Urban Fantasy is interesting and popular. One example is Vampire Philly for Multiverser. Jim Butcher of Dresden Files fame, Charles De Lint, and a ton of other authors write books in this 'setting'.
One element is The House That Isn't There. In 'Magic Street', Orson Scott Card has a house that is on the border between two houses, and is unseeable by ordinary people. Somewhat similar is Harry Potter and the 9.5 loading area for Hogwarts Express. A typical way to find these places is to watch out of the corners of one's eyes as these are things that frequently dissappear when faced full on.
The Chevalier Caedrallion bless whatever land they take up residence in. World War One drove them out of Europe (at least the ones that had not been driven out earlier by the Wars of Religon) as they cannot stand too much blood shed in a land they call home.
They are not pacifists, but they do have strong codes of war that limit the amount of bloodshed considerably, and typically limit the combatants to a few with most being onlookers. Mass bloodshed, genocide and the like tend to destroy them by acting as 'static' in their connection to Magick and Luck. And without the connection to Magick, they disintegrate, adn without Luck they starve, and become monstrous shades of hunger (typically they go on suicide missions first). Also, riding over blood shed that was of innocent blood, for seven years afterwards, has the power to kill one, potentially. At a minimum, its very painful.
The Caedrallion are knights, defenders of the Great Virtues, and of the honor of their King.
They established themselves in this new land, many as Kentucky Horse Colonels, but others spread all over North America. The biggest concentration is near Louisville. Its not a coincidence that the last eight VP or Presidents, six of them had spent considerable time in Louisville, or had a house there. Its on its way to becoming the "Most Splendid City in the World"....or it was.
Two decades ago, the Shanton came, no one knows from where. Some say gold miners in California excavated something better left buried. There is a town, Aldridgville, in the California dessert, that is famous for the Last Indian Massacre that killed everyone in the town. And its famous as a site for ghosts to this day. Some in the know think this is where the Shanton came from, and that Native American shaman tried to stop the oncoming horror, but could not.
It had little effect for a long time, but eventually its power built.
And now blood is being spilt, more and more. The murder rate is going up. Even in Louisville. The Mafia are on the rise, and they seem to have less compunction than the last version of the Mafia.
Worse, among the Wise, many blame the Caedrallion for the fights between them and the Shanton. Many say if the Caed were less arrogant, more reasonable...
The Wise are those of human magic, and of beings less than and more than human, who hide in the shadows as do all magical creatures.
The Shanton however stand for everything the Caedrallion hate. They would change fealty for command, honorable war for extermination, mercy to the fallen for the burning of villages, forgiveness for never ending vengeance, respect for that which is true for that which is popular...
Worse, many of the Caed have been wearied by war, and instead choose to hole themselves up in pleasure palaces of magic, and sustain themselves with illusion. They twist the codes of teh Caed to find ways to excuse themselves from fighting. They claim that only the directly offended should fight, but then they ignore the offense given to them.
And it is in this world, that the verser arrives in a House That Is Not There. It is a wizard's tower. And when the Wise hear that a wizard is back, for wizards are few and far between with most people having a few specific gifts, they come to the 'wizard' for help, and offer money and gifts in exchange.
The Old Wizard was a being of considerable power, and no one knows where he went....but he did leave some interesting books behind, some magic amulets, an alchemist's lab...and a door in the basement that is locked....
*awards the Multiverser Medal of Creativity to Tad*
*Thank yeh, tank yeh, don't applaud, just throw money.*
One question that interests me is the mechanism by which the Chevalier Caedrallion 'bless' a land. I want something that is not outrageously obvious, but at the same time, its clear that things are better.
We could shift GE rolls for the community, or a +5% skill bonus for everyone who lives within five miles of a Chevalier, or...?
Or random acts of beauty?
That is, it wouldn't take much if you had a group of unseen fairy folk wandering around the world periodically blessing crops and flowers and trees to make the world prettier and increase crop yields. Add kindness to animals and that also helps.
At that point you don't adjust the GE roll, but you include in your interpretation the fact that there are these positive influences around--a "not favorable" result is not worse than that there isn't any particular benefit here, and a "neutral result" is one that has some small benefit already involved.
It's kind of like using a GE roll for a driving situation. A neutral result on an ordinary day would mean that I got my son to school up the Turnpike with only typical delays; a neutral result on the Fourth of July Weekend (the heaviest traffic holiday on that road) means I only got completely stopped once and the normally two-hour trip took only about three and a half hours. You have to remember that "neutral" means what is expected given the background conditions, and everything is better or worse off that.
The only way you ever modify a GE roll is by fixing one of the dice to a specific chosen number, and this means you've already decided to eliminate either all bad or all good or all extreme rolls.
--M. J. Young
OK, thats a good point. This would be a more sunlit world than Earth, but with a threatening rise of mayhem and madness spreading out.