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My UK hero project redux


freakboy6117

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As I said I've been inspired by the recent thread on making magic seem different.

 

So I present part one of

 

It's just as Arthur C Clarke said "Any suitably advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" and some of the corollaries Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. (Gehm's corollary), "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!" and finally "Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it".

 

My favorite explanation of magic is " magic is the cheat codes for the world" Warren ellis's character Drummer in Planetary issue 7 (one of my favorite issues of an amazing series)

 

I've put a lot of thought into the concept of magic as mathmatics kind of a thought experiment to unify some of my favorite british paranormal/ urban fantasy novels.

 

A brief history of british magic

 

to understand magic one must first understand the universe

 

to begin imagine a cube it has 3 axes xyz or up and down, left and right, forward and backwards now imagine a line of those cubes stretching out to infinity those are the temporal dimensions the future and the past now imagine a row of lines stretching infinitely from left to right those are the alternate universes now go up and down those are the planes upwards they are of higher energy and downwards lower above us is the astral plane where spiritual energy is drawn from and downwards are the low energy realms where old gods demons and the fallen lay desperate for the energy they need.

 

now imagine that instead of a crisp clean shape those boxes are chaotic jumbled and of a variety of shapes and sizes they are also folded up through dimensions we can't perceive interleaved in such a way that its is impossible to know how close one realm is to you they can be both infinitely distant and right under your nose. and at the very base level of our reality Membrane and string theory suggest that all matter and energy in our universe is just the interactions of all this jumbled mess of universes.

 

one magical truism is As above so below a lot of ritual magic works through this from sympathetic magic like voodoo to scrying and even summonings

 

 

fundamentally magic is the ability to access the higher and lower Dimensional planes and use the energy acquired to do things on this plane the easiest energy to tap into is the Psycho spiritual energy(PSE) contained in the Astral plane it can be released through sacrifice sex rituals etc even music communal dancing and meditation can create this energy.

 

Demonology is perhaps the easiest form of magic you tap into one of the lower planes where the beings are very very hungry for power and you offer them some if they will work some action for you.of course you have to be very careful to contain and constrain these hungry things because they want more than table scraps they want the whole meal and they will eat you and everything around you if you make one miss step. Necromancy is also of this type where a corpse is resurrected by feeding Psycho spiritual energy into it this might come from animal sacrifice(chicken blood in voodoo for example) or other ritual to create energy. Vampires consume blood to attain the same effect.

 

Just as dangerous is approaching one of the beings from the higher planes (gods angel Djinn and fae are all greater or lesser examples of this sort of being)they will often assist magicians if it will thwart incursions from the lower realms or just for novelty value.

 

Avatars of the most powerful higher and lower beings will sometimes manifest on the earthly plane where their appearance and personality will be shaped by local conditions these avatars are extrusions of the much greater beings in the higher plane but they are incredibly powerful despite only being a tiny part of the whole. it can be envisioned as reaching a hand into a fish tank. the fish can only perceive a tiny part of the whole but it has the power to completely rearrange their world.

 

all magic benefits from being performed in places of power these are places where the barriers between world are "thin" either because the membranes are particularly close together or because a very large amount of PSE has been released in it

 

schools of magic through the ages.

 

the earliest magics where ritual in nature simple spells made of dances word and actions often boosted by sacrifice this would be the dominant form of magic at this time gods and demons walked the earth with ease very few barriers existed and the limited magics of the stone and bronze age tribes were mostly used to appease and defend against these creatures this would continue until shortly after the last ice-age

 

Lay lines and monoliths

 

no one is sure if this concept originated in the middle east in places like babylon Ur and egypt or if it was independently developed by many peoples around this time certainly greater trade and migration of ideas like farming at this time would lead cross contamination of magical theory others suggest that the fall of Atlantis and and a hypothetical Atlantean Diaspora might have something to do with it.

 

whatever it was this period would see the growth of temples shrines and monoliths mystical structures designed to shape and funnel the energies of the world to make magic easier and to protect the easy ways into our world from demons and monsters.

 

a complex network of barrows stone circles and other ritual ways would be constructed across europe. while other structures like the pyramids would be used for similar purposes around the world. At the core of all these structures was mathematics geometry and astrology making use of the as above so below tenets of magic the geometric shapes were simplified versions of the higher dimensional structures that impinged on the earth thus these structures would harvest the energy of the stars and planets as well as shaping and focusing the energies traveling through the laylines .

 

Layline are the routes between the weakest dimensional barriers like all energy PSE will flow through the path of least resistance creating a network of linked weak spots. the earliest ritual practitioners used these spots and the later builders constructed there places of power upon them and shaped in such a way both store and give them access to this power.

 

The next great shift in british magic would be the arrival of the romans the roman mystics relied exclusively on hermetic magic drawing power from their gods acquiring god forged weapons as gifts or even being born of those beings the invasion would lead to the decimation of the druidic school of magic and what remained would be hidden the romanisation of britain would lead to the domination of magical thought by the hermetic school for many centuries.

 

Christianity - Kabbalism and the waning power of magic.

 

The fall of rome should have lead to a resurgence of the so called pagan techniques of magic but it was not to be the conversion of rome to Christianity brought with it yet another form of Magic the ancient Hebrew King David was perhaps the most capable demonologist to ever live his techniques once again using geometry and complex mathematics to bind demons to his will to get them to perform great feats for the barest minimum of input energy would create a great and powerful kingdom and though the hebrew people had been greatly weakened by the time of jesus one thing remained the same their ability to ward against evil magics was still very strong certainly it was only the physical might of rome that conquered them none of their gods or magics could do it.

 

once christianity supplanted rome's traditional gods The rituals and practices borrowed from the Hebrew religion would strengthen the barriers between planes more and more and as the roman church spread those barriers would become all but impenetrable.

 

This period would be known as the Dark ages magic was all but extinguished from europe. only small groups of practitioners would survive and the church would hunt them lumping all magicians together with the very worst of the demonologists and necromancers. despite this persecution magic did continue certain weak points still existed though the ways through to places like fairee and Avalon( the Pocket dimension that is the home of king arthur and the round table).

 

Magic would continue to fade across Europe Russia and the middle east as the influence of the abrahamic religions spread with only pockets of witchcraft remaining hunter by the inquisition.

 

The high middle age renaissance

During the 12th century as Europe recovered population and re-established trade routes the first of several renaissance began.

 

Rediscovery and translation of classic works and the establishment of universities across Europe would lead to a an explosion of science but also of the rediscovery of lost magics alchemists diabolists and inventors. would explore the limits of human knowledge great minds would craft machines decades or centuries ahead of their time. Court magicians returned though often hiding behind the moniker of physician or artisan their magic disguised as medicine art or inventions.

 

The Italian renaissance

 

The next two hundred years would continue the trends of the first renaissance despite the black death and the hundred years war most of Europe thrived trade routes established during the crusades and the knowledge imparted from Hebrew and Muslim scholars would advance not only the mundane sciences but also the mystic while Britain remained a backwater at this time the Italian renaissance would influence all magicians who came later.

 

Henry the eighth and the reformation.

 

When king Henry broke from Rome and dissolved the monasteries he made a grave error his destruction of the holy sites and removal of relics and objects of veneration as well as the deaths of monks weakened the nation's defence against malign influences.

 

Henry himself would suffer from the influence tortured throughout his later years by an infected wound that would not heal and was only kept in check with gold. It was not until 1558 with the appointment of the first royal physician that a defence was created. Dr John Dee a gifted mathematician conjurer and astrologer would be instrumental creating a great working to protect the realm .

 

The 7th man

 

John Dee was an advisor to young queen Elizabeth a well known scholar who wrote significant works on both hermetic and cabalistic magics. He owned the largest library in England and his home at morthouse attracted scholars from across Europe.

 

he may with several of the greatest minds in Europe in particular Italian scholars like Gerolamo Cardano who had rediscovered and started to codify magic using mathematical theory.

 

Dee's first great working was the so called binding of 7 taking place on the night of the young queen's coronation a date selected by him for it's astrological significance. He assembled five true and noble men to act as a bulwark for the young queen the binding or rite of seven bound these five men in the form of a pentacle each as a human shield to die in defense of their queen protecting her from occult dangers. any attack against the queen would strike them first and Dee was the 7th man the one outside the circle who could act to prevent harm empowered as an investigator hunter and spy he would protect the occult health of the queen and the realm.

 

He used the cypher 007 in his communications with the council of five and would defend the realm for many years unfortunately his work was secret even from his monarch and in later years he found himself falling out of favour with the queen.

 

In an effort to prove his worth he embarked on increased study into the occult his early attempts were only mildly successful but he discovered a talented seer in Edward Kelley who allowed his studies to progress much faster. together they engaged in lengthy spiritual communion and would discover many secrets most significantly enochian the language of angels which opened a whole new style of magic which would become the dominant school of magic within britain.

 

of course whether these were angels from above or below remains in question certainly Dee was a devout man who only engaged in the occult because he believed it to be god's will although many have thought him deluded( certainly many later Enochian practitioners used blood sacrifice as part of their rights and may well have been speaking to the fallen) he and Kelley Are both well regarded by those who came later for their work in hermetic cabalistic enochian and alchemical arts as well as science and mathematics.

 

Magic in Britain would wax and wane witches and wizards would be hunted by witchfinders during both king James and cromwell's reign.

 

witch trials would spring up time and again. If anything Europe was even more dangerous at this time with both the Spanish inquisition and various protestant kings targeting occult practices.

 

 

Newtonian magic

the next great shift in the occult would be like so many other great discoveries of the time would come from the singular mind of isaac newton.

 

newton like dee was both a devout man and a believer in the occult as well as his many scientific treatises he would develop the first formal scientific style of magic the few modern day practitioners of Newtonian magic perform their magic just as newton did though their craft has developed much subtlety and expansion the ground work of newton's approach is still the core of their art.

 

Newtonian magic is cast by the use of schema these are intricate higher dimensional shapes that the practitioner must be able to visualise at will usually with a latin word as a focus doing so allows them to shape and focus remarkable energies for a great many purposes unfortunately newtonian practitioners require both superb minds to visualise the schema correctly and the sight the ability to perceive other planes without both of these abilities it is impossible to learn newtonian magic making them a small but potent part of the british occult establishment.

 

unfortunately Newton is considered by many to be England's last Great magician at this time the strength of the church was growing once more and the beginnings of the industrial revolution would begin to pull people from the land extinguishing the folk ways and banding the country in cold iron.

 

Newtonian magic though weakened by the times continued to be a key element of british magic and newtonian practitioners and their european colleagues from similar schools of thought would work as agents of many of the great powers across the next few centuries as the european colonial period took off and colonies came into violent contact with older forms of magic.

 

between them and the anti magical witch hunters many indigenous practices were stamped out or disrupted for generations.

 

eventually in 1829 Sir Robert Peel would establish a special department within the newly formed Metropolitan police force to deal with all matters occult first in the capitol and then the whole british empire. the Folly as the large mansion that would become the home of this branch of the police force would become a training ground for the very best of britains newtonian.

 

the great war

 

The first world war would be the first great blow to british magic since the enlightenment the strength of magic had been weakening mystical energies waning the gods spirits and elementals that embodied so much of the world slumbered barely visible to those with the sight. when the great war began the young practitioners of all the great traditions across europe saw the opportunity to finally do something with the little power they still possessed. a secret war took place alongside the real war occult duels and battles between young and reckless magicians weak compared to their forebears but still a match for the weapons of the day though small in number the magicians where a deadly threat and every nation threw what they could at their opponents practitioners hoping to get a decisive edge unfortunately it was not to be and the war would drag on for years. as the death toll rose and the Psycho spiritual energy began to flow into the battle fields not just from the dying but the wounded the mad and the prayers of the hopeful the barriers between planes began to weaken suddenly the young practitioners had a much bigger fight on their hands with angels and demons roamed the battlefields men whose family line had once contained werewolves found themselves changing on the full moon some foul creature from carpathian mountains came to feast on the blood of the living. soon the young magicians found themselves out of their depths with their powers increased but against foes they had no experience with they found themselves cooperating with their supposed enemies to defeat these new evils. eventually the survivors would return home after the war and the decimation of the spanish flu magic was free again ancient sites began to regain their power artifacts thought lost or fake were restored to their original glory.

 

The interwar years MAGI - THULE and the hidden war.

 

The first few years after Armistice of 1918 were spent shoring up the defences with many of the best and brightest young magicians lost in the war and the deaths of 50-100 million people from the war and the spanish flu had weakened the wards and bindings that defended the earth from things from other planes the next decade was spent reinforcing those spells and training a new generation of magicians.

 

as fascism began its rise across europe in the 30’s the british mystical establishment began to become more and more worried about the Thule society in germany its influence on the national socialist party and in particular the archeological digs they were organising. The digs were supposedly searching for artifacts from the so called Aryan civilisation but also anything that would ensure the reichs victory. realising the danger of some of the artifacts that might have been re-empowered.

 

the Folly and other establishment practitioners convinced the government to dispatch agents around the world to locate secure destroy or replace with replicas any artifact of power that might Aid the fascists cause.

 

from 1935 onwards agents of the Mystical Artifacts Group Intelligence provisionally attached to MI6 would travel the world attempting to prevent The Ahnenerbe Organisation Thule society and SS from acquiring significant magical objects of power. an american effort was also launched but on a much smaller scale relying on intelligence from the british group.

 

at this time The Russians were not involved due to an ideological hatred of magic they had decimated their native magical population and the commissars of countermagic politburo did not wish to act outside of the country's borders ( suspicions that they may have engaged in targeted assassination against finnish occultist in the prelude to the winter war have never been confirmed.).

 

While MAGI agents did manage to deprive the nazis of many major items they occult elements of the third Reich used these searches to hone their abilities and occult warfare would be one element of the coming war.

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As I said I've been inspired by the recent thread on making magic seem different.

 

So I present part one of

 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BRITISH MAGIC.

 

It's just as Arthur C Clarke said "Any suitably advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" and some of the corollaries Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. (Gehm's corollary), "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!" and finally "Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it".

 

My favorite explanation of magic is " magic is the cheat codes for the world" Warren ellis's character Drummer in Planetary issue 7 (one of my favorite issues of an amazing series)

 

I've put a lot of thought into the concept of magic as mathmatics kind of a thought experiment to unify some of my favorite british paranormal/ urban fantasy novels.

 

A brief history of british magic

 

to understand magic one must first understand the universe

 

to begin imagine a cube it has 3 axes xyz or up and down, left and right, forward and backwards now imagine a line of those cubes stretching out to infinity those are the temporal dimensions the future and the past now imagine a row of lines stretching infinitely from left to right those are the alternate universes now go up and down those are the planes upwards they are of higher energy and downwards lower above us is the astral plane where spiritual energy is drawn from and downwards are the low energy realms where old gods demons and the fallen lay desperate for the energy they need.

 

now imagine that instead of a crisp clean shape those boxes are chaotic jumbled and of a variety of shapes and sizes they are also folded up through dimensions we can't perceive interleaved in such a way that its is impossible to know how close one realm is to you they can be both infinitely distant and right under your nose. and at the very base level of our reality Membrane and string theory suggest that all matter and energy in our universe is just the interactions of all this jumbled mess of universes.

 

one magical truism is As above so below a lot of ritual magic works through this from sympathetic magic like voodoo to scrying and even summonings

 

 

fundamentally magic is the ability to access the higher and lower Dimensional planes and use the energy acquired to do things on this plane the easiest energy to tap into is the Psycho spiritual energy(PSE) contained in the Astral plane it can be released through sacrifice sex rituals etc even music communal dancing and meditation can create this energy.

 

Demonology is perhaps the easiest form of magic you tap into one of the lower planes where the beings are very very hungry for power and you offer them some if they will work some action for you.of course you have to be very careful to contain and constrain these hungry things because they want more than table scraps they want the whole meal and they will eat you and everything around you if you make one miss step. Necromancy is also of this type where a corpse is resurrected by feeding Psycho spiritual energy into it this might come from animal sacrifice(chicken blood in voodoo for example) or other ritual to create energy. Vampires consume blood to attain the same effect.

 

Just as dangerous is approaching one of the beings from the higher planes (gods angel Djinn and fae are all greater or lesser examples of this sort of being)they will often assist magicians if it will thwart incursions from the lower realms or just for novelty value.

 

Avatars of the most powerful higher and lower beings will sometimes manifest on the earthly plane where their appearance and personality will be shaped by local conditions these avatars are extrusions of the much greater beings in the higher plane but they are incredibly powerful despite only being a tiny part of the whole. it can be envisioned as reaching a hand into a fish tank. the fish can only perceive a tiny part of the whole but it has the power to completely rearrange their world.

 

all magic benefits from being performed in places of power these are places where the barriers between world are "thin" either because the membranes are particularly close together or because a very large amount of PSE has been released in it

 

schools of magic through the ages.

 

the earliest magics where ritual in nature simple spells made of dances word and actions often boosted by sacrifice this would be the dominant form of magic at this time gods and demons walked the earth with ease very few barriers existed and the limited magics of the stone and bronze age tribes were mostly used to appease and defend against these creatures this would continue until shortly after the last ice-age

 

Lay lines and monoliths

 

no one is sure if this concept originated in the middle east in places like babylon Ur and egypt or if it was independently developed by many peoples around this time certainly greater trade and migration of ideas like farming at this time would lead cross contamination of magical theory others suggest that the fall of Atlantis and and a hypothetical Atlantean Diaspora might have something to do with it.

 

whatever it was this period would see the growth of temples shrines and monoliths mystical structures designed to shape and funnel the energies of the world to make magic easier and to protect the easy ways into our world from demons and monsters.

 

a complex network of barrows stone circles and other ritual ways would be constructed across europe. while other structures like the pyramids would be used for similar purposes around the world. At the core of all these structures was mathematics geometry and astrology making use of the as above so below tenets of magic the geometric shapes were simplified versions of the higher dimensional structures that impinged on the earth thus these structures would harvest the energy of the stars and planets as well as shaping and focusing the energies traveling through the laylines .

 

Layline are the routes between the weakest dimensional barriers like all energy PSE will flow through the path of least resistance creating a network of linked weak spots. the earliest ritual practitioners used these spots and the later builders constructed there places of power upon them and shaped in such a way both store and give them access to this power.

 

The next great shift in british magic would be the arrival of the romans the roman mystics relied exclusively on hermetic magic drawing power from their gods acquiring god forged weapons as gifts or even being born of those beings the invasion would lead to the decimation of the druidic school of magic and what remained would be hidden the romanisation of britain would lead to the domination of magical thought by the hermetic school for many centuries.

 

Christianity - Kabbalism and the waning power of magic.

 

The fall of rome should have lead to a resurgence of the so called pagan techniques of magic but it was not to be the conversion of rome to Christianity brought with it yet another form of Magic the ancient Hebrew King David was perhaps the most capable demonologist to ever live his techniques once again using geometry and complex mathematics to bind demons to his will to get them to perform great feats for the barest minimum of input energy would create a great and powerful kingdom and though the hebrew people had been greatly weakened by the time of jesus one thing remained the same their ability to ward against evil magics was still very strong certainly it was only the physical might of rome that conquered them none of their gods or magics could do it.

 

once christianity supplanted rome's traditional gods The rituals and practices borrowed from the Hebrew religion would strengthen the barriers between planes more and more and as the roman church spread those barriers would become all but impenetrable.

 

This period would be known as the Dark ages magic was all but extinguished from europe. only small groups of practitioners would survive and the church would hunt them lumping all magicians together with the very worst of the demonologists and necromancers. despite this persecution magic did continue certain weak points still existed though the ways through to places like fairee and Avalon( the Pocket dimension that is the home of king arthur and the round table).

 

Magic would continue to fade across Europe Russia and the middle east as the influence of the abrahamic religions spread with only pockets of witchcraft remaining hunter by the inquisition.

 

The high middle age renaissance

During the 12th century as Europe recovered population and re-established trade routes the first of several renaissance began.

 

Rediscovery and translation of classic works and the establishment of universities across Europe would lead to a an explosion of science but also of the rediscovery of lost magics alchemists diabolists and inventors. would explore the limits of human knowledge great minds would craft machines decades or centuries ahead of their time. Court magicians returned though often hiding behind the moniker of physician or artisan their magic disguised as medicine art or inventions.

 

The Italian renaissance

 

The next two hundred years would continue the trends of the first renaissance despite the black death and the hundred years war most of Europe thrived trade routes established during the crusades and the knowledge imparted from Hebrew and Muslim scholars would advance not only the mundane sciences but also the mystic while Britain remained a backwater at this time the Italian renaissance would influence all magicians who came later.

 

Henry the eighth and the reformation.

 

When king Henry broke from Rome and dissolved the monasteries he made a grave error his destruction of the holy sites and removal of relics and objects of veneration as well as the deaths of monks weakened the nation's defence against malign influences.

 

Henry himself would suffer from the influence tortured throughout his later years by an infected wound that would not heal and was only kept in check with gold. It was not until 1558 with the appointment of the first royal physician that a defence was created. Dr John Dee a gifted mathematician conjurer and astrologer would be instrumental creating a great working to protect the realm .

 

The 7th man

 

John Dee was an advisor to young queen Elizabeth a well known scholar who wrote significant works on both hermetic and cabalistic magics. He owned the largest library in England and his home at morthouse attracted scholars from across Europe.

 

he may with several of the greatest minds in Europe in particular Italian scholars like Gerolamo Cardano who had rediscovered and started to codify magic using mathematical theory.

 

Dee's first great working was the so called binding of 7 taking place on the night of the young queen's coronation a date selected by him for it's astrological significance. He assembled five true and noble men to act as a bulwark for the young queen the binding or rite of seven bound these five men in the form of a pentacle each as a human shield to die in defense of their queen protecting her from occult dangers. any attack against the queen would strike them first and Dee was the 7th man the one outside the circle who could act to prevent harm empowered as an investigator hunter and spy he would protect the occult health of the queen and the realm.

 

He used the cypher 007 in his communications with the council of five and would defend the realm for many years unfortunately his work was secret even from his monarch and in later years he found himself falling out of favour with the queen.

 

In an effort to prove his worth he embarked on increased study into the occult his early attempts were only mildly successful but he discovered a talented seer in Edward Kelley who allowed his studies to progress much faster. together they engaged in lengthy spiritual communion and would discover many secrets most significantly enochian the language of angels which opened a whole new style of magic which would become the dominant school of magic within britain.

 

of course whether these were angels from above or below remains in question certainly Dee was a devout man who only engaged in the occult because he believed it to be god's will although many have thought him deluded( certainly many later Enochian practitioners used blood sacrifice as part of their rights and may well have been speaking to the fallen) he and Kelley Are both well regarded by those who came later for their work in hermetic cabalistic enochian and alchemical arts as well as science and mathematics.

 

Magic in Britain would wax and wane witches and wizards would be hunted by witchfinders during both king James and cromwell's reign.

 

witch trials would spring up time and again. If anything Europe was even more dangerous at this time with both the Spanish inquisition and various protestant kings targeting occult practices.

 

 

Newtonian magic

the next great shift in the occult would be like so many other great discoveries of the time would come from the singular mind of isaac newton.

 

newton like dee was both a devout man and a believer in the occult as well as his many scientific treatises he would develop the first formal scientific style of magic the few modern day practitioners of Newtonian magic perform their magic just as newton did though their craft has developed much subtlety and expansion the ground work of newton's approach is still the core of their art.

 

Newtonian magic is cast by the use of schema these are intricate higher dimensional shapes that the practitioner must be able to visualise at will usually with a latin word as a focus doing so allows them to shape and focus remarkable energies for a great many purposes unfortunately newtonian practitioners require both superb minds to visualise the schema correctly and the sight the ability to perceive other planes without both of these abilities it is impossible to learn newtonian magic making them a small but potent part of the british occult establishment.

 

unfortunately Newton is considered by many to be England's last Great magician at this time the strength of the church was growing once more and the beginnings of the industrial revolution would begin to pull people from the land extinguishing the folk ways and banding the country in cold iron.

 

Newtonian magic though weakened by the times continued to be a key element of british magic and newtonian practitioners and their european colleagues from similar schools of thought would work as agents of many of the great powers across the next few centuries as the european colonial period took off and colonies came into violent contact with older forms of magic.

 

between them and the anti magical witch hunters many indigenous practices were stamped out or disrupted for generations.

 

eventually in 1829 Sir Robert Peel would establish a special department within the newly formed Metropolitan police force to deal with all matters occult first in the capitol and then the whole british empire. the Folly as the large mansion that would become the home of this branch of the police force would become a training ground for the very best of britains newtonian.

 

the great war

 

The first world war would be the first great blow to british magic since the enlightenment the strength of magic had been weakening mystical energies waning the gods spirits and elementals that embodied so much of the world slumbered barely visible to those with the sight. when the great war began the young practitioners of all the great traditions across europe saw the opportunity to finally do something with the little power they still possessed. a secret war took place alongside the real war occult duels and battles between young and reckless magicians weak compared to their forebears but still a match for the weapons of the day though small in number the magicians where a deadly threat and every nation threw what they could at their opponents practitioners hoping to get a decisive edge unfortunately it was not to be and the war would drag on for years. as the death toll rose and the Psycho spiritual energy began to flow into the battle fields not just from the dying but the wounded the mad and the prayers of the hopeful the barriers between planes began to weaken suddenly the young practitioners had a much bigger fight on their hands with angels and demons roamed the battlefields men whose family line had once contained werewolves found themselves changing on the full moon some foul creature from carpathian mountains came to feast on the blood of the living. soon the young magicians found themselves out of their depths with their powers increased but against foes they had no experience with they found themselves cooperating with their supposed enemies to defeat these new evils. eventually the survivors would return home after the war and the decimation of the spanish flu magic was free again ancient sites began to regain their power artifacts thought lost or fake were restored to their original glory.

 

The interwar years MAGI - THULE and the hidden war.

 

The first few years after Armistice of 1918 were spent shoring up the defences with many of the best and brightest young magicians lost in the war and the deaths of 50-100 million people from the war and the spanish flu had weakened the wards and bindings that defended the earth from things from other planes the next decade was spent reinforcing those spells and training a new generation of magicians.

 

as fascism began its rise across europe in the 30’s the british mystical establishment began to become more and more worried about the Thule society in germany its influence on the national socialist party and in particular the archeological digs they were organising. The digs were supposedly searching for artifacts from the so called Aryan civilisation but also anything that would ensure the reichs victory. realising the danger of some of the artifacts that might have been re-empowered.

 

the Folly and other establishment practitioners convinced the government to dispatch agents around the world to locate secure destroy or replace with replicas any artifact of power that might Aid the fascists cause.

 

from 1935 onwards agents of the Mystical Artifacts Group Intelligence provisionally attached to MI6 would travel the world attempting to prevent The Ahnenerbe Organisation Thule society and SS from acquiring significant magical objects of power. an american effort was also launched but on a much smaller scale relying on intelligence from the british group.

 

at this time The Russians were not involved due to an ideological hatred of magic they had decimated their native magical population and the commissars of countermagic politburo did not wish to act outside of the country's borders ( suspicions that they may have engaged in targeted assassination against finnish occultist in the prelude to the winter war have never been confirmed.).

 

While MAGI agents did manage to deprive the nazis of many major items they occult elements of the third Reich used these searches to hone their abilities and occult warfare would be one element of the coming war.

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  • 7 months later...

OK so the way I've handled super heroes for the UK in the bits of my UK hero project.

 

Costumed crime is rare it does happen but it's much rarer than in the states most super-villains are too smart to do the smash and grab thing more than once or twice The UK is small so super villains tend not to last long unless they stay under the radar.

 

all super crime is considered a high priority crime is like murder or missing children there is a special police unit who deals with it SO-13 a three person investigative group DCI Gorgon  psychic detective [remote viewing psychic tracking and Psychometry] DS Bernice "Bunty" Sandown-Ascot[ posh girl gone copper able to manifest a phantom steed] Dr Mariah Blackwell [forensic wizard [literally] and shadow gate teleport].

 

There is also the mysterious victorian manse near new scotland yard that belongs to the last remnants of the mystical police force that maintains the old compacts charters and prerogatives between the Crown and the powers and principalities of the other lands

 

two five man special weapons teams and a super tech upgraded riot van. SO-13 for smallish  public incidents  single locations or victims for example small scale mysteries super natural kidnappings murders and burglaries especially they liaise with local super heroes.

 

for bigger incidents you have the UN-explained Incident Task-force  an originally ad-hoc [ but since more formalized] military group drawing from across the forces [recruiting from those who have encountered  extra-normal events] with a civilian scientific research team.

 

they are responsible for investigation and containment of any significant extra normal event that could be anything from alien invasion, unexploded Nazi Magi-tech weapons mystical portal opening to cattle mutilations. mostly unit operates in squad to platoon strength. most of are standard infantry deployed between two divisions Urban and Rural due to the different skill requirements urban wear black tactical gear while rural wear standard British forest camo.

 

SOP is to lock down the site evac and quarantine civilians then call in one of the investigative teams. if it gets too big for unit to handle basically anything above battalion to brigade equivalent strength so full fledged alien invasion, zombie apocalypse, unit soldiers all get a temporary rank increase  and go off to act as specialist officers for regular units.

 

Finally when it comes to stuff that is under the radar hidden cults secret laboratories alien sleeper cells there are the 3 sisters Three small intelligence clearinghouses operating under the auspices of the more well known MI5 and 6 and GCHQ,  MAGI the Magic Artifacts Group Intelligence, MI16/SCIops and Room 40  each of these small department have analysts and internal R&d teams supporting a very small investigative field operative team usually 1-3 agents for their specialties

 

MAGI has existed since before WW2 when it was trying to keep occult items out of the hands of the Nazis  for a while it was part of SOE now it deals with mystical threats lots of its switching out real artifacts for fakes watching international art auctions and the black market

 

Their current top agent is Septimus Blake 7th son of a seventh son and extremely resistant to magic. And Tea Leaf a semi rehabilitated cat burglar with the sight he specialised in stealing magic artifacts he ended up joining Magi after he swallowed a large ruby that turned out to be  a vessel containing the soul of the lost Magi agent  Jack Chancery and now has a ghostly conscience/partner in crime

 

MI 16 is the mad science version mostly they watch lab thefts international shipments but any mysterious disappearances of top scientist or other items.

 

Finally there is ROOM40 a section that grew out of station X at Bletchley Park during the war the code breakers discovered a very strange signal that none of the normal enigma techniques could break. The signal proved to be from an extraterrestrial source the team that worked on it moved to an old crypto facility that belong to the admiralty. Following a increasing number of extraterrestrial incursions the government established the three projects damocles the defense against extraterrestrial threats daedalus the retro engineering division and icarus the crash recovery team if.

 

Eventually the increasing extra threat boiled over into the huge invasion called the war of 5 empires after the war was won peace accords signed the most dangerous enemies vanquished etc. room 40 became the 3rd sister the rest of the projects were merged into UNIT. ROOM40 operates out of GCHQ in fact the unique shape of the GCHQ building is actually a very efficient subspace antenna that lets ROOM 40 monitor the globe for alien incursions.

 

Their top agents are call sign RED and BLUE formerly of the RAF RED is a nigh indestructible due to advanced alien nano tech. His colleague is just a normal man but a technical genius and general badass.  

 

Super heroes mostly operate under the auspices of local government for liability reasons. the city benefits from increased tourism [ which is why two of the more famous city heroes are blackpool's illuminator and Brightons Promenade] and pays for some equipment and pays a stipend. The national superpower register trains and certifies the hero .

 

The national team is the Shining Aegis was actually established by Queen Victoria when the more clandestine Agents of the Crown  where publicly displayed in a battle royal with mecha-men biological chimera and insane martial artists in the crystal palace causing the unfortunate fire.

 

There is still a covert team the Tower ravens for things that can’t be done in bright spandex because of the Seoul convention of military use of  EXtranormal abilities and UN resolutions on  extra legal sanctions.

 

Birmingham has a the brigade they are one of the few independent teams the first two versions were very much altruistic social activists started in the summer of love the second incarnation joined forces when super powered neo nazi football hooligans  attacked minority groups during  the euro96 football championships .

The latest version is much more interested in fame and fortune in fact they have a reality show

 

Newcastle upon tyne has a small team due to an incident at the LIFE center a genetics research facility/science museum causing an explosion in spontaneous super power manifestations.

 

Edinburgh has the Tattoo a archivist and book repairer at the scottish national archive  who became a living spell book when the original tome used her to escape a black magician from a DEMON off shoot.

 

Glasgow has THE KISS a formally mild mannered accountant who was tortured and murdered by a mob boss looking for the secret accounts of a competitor the shallow grave they dumped him in happened to be full of some sort of toxic waste. He’s  a small nondescript man until you hurt him then the fury comes and everything becomes a weapon and the blood paints the walls his regenerative abilities make him all but unstoppable. One of the few true vigilantes in the UK the glasgow police are not looking that hard and the boys at SO13 aren't that bothered

 

Villainy

 

Viper operates in the UK but due to wanting to avoid attention to their money laundering fronts they keep things on the down low they have several vacation/rehab facilities in stately homes as well as an extreme training location for special forces and arctic warfare specialists in the outer hebrides.

 

Argent is represented by the Worshipful Company of Silversmiths a supposedly ancient guild of rogue scientist based under the City of London over the years they have coopted the basil jet sewer system the jubilee line and most recently cross link to establish a network of subterranean labs.

 

The white chaplain is the biggest crime-lord in london he’s probably the most feared villain in the city taking cuts from gangs all over the city unfortunately the random combination of  super serums that gave him his powers make him liable to random bouts of insanity that result in crime waves involving religious themes. He has several lieutenants who are all named after areas of London. Including Michael Ton’ o Brix Stone a density mimic Edge wear a supernaturally skilled weapon master who hunts blade wielding supers. The Green witch a plant magician and herbalist based out of Kew and Maxwell ‘Silver Hammer’ Smith rogue UNIT armourer equipped with stolen Xenotech. There are also the criminal Park a large matriarchal criminal east end family normal human agents the various brothers include  Hyde, finsbury, Regent, Green and St James

 

Major incidents are rare compared to the US usually less than one a year most super villain activity is thwarted before it becomes public knowledge but every now and again the victorian giant robot gets turned on by a dredger and climbs tower bridge or a dimensional rift opens on the millennium bridge and a tour group of chinese tourists end up in avalon.

 

Surprisingly these big events a much more likely to happen in december for some reason no one knows why.

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The once and future king is certainly coming i think i'm working on the principle that Arthur is literally The future king. 

 

Camelot is England sometime after the great cataclysm that destroyed the infinite nexus.  far in the future a great king reunited the sundered land of what was once Britain. it is a chaotic apocalyptic world with people from through out time, magic, lost technology and monsters.

 

 

 refugees from this kingdoms fall escaped through broken gates and arrive in medieval England where their tales of the king are passed on mixed transformed and changed by the telling.

 

underwater troubles Lyonnesse is an abandoned northern outpost of Atlantis a scientific/magical research space somewhere under the English channel.

 

as to faerie the UK is one of the loci with the weakest dimensional barriers in the world for some reason up there with the Bermuda triangle devils triangle and the Himalayas 

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