Coming in July from RPGObjects - Wizards and Wiseguys
By Mike Lafferty
Art by Rick Hershey of Empty Room Studios
Originally published in World Forge Magazine
In this alternate history setting for D20 Modern, magic is introduced into the early 20th century and dramatically changes the flow of events for the rest of the century.
Magic Awakens
"Underneath the reality in which we live and have our being, another altogether different reality lies concealed. "
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
On June 30, 1908, near Tunguska, Siberia a mysterious explosion flattened hundreds of square miles of forest. Eyewitnesses alternately described a ball of flame falling from the sky or the sky opening up and pouring out fire. An orange glow in the sky was visible for days as far away as Western Europe. Although the cause is still unknown, the consequence was clear. Magic was reawakened. Traditional native cultures and occultists were the first to notice, but it soon became common knowledge.
The genie was out of the bottle – and nothing would be the same again…
As Western empires struggle to catch up, colonies revolt around the globe – using their new found edge to even the odds against superior technology and organization.
As magic energizes the world, forgotten and long dormant portals to Faerie open, allowing trade and contact once more between our world and theirs…..but do some of the Fey harbor darker motives?
The Great War ravages Europe with the military applications of magic birthing wonders and dark horrors onto the battlefield.
Although sorcery had been a boon to business and industry, many view it with suspicion and fear. Labor unions see it as a threat to their livelihood - as cantrips or other simple enchantments can easily replace droves of production line workers. (There’s a persistent urban legend that Henry Ford employed golems at secret factories in the backwoods of Michigan. This rumor is discounted by those who know him well. Ford hated all things Jewish far too much to ever use kabbalistic sorcery in his operation. Zombies on the other hand…) Many churches denounce the practice of magic as heretical and demonic.
In the 1930s, a backlash from organized labor and religious groups leads to a prohibition of magic in the United States.
But when sorcery is outlawed, only outlaws will be sorcerers - and magic enters the shadowy underground of bootleggers and speakeasies.
Excerpts from two sections follow. The first describes the immediate effects of the magical reawakening between 1908-1912. The other focuses on the Roaring 20s and the role of sorcery during Prohibiton in the US.
Early Days of Magic 1908-1912
Non-western cultures are generally more accepting of the reawakening and in some cases simply have better geographic access to permanent gates to Faerie – which accelerates their magical development. Sorcery-fueled revolutions spring up in India, China, Mexico and the American Southwest as magic evens the playing field against modern weapons and armaments.
· Rebellious Native Americans in the Southwest quickly rout US forces and found the Native Confederation, which comprises most of Arizona.
· Australia erupts into full-blown civil war as Aboriginals rise up and reclaim the interior of the nation.
· The city of New Orleans erupts in full revolt. When the smoke clears, it declares itself the Free City-State of New Orleans. A council of voodoo practitioners headed by a woman claiming to be the resurrected Marie Laveau rules the city.
· Led by Catholic Priests wielding divine magic, the Irish Revolution begins in 1910. England's forces are stretched thin by magical revolutions in its many distant colonies and Ireland obtains full independence in 1914.
Revolutions against colonial rule continue to spark up throughout this period with many Asian, South American and African nations gaining their freedom.
====================
The Roaring 20s and Prohibition
"Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth."
~Will Rogers
In 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed, deporting all denizens of Faerie out of the country and prohibiting the practice of magic for any reason other than law enforcement or national defense. Spell books and magic items were burned in the streets and all known portals to Faerie were sealed.
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI and a wizard in his own right, wrangled a bill through Congress that made the FBI the only law enforcement agency allowed to use magic. This law included a provision to increase the Bureau's manpower to takeover the duties of the local Magic Crime units across the country. Unfortunately, the Washington bureaucrats who drafted the legislation drastically underestimated the number of agents that would be needed and many areas are left with no law officers qualified to deal with magical crime.
The result was that the early 1920s witnessed a wave of sorcery-related crime unseen in the US since the awakening of magic.
· In Detroit, a ruthless confederation of Jewish immigrant gangs called the Purple Gang uses a squad of golems to crush rival mobs and gain control of bootlegging operations in central Michigan.
· Customs officials attempting to interdict a shipment of Canadian whiskey destined for Chicago are ripped to shreds by a pack of wyverns.
· Bugsy Moran's mob uses a fireball spell in an attempted hit on Al Capone. The hit misses Capone but leaves his headquarters at the Lexington Hotel a flaming ruin. The resulting inferno is dubbed "The Second Chicago Fire" and claims 20 blocks and over a hundred lives before it is contained.
By Mike Lafferty
Art by Rick Hershey of Empty Room Studios
Originally published in World Forge Magazine
In this alternate history setting for D20 Modern, magic is introduced into the early 20th century and dramatically changes the flow of events for the rest of the century.
Magic Awakens
"Underneath the reality in which we live and have our being, another altogether different reality lies concealed. "
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
On June 30, 1908, near Tunguska, Siberia a mysterious explosion flattened hundreds of square miles of forest. Eyewitnesses alternately described a ball of flame falling from the sky or the sky opening up and pouring out fire. An orange glow in the sky was visible for days as far away as Western Europe. Although the cause is still unknown, the consequence was clear. Magic was reawakened. Traditional native cultures and occultists were the first to notice, but it soon became common knowledge.
The genie was out of the bottle – and nothing would be the same again…
As Western empires struggle to catch up, colonies revolt around the globe – using their new found edge to even the odds against superior technology and organization.
As magic energizes the world, forgotten and long dormant portals to Faerie open, allowing trade and contact once more between our world and theirs…..but do some of the Fey harbor darker motives?
The Great War ravages Europe with the military applications of magic birthing wonders and dark horrors onto the battlefield.
Although sorcery had been a boon to business and industry, many view it with suspicion and fear. Labor unions see it as a threat to their livelihood - as cantrips or other simple enchantments can easily replace droves of production line workers. (There’s a persistent urban legend that Henry Ford employed golems at secret factories in the backwoods of Michigan. This rumor is discounted by those who know him well. Ford hated all things Jewish far too much to ever use kabbalistic sorcery in his operation. Zombies on the other hand…) Many churches denounce the practice of magic as heretical and demonic.
In the 1930s, a backlash from organized labor and religious groups leads to a prohibition of magic in the United States.
But when sorcery is outlawed, only outlaws will be sorcerers - and magic enters the shadowy underground of bootleggers and speakeasies.
Excerpts from two sections follow. The first describes the immediate effects of the magical reawakening between 1908-1912. The other focuses on the Roaring 20s and the role of sorcery during Prohibiton in the US.
Early Days of Magic 1908-1912
Non-western cultures are generally more accepting of the reawakening and in some cases simply have better geographic access to permanent gates to Faerie – which accelerates their magical development. Sorcery-fueled revolutions spring up in India, China, Mexico and the American Southwest as magic evens the playing field against modern weapons and armaments.
· Rebellious Native Americans in the Southwest quickly rout US forces and found the Native Confederation, which comprises most of Arizona.
· Australia erupts into full-blown civil war as Aboriginals rise up and reclaim the interior of the nation.
· The city of New Orleans erupts in full revolt. When the smoke clears, it declares itself the Free City-State of New Orleans. A council of voodoo practitioners headed by a woman claiming to be the resurrected Marie Laveau rules the city.
· Led by Catholic Priests wielding divine magic, the Irish Revolution begins in 1910. England's forces are stretched thin by magical revolutions in its many distant colonies and Ireland obtains full independence in 1914.
Revolutions against colonial rule continue to spark up throughout this period with many Asian, South American and African nations gaining their freedom.
====================
The Roaring 20s and Prohibition
"Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth."
~Will Rogers
In 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed, deporting all denizens of Faerie out of the country and prohibiting the practice of magic for any reason other than law enforcement or national defense. Spell books and magic items were burned in the streets and all known portals to Faerie were sealed.
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI and a wizard in his own right, wrangled a bill through Congress that made the FBI the only law enforcement agency allowed to use magic. This law included a provision to increase the Bureau's manpower to takeover the duties of the local Magic Crime units across the country. Unfortunately, the Washington bureaucrats who drafted the legislation drastically underestimated the number of agents that would be needed and many areas are left with no law officers qualified to deal with magical crime.
The result was that the early 1920s witnessed a wave of sorcery-related crime unseen in the US since the awakening of magic.
· In Detroit, a ruthless confederation of Jewish immigrant gangs called the Purple Gang uses a squad of golems to crush rival mobs and gain control of bootlegging operations in central Michigan.
· Customs officials attempting to interdict a shipment of Canadian whiskey destined for Chicago are ripped to shreds by a pack of wyverns.
· Bugsy Moran's mob uses a fireball spell in an attempted hit on Al Capone. The hit misses Capone but leaves his headquarters at the Lexington Hotel a flaming ruin. The resulting inferno is dubbed "The Second Chicago Fire" and claims 20 blocks and over a hundred lives before it is contained.
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