(This story is based loosely on the show “Once Upon a Time,” but it will veer off in many different directions from that series and should be considered it's own original world.)
Earth is very special indeed – woven throughout the planet is a powerful-yet-invisible energy known as Mana, which concentrates into dense lines known as Manastreams. These potent rivers of raw energy pierce the fabric of the physical world, though our version of Earth has been sealed off from them.
Many ages ago, a group of very powerful sorcerers discovered they could condense the Manastreams to create a pathway between alternate Earths, leading to a network of organizations spread across various worlds. Languages, cultures, and religions where shared back and forth, though Latin seemed to become the dominant language in many places. This eventually changed to English.
The different Earths were connected up until the early 1600s, until utter chaos spread across them at the hands of warring factions led by the Dragon Queen Maleficent, the Dark One Rumpelstiltskin, the child vampire Peter Pan, the Wolf King Fenrir, the Nordic King Odin, and the Olympian Emperor Zeus. These six factions carved a path of death and destruction across multiple worlds in their selfish battles, until the Wizards of Oz hatched a plan to end the chaos.
Merlin Ambrosius, the Grand Magister of Oz, formed an alliance with King Uther Pendragon of Albion, using the King's magical blade Excalibur as a conduit for absorbing vast pools of Mana. The final battle took place in what we now know as our Earth, ending with a massive spell that blocked off the Manastreams, making normal magic impossible and the combatants powerless. The anchor for this spell was Excalibur, and only one of Pendragon blood could wield it, making King Uther the only one capable of magic.
Uther used the enchanted blade to erase the war – and magic in general – from public memory, which continued on instead in the form of myths and fairy tales. He then wiped the memories of all combatants besides himself and Merlin, giving them new identities and releasing them into the world. Then the King and his mentor then returned to Avalon, the island home they had used as their headquarters in this world during the war. Uther cast a series of illusion spells to cloak the island, and then turned himself and Merlin to stone, to forever stand as silent guardians, only awakening if something disturbed the magical barriers protecting this Earth.
The combatants from the seven factions integrated into human society, unaware that they were passing on the dormant potential for magic to future generations. The great villain leaders grew old and died as humans, but should magic ever return to the world, their spirits would rise and inhabit new bodies.
Magic was gone for several centuries, but then outside forces managed to cause a tiny fluctuation in the Mana Barrier, awakening Uther and Merlin in the 1980s. They went on a journey around the world to reinforce the barrier, stopping to have some fun along the way before returning to Avalon and becoming stone once more. Little did they know that a young woman Uther had spent the night with ended up pregnant, giving birth to a boy named Arthur Drake.
For years growing up, Arthur had nightmares about demons and dragons, remnants of the past from the magic in his blood. He eventually learned to overcome them and the dreams stopped, but then one day, while on a cruise for his 30th birthday, the ship comes very close to the hidden location of Avalon, causing Excalibur to respond and the dreams to return. Then, Arthur inadvertently summons the magical blade to his cabin, wondering where the sword came from.
Back in his apartment in New York, Arthur's dreams are becoming increasingly vivid, and one night he awakens in terror, accidentally tearing part of the Mana Barrier, awakening Uther and Merlin and causing magic to return within a hundred-mile radius of the Breach in Arthur's apartment. This means that anyone who is descended from the old Mana-users – anyone with dormant magic in their blood – suddenly finds themselves able to channel Mana. And it just so happens than a powerful lawyer in New York – Robert Goldman – is the only living heir of Rumpelstiltskin. With the return of magic comes fragments of the Dark One's memories, leading Goldman to track down his ancestor's remains and reviving Rumpel within himself, joining the two personalities into one.
Your characters can be whoever you want, but then need to be in New York to discover their magical potential. I'm open to ideas and suggestions
. I will be playing Arthur as my main character, and Merlin and Uther has sort of NPCs. Merlin will act as a mentor to the group, teaching them to control their new powers.
Earth is very special indeed – woven throughout the planet is a powerful-yet-invisible energy known as Mana, which concentrates into dense lines known as Manastreams. These potent rivers of raw energy pierce the fabric of the physical world, though our version of Earth has been sealed off from them.
Many ages ago, a group of very powerful sorcerers discovered they could condense the Manastreams to create a pathway between alternate Earths, leading to a network of organizations spread across various worlds. Languages, cultures, and religions where shared back and forth, though Latin seemed to become the dominant language in many places. This eventually changed to English.
The different Earths were connected up until the early 1600s, until utter chaos spread across them at the hands of warring factions led by the Dragon Queen Maleficent, the Dark One Rumpelstiltskin, the child vampire Peter Pan, the Wolf King Fenrir, the Nordic King Odin, and the Olympian Emperor Zeus. These six factions carved a path of death and destruction across multiple worlds in their selfish battles, until the Wizards of Oz hatched a plan to end the chaos.
Merlin Ambrosius, the Grand Magister of Oz, formed an alliance with King Uther Pendragon of Albion, using the King's magical blade Excalibur as a conduit for absorbing vast pools of Mana. The final battle took place in what we now know as our Earth, ending with a massive spell that blocked off the Manastreams, making normal magic impossible and the combatants powerless. The anchor for this spell was Excalibur, and only one of Pendragon blood could wield it, making King Uther the only one capable of magic.
Uther used the enchanted blade to erase the war – and magic in general – from public memory, which continued on instead in the form of myths and fairy tales. He then wiped the memories of all combatants besides himself and Merlin, giving them new identities and releasing them into the world. Then the King and his mentor then returned to Avalon, the island home they had used as their headquarters in this world during the war. Uther cast a series of illusion spells to cloak the island, and then turned himself and Merlin to stone, to forever stand as silent guardians, only awakening if something disturbed the magical barriers protecting this Earth.
The combatants from the seven factions integrated into human society, unaware that they were passing on the dormant potential for magic to future generations. The great villain leaders grew old and died as humans, but should magic ever return to the world, their spirits would rise and inhabit new bodies.
Magic was gone for several centuries, but then outside forces managed to cause a tiny fluctuation in the Mana Barrier, awakening Uther and Merlin in the 1980s. They went on a journey around the world to reinforce the barrier, stopping to have some fun along the way before returning to Avalon and becoming stone once more. Little did they know that a young woman Uther had spent the night with ended up pregnant, giving birth to a boy named Arthur Drake.
For years growing up, Arthur had nightmares about demons and dragons, remnants of the past from the magic in his blood. He eventually learned to overcome them and the dreams stopped, but then one day, while on a cruise for his 30th birthday, the ship comes very close to the hidden location of Avalon, causing Excalibur to respond and the dreams to return. Then, Arthur inadvertently summons the magical blade to his cabin, wondering where the sword came from.
Back in his apartment in New York, Arthur's dreams are becoming increasingly vivid, and one night he awakens in terror, accidentally tearing part of the Mana Barrier, awakening Uther and Merlin and causing magic to return within a hundred-mile radius of the Breach in Arthur's apartment. This means that anyone who is descended from the old Mana-users – anyone with dormant magic in their blood – suddenly finds themselves able to channel Mana. And it just so happens than a powerful lawyer in New York – Robert Goldman – is the only living heir of Rumpelstiltskin. With the return of magic comes fragments of the Dark One's memories, leading Goldman to track down his ancestor's remains and reviving Rumpel within himself, joining the two personalities into one.
Your characters can be whoever you want, but then need to be in New York to discover their magical potential. I'm open to ideas and suggestions
. I will be playing Arthur as my main character, and Merlin and Uther has sort of NPCs. Merlin will act as a mentor to the group, teaching them to control their new powers.
