DFA: Franklin City

Factions

The Council of the Light

The Council of the Light are the premiere organization for Wizardry in the world. They would very much prefer to be the only one, and assert that they have authority over all Mortal Wizards, who must abide by their Laws. They are not above using strongarm methods when they can. They're also not stupid - they'll usually try a softer sell first, depending on who's involved.

Goal: They want to be the only group Mortal Wizards can turn to, and control every Mortal Wizard to their ideals. Which is odd, if anyone thinks about is, as controlling Mortal Wizards seems to have become their Ideal - whatever ideal they gathered around at their beginning seems to have been lost with time. And given how long Wizards can live, that's impressive.

Obstacle: The Council of Light is opposed most strongly by the Coven of Amiens, a very loose confederacy of Sorcerers, who believe that their power gives them the right to rule other Mortals, and who would just love to get enough Wizards under their umbrella to do just that. They're not immensely strong or numerous, and the CoL's Sentinels keep their numbers down.

Resources: The Council of Light is composed of hundreds, maybe thousands of Wizards with long lifespans and at least some ability to get hints about the future. To be frank, they make the top five billionaires of the world look like paupers - or would, if they could get all the money in the same place at the same time. Just about every enclave, though, can swing around millions at need.

Weaknesses: The Council of Light is arrogant and unimaginative as a whole. They believe that their way is the only way for all Mortal Wizards, but can't really grasp the idea that people might disagree - even though it seems to happen with distressing regularity. Also, as far as Franklin goes, they're barely established, with a very small enclave, holding no more than three full Wizards and five Apprentices.

Aspects: As a whole, the Council of Light is So Conservative they're still making up their minds about fire

Domestic Worker Sprites Union

This is the group of house faeries, brownies, kobolds, etc. that do cleaning and occasionally cooking and shoe repair while staying out of sight. It use to be that a bowl of milk or bits of bread left out for them was enough payment. But times they are a-changing and they have started to unionize and push for more protections. Since they traditionally work on non-verbal contracts and stay out of sight, this has made their movement struggle somewhat.

Goal: Gain respect and safety from the more powerful supernatural creatures and their employers.

Obstacle: They are viewed as weak or inconsequential spirits. At most capable of pulling silly pranks.

Resources: They are spread throughout the city and know about everyone’s dirty laundry (often literally). Also, withholding services can make the whole city suffer. And those pranks can be quite nasty.

Weaknesses: Their inherent shyness and aversion to confrontation or acknowledgement.

The Lost Court

Basically, a group of Fae and other beings that act as the clean-up organization for the city of Franklin, as well as information brokers, pawn shop owners, and sellers of found items in their roving "Lost Markets". They, as an organization, contract out to handle tasks ranging from mundane garbage collection, janitorial services, and sewage maintenance to the more magically involved clean-up of magically / biologically contaminated crime scenes.

Their Name: The Lost Court

Derogatory Nickname: Garbage Goblins

Goal: Secure Financial Status

Obstacle: Basic racism against their Fae leadership (think the house elves in Harry Potter) primarily due to the work that they do, as well as constant harassment from law enforcement treating their Lost Markets and pawn businesses as criminal (or at least criminal-adjacent) enterprises. Additionally, they may come into conflict with The Tangle.

Resources: All the trash that people throw away or lose. Enough workers that they are everywhere. A formal contract with the city and most of the major organizations to maintain the sanitation systems and clean up biologically/magically contaminated crime scenes.

Weakness: Though the high ranks of The Lost Court are dominated by goblinesque Fae, their membership is not uniform. Members of the TLC include all those discarded by the city, such as a variety of Fae, mortals, created beings, wereanimals suited to hunting and working in tunnels, and so on. As a microcosm of the city, they also have divided politics that are not always apparent to outsiders, who often only see the cap and coverall with the TLC logo.

Aspects:

Ignored Eyes and Ears

A House Divided Cannot Stand

The Knights of God’s Mercy

The Knights of God’s Mercy are descended from those that came to the Franklin area as missionaries, seeing themselves as bringing the light of Christianity to the ignorant heathens living in the area. The things they encountered in Franklin tested their faith and they formed a new religious order, to fight what they saw as devils, put lost souls to rest, and protect the Christian population from the forces of Satan. Their views have evolved some since those days, but not as much as one might hope. On the one hand, the Mercians are involved in doing many good works--the run soup kitchens, homeless shelters, drug rehab shelters, and the like, as well as providing counseling services to ghosts in order to help them find rest. They still view themselves as knights that fight hostile supernatural forces.

On the other hand, they are deeply conservative, with a traditionalist Christian worldview that views conversion as an important part of their mission. They also have strong ties to the business and political elite of Franklin. In other cities, such people might join the Rotary Club. In Franklin, they will join the Mercians.

Despite their narrow worldview, the Mercians are not hostile to all supernatural creatures. They have a number of theurgists among their own ranks. They view the Fae and similar spirits like the manitou as fallen angels--those who did not take sides in the War in Heaven when Satan rebelled and so were cast out of Heaven, but only to fall to Earth, not Hell. As such, they would prefer to convert them than to fight them.

Goal: To serve God, by helping others and preaching the Gospel.

Obstacle: Most inhabitants of Franklin increasingly see the Mercians as backwards. People might respect there charitable efforts and turn to them in times of need, but their conservative beliefs make them increasingly out of touch with an increasingly multicultural population. Other supernatural factions who don't share their beliefs are also likely to clash with them.

Resources: The Mercians are wealthy and well-connected, owning a good deal of property in Franklin and having close ties to the political and business elite of the city.

Weakness: Their narrow views can make it hard for them to work with others. There is also increasing internal dissent in the order as repeated moves to the right theologically and politically due to schisms in the larger Anglican/Episcopal denomination has left (mostly but not exclusively younger) members that want to promote a somewhat more liberal worldview.

Aspects:

Medieval Missionaries in the Modern World

A Power to be Reckoned with in the City

The Tangle

The Tangle is a vast colony of wererats that live in the warrens of the Undercity who either run or collect a cut of the various criminal enterprises found there. They are led by a female wererat who presents as a 12 year old girl in human form (though she is older than this) who goes by the title, The Rat King.

Goal: Expanding their influence into the City Above

Obstacle: They are actively opposed by various Criminal Interests and Law Enforcement on the streets above.

Resources: The Tangle breeds like . . . well . . . rats, so they have a near endless army of all but invisible urchins that can run the streets above as kids or as rats and can vanish back into the cracks in an instant.

Weaknesses: Wererats of the Tangle who have lived below for any appreciable amount of time have issues with bright light and typically act at a penalty in overly bright conditions.

Secondary Factions

These are other important/powerful groups, but aren’t the main ones driving the story.

The Faerie Courts

The City Government

Criminal Elements

The Coven of Amiens

Places in the Setting

Cheernog Park

A park in midtown that has never yet been overrun by construction or the sins of humanity. For those who know, this isn't surprising, as it holds the entrance to Tir'na nog'th. That fact is easy to see for those of a supernatural bent. Actually crossing into the land of youth, not so much.

Aspects

A Haven of Green Surrounded by Gray: Surrounded by skyscrapers and streets, the park really shouldn't still exist, but there it is.

Mortal Cares do not belong: While pure mortals can cross into the park, it is wild, and they will know that they don't belong.

Franklin Academy of the Fine Arts

A Safe Place of Learning: Heavily warded to keep the students protected from the outside, one also requires a bonded magical artifact to perform magic inside its environs. Rumor has it that the campus itself has gained a rudimentary awareness of what goes on within it.

Aspects

Labs Full of Experiments What Man Was Not Meant to Know Of: All sorts of issues in the Undercity are blamed on material illegally dumped (or escaped) from the FAFA Labs. Some of the accusations are even true.

A Connection to The Library of All the Books Ever Written: All the proper Academies of Fine Arts are connected by The Library, a meandering, poorly-organized mess of a building that doesn't technically exist in this plane. You can find a copy of everything here, though if you do not return the book before it is due, you will be enslaved to the Library for whatever length of time the Librarian feels fit. The general rule for the Franklin Academy of the Fine Arts is that Thou Shalt Not Remove a Book from the Library.

Common Ground

A building that was bought by social justice activists to serve as a community center. It has a bookstore on the first floor and various other spaces for meetings, making art, multi-media, etc. on the other floors. Unknown to most, it is also home to a thunderbird, a powerful manitou with a keen sense of justice. She is not above visiting her wrath on use of Common Ground themselves, if they fail to life up to her expectations for honorable, just behavior.

Aspects

Social Justice Center

Guarded by a Thunderbird

The Undercity

A vast connected labyrinth of current and closed subway and sewer tunnels and forgotten subbasements.

Aspects

As Below, Above: The Undercity shares many sympathetic points with the City Above. Those wise to such things can use them to amplify certain magical rituals.

Underground Communication Network: The Undercity is home to many inhabitants who lurk beneath the notice of common folk. They see things. They hear things. They tell things.

Bricktown

The Morgan Brick company built a factory at the edge of town in the 1800s and built up neighborhoods around the factory for workers and managers at the factory. The city grew around it and Morgan Brick and Masonry was sold to international conglomerate in 1950 and the factory closed down. After a period of decline, the neighborhood has had a massive resurgence. The working class brick duplexes close to downtown now fetch a premium and the brick works have been converted to event spaces, fancy restaurants, and an upscale shopping district along brick roads.

Aspects

Solid Construction: The buildings in this area were almost entirely build of Morgan bricks and are very solidly built.

Gentrified Upper-Class Hot Spot: The neighborhood is almost entirely yuppies and fancy businesses.

The Neverwhere

All those places outside of our reality that can be reached from various places around Franklin and the surrounding countryside. I am thinking that this does not work exactly like in Dresden Files, but that there are distinct Neverwhere’s for other places, rather than some massive plane that has all the other possible places all connected.

Important Neverwheres

The Courts of Nature- Where the Fae come from. Including:

The Seelie Court: Summer Fae

The Unseelie Court: Winter Fae

The Storm Court: Sometimes called the Spring Fae, this is a place of torrential storms, monsoons, and hurricanes.

There are numerous other minor courts and unaffiliated Fae places.

The Cardinal Places

Instead of being tied to the power of nature and its reflection in the metaphysical, the cardinal places are tied to the powers of creation and understanding.

The Lost: The place where lost things end up. Most members of the Lost Court came from here and Garbage Goblins are from here. When Magnum Opi fade from the world, they end up as specters that haunt this plane.

The Found: A place of knowledge and learning. Home to the Library of All Books Ever Written. Sages and Oracles are native to The Found, these creatures can be consulted for information, but often their answers are cryptic and acting on this information has unknown risks and they often have very specific rules for negotiating answers.

The Unfinished: A place of half-formed things. Notably includes the library of unfinished manuscripts, making it of interest for research. Also, loads of partially assembled machines, incomplete buildings, and creatures that aren’t all there.

The Dreaming: A place of imagination and creation. It is very dangerous, as the landscape can shift rapidly, it’s nearly impossible to find your way, and you are very likely to encounter the worst things you can imagine while wandering.

The Populace

Goblins

“Garbage Goblins", a type of shorter-than-human-average cousins to the Fae that are often seen behind the counter in pawn shops or walking through the "Lost Markets" or managing the clean-up in scenes of magical / biological contamination.

Manitou These are the spirits of the land who dwelt here before European settlers and the Fae came to the area. They have retreated somewhat and their power has decline, but they are still around. While they are spirits of the same order of power and being as the Fae, they are most definitely not Fae and will be offended if confused with them. Manitou vary in their personalities, but most can be quite generous to those who properly honor them, giving gifts, both mundane and supernatural, in return for being worshipped and honored.

On the other hand, if they are insulted or simply not properly respected, they may curse people with bad luck and a few more bad-tempered ones may take more extreme forms of vengeance. A few manitou are wholly hostile to humanity. Most manitou get along poorly with the Fae, seeing them as colonizers, though there are exceptions. Mostly, they inhabit the wilderness areas outside Franklin, but some can still be found in the parks and even alleyways of the city.

The Magnum Opi

These are creatures created of pure magical power made manifest by the creative effort of a master artist and then subsisting on magical 

Melodians: Songs that are given life through the creative energy of an artist poring their heart and soul into the music. Then they flourish on the emotional strength of those listening.

Gargoyles: These are creatures of stone and clay given life by the sculptor that shaped them and nourished by the belief or emotion that flow in the spaces around them.

Liturgists: These are the physical form of a written work. These have flourished and grown in strength since the printing press.

Sketches: These are paintings, drawings, and other visual media brought to life. These use to be the most fragile of the Magnum Opi, but modern reproduction technology that has allowed visual appreciation of their foundational work by thousands has allowed them to grow more prominent.

Werecreatures

Shape changers.

Notes

Play Desires

Do the unexpected thing.

Fae

erecreatures

Spirits and non-corporeal undead.

Roleplay is paramount

Navigating ethics, politics, and butting heads.

Action and Roleplay with at Optimism.