These are terms commonly used in by those who speak English in the Illumination.

• Supernatural: Rare and unexplainable creatures, objects, or phenomena. Often defying the laws of physics as we understand them.
  • Formal: Supernatural, Paranormal (GB)
  • Common: Weird, Magic, Spooky
  • Vulgar: Freaky
• Illumination: Evidence of the supernatural, usually video or physical. Alternatively, the event of new evidence of the supernatural becoming widely-available. 
  • Confirmed: Illuminations that are widely-accepted as factual.
  • Debated: Illuminations that do not rise to the level of scientific and widespread acceptance. Also referred to as Unconfirmed.
  • Phoney: An Illumination that is confirmed to be-- or widely-believed to be-- a hoax, a mistake, or otherwise misleading and untrue. 
• Unnaturology: The scientific study of the supernatural. Considered to be a legitimate academic field, though it is starved for subject matter. A scientist who researches in the field is called an Unnaturologist.
  • Vulgar: Fairy-chaser, ghost-hunter
• Escort: A mysterious individual who often accompanies someone rich and/or powerful. They are assumed to be a paranormal advisor or bodyguard. Some wealthy/powerful individuals keep a quiet, oddly-dressed person around simply for appearances.
  
  • Formal: Escort
  • Common: Escort, Buddy, Bodyguard
  • Vulgar: Jafar
• Paranormal Entity: A creature that exhibits supernatural nature or abilities. 
  • Formal: Paranormal/Supernatural Entity
  • Common: Curiosity, Alien, Cryptid
  • Vulgar: Freak, Monstrosity, Abomination
  • (Editor's note: religious terms are often applied to these creatures including "angel", "demon", "asura" etc)
• Debunker: A pop-culture personality who vets viral supernatural videos and reports.
• Modder: Someone who partakes in the extreme body modifications offered by companies like Gen-Wyld.

These pillars define The Illumination. As long as GMs respect them, they can run their own organizations, NPCs, creatures, and events without "destroying" the world. 

A Familiar World

• Although the supernatural has existed for the whole of human history, the Illumination's recorded history and major events are essentially the same as our own until the year 2004.
• The supernatural's hand in changing— or even directing— the course of history may be significant. 
• Plenty of one-off stories and exhibitions of various supernatural phenomena can be found throughout history, however they did not have a significant effect on daily life.

Unnatural, Uncommon

• People do not pop into their local potion shop to pick up genuine alchemy or wave hello to their local werewolf barista at Starbucks. Unexplainable phenomena happen every day, but the world is a big place. Most alien encounters go unreported. Most people who weild supernatural powers don't make a show of it or aren't powerful enough to truly matter.
• The presence of countless charlatans makes finding genuine supernatural events even more difficult. 

Humanity Bears Witness

• There is no grand, unified conspiracy or phenomena that obscures the supernatural from mankind. Any smartphone can livestream high-definition video to the distributed streaming platform CryptoLeak.
• Even the most powerful world governments can't scrub a video from CryptoLeak, although they can restrict access within their borders.

No "Popular Magic"

• No one has discovered any magic ritual or alchemical formula that can be mass-distributed via the internet in a functional form. Alien technology has never successfully been mass-produced. While some supernatural phenomena can spread through various means, breaking the barrier of physics always requires a special ability to channel some sort of supernatural energy.
• You can't scan the Necronomicon, upload it to 4chan, and teach a billion people to raise the dead. 

It's 1984 Somewhere, but not Everywhere

• While all world governments have harnessed terrifying supernatural assets, this does not mean they will immediately deploy them at the drop of a hat. 
• In The Illumination, each government wields its supernatural assets in a way similar to how they wield their millitary and covert operatives in real life. 
• The US government will not "black bag" any new supernatural phenomena or individual they come across. 

Contractors Make a Splash

• Contractors are no joke. The Gifts they stand to gain by participating in Contracts are significant. Even Novice Contractors can become overnight celebrities by displaying proof of their powers, and more seasoned Contractors have a chance to truly change the status quo.
• Of course, no one makes a splash without getting some unwanted attention, and no one can change the world without making powerful enemies. . .

These Illuminations represent a small selection of influential, validated evidence of the supernatural. All but the most remote or removed humans know about these events, and the evidence (video and otherwise) is readily availble. 

The Werewolf of Montgumery High

One of the earliest confirmed illuminations occured in 2004 at Montgumery high. A high school senior named Nate Klienman was on a date with his girlfriend Kelly Whethers. They drove to the limestone quarry outside of town, a popular "makeout point" with the local teens. For some reason, Nate decided to film the encounter on his flip phone. In doing so, he achieved several "world's first" titles, including "first person to record a werewolf's transformation" and "first person to be mauled to death by a werewolf on camera." Security footage from the quarry was cross-referenced with the footage from his phone, allowing the encounter to be confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt. Since then, several werewolves and other varieties of lycanthrope have been captured and studied, though scienfitic findings are slim.

Kelly Whethers herself did not attend school the next day and has not been seen since the event. Her current whereabouts are the subject of much debate online. 

The Musat Family's Comeuppance

For seven hundred years, the mysterious Musat family held the lordship of a great deal of Eastern England. Despite siding prudently with the winning side of several major conflicts and accumulating incredible power, wealth, and land, the Musat family was rarely encountered by those who did not serve inside the estate itself.

One of the few public appearances made by the family was an event held every fourty years wherein girls from all of Britain would visit the estate for a chance to be selected to aid the family in continuing their bloodline. The "winning" girl would join the Musats in isolation, and her family awarded a handsome dowrey. 

So the tradition continued without much question until the year of 2011. Martia Smith-- one of the "losing" girls-- snuck through the estate's opulent hallways to try to catch a glipse of the family welcoming her winning sister into the family. She was caught on the balcony overlooking the forbidden "inner-sanctum," but welcomed to finish viewing the event. To her surprise, the family did not seem upset with her decision to quietly livestream what followed. 

She, and the entire world, witnessed a horrific blood ritual wherein her sister's life essence was consumed by the elder Musats, restoring their youth before her very eyes. Afterwards, she was brutally executed by the family, her camera still rolling.

That evening, the Musat family arranged the transfer of two generous dowries to the girls' family. Only seconds later, the estate was stormed by an enraged mob from the village. It is said that the men of the mob were so enranged, they ripped the family members apart with their bare hands. 

We presume the family was so unfamiliar with modern technology, they had no idea the risk posed by little Martia's phone.

Queen Elizabeth and parlement issued a general pardon the villagers and distributed the family's land to the public, though the estate itself has been sectioned-off and remains under guard for "investigation" to this day. 

Dr. Yamazaki's Conquest

In May of 1998, a meteorite struck the side of Sahuasiray, a mountain in Peru. A small expedition lead by Professor Eiko Yamazaki was sent to study the site of the impact. He and his team reported little of interest. The meteorite was quickly forgotten by most, but not by those close to the members of the expeditions. 

The research team's friends and families noticed a remarkable anti-social shift in the scientists' behavior. Dr. Yamazaki took a sabbatical from his position at the University and moved to a remote town near the site of the impact. Several of the researchers moved with him. Over the next few years, they cut contact with the outside world.

On May 21, 2014, sixteen years from the initial impact, the village housing Dr. Yamazaki's team went dark. Communications with the outside world suddenly ceased. The next day, the nearby city of Confresa with a small army of viscious, insectoid mutants. 

Video footage from many citizens of Confresa captured horrifying images of the city being overrun by dozens of centipede-like creatures, each the size of a city bus. These monsters destroyed the roads out of the city while other, smaller creatures corralled the populace into detainment centers.

Those who resisted were eaten alive. Those who did not resist were systematically stung by the smaller monsters or force-fed via a disgusting probiscus extruded from their mouths. Footage shows those who were "treated" slumping over, gasping for breath, and being dragged away. 

That evening, Dr. Yamazaki published a video. In an utterly unhinged rant, he declared himself warden of the Earth and demanded that the world governments set aside their arms and prepare to be "taken by her glory to the outer realms of esthesia." 

The Government of Peru deployed five thousand troops from Peruvian Armed Forces, leading a combined operation with Brazilian, Bolivian, and Chilean militaries. Little care was taken to rescue any potential survivors, and over the next 14 hours, thousands of bombs were dropped on the city and the surrounding countryside, reducing the entire area to a field of rubble. Followup from the infantry confirmed the destruction of the enemy forces. 

All-in-all, over five thousand Peruvians lost their lives. To date, this is the largest clash between supernatural and conventional forces and the single deadliest Illumination in the history of mankind. It has inspired a great deal of distrust of the scientific community and the supernatural around the world, and a tightening of government control in South America. 

Mass-distributed evidence of supernatural phenomena are called “illuminations.” These media events often herald gold rushes that make millionaires overnight or they may motivate new legislature, protests, or even terrorist attacks.

However, few people take every video, anecdote, exhibition, or scientific report at face value. 

How do you decide what's true? Do you trust the scientific community? Do you trust the government's public statement? Do you trust the radio DJ who says that ancient aliens did it? 

Everyone has their own gut feelings and takes their own leaps of faith. No "fact" is universally accepted in a world where people debate the very flatness of the Earth.

Evidence of supernatural phenomena fall into one of three categories: Confirmed, Debated, or Phoney.

Indisputable proof: Confirmed

• Some phenomena have many witnesses, multiple camera angles, are publicly on-display, or live-streamed and performed on demand repeatedly in various conditions. Phenomena with this amount of evidence are generally considered to be confirmed.
• Some people will still not believe phenomena with excessive evidence, especially if it makes them feel like they are less in control (big implications, terrible tragedies, things that go against their fundamental world views, etc).
  • Note: for the most part, these people are not good skeptics. They generally distrust second-hand experiences, certain forms of media, and/or certain organizations. They are likely to believe conspiracy theories that make them feel like they are “in the know” of a grand plan. They are also susceptible to hoaxes they experience first-hand.

Questionable evidence: Debated

• Any illuminations without overwhelming evidence are fercely debated online and in the public conversation.
• Professional and pop-culture "debunkers" vet videos and news reports for authenticity.
  • For the most part, debunkers are trustworthy, but not always.
  • Debunkers themselves may be charlatans looking to fear-monger and peddle their wares.
  • They can be corrupt and accept bribes from interested parties. 
• These sorts of Illuminations inspire the imagination, and often lead to new conspiracy theories, fan clubs, cults, and fictional entertainment media. 

Demonstrably a hoax: Phoney

• Hoaxes occur every day in the real world, and even more often in The Illumination.
• Hoaxes take many forms, from trick in-camera photography to advanced CGI effects funded by powerful organizations. Various forms of evidence (video and physical) may be planted or faked.
• Motivations for creating hoaxes range from “because it was fun,” to charlatans vying for credibility, to advanced conspiracies by shadowy supernatural organizations. Sometimes supernatural-looking or occult evidence is planted to obscure a mundane crime. 
• Some people will believe certain hoaxes even when they are fairly easy to disprove.
  • Most people are likely to believe evidence that aligns with their world view regardless of the quality of the evidence. 
  • Some people are under the impression that admitting evidence of a phenomena has been faked makes that phenomena less likely to be real, or that people are less likely to believe it. 

Factors Complicating the Search for Truth

• Gen-Wyld is a highly-successful company that offers extreme body mods, transgenic alterations, advanced surgical tattoos, giving odd-looking supernatural entities more plausible deniability if witnessed or recorded. 
• The COVID-19 epidemic has led to social acceptance of mass mask-wearing, making it difficult to identify individuals caught on film wielding supernatural powers. 
• Many bystanders and witnesses fear any involvement whatsoever and so run instead of filming the event. Others are stunned, and in many parts of the world, cell phones are not ubiquitous. Some evidence is destroyed or concealed before it is posted. 
• Censorship by some governments is not uncommon. Despite its many issues, the United States has some of the best freedom-of-speech laws of any country. Totalitarian governments exert much stronger control over the media and their citizens' access to CryptoLeak. 

Any Illumination that is confirmed or debated causes fallout. What happens next depends on many factors, especially the nature of the supernatural phenomena that has been illuminated. 

Dangerous, grand, and terrifying phenomena cause large reactions, but the mere fact that something seems unexplainable is not the lightning rod it would be in the real world. Small, incosiquential phemonena– like being able to light a cigarette without a lighter or a kid's christmas wish bringing their teddy bear to life– are mere curiosities. Maybe if you're lucky, you can put on a show and sell some tickets. 

Gold Rushes

• In 2010, a man named Rory Lynch caught a leprechaun near a suburb of Dublin. He was awarded a pot of gold worth over $25M USD. Although he gave no details of the encounter (besides the leprechaun "not being what you'd expect"), the resulting wave of gold-rush tourism nearly destroyed the village and the surrounding countryside. 
• Businesses like Prometheus Ventures, The Menagerie, and Gen-Wyld often send agents to investigate or capture supernatural phenomena for research and development, often in violation of laws and policy.
• Any gold rush is sure to draw a host of Charlatans and scam artists, hoping to capitalize on the craze itself. Would-be cult leaders, grandstanding politicians, and a host of sham crowdfunding campaigns are bound to make an appearance. 

Defense

• Governments always show force around Illuminations but, in general, will only take overt action if the phenomena poses a clear and present danger. 
• However, populist groups like OWL, and militias like the Sons of Salem almost always appear. These groups, driven by idealism and fear, create a deadly powder keg that's often barely contained by the police. 
• Self-styled “monster hunters” arrive as well, looking to make a quick buck off of those locals who are especially scared. 

Policy

• Destructive or terrifying phenomena often prompt policy changes. These often take the form of security theater like enhanced TSA screening or mandated blood tests for certain official positions. 

Scientists who study the supernatural are called unnaturalologists. The results of their research are all over the map. In most cases, scientists have only successfully quantified the unexplainability of supernatural phenomena. They may be able to tell you how much mass a werewolf gains during their transformation, but not where it comes from. No means of detecting “magic” in a general sense has been developed yet.

However, science is occasionally successful at replicating and harnessing the supernatural. Several companies and governments now manufacture ultra-high-end products and technologies that are not yet available to the general public.

More than once a scientist has been corrupted by their work. Infection, obsession, and insanity are not uncommon. Several scientists have stolen their subjects and gone off to become wizards, free agents, or monsters themselves.

Psychics, Telepaths, Empaths

There are several well-documented cases of people who were either born with or developed psychic or intuitive mental powers. Because these powers are often discovered when the subject is young, it is postulated that a large percentage of the psychic population is known to others. If not in popular culture, at least by the government or the subjects’ families.

The United States government runs a special school for “gifted” children called Casa Verde. Most believe it is tucked away in the mountains of Marin, California.

Magic-wielders

Magic-wielders are not eager to demonstrate their abilities en-masse in public unless they are trying to gather a following. Most find private employment.

Charlatans exist in both circles, both private and public.

Supers

Certain individuals have demonstrated superhuman strength, speed, intellect, or other abilities. They are officially banned from participating in sports and the olympics.

China was sanctioned by the olympic committee for fielding a gymnist with supernatural dexterity, though the claim is widely contested and the ruling criticized.

Ritual Magic and Alchemy

No ritual of power has been discovered. No ritual involving magic words, symbols, or actions has ever been shown to channel or harness any unnatural power on its own. Similarly, while certain magic-users have demonstrated an ability to imbue mixtures with supernatural effects, no one has been able to record a supernatural recipe that is reproducible by mundane humans or at an industrial scale.

Magic-wielders may require ritual or alchemical preparation for using their supernatural abilities, but they themselves act as a locus for the effect, and others do not see any results from performing the same ritual. Magical books and other objects may also act as a locus, allowing anyone who performs the ritual and carries the object of power to wield its magic.

Rituals that have been validated to harness magic with a proper locus have been distributed en-masse online and performed by millions with no effect. Certain rituals seem to hold power when certain individuals with “potential” perform them.

Some wizards have posted rituals online and instructed anyone who can perform them and see results to contact them for additional training.

Prayers, Invocations, Miracles, and Divine Magic

There is evidence to suggest that on rare occasions, individuals have been successful at invoking the power of “greater beings” to create extraordinary effects dubbed “miracles”. Examples of these “miracles” include plague-like rains of blood, the creation of a wellspring oasis in the desert, and mass-scale mechanical failure (such as an opposing army’s guns all jamming).

The invocation itself is almost never caught on film. They are often performed unintentionally or privately with little hope of success. The effects themselves, however, are undeniable.

These “miracles” are not repeatable, and those who wield the magic can not do so on demand or even more than once. Many suggest that rather than a specific individual wielding divine powers, divine powers choose and work through normal individuals, leaving as quickly as they came.

“Unsettling are the days in which everyone is an expert.”
― Criss Jami

Nowadays you can't go a day without some phony prophet trying to peddle their wares to you.

Driven by the increased interest in the supernatural, everything from palm reading to televangelism is more common than ever. And while the vast majority of witches, psychics, magicians, hypnotists, cures, potions, faith healers, and clairvoyants are complete fakes, their business success breeds more and more of their ilk. 

As the saying goes, "it's easier for an actor to make it in alternative medicine than Hollywood." 

Most people scoff at these clearly-phony supernatural services, yet those same people often buy into at least one scam.

The most dangerous charlatans are the self-styled monster hunters who carry a mall-ninja arsenal and guns with silver bullets. Most have never encountered anything supernatural and do absolutely nothing besides burn some sage and patrol the area for a night or two. Even so, those who are superstitious, fearful, or desperate enough will hire them to solve the problems they simply don't understand. In some cases with disastrous results. 

For Contractors, charlatans are red herrings and obstacles. Clumsy fakes that conjure a smokescreen of misinformation and escalate the situations they're in.

Supernatural creatures and individuals who wield supernatural abilities lead many different sorts of lives. Few choose to illuminate their powers, usually those whose abilities could be considered "curiosities." Those with more significant powers tend to keep their abilities private or semi-private, either managing them like a medical condition or trying to capitalize on them without revealing too much.

Those who choose to go public play a high-stakes game of public opinion. Living openly as a validated supernatural leads to fame, wealth, and power, but a single misstep may see them tied to a burning stake or locked in an underground science facility.

Mob Judgement and the Public Eye

Supernatural individuals are unusual by definition. If they go public, they must battle humanity’s fear of change and the unknown, and its tribal urge to scapegoat and ostracize.

The world’s population is anything but homogenous. There are always those whose opinions go against the grain, those who radicalize while others stay ambivalent, those iconoclasts who lead, and the followers who conform. Even so, the general public does form opinions. They may be united or polarized but are always subject to sudden and extreme change.

Each entity is judged based on the nature of its supernatural element and how it presents itself. In general, the less powerful, less terrifying, and less arcane, the better.

Deadly Traits and Abilities

• Inhuman.  Inhuman supernatural creatures face great difficulty living publicly. Radical pro-human populist movements and a legal grey area means that any inhuman or demi-human supernatural entity that goes public is often kidnapped or killed.
• Power. Too much power is scary. Those who can create massive explosions, disguise themselves as anyone, or kill in unusual ways will be distrusted to a degree that makes it impossible to live openly. If adopted and endorsed by a major government’s military, the public may accept them as wielded and controlled weapon.
• Disturbing. These powers include mind-reading, mind-control, memory manipulation, and the ability to transform or disfigure others. These abilities are disturbing and violating, and those who are known to wield them will never be accepted.
• Game-changing. Sometimes the implications of a supernatural entity are so damaging to the established status-quo that they are rejected out-of-hand. An alien wants to bring their peaceful people to live amongst humans. A cult whose adherents transform into inhuman beasts wants to go legitimate. Even if seemingly-innocuous, things that are game-changing are terrifying to the public and established power structures.
• Demanded. If you can cure cancer, your skills will be so sought-after that you will have a never-ending stream of patients to cure. Doing anything else is seen as murdering those you could have saved. The mob will always kill the golden goose.

Most supernatural creatures choose to live privately, either hiding their abilities or revealing them to a select few.

Private Employment

Some supernatural entities reveal their powers to a select few rich and/or powerful individuals in the hopes of striking a private bargain.

Rich and Powerful people employ supernatural entities as a matter of course, often as advisors or bodyguards.These individuals will avoid displaying any supernatural abilities unless they absolutely have to. Many politicians, businesspeople, and celebrities keep a bizarre character close by. The public assumes (correctly in many cases) that these individuals are supernatural.

Rich and Powerful people who are not approached by supernatural entities, or who cannot afford them, often employ actors and charlatans to fill the role. It is a status symbol.

Crime

Security is built under a set of assumptions about the abilities of those who would attempt to circumvent the system. Those who can break the rules can make a good living doing crime. However, the truly aspirational criminals find it difficult to make the connections they need to fence their stolen goods and launder their money. A certain level of success demands an organization, and an organization without police or scrutiny is ripe for internal crime and power struggles.

Cult Leadership

Cults are often formed around one strong personality and often grow by offering members the opportunity to be an “insider” or “chosen one.” Supernatural entities are naturally equipped to gather and maintain a radical following. Even if their aspirations are low, it can be an easy way to live well without creating a large public footprint.

However, most cult leaders do go mad after a while and either radicalize their followers or degenerate into abhorrent megalomaniacs.

Police are individuals. Some cops are good-hearted, others are power-tripping bastards. But every uniformed officer is on the front lines of the policing culture war. 

As an institution, the police endeavor to maintain the status quo. They prefer to arrest troublemakers instead of killing them (usually), and they avoid violent conflict when possible (usually). 

Police in The Illumination do not arrest or confiscate supernatural beings or artifacts just by nature of them being supernatural. Their job is to keep the peace so that capitalism can peacefully take its course.

In the USA, police are well-armed and trained to be paranoid. Anyone could be hiding a gun or a knife, and any encounter could turn deadly at any moment. As such, they’re often trigger-happy. They are trained not to take their eyes off of suspects until they’re cuffed and secured. They have radios, GPS that reports their location, regular check-ins with HQ, and backup is only a call away. 

Contractors often get into conflict with the police. Their objectives are rarely aligned with maintaining the status quo, and even if they are, they’re unlikely to trust the cops to do a suitable job. 

Police aren’t always accessible. The nearest cop car could be hours away in extremely rural areas. Calling 911 in a crowded city could involve waiting on hold for 10 minutes before even talking to a dispatcher. If the police are accessible, they generally take 5-10 minutes to arrive at a high-priority call like a shooting.

Anyone using these terms is probably involved somehow, either an Agent, Contractor, or Harbinger. They are divided into the formal parlance used in the actual Contracts, common usage among Contractors and Agents, and vulgar slang.

The Contract: The game itself, expressed with terms and stipulations that dictate how a Gift is to be won.
Formal: Contract
Common: Mission, Game, Grand Guingol, the Gauntlet
Vulgar: Slaughterhouse 5, Totentanz, Finals, Casting Call, Go Time

The Contractors: These are those rare ambitious souls selected to fulfill the Contracts, thereby receiving the Gifts.
Formal: Chosen
Common: Contractor, Specialist, Expendables, Aspirant, Supplicant, Innerwalker
Vulgar: Masochists, Junkies, Fixers, Head Hunters, High Rollers

The Harbingers: Representing the highest Tier of Contractor, the Harbingers gather the Chosen on behalf of The Powers and set up the Contracts. By tradition, Harbingers only give their Title when dealing with Contractors of the lesser tiers.
Formal: Harbinger
Common: The Elite, Seraphim, Heralds, Messengers
Vulgar: Sadists, Handlers, Pimps, The Boss, Director, Foreman, Executive,

The Inner Circle: The mysterious and seemingly omnipotent powers that select the Chosen and see that Gifts are awarded. Not even the Harbingers know the identity of these beings.
Formal: The Inner Circle
Common: Secret Masters, The Powers That Be, The Ascended Masters
Vulgar: The Producers, The Board, Oz, Puppet Masters, Little Green Men

The Gifts: These are the augmentations, arcane knowledge, alien technology or similar that is awarded to a Contractor who fulfill the terms of the Contract, furthering their ambition while never quite quenching it…
Formal: The Path to Ascension
Common: Gifts, Prizes, Powers
Vulgar: The Perfect Drug, The Bait, The Payoff

The Agents: These are other parties involved with Harbingers, usually their servants. While not Contractors, Agents are familiar with the makeup of the Contracts and may be enhanced themselves. They typically do much of the legwork setting up Contracts and arranging invitations.
Formal: Agent
Common: Solicitor, Servant, Bondsman
Vulgar: Lackeys, Minions, Mooks, Slaves, Ciphers

Novice: These are the lowest Tier of the Chosen, defined by an ambition or desire that they are quite willing to risk death (and worse) to achieve. While otherwise mundane, they have the potential to become the most dangerous creatures in existence.
Formal: Supplicant
Common: Beginners, Novice, Amateurs, Kohei
Vulgar: Fresh Fish, Doornails, Dead Meat, Junior

Seasoned: These individuals have survived a number of games under a variety of conditions. As such, they have begun to accumulate Gifts that truly separate them from common humans.
Formal: Aspirant
Common: Seasoned, Professional, Journeymen, Sempai
Vulgar: Part-Timers, Scabs, Chicken Shit, Dogs of War

Veteran: The rare few that reach this status are formidable indeed. The Veterans have no doubt won many games, faced death countless times, and beaten other Contractors on numerous occasions. They have begun to make a name for themselves in the larger world, and can now engage Contracts by themselves. Even Harbingers are wise to treat the Veterans with due respect.
Formal: Veterans
Common: Solos, Loners, Solitaires, Ronin
Vulgar: Bloody Bastards, Aces, Kamikaze

The following terms are not used in the Contracts, but do see common usage regardless:

Hybrids: A Contractor whose Gifts combine them with an inhuman element are typically referred to as Hybrids. Naturally, there are a wide variety of possible combinations, with some mentioned below.

Cyborgs: Combinations of man and machine.
Vulgar: Borgs, Arnolds, Tin Men, i(insert name here), Junkyard

Chimera: Human/Animal Hybrid
Vulgar: Moreaus, Furries, Sheep Fuckers, Lassie/Benjie

Mutants: Enhanced genetics
Vulgar: Muties, Generation X, Test Tube Babies, Frankenstein

Aliens: An individual that has been modified by non-terrestrial genetics/technology
Vulgar: Ripley, Starman, Illegals, Martians, Xenos

Sorcerers: These Contractors have gained some sort of arcane knowledge as Gifts. The exact method they summon these magics varies, but is always elaborate: A Sorcerer bound, gagged, or deprived of their tools is helpless.
Vulgar: Hufflepuff, Casters, (term)-Mancer, (term)-Mage, Finger Wagglers, Cultists, Copperfields

Psychics: These Specialists have gained powers of mind over matter, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, or telekinesis. When employed, these powers will cause eyerolls, ectoplasm, purple coronas, nosebleeds, or the sharp scent of ozone, sometimes several at once.
Vulgar: Shrinks, Swamis, Madame, Headcase, Mind Melters

Revenant: A very specific set of Gifts resulting in some kind of living death.
Vulgar: Edward/Bella, Zeds, Lugosi, Vryloka,

Possessed: Your Gifts stem from an outside entity that takes partial or total control of you when activated.
Vulgar: Spooks, Faust, Puppets, Geist

Faithful: This is actually a sub-set of Sorcerer, your Gifts descend from ardent faith and practice of your religion.
Vulgar: Holy Rollers, Witch Doctors, Shamans, Zealots, Inquisitors, Reverend

The following terms are general descriptors for a certain type of Contractor that we see often enough for slang terms to come up.

Militant: A former soldier or similar. Notable for the veritable arsenal they are always toting around and the “B & B” approach to Contracts (Bullets & Bombs).

Vulgar: Shooters, Mad Bombers, Gun Bunnies

Maniacs: We always get a few serial killers, mass murderers, and cannibals. Watch your back around suspected Maniacs
Vulgar: J-Kats, Ghouls, Whitechapels

Investigators: Typically highly skilled without much ability to defend themselves. Investigators are essential to the cerebral Contracts.
Vulgar: Squishy, Otaku, Tweeds

Dilettantes: Inevitably we get a few along that provoke a face palm and “what were they thinking” outcry to the Inner Circle. Dilettantes, by ignorance or intent, have no useful skills whatsoever.
Vulgar: Dead Weight, Cannon Fodder, Temp

The Agency is a Habinger-run contracting agency that its founding partner The Talent often describes as "Uber, for badasses." 

Powerful organizations and connected individuals can hire The Agency to solve particularly sticky problems. The client pays The Agency and has no clue how it handles payment to the Contractors. If they did, they’d probably be pretty jealous. 

Of course, this is all a pretense. The Agency’s primary goal is to test the Contractors, find out who is worthy, and forge those into unstoppable super-operatives. Contractors are likely to pick up on the fact that The Agency isn’t what it appears, but they won’t get much further than that. 

Most people avoid speaking to The Talent, and that suits him just fine.

He’s not repulsive. In fact, he’s quite put-together. His slacks are pressed, and his amber button-down, though its oversized collar is a little dated, is freshly cleaned and stain-free. Perhaps it’s the attention to detail that puts people off.  His braided belt matches his leather shoes, and the frames of his aviators match the gold of his watch.

Most of his conversations are with waiters, flight attendants, and hotel staff. When he speaks, it’s with the enthusiasm of a used car salesman. He’s not trustworthy. Better not to get involved. 

Of course, this is all by design. 

The Talent views humans the same way most people view rocks. Mostly, they are uninteresting, sometimes they are useful, and, occasionally, if you wander long and far enough and watch ever-so-carefully, you might just find a gold nugget. 

This is his gift: an eye for value. Not market prices or even sentimental value, but the sort of value that might only show itself in one particular place, in one particular moment. The value of a chance encounter that will change history forever. 

Contractors and potentials have value. Not for the tasks they might accomplish but for the finder’s fee he charges the Powers that Be. He runs The Agency, a small collection of Harbingers that do all the heavy lifting of actually finding tasks for the Contractors. The Talent is just a middle-man who finds individuals with promise and delivers them to the tests. 

He enjoys his work immensely. Long ago, on another world, in another dimension, he signed The Contract. He participated in the Contracts. The horrors he witnessed, the lines he crossed, and the powers he gained transformed him, distanced him. But that look on a new recruit’s face when they hear his offer makes him feel young again. 

Playing The Talent

The Talent is a great Harbinger to use for initial introductions for new Contractors or for quick introductions with extant Contractors. 

He behaves like a cross between a hollywood talent agent, a used car salesperson, and a  coked-out investor. If he lets someone see a glimpse of the smooth operator hiding underneath, it is on purpose. 

He describes himself as a partner at “The Agency.” They connect contract workers with clients who need a group that will always deliver results. “Think of us like Uber for badasses.”  Security? Sometimes. Thieves? On occasion. Assassins? Look, drop the labels, kid; we’re the ones that get shit done. He will never hint that the jobs are merely tests or that he is doing it for kickbacks from The Powers that Be. 

He often bounces back and forth between praising a potential recruit’s talents and negging them. 

Most potential Contractors won’t give him the time of day. When they walk away, he shows a glimpse of power. He might freeze time. The recruit might find that any door they open leads back to his office. He might accomplish whatever task the contractor used as an excuse with the snap of his fingers, or transport them to a remote mountain in Antarctica. 

One he has their attention, he makes the offer. He isn’t offering a full-time position or partnership at The Agency, just some contract work. He is very clear that the jobs will be risky, perhaps even deadly, and that the payment will be an awakening of their supernatural potential, an opportunity to become something more.

He will explain that in order to accept this job and to be considered for others in the future, the recruit must be “Imbued.” This will change how they learn, making a single job worth a year of intense study. It will protect their psyches from any traumatic experiences, to a degree. They can back out at any time, but once you’re out, you’re out. 

When the new Contractor accepts and shakes his hand, they experience a mind-bending expansion of consciousness, awareness, and one-ness with the universe. They are a drop rejoining the ocean of creation. This feeling, and any insights or knowledge that came with it, fade like the memories of a dream upon waking, and they are left knowing only that they experienced something truly remarkable. 

The Talent will also give the Contractor a burner phone (like a motorola brick) so they can be contacted quickly in the future. The phone has no reception and is useless except to receive calls from The Talent. You can add it as a Trophy to the Contractor’s sheet. It will help you run quick introductions for these Contractors in the future. 

With all this out of the way, he will proceed to give the brief and potentially deliver the Contractor to the location of their first Game. 

Prometheus Ventures is a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm that obtains, studies, and develops business applications for supernatural artifacts. It is a small organization headed by a small circle of independently-wealthy individuals, all of whom have since become exceedingly rich and powerful due to the firm’s success.

Think of them as venture capital for Bond Villains.

LOSE: Locate Obtain Study Enterprise

LOSE is Prometheus Venture’s business strategy and general modus-operandi.

They Locate supernatural artifacts and phenomena using software, investigative contracting agencies, connections, and other less-well-known means. Once they confirm the existence of a supernatural entity, they Obtain it using a team of mercenaries or capital-c Contractors. They often operate in legally-grey areas and never involve authorities.

The obtained supernatural object is Studied using a small in-house team of brilliant, well-paid scientists. Details of their scientific facility— including its location— are unknown, but it is extraordinarily successful at studying, replicating, and harnessing supernatural phenomena.

Once a market application of the supernatural artifact is found, it is time to Enterprise. They find and approach an existing 3rd-party company— usually a start-up— and offer a deal: they will share their supernatural technology for a controlling share of the company. No company has refused this offer to date, and all have found incredible market success, creating many multi-millionaires.

A handful of Prometheus Ventures partners now sit on the board of several of the fastest-growing and most-influential new companies. They have all become exceedingly wealthy, but their true goals are their own and go beyond obtaining cash.

Public Footprint

Despite their ubiquity, Prometheus Ventures is relatively unknown to the public. They have no public-facing webpage or ad presence. They are not prominently-listed in any company’s webpage.

The only overt mark that a company is Prometheus-funded is the presence of a particular flame in the company’s logo. Confirming their involvement would mean researching the company’s board and cross-referencing its members with other rising tech company board members.

CryptoLeak is a video streaming platform with a singular goal: to allow users to upload and share video content, no matter what. Videos uploaded to cryptoleak cannot be removed, doctored, or censored. 

Despite a near-universal condemnation by world leaders, most people greatly appreciate CryptoLeak. It's the go-to platform for posting illuminations, whistleblowing evidence, and data leaks. 

CryptoLeak is a mundane technlogical entity that cannot be controlled or destroyed. It has no backing business or organization. It utilizes a distributed architecture that allows it to host content across the entire world, sharding and mirroring its petabytes of data accross millions of personal devices. Content uploaded to CryptoLeak is immutable and cannot be doctored or redacted by any known means. 

For once, technology has put the power in the hands of the little guys. 

World governments and other powerful organizations can still censor or restrict access to CryptoLeak within their domains, and they sometimes utilize the platform for misinformation and psy-ops campaigns. However, for most people, CryptoLeak represents the freedom to speak and be heard. 

Of course, simply uploading a video does not gaurentee it will be seen or gain traction, nor does it protect you from any consequences that may come along with pulling back the veil. . . 

Few organizations are as deadly or terrifying to Contractors as The Band of Blood. Its members can be identified by their rings: a simple red band that cannot be removed by any known means.

The Band of Blood is a fraternity of Contractors who have lost sight of their original ambitions but still participate in the Games as a way to give their lives meaning. As free agents without an home to return to, they allow the Harbingers to transport them from dimension to dimension as needed. Many are adrenaline junkies of the worst sort, chasing the thrill of risking their own lives. Each member is a cold and ruthless killer that will do whatever it takes to achieve their current objective.

Taking the Blood Oath offers certain benefits but comes at a horrible price. When The Band of Blood spots a Contractor they may like to recruit, they go to work separating that Contractor from their world. This involves murdering the potential recruit's friends and family, undermining their ambition, and pushing a nihilistic philosophy onto them. Mental and emotional conditioning are not out of the question. Any recruits who still refuse are killed or abandoned.

Most people know Offr.com as the home of the gig economy: a website where you can find a buyer for your old couch, and a worker to haul it away. It’s the home of everything from marketplace goods and bespoke commissions to task fulfillment and transportation services.

Offr has now officially eclipsed both eBay and Facebook Marketplace as the most active person-to-person e-commerce website on earth. They attribute their success to an excellent interface and a few choice deals to secure key intellectual property rights early on in the company’s growth.

Controversies surrounding the company’s treatment of gig workers have done little to stall their meteoric growth. In certain online circles, people joke and whisper about less-than-legal deals being available on a “dark web” version of Offr.com. The company denies these claims.

One thing is for certain, Offr.com is here to stay!

Most think Offr is merely another gig-economy online marketplace, designed to skirt regulations and separate hardworking people from what little cash they have. That’s all true, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

Those with something truly extraordinary to offer—be it items or skills— are granted an exclusive “Offr Red” membership. Offr Red memberships are invite-only and cannot be purchased. Red members are paired with a personal Offr Red associate who can organize high-caliber trades of supernatural proportions. 

Qualified individuals usually hear about Offr Red from a suspiciously well-targeted ad. Red memberships are not known publicly. 

Offr Red Associates

All associates have red skin and a barbed tail. Some have horns, yellow eyes, and other odd features. They appear as normal humans to cameras and anyone who doesn’t have an Offr Red membership. Associates never reveal any details about what they are or where they’re from. 

In addition to their odd looks, all Associates can examine an item and learn the following three pieces of information:

• What the object is and roughly what it can be used for.
• How much the object is worth to an ideal buyer.
• Whether or not the item is stolen or otherwise aggressively pursued.

When called, they arrive within 24 hours. 

Associate archetypes include:

• The associate who used to work in the field, but has recently been retired to desk duty
• The associate is brand new, and you’re their first client!
• The associate who’s a bro-y sales person
• The associate who does their job begrudgingly.
• The associate who is altogether too scary.

Offr Red members have access to three services: Trades, Auctions, and Solutions.

We swear to secure our people against the wickedness and evil of the invisible world.

We swear to aid the afflicted.

We swear to stay ever vigilant and seek out the abominable witchcrafts committed in this country.

We humbly pray to be blessed by God to hold all those who consort with the Devil accountable. Amen

—Opening and closing prayer for Sons of Salem meetings.

The Sons of Salem is a loosely-organized conservative populist movement in the United States that preaches violent opposition to anything they perceive as witchcraft, demonic, or monstrous. 

Blowhard podcaster Ted Gundy and former general of the mercenary group “Hognose,” Roland Rush, founded the movement in 2010 after a series of violent werewolf attacks and unexplained, supernatural murders in Tennessee. Memberships grew quickly, stoked by Ted’s fiery doomsday rhetoric on his podcast "Truth Seekers" and the aspiration of the masculine power embodied by Roland.

Although they speak of duty, honor, and maintaining the “natural order” of things, the Sons of Salem are driven by fear. They collect guns and appear at protests en-masse as a way of easing the all-consuming terror of their powerlessness. At the same time, they have conditioned themselves to respond to fear with “strength” (read: violence). 

The Sons of Salem are not anti-supernatural.

While they oppose monsters, evil magics, and integrating humans and non-humans, they are perfectly fine with miracles, pious magic-users, and anything they believe demonstrates the power of the Judeo-Christian god. 

Members are wary of new technologies that utilize supernatural elements but may be convinced to live and let live or even adopt such “black tech.” Aliens are seen as distant neighbors, and they’d prefer them to stay that way, but they are not actively hostile towards them as they are towards occult-presenting supernatural phenomena.

Despite their pseudo-militaristic presentation, the Sons of Salem rarely performs organized operations. This is a movement driven by philosophy, community, and bravado, not a well-organized militia. The vast majority of members do not have any military training, nor is there a membership application process. 

The Sons of Salem make appearances at protests relating to their issues. Most of the time, they are non-violent, but many are looking for an excuse to “defend themselves” from an “attack” and so transform the protest into a powder keg that could blow at the slightest provocation. 

The vast majority of Sons of Salem violence occurs at the local level, where individuals and small groups self-organize against perceived threats. Depending on the event and who you ask, these confrontations range from successful defenses against genuine supernatural threats to witch hunts and straight-up lynchings. 

That said, Ted and Roland have organized a handful covert operations utilizing Hognose mercenaries. These secretive operations build and maintain Ted and Roland’s power and finances. 

One operation, captured on body-cam footage and circulated on CryptoLeak, shows a team of highly-trained Sons of Salem members raiding a burrow of vampire-like undead creatures, dispatching them with military precision. This was a publicity stunt. 

Most operations organized by the group’s leaders are more akin to traditional organized crime and include threatening politicians, large-scale robberies, and blackmail.

The Occult Wildlife Landing (OWL) is a nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of supernatural creatures to live a life unmolested by humanity’s relentless spread and greed. 

The proper, legal organization of OWL limits itself to conservation efforts such as:

• Enforcing the endangered animal status for rare, supernatural creatures and protecting them from poachers. 
• Reducing human-supernatural conflicts by designating wildlife preserves or so-called “lifestyle preserves.”
• Studying supernatural wildlife in a safe, non-intrusive manner. 
• Organizing protests.

While OWL has become the de-facto head of the conservationist movement in the United States, many claim it’s not as innocent as it appears. A number of small, seemingly-disconnected terrorist cells wear the OWL insignia with pride. These groups– which tend to contain a disproportionate number of supernatural creatures and beings– commit high-profile acts of public violence with the intent of furthering OWL’s core objectives. In the past, they’ve blown up oil pipelines, stopped development projects, and even infected congregations of people with mutagenic viruses. 

OWL denies any involvement with these so-called “OWL-inspired terrorist organizations” (or OITOs for short). However, many people conflate the two and consider OWL itself to be a terrorist organization. 

One thing is for certain: when OWL sends a blast to its followers urging protest, they’re taken seriously. 

The Menagerie is a sort of hybrid zoo/traveling circus organization dedicated to the collection and “preservation” of supernatural entities and objects. They primarily cater to the wealthy, though anyone can attend if they can scrounge together enough for the pricey tickets. The Menagerie has an annual circuit which they make around the United States, but are also available to be booked for private events (at a premium, of course). They maintain a large enough stock of creatures at their headquarters in San Bernardino to put on up to three shows at once in different locations.

Monsters and artifacts for The Menagerie are largely gathered by The Collector, a former high-end art thief who went (mostly) legit after realizing that many jurisdictions had not passed any laws governing the rights of non-humans. The Collector spent a number of years personally acquiring assets, until he reached a point where he could afford hiring Contractors to do the dirty work for him. He sells primarily to The Menagerie due to personal connections with a couple members of the Board of Directors, but will occasionally take outside jobs if the pay is right.

Officially, The Menagerie exists in the same legal space as any circus or zoo, and they spend a lot of time and money lobbying Congress and state legislatures to make sure their work remains on the up and up. Unofficially, however, they serve a more nefarious purpose. Not many have done the leg work necessary to notice the high frequency of rotating acts, and the inability to track what happens to a Menagerie asset once it is no longer being showcased, and even fewer have made the connection between The Menagerie’s private showings and the increasing prevalence of private supernatural collections among the ultra-wealthy. The Menagerie works overtime to make sure that anyone who has noticed these things is either highly motivated to keep quiet, or is simply unable to talk.

The exhibits are deadly, the food is greasy, and the owners would do anything to keep their business running. Do you possess the courage to enter The Menagerie?

On March 14, 2018, a little-known company named Gen-Wyld announced FDA approval for a groundbreaking procedure to enhance a patient’s primary and secondary sexual characteristics using gene therapy. The company was an overnight success.

Shortly thereafter, they introduced a suite of gene-altering body modification procedures that allowed patients to make dramatic aesthetic changes to their bodies by gene-splicing “non-human” anatomy. Those daring (and wealthy) enough can now add cuttlefish pigmentation to their skin, sport a pair of fox ears, and even add a functional tail. While rare, these so-called “modders” draw plenty of hate from conservative communities. 

Thanks to their revolutionary procedures, Gen-Wyld is now a household name. Norman Carlson, Gen-Wyld’s chief evangelist, recently announced the company is in the trial phase for a groundbreaking treatment for diabetes. 

Yet despite their success, a shroud of secrecy surrounds Gen-Wyld. Their no-patent policy obscures the secrets of their procedures from the public eye. Financial experts claim that Gen-Wyld is run less like a traditional business and more like an NGO with some specific, unknown objective. 

Some claim that they will not stop until humanity has been reduced to monstrous slaves and that Gen-Wyld’s board of directors will install themselves as inhuman overlords of the new world order. 

However, until the true secrets behind Gen-Wyld are discovered, the genetic biotech firm will continue to grow, develop, and progress its grand designs. 

Gen Wyld offers the following services to anyone daring and wealthy enough to schedule an appointment.

• Consumer-grade body modifications. Treatment takes place over 3 appointments, one week apart.
  • $200,000 for a tail.
  • $100,000 for skin pigmentation adjustments, fur, or scales.
  • $80,000 for altered ears, dental, or tongue.
  • $50,000 for horns, aesthetic claws, or other bio-accessories. 
  • $25,000 for altered eye shape, color, or size.
• Gene sequencing and ancestry analysis
  • $250 for the delux package.
  • Comes free with any body modification!
• Medical care for a couple of specific diseases
  • At the moment, they are only just starting to offer a treatment for diabetes, however, they can come out with new treatments as your Playgroup matures. 

All procedures that Gen-Wyld offer require the patient to sign a form permitting Gen-Wyld to sequence their DNA and use it for research. 

Leadership

Like the rest of Gen-Wyld, its leadership is shrouded in secrecy. CEO Vera Apuleius founded the company from her own real-estate fortune. She also acts as chairman of the board of directors and is the only known member. 

However, Vera almost never makes a public appearance. Instead, Norman Carlson, Gen-Wyld’s head of marketing and public relations, takes the public stage as the face of the company. 

Contracts

Gen-Wyld will hire The Agency to help them deal with certain high-priority situations. They always ensure Contractors sign a strict NDA and will insist on the utmost secrecy. Contracts for Gen-Wyld have objectives like:

• Find and capture a supernatural creature for research
• Prevent extremists from auditing their facilities or disrupting operations
• Stop an experiment that has gone horribly wrong
• Find and capture the researcher who has run off with their latest black-tech breakthrough

In 2022, a small quantity of a mysterious substance labeled Deltagen was obtained by an online influencer, EchoZone55. He claimed it was stolen from a Gen-Wyld research facility and held the secret to their incredible advancements. However, before EchoZone55 could sell the Deltagen to a research firm, he reached for his soda without looking, grabbed the Deltagen, and took a sip. Viewers watched in horror as a dramatic, uncontrolled mutation ripped through his body. In less than a minute, the man was reduced to a fleshy mass of random, inhuman limbs, eyeballs, and toothy maws.

Some rumors suggest that Deltagen is harvested from certain shape-shifting creatures, and that hoards of them must be imprisoned somewhere like some sort of twisted livestock. Others claim that Gen-Wyld has lucrative contracts with the US government to develop super-soldiers and Deltagen weapons. 

Deltagen is Gen-Wyld’s secret sauce, a mutagenic compound that powers their groundbreaking plastic surgery and augmentation services. 

Gen-Wyld keeps everything about Deltagen as secretive as possible. Its properties, how it’s obtained, and even evidence of its very existence is fiercely guarded. Raw Deltagen is kept under heavy guard in Gen-Wyld facilities. It is processed into stable purpose-made serums that are shipped to the company’s consumer offices to be used for plastic surgery procedures. 

Direct exposure to raw Deltagen causes uncontrolled, chaotic mutations. Extreme exposure can reduce the victim to a helpless pile of writhing flesh and body parts, or even result in death. 

Exposure to Deltagen

Any target exposed to raw Deltagen must roll Body, Difficulty 6 each Round they are exposed. An Outcome less than 4 results in a new Battle Scar as the target suffers an uncontrolled, chaotic, and disfiguring mutation. For the Scar’s system, use a Major Battle Scar for Outcomes 1-3, a severe Battle Scar for a failure, and an Extreme, full-body Battle Scar for a botch. 

Mutation examples:  sprouting additional arms and legs from unexpected places, a disfigured or creature-like face, hands turning into paws, arms becoming tentacles or useless wings, asymmetric muscular growth, sprouting spines, feathers, fur, extra eyes, changing legs into splayed out lizard legs, having their voice replaced by an animal sound, etc.

While it may seem like a blessing to some, any rational parent should be terrified to discover that their child possessed psychic or telekinetic powers. Given the uncertain and fearful culture that surrounds the supernatural (not to mention the immaturity and extraordinary power of the child), the most likely outcome is disaster. Luckily, the US Government has established Casa Verde. 

Casa Verde is a compound in the Northern California where children and young adults with psychic powers (and sometimes other supernatural traits) are rasied under the watch of the United States government. Tucked away in a secluded ocean-facing section of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, Casa Verde houses a dozen or so children and has an unknown number of staff. 

For obvious reasons, the compound is under heavy guard. However, primary caregivers may still communicate with and visit their children, and the residents are given opprotunities to socialize with society via covert and carefully-managed field trips. Visitors report pleasantly landscaped grounds and a large, green victorian-era home that acts as the main residential building. 

Unless the child in question has committed violent crimes, residency at Casa Verde is entirely at the will of the parents. 

Some conspiracy theorists speculate that the government is performing experiments on the children or that they are being groomed as covert CIA and FBI agents.

The modern American conception of a Vampire is largely based on folk tales from 16th century Eastern Europe, but similar archetypes have existed in numerous  cultures worldwide for millennia, such as the Chinese Jiangshi, or the Carribean Soucouyant.  Some belief systems consider vampires to be a type of demon, others consider them to be undead revenants, and it was the European tradition which evolved the vampire into it's own distinct sort of monster.

Whatever the lineage, vampires generally have the following characteristic in common: they drain "life essence" - usually blood - from their victims as a form of sustenance.

Vampires in contemporary pop culture are an amalgamation inspired by several real supernatural creatures along with some fantastical embellishments. Actual vampires are numerous in type, behavior, and capabilities.

Ghosts have been illuminated and confirmed several times. However, their nature and the manners in which they manifest are various and ephemeral. Often ghosts are observed only a single time on film and never appear again. However, several convincing videos of poltregeist behavior have been taken, along with apparitions witnessed by many people, voices heard by many people, and other “spooky phenomena.”

While many people claim to converse with ghosts (and there is validated evidence of a ghost communicating with a medium on at least one occasion), there are no “resident” ghosts that can be reliably encountered. The field of “medium” is filled with charlatans.

Although ghosts are generally accepted as “real,” their nature is fiercely debated. The vast majority of videos of ghosts are hoaxes, and they are met with extreme skepticism. Many realtors claim their properties are haunted as a way to drive sales of non-desirable houses.

What is a Zombie?

This is a subject open to a great deal of interpretation. While classical “zombi” were the product of sorcery, pop culture mostly identifies zombies as infectious, mindless, shambling monstrosities. There are countless variations, and you will encounter them several times in your Contracting career.

Viral Lycanthropy is a rare, supernatural disease that scholars believe inspired many of the European tales of werewolves that grew to prominence in the middle-ages. While other types of shapeshifters are confirmed to exist– including several others that resemble the werewolves of pop culture– the were-creature victims of Viral Lycanthropy are the most studied and understood.

Viral Lycanthropy is transmitted through direct contact (such as through broken skin or mucous membranes in the eyes, nose, or mouth) with the saliva, blood, or other bodily fluids of a transformed were-creature. 

Prepubescent children are immune to contracting viral lycanthropy. 

The Dormant Phase

When someone is infected with Viral Lycanthropy, a small, cyan-colored organ called a “lycanal gland” grows inside their abdomen next to the liver. Its growth takes 24 hours after which, the patient is in the “dormant phase.”

In the dormant phase, the patient is asymptomatic of the disease and is not contagious. The lycanal gland organ can be detected with a targeted ultrasound, but is not routinely checked for– except after suspected were-creature attacks. If the lycanal gland is removed while the disease is dormant, the patient is cured. 

Viral Lycanthropy often remains dormant and undetected for a patient’s entire life. However, if a substantial amount of foreign animal DNA enters the bloodstream (usually via a bite or exposure to an open wound), the disease will enter its active phase. 

The Active Phase

When a dormant patient’s bloodstream first encounters foreign animal DNA, it triggers a complete metamorphosis of the lycanal gland. The small organ doubles in size, integrates itself with the patient’s bloodstream, and begins producing mysterious hormones and serums that alter the patient’s genes at a fundamental level. 

These poor souls are permanently changed into were-creatures, doomed to live a life split between two forms: their human selves and an animal driven by instincts. Their new secondary species matches the foreign animal DNA that activated the disease. This means that a given were-creature could infect several people who all end up becoming different species of were-creature later in their lives. 

Once a patient enters the active phase, they cannot be cured. The lycanal gland becomes necessary for life, and removing it kills the patient. Active-phase patients also become contagious after their first transformation and spread the disease as normal.  

Soon after activation, patients develop mild symptoms like heightened senses, new instincts, and a change in sleeping schedule. Most do not realize they have become a were-creature until their first monthly transformation.

Monthly Transformations

The patient’s first transformation occurs about a month after activation and lasts about 18 hours. In the first hour, the patient breaks into a flop sweat, their heart races, and features of their animal form manifest. They may find their ears pointing, fur sprouting up their legs, or new vertebrae forming as their spine grows into a tail. 

About an hour after the transformation begins, it accelerates into a gut-twisting, bone-snapping climax. Over the next minute, the patient transforms fully into their new animal form and remains that way for at least 17 hours, usually quite agitated and acting mostly on instinct. 

When a patient first reverts back from their animal form, they may notice significant physical differences in their human body. All were-creatures’ human forms echo the species of their animal form. While they never retain any overtly inhuman attributes, their build, skin tone, height, hair, and other features may be permanently altered after their first monthly transformation.

Patients in the active phase suffer a transformation into their animal form about once per month, perhaps giving rise to the common myth that their transformations are bound by the cycles of the moon. The longer the disease remains active, the longer these transformations last. Patients who have been active were-creatures for three or more decades spend about half their time in their animal form. 

Liminal Form

In times of extreme stress, were-creatures may involuntarily transform into a so-called “liminal form,” a bipedal monster that blends their human and animal forms. It is believed to be a natural defensive adaptation of the virus to allow its host to fight off any would-be threat. 

Heightened emotions of terror or fury trigger the transformation, often to the great surprise of the patient. While in liminal form, a were-creature acts on impulse, resolving their emotional distress via flight or fight. Anxiety about transforming and losing control can exacerbate the situation, often leading to panic-motivated attacks on humans. 

Various patients exhibit a range of liminal form morphologies and accompanying supernatural capabilities. As the disease progresses, a werecreature’s liminal form becomes more powerful, and the patient’s control over their transformation improves. 

Disease Progression

Once an infection of viral lycanthropy is activated, the disease will continue to worsen for the rest of the patient’s life. 

The duration of monthly transformations increases, increasing an average of 12 hours for each year that the subject has been infected. Furthermore, the patient’s terrifying liminal form grows more dangerous and powerful, increasing the likelihood of deadly encounters with the general populace. 

Yet those patients suffering from more advanced cases of Viral Lycanthropy often learn to exhibit some control over their transformations. After about five years, most can voluntarily trigger transformations into their animal or liminal form. 

Viral Lycanthropy usually shortens the lifespan of its victims. Strain from the full-body transformations can kill older were-creatures. However, some scientists speculate that victims who are bound to long-lived species like tortoises and rockfish may live significantly longer than an average person. 

Contractors are special. Their imbuement from the harbingers dramatically accelerates the progression of the disease, often with unexpected effects. 

Most victims of viral lycanthropy just want to live a normal life, and that means hiding their disease. 

How to treat patients of viral lycanthropy is a controversial issue. Some hold that they are victims of an unfortunate disease that deserve care and compassion. Others believe they are cursed beasts that should be put out of their misery. Even the most humane positions on the issue involve forced institutionalization or quarantining patients away from the general public. 

Dangerous were-creatures that were captured alive are institutionalized with the criminally insane (due to the possibility of violent outbursts), and highly medicated. 

There is little to gain from going public as a were-creature. Those who have are often murdered, if they don’t disappear mysteriously. Some whisper about secret societies filled with were-creatures who plot against humanity, but most people dismiss such stories as rumors. 

Were-creatures are often new to town, as they tend to cut ties, move, and get a new identity whenever they are discovered.

In Slavic folklore, the firebird is a magical and prophetic glowing or burning bird from a faraway land which is both a blessing and a harbinger of doom to its captor. Various folktales from the region feature these birds as the object of a quest, as the origin of mystical feathers, or as an embodiment of obtainable beauty. 

Firebird is also the name given to a peculiar  and elusive animal that is believed to have inspired these myths. A few videos on CryptoLeak claim to show the animal, but firebirds as a whole are considered Debated, not Confirmed. No evidence of a breeding population has been found.

Yet much of the global elite do believe in the firebird, and many actively pursue them. The oligarchs and political leaders in eastern Europe share a particular interest in capturing a firebird. For some, it has become an obsession.