MAGIC. MYTHOS. WORLDBUILDING
The Otherwise are all of the supernatural/mythological/folklore/fairytale beings who exist side-by-side with us, as do their worlds/dimensions, which are like mirror worlds of our own. The closer the world, the more it resembles ours, and the further away, the more it does not.
Think of it like layers of an onion, with the ‘core’ being ONE WORLD (what we call 'heaven' or 'nirvana' -- but you didn't hear it from me), and moving out from there. every layer is another world. Some worlds are easy to get to through gates/portals/etc, and some are almost impossible to reach. The nearer to our own, the easier, usually. Of course you’d need to have the skill to get there, or know how to use a portal. And for that you have to know where they are. and only a relative handful of beings do.
There are a good few portals in Ireland (and some in other places around the world) but they are very few and far between and they are always guarded, either by magic or by guards or both.
Portals are world-specific. You can take a portal to Fairy/Arcadia but that same portal won’t get you to Hell. Sometimes the best way to get to a farther-away world is to go through another one that’s a bit closer. Sometimes that is the only way into another world.
Time moves differently in the different worlds as well. So journeying between is hazardous to say the least. Every world has its own rules, which travelers really should learn before they go. So that they don’t break them. Also so they don’t get lost. Or stuck. Or ‘un-alived’. None of these supernatural beings or worlds are ‘known’ or ‘out’ to the general human/mortal world. Although, as always, there are stories and myths. And there are a couple of secret human societies that know.
the list of species are as follows:
vampires
VAMPIRES are human/demon hybrids created by a demonic virus which was itself created by a curse a very, very long time ago.
Vampires must be made by another vampire and their creation is incredibly painful and doesn’t always work. They don’t all know of their origins, but there are a lot of theories.
Vampires live in our world, although there aren’t very many of them left. Vampires feed on human blood and only human blood. They cannot survive on the blood of animals or anything else (although rumour has it they could drink human-hybrid beings or angelic beings).
Vampires are immortal. They can be killed, but only by sunlight or beheading. They are super fast, super strong and super flexible, with a skeletal structure akin to a cat’s (flexible spines/connective tissue, etc), so they can fit into extremely small spaces, and absorb falls/blows etc. They also heal from most wounds very quickly.
Vampires have none of their supernatural anything by day, and they cannot heal when it’s daylight. Vampires are usually loners, and do not like hanging out together—in fact it’s pretty unsustainable to have more than a couple vampires in any one city at a given time, considering their food source —although there are a few sanctuaries around the world wherein they might, on occasion, gather.
COntrary to popular belief, vampires don't control everything in the human world. some few older vampires might have a hand in real-estate, or various markets, and many are quite wealthy, but their vulnerability to sunlight and constant craving for blood makes it difficult for them to vie for world domination.
Most vampires believe they are cursed, but most do not know what the nature of that curse is. All vampires are made by another and that making is so brutally painful they tend to turn away from the reality of it. Sometimes a vampire’s maker will tell them their version of what they are and where they came from, and warn them about things like hunters and daylight and beheading being deadly. Most agree that the vampiric curse began a very long time ago, but hardly any know how long ago. Some vampires have a vague notion that they are somehow related to demon-kind but most have different versions of what that means.
All vampires learn very swiftly, should they survive, that they aren’t dead or undead, that the sun will not make them sparkle but rather will burn them to death relatively quickly, that they need to drink human blood to live, and that they are, if they survive, relatively immortal.
Most vampires soon learn that there aren’t very many of their kind, and they know why. The Human population couldn’t sustain it.
Most vampires have heard and retold rumours of very old ones of their kind, ones who do know where they began and why, and how, as well as other whispered rumours of ways to cure their condition.
Something to do with angels.
FAERIES
Ireland is a hub and sanctuary for every type of fairy and Changeling in the world. This has to do with a treaty signed between the fairy kingdoms during the Industrial Age, when fairies were dying out worldwide due to a sudden proliferation of ‘cold iron’, the exposure to which really hurts Fairies, and--even from a distance.
long-term exposure gradually has effected Fae fertility. So they needed a population infusion and a safe place to dwell. Ireland was —and still is—quite rural, plus humans in Ireland still believed in fairies (many still do) to the point of the belief influencing human govt. policy and planning (still does), so it was a logical place to become The Fairy State. Of course, this has created some shitty politics and fae bigotry over the years.
Fairies live in our world and in Fairy/Arcadia/The Summerland/Tír Na Nóg with fairly constant traffic between. Fairies are everywhere in Ireland, and they aren’t the twee little Victorian kind. No no, not at all. You wouldn’t want to cross them. Or insult them. Or not repay a favour. Or speak badly of them. At all. Ever. A’hem.
Full-blooded fae drink dreams. Yes dreams. Subconscious dreams, daydreams, or ‘hopes and dreams’ type dreams. If they lose control they can drain their victim of all imagination and ideas, leaving them an empty, aimless shell. Fae-human Hybrids (called 'Changelings'), can also drink/skim dreams, but, depending on how and where they were raised, they mightn't know they can do this, although many will do it unconsciously.
Fairies are immortal, but can be unmade. Some are tied to natural spaces, like trees or bodies of water. Some fae live under the sea. All are attuned to nature. All fae are deathly allergic to iron and all of it its derivatives. Older Fairies can become anything at will, and all shifters are actually fairies. Only some are cursed to shift into one creature only. Which the rest of the Fae find very sad, and a bit pathetic.
Fairies have a royal line, and are governed by a federal monarchy. Other creatures that can’t ‘pass’ or hide in our world live in Fairyland and rarely, if ever, leave. Like dragons. Or Trolls. Or Giants.
In ireland, as in many other parts of the world, Fae control all parks and wildlands. humans usually won't notice this - but other beings will.
Irish Fae speak Their own language, and in ireland, they speak Irish, it being the Official Fairy Language in the land. Other Fae speak the fairy langauge, and whichever native languages of their lands (as Fae developed with humans and taught humankind their early languages). Irish Fae speak Gammon and Cant (Irish Traveller Languages) and English as well.
Fairies love a good story. Fairy-tales originated with them, after all, and some of those stories are still re-told by humankind. The mortal world and Arcadia and inextricably linked, and the stories reflect that link. The Fae love a good story. Better than almost anything else. Except music. Or dancing. In fact stories often are used as a form of payment, or told in contests. Sometimes between life or death. A good story, well-told will get you quite far in The Summerlands.
WEREWOLVES
Werewolves are magically cursed human/fairy hybrids (also called Changelings). They all know of their origins and spend a lot of time trying to reverse the curse, or mitigate it at least. When they shift, it is uncontrollable, for 3 days around the full moon, and they shift very painfully into a wolf. A regular wolf, not a wolf-man, or monster-wolf-creature, although the larger the human-form, the larger the wolf-form.
When in wolf form, they think and act as wolves, with no human intelligence or control, although older werewolves have been rumoured to have some influence over their wolf forms. Werewolves are not immortal, but do live for a very long time. They are difficult to kill, but are deathly allergic to silver.
Werewolves live between our world and in Fairy/Arcadia/The Summerland/Tír Na Nóg, where they serve the royal fairy line as bodyguards. In our world a great many of them work in the field of medicine/biology. Werewolves are carnivores, full stop. They need to eat meat. They also ache for the hunt. It’s a physical need, and if they don’t get it, they get chemically depressed and are likely to lose control and kill the nearest thing when they next shift.
werewolves control the hospitals, and you will quite often find them working as first-responders, although again, humans won't notice this.
werewolves live with their own families, usually, but don’t hang out together in 'packs', and there is no ‘alpha/beta/omega’ stuff at all. They are very careful, however, and have, over the centuries, carefully built safe spaces in our world for their ‘wolf-out’ times. They are not allowed to ‘wolf out’ in fairyland.
THE DEAD
Ghosts/Spirits/Wraiths/The Dead exist (naturally) in the world of the dead/the netherworld/underworld AKA purgatory. The dead are souls that for some reason can’t or won’t move on, either to Nirvana or Reincarnation. Usually this involves unfinished business.
The netherworld is right next to ours, and in some places even intermingled with ours (we call these places ‘haunted’). Ghosts can move about, and can even interact with us, but it’s easier in haunted places and if they’ve a strong emotional connection to whomever they want to speak to. Ghosts eat emotions. The stronger the better. There are humans who spend a lot of time trying to help ghosts move on. The humans are usually mediums, psychic, and/or magicians, specialising in Necromancy.
Ghosts have the stories they took to the grave. They also have stories about where they are, why they’re stuck, (if they believe they are) and what lies beyond. The World of the Dead is full of whispers, rumours and stories. The stories that fascinate The Dead the most are those of What Lies Beyond and of course stories of The Living World (as they call our world). Most of The Dead are obsessed with The Living World, and whatever, or whomever, it is keeping them where they are.
ANGELS
Angels were created in what we call Heaven, which is a world impossible to get to without an invitation. Or a key (which really, when you think about it, is the physical embodiment of an invitation, right?)
Angels were created by The Word to serve The Word’s needs. The Word, however, doesn’t seem to be around any more. But Angels carry on.
Their main task is to watch over, guard and guide humans. Only they can’t really, as there are way too many humans, and Angels are finite. Originally there were around 100 million of them created, however, many thousands were destroyed in the War in Heaven, a third defected with Lucifer, and many others have been destroyed over the years. No one knows for sure how many there are now, but the population that is left struggle to mind us, and some have left us to our own devices.
Something that helps their overwhelm a bit is the fact that angels cannot abide hate. They’re allergic to it, it drives them away. So the more people hate, the less angels can look after them.
There are different types of angels, and every angel is the Angel of *something*, like the Angel of Love, or the Angel of Death, or the Angel of Grace, etc.
On earth angels eat prayers. However to eat a prayer they have to grant it.
In heaven Angels eat heavenly food. Which is kind like magical bread.
Angels cannot be killed, but they can be unmade or choose to no longer exist. Angels can procreate with humans (this has always been when said Angel is in male human form and procreating with a female human, as Angels cannot get pregnant) and have very rarely produced human hybrid offspring, which are called Nephilim.
These offspring are closely watched over, and, when they die, these offspring are always absorbed into to an existing angel’s essence. Or rather, the essense is put into *them*. This is the only way an Angel can voluntarily cease to exist.
DEMONS (FALLEN ANGELS)
Demons mostly exist in Hell, which is another world, albeit quite distant and difficult to get to. It is a world the demons (angels who rebelled against The Word) were exiled to. First they were given our world, but that caused some trouble, because it belonged to us and the fairies (mostly the fairies as humans at the time were really new and not very many) and so after a bit of back-and-forth and some wars and stuff the Word said okay, that was a bad idea and kicked the demons into another, empty, not very nice world; a world that has, over time, twisted and deformed them, inside and out.
Hell is not a place bad humans go to be punished when they die, unless they *want* to go there (or really expect to go there. Which is the same as wanting, right?) Souls can and do get trapped there, however.
Early on, some demons came back to earth to try and reclaim it, but these few thousand were stripped of their physical forms and of any agency in the process. In order to do anything except float in one place forever, these Demons must possess a human body. And to do *this* the demon must eat the human soul.
Some humans give up their souls willingly, others just get eaten. This takes time, however (which is why exorcism woks, although it’s really hard to do and always leaves the soul wounded). If there is not an intervention, the soul goes to hell. Sometimes some humans do this on purpose and some of these have even managed to rise to a place of power in Hell.
Hell is a shitty anarchic tribal place, wherein it’s pretty much every demon for themselves. There is always war. Hell is war. Although more powerful demons do rise to power now and again, but there’s no permanent ruler now that Lucifer is gone.
Hell, and demons are sustained by human souls. There are a lot of demons. More than angels. Demons cannot be killed, but they can be unmade.
MAGICIANS
Humans are the only beings that can use magic. Full stop. Other beings *are* magic, and some are extremely powerful, but none of them can *use* magic (magic being defined as manipulating elements in accordance with one’s will by the use of ritual or spell-work). The humans that know how to use magic are divided into two types - those with inborn ability (often called psychics, mediums or witches) and those who learned magic. Most magic users are a mixture of both. All magicians know about most, if not all, of the other species and other worlds, although this knowledge varies from magician to magician. Most magic-users have a specialty, especially the ones who learned magic. All other species are wary of human magic users, because many times, over millennia, human magic users have hunted the other species, as many magic users believe having one of the otherwise in their possession is a very powerful thing. Not all magic users want to hunt non-humans but, once you've got a reputation, it can be pretty hard to shake.
