Jackson Park
“Used to be this place was all light and beauty—now it’s all shadows and echoes. Even the trees remember the fair. Especially the trees.”
Established: Originally landscaped in 1871, redesigned for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition
Access: Public (mostly)
Connected Factions: The University Circle (ritual sites), Veil researchers from the Arcane Division, South Side street crews using the wooded areas for exchanges
Description - Exterior
Sprawling and overgrown, Jackson Park clings to a tattered kind of grandeur. Ivy creeps over forgotten sculptures, paths vanish into thickets, and rusted lampposts groan in the lake wind. The lagoons mirror too much—some say they show memories, or futures. The Museum of Science and Industry looms nearby like a mausoleum for progress.Description - Interior
Deep in the Wooded Island, the air grows thick and still. Japanese bridges lead to nowhere. Stone relics from the 1893 Fair are half-swallowed by roots. The Garden of the Phoenix is technically maintained—but its koi are rumored to vanish, replaced by things with many more eyes. A tunnel near the old exposition site is sealed with concrete and blood. No one talks about it. Everyone knows about it.Public Face
To the public, Jackson Park is a grand old park with a famous history—lakeside views, fields, footbridges, and the legacy of the 1893 World’s Fair. Families picnic, kids fish, lovers stroll. It’s beautiful, in a faded sort of way. But it’s also avoided at night—by anyone who knows what’s good for them.What's Really Going On
Something was left behind after the White City burned. Not a ghost. Not a creature. A resonance—a wound in the Veil. The park has been a focal point of arcane bleed ever since, and every ritual performed there leaves something behind. University researchers use it for field studies. Cults come to “commune.” Crews dump bodies in the lagoons, hoping the water takes more than just the flesh. Veil saturation is heaviest near the Japanese gardens and the old exposition grounds. Animals avoid the area. Psychics claim the ground “breathes.”Notables
Dr. Solomon Kreel – Professor of folklore and arcane ecology, uses the park for Veil mapping research.Rosie "Laces" Marquez – Low-level fixer who arranges dropoffs in the park's hidden pockets.
Old Man Fortune – A muttering street prophet who lives near the lagoon and hasn't aged in 30 years.
CPD Watcher #1143 – Operates without backup, notes all arcane disturbances here—never speaks.
Rumors & Hooks:
- A shrine of white stone appears only on the solstice—and always in a different part of the park.
- Something beneath the water near the bridge can “grant” requests—but only once per person, and never kindly.
- A Veil rift opens during lunar eclipses. One group of kids entered in '49. One came back—older.
- There's a sealed tunnel under the Museum with '93 Fair relics—some still ticking.
- The Garden’s soil was imported from Japan… but the roots underneath aren’t native to this world.
- A jazz musician plays phantom tunes under the trees—only those marked by the Veil can hear him.
- A local crew uses a buried World’s Fair statue as a meeting point—it sometimes speaks when no one's looking.
- A CPD ritual went bad in ’52—ghosts from it now patrol one corner of the park in perfect circles.
- Someone’s building a new White City beneath the park. Quietly. Carefully. And it’s not human.
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