The Night Age

Ƴou can remember when the news first covered the sinkholes in Russia. It was a passing news story; something you read on Twitter or Facebook, back when they still existed. It was a strange geological oddity, but didn’t garner your interest as much as it should have. Looking back on it now, you wished you had paid more attention to that story. Maybe it would have prepared you for what was to come.   Ƴou remember the text alert that pinged on your cellphone when the news broke. More holes had opened around the world, and something was stirring deep inside them. You remember staring stupidly at the television as the first creature emerged from the crater. It clambered out of the darkness with an unearthly grace, and stared at the crowd gathered below with an disinterested glare. Before anyone had a chance to react, the strange figure raised its hands, and spoke in a language you had never heard before.   Ƴou remember the tremor that ran through you at the ethereal sound. You may not have realized it then, but the fabric of reality had been irrevocably altered - in that instant, the long-dormant magick exploded back into existence. You think of how the television turned off suddenly, how the lights flickered into darkness, and how utterly alone you suddenly felt.   Ɓut now you know. The world as humans knew it ended in that moment. Demons, angels, Fae, vampires, werewolves, monsters of all kind had awakened from their unwanted imprisonment in the earth. They had forced their way back, ripping open the carefully constructed barriers that had held them for so long. Humanity had no chance in the face of their rage - those in the immediate vicinity the Reemergence were killed without mercy.   Ħowever, the Underrealmers brought with them another weapon, one more devastating then their mastery of magick. Like plague rats, they had unintentionally brought with them an airborne, rapidly mutating virus that sent the remaining billions to their hasty, horrific death. Humanity’s fate had been sealed. Only those who were genetically able to resist the airborne strain managed to face this new world, only to find themselves faced with a life of even greater despair.   Ħuman-kind is now faced with extinction as those who survived the terrible disease were imprisoned, used as servants and slaves. Those who were lucky escaped into the Wilds that had sprung up from the return of the Fae, settling into small encampments scattered about the massive wilderness.   Мagick has returned. Fantasy is now reality. Humanity is on the brink of extinction. The Night Age has begun.