Home of the Thirteenth
Story World

1 

Where the hell are we?

City Name: Thirteen Pines

State: California

Location: Northern California coast.

200 miles / 321kilometers north of San Francisco

Thirteen Pines is a true four seasons kinda city; crisp but sunny Springs with light rain, warm Summer days for playing in the park, chilly and beautiful Fall, and a cold and snowy Winter. The town sprawls from the coastline with a small but busy local shipping port through a decently populated urban center and a good sized University, surrounded on three sides by a sprawling rural woods which back up against the Sierras offering stunning views and even a modest local ski resort a short drive east. 

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Thirteen Pines doesn't have any local professional sports franchises, but the University teams have won their fair share of championships throughout the years. And the booster club is fierce. 

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2

Is there a Veil- or Masquerade- or what?

Not really.  I know, nebulous, right? Here's what we mean:

Supernaturals were outed in 2012 when a segment of the human population went a little nutty about the whole end of the world, sky is falling, the Maya Calendar says so stuff.  Some of the supernatural community- mostly the younger ones- also bought into the hysteria and decided what the hell, we're going to die, we might as well give in to our true natures and raise hell before the ride is over.

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...and then ride wasn't over.

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Supernaturals have the option to be out and known or to stay hidden.  Hunters are real, hatred for supernaturals is real, and the danger of finding yourself on the business end of pitchforks and torches is real.

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Show your true nature at your own risk.

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A similar warning should be shared with the humans and hunters, too. If you wander around blabbing about how much you know about supernaturals and how you know how to kill them and start sharing secrets, you may find yourself on the wrong side of a pair of claws. But you do you, boo.

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3

General Attitudes

With the 2012 revelations, the supernatural community was split: many tried to shove everyone back into the Super-Closet, including a harebrained attempt by some techno wizards to try some mass magical hypnosis via streaming services. That not only didn't work but ended up melting several undersea cables into one mega cable that could no longer separate out streaming services.  Older humans liked it- but the younger generations are still pissed.

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So really, the toothpaste was already out of the tube, and it was too late. Over the last decade, humans have been made aware of increasing types- and sheer number- of supernatural creatures that walk, fly, swim, float, teleport, crawl, and wiggle through the world.  Has every type of creature been outed? No. There's only one Dullahan, for example, and Declan isn't about to make himself known and have to put up with pumpkins being thrown at his house year round by kids screaming "ICHABOD!"

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The human population has spent the last ten years very split as well. Some welcome the supernatural with open arms and supernatural themed reality television show popularity is at an all time high.  At the same time, conspiracy theories run rampant with significant portions of the population believing world governments are nothing more than shadow puppets for ancient supernatural regimes. While that is very possibly true in some places, good luck proving it. 

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At the end of the day, there is no one prevailing sentiment on a global scale.  You will find patches of every opinion no matter where you go.  This is true for our  city here as well: you will find a little bit of every attitude. Just like real life racism.

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4

Supernaturals Throughout History

Proof is a real hard thing to come by when it pertains to supernatural creatures.  Legends, folklore, and scary tales rule in this arena. Some say the original bi-pedal mammals were shifters who forgot how to change back to their animal forms. Others believe supernatural creatures were nothing more than biological mutations (...no, not that kinda mutant) and part of natural evolution under specific circumstances.  The only thing that can be agreed upon is that supernaturals have been around as long as humans.

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Politicians, media stars, hell rumor has it the first chimps in space were actually shifters- they've been everywhere in and out of history books, covering their tracks as they go. 

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As we mentioned in OOC Code of Conduct, you cannot play Real Life historical figures, but we are fine with your history including references to them and to them being supernaturals.  We do ask that you check with us first purely so we don't accidentally let the same historical figure be more than one type of supernatural in multiple people's stories. Though a bar brawl over whether Abraham Lincoln was a Giraffe Shifter or a Highborn Elf would be pretty great to watch to be honest.

5

Laws and Regulations

Hunters are well funded, well armed, and in many parts of the world, law enforcement turns the other cheek when it comes to human-on-supernatural violence.  Most governments will not get involved with Super-on-Super violence, either.  There are many stories about violence against supernatural creatures but as we get further away from 2012, the race of the individual who is a victim in a particular news story is not the focal point except where it is a clear hate crime. Even then, depending on where you are, that might not even make a blip unless it inconveniences humans.

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Supernaturals have won small victories in some parts of the world. In general, more progressive states and cities may pass local laws or have local agreements that protect some supernaturals and we are very lenient in this space so you can craft your story as it fits your background.

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Our city has many open supernaturals and many who stay hidden.  At the start of our RP environment, there are no special protections for supernaturals.  If a hunter were to kill a supernatural, if they got caught, it would be no different than if they killed a human.  Probably. The same goes the other way- if a supernatural kills a human, human law still applies.

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Again- be out or don't, the risk is yours.

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6

Drugs and the Law

We are not going to police players in day to day RP.  Be reasonable in your play as to what may be legal or illegal.  The only clarifying question we're going to answer is around drugs as it tends to come up often in urban supernatural sims:

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1. Marijuana, LSD, Mushrooms, and Ecstasy are all legal to purchase from state owned dispensaries. They are legal to consume in public just like alcohol or cigarettes.  Public intoxication, driving under the influence, all apply to all substances. Tax dollars are funneled right back into the city. I hear there's a new park coming somewhere.

2. All other drugs are considered illegal unless prescribed by a medical professional.  If you are in doubt, ask.

3. Resale of legally purchased drugs is illegal.

4. Sale of home-grown drugs are illegal.

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Are we going to bust a college student for having a pot plant in their dorm room? No. Are we going to arrest the kids who are making their own Ecstasy in science lab? Yep.

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Just be reasonable.

7

Local Industry

The local shipping port imports and exports a great deal of goods. The largest export industry from Thirteen Pines is, unsurprisingly, a steady logging industry. Forestry services employ a great deal of local residents not only in logging but also tourism, ecological studies and protection, year-round fire prevention and hot teams, as well as campground staff.  Other local industries with large numbers of jobs include the docks, warehouse district, and of course the University. Seasonally, the ski resort is only about an hour drive up into the Sierras for a large winter influx of tourism and in the summer, the beach, lake, and woodland parks are all packed with vacationers.

8

Technology and Advancements

Generally speaking, the technology of our game matches that of the real world.  It is convenient and easy to keep track of this way.  That said, there is a great deal of technology that is very much on the brink of availability.  So in the spirit of fun, here are a few little nudges forward in the advancement category.

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1. Self-Driving Cars. They are now found in every major urban city. Thirteen Pines has a small new company that specializes in the University area only but would love to expand.  See our AI and Tech sections below- there are lots of opportunity for combinations and new inventions! Most people use the subway because screw those hills!

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2. Free Fiber and WiFi ... everywhere. Connectivity via cellphone, tablet, car, laptop, glasses, watch, microwave, fridge... everything is WiFi enabled these days and speeds have never been faster. Most homes are smart homes with alarms, lights, heating and cooling, and security all connected. This should be kept in mind when it comes to committing crimes! There are surveillance cameras pretty much on every street.

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3. Artificial Intelligence. AI has swept through the corporate world putting a lot of tech writers, designers, and marketing people out of work. There has been an equal amount of backlash against these corporations and many small companies have sprung up in their wake, leading to a lot of spread wealth and fast tracked technology in the arts as well as general applications. 

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4.  AI and Robots: No. Okay, a little bit. But don't go crazy. We have Alexa, Siri, Cortana was mysteriously turned into CoPilot (and the rumor mill is aghast at what happened to her), Bixby, and any number of other chat-bots and helpers exist today and continue in our story world.  These AI Assistants can now do things, and are priced for the average family, like be programmed into delivery bots and drones to bring you your groceries, answer the door, lock the house up for you when you go to bed... and sometimes get hacked to turn the heat up and shut off the carbon dioxide alarms in your house. Hey, with the good comes the bad- but that only happened once and was patched quickly. Its totally safe now.  The true irony is that all of the artists, writers, designers, and marketers who lost their jobs  to the first AI wave are the ones banding together to make these apps and drones and are Cleaning. Up. Revenge is tasty, m'kay?  If there's something you want a bot or drone to do and aren't sure? Ask Jeeves!

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5. Magic and Medical Advancements: Everything in health care has followed suit not only with technology and AI but also more readily available "new age" healers. Pacemakers and all manner of implants have advanced into computer chips that rarely fail. Glass eyes are even WiFi enabled and they think in a few years, they'll be able to actually "see".  Prosthesis aren't quite to cybernetic level yet, but the high end market is getting closer every day to actually be reliably controlled by thought and be able to be more mass produced.  There are still those that refuse magic and will not put their faith in it, but at the same time more and more have left the modern health care world for magic cures.  Two major changes came with the revelation that all that non-western medicine was real this whole time: First, and probably most important, the United States was finally driven to fall in line with the rest of the civilized world and now has National Health Care as billion dollar companies were forced to tend with the Milwaukee Medical Riots of 2018. Second, after the initial resurgence of snake oil sellers and rackets, true magical and faith healers are just as prevalent as western medicine. Some even say the waterfalls of Thirteen Pines are restorative because the Dryads that live in the trees around it are happy at the moment.  Just be careful of which mushrooms you eat and whose garden you trespass through to get there.