same coin. It’s like their subconscious or instinct that sometimes takes over, like they’re sleepwalking. Someone’s wolf may realise or know something that the werewolf doesn’t yet, or make them do something without them realising.

Partial shifting
The process of learning this involves blurring the line between the sides of the werewolf; the person and the wolf. It gives the werewolf more control of what to shift, but creates more difficulty with keeping their wolf inside when they’re feeling something primal or instinctual, like anger, fear, hunger or lust. Not learning it properly will result in having to deal with the latter while not getting the benefits of the former.

Full moons
They force werewolves to shift. They don’t register any conscious memory of that night, the inner wolf is in full control.

Scent-marking
Werewolves like to mark the people they’re close to with their scent. Particularly their partner, or someone they want to be their partner. Other werewolves can smell it and recognise that this person already has a werewolf in their life. The nature of the relationship isn’t clear. It’s like marking their territory.

Packs
City werewolves think packs are outdated and unnecessary, while rural werewolves often still join or form them and live that lifestyle like there is no other way for them to exist. Pack conflicts can get fatally dangerous, which stops many werewolves who are unfamiliar with it from trying it out. There are two types of packs. The original version, which is just a family of werewolves where the oldest would be considered the alpha. And the more modern version of several families with one family being the alpha family. Werewolves who live in the original version don’t like the modern version.

In the Realm of the Fae
It unlocks the full, original power of the lycanthropy curse. The inner wolf becomes more its own entity. They can fully shift into the wolf-like monster that was the original werewolf. Their senses are heightened even more, especially hearing, because their ears become permanently pointed and movable, like they’re shifted, but with no hair. If the werewolf wasn’t previously well in tune with their wolf, controlling all this new power will be a difficult battle with this more independent and powerful entity they share their body and mind with.

Witch

Origins
A group of humans tried to take Fae magic for themselves. It went wrong and they ended up with a weakened, corrupted version of it that works differently. Their power hasn’t weakened over the years, because it wasn’t a curse.

Where
Witches are found evenly over the continent. Since they originated from Fae magic, like most races, they’re originally from the East.

Magic
They use their magic as an extension of themselves. They can do simple things with a flick of the wrist, or more complicated things with specific spells that need to be learned. Some witches turn to alchemy for spells that their magic is too weak for. It’s a difficult discipline that takes a lifetime of study to do anything worthwhile with. The fields of medicine and technology are filled with witches to find magical solutions to problems, like imbuing objects with magic or creating things with alchemy.

Souls
Witches are more in tune with their Realm of the Dead. It’s easier for them to communicate with wandering souls and feel their presence.

Genetics

Faeries
Faeries are genetically the strongest. If one of the parents gives the Fae gene to the child, the child will always be a faerie.

Werewolf & vampire
These two are equal, because they originated in the same way. They’re both cursed and you can’t get rid of one by being infected with the other. As such, this is the only possible hybrid. A true hybrid would be a werewolf who was turned into a vampire later. But werewolf-vampire mixed children tend to show characteristics of both, too. They’re mainly one, which has a 50/50 chance of which that will be, and show some heritage of the other. Like a vampire with a sensitive nose or a werewolf who gets sunburnt easily. When a werewolf has the original curse, the werewolf genes will be extra powerful.

Witch
These two only way for a witch to be born is if there are no faerie, vampire or werewolf genes involved. These three can be carriers of the witch and human genes, possibly resulting in witch and human children.

Human
Only two human genes will create a human. Many members of the other races are human carriers, resulting in the occasional human child among parents of different races.

Ghost

What
Souls are what is left of a person if you remove their body. It’s who they are, it’s their emotions and attachments, their fears, likes and wants.

Wandering souls
When someone dies, depending on how they died, there’s a chance their soul will wander in the Realm of the Dead instead of move on to the afterlife, whatever that looks like. Turning them into ghosts. When someone died young, or in a traumatic way, or they had a lot of unfinished business, the chance of them wandering is higher. But it’s never guaranteed, even if the person wouldn’t have felt ready to move on. Wandering souls vary in strength. Some can’t interact with the living world at all, others can move objects and write things down and even possess living people. It’s quite random how strong a ghost will be, but a lot of anger gives them better odds. Their strength can chance over time.

Non-wandering souls
They move on to whatever is next, people have different beliefs for what that is. But they can still be brought back with the potion.