How does magic work? Where does it come from? What can it do? There are many, many intricacies and unsolved mysteries when it comes to magic of our native Gaia, or our neighboring Onira, Styx and Serata. Even the Abyss may somehow conjure a dark force, once in a blue moon.

Contrary to prior popular belief, not all magic within the Grand Dream stems strictly from Onira, or The Dreamlands, as they're commonly called; Magic, at its very purest form, is the discarded, excess remnant of psychic energy left behind by the Grand Dream's creation.

Before there was any concept of time, space, or really much of anything at all, there was the primordial chaos, Azathoth, a spiraling, infinite, restless being made up of an infinite and ravenous subconsciousness.

Among the many, many infinite offspring, most of which were stillborn and flung into the Abyss, came along the Flaute-Bearers, beings of Order born somehow from Pure Chaos. The Flaute-Bearers rebelled against their unknowing creator, and devised a scheme to put the One Being Above All into a deep, dark sleep.

The Grand Dream, a multi-layered universe where our story takes place, is a direct consequence of the idiot god's infinite rest, life sprung from a subdued and bored chaos. There are an infinite amount of Dreams, if you want to get really technical, none of them are more grand than the other—our story merely takes place in this one.

The first inheritor of our particular Grand Dream was an entity born in Onira, which was also the first of the layered realms.

This entity was known as Nyarlathotep.

Nyarlathotep, as the first creation of the Dreamlands, became its designated, sanctified Dreamer—a painter of life, a creator of all things. Though Azathoth birthed the multiverse by mistake, Nyarlathotep gave our Grand Dream direction.

For without direction, the only world he knows may grow dull, and if it should grow dull, it may be forgotten about by the great collective unconsciousness that is Azathoth.

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So, at his very core, Nyarlathotep fancies himself a storyteller, and what better story to tell, than a world painted in with warmth, joy and life, but also coated in cold, misery and death? Life was a finely precalculated series of events which would spell hope as often as it would bitter tragedy.

Entertain It enough, and we will live forever, Nyarlathotep would think.

The first life Nyarlathotep would breathe into his domain of Onira were entities many today worship as Gods.

These Godlike beings would go on to create the many layers of the Grand Dream, layers such as Gaia; Gaia is our primary setting and layer. Mortals who dwell upon Gaia often call for the aid of the Gods in their times of crisis, and make pacts with them to satiate their needs. The pacts these mortals make with the Gods result in what is known as sorcery, and like any talent, it can bloom naturally.

Some species are born master sorcerers, such as the Vampire with their harnessing of the elements as well as the senses. Others, such as the Werewolf, befall a more unfortunate fate—punished for their hubris early on and gifted volatile magic that, while powerful, often betrays its user in the process.

In the 14th century, the Humans, experiencing an age of enlightenment, rebelled against the meddling of the Gods—they waged war on one god after the other, locking each of them away within powerful prisons of their own design. Among those who masterminded the plot to overthrow the Gods were the royals of Carcosa. Though they remain a forgotten heritage, the Carcosan heirlooms that were scattered across Gaia became highly sought after relics by the enlightened Humans, now calling themselves The Natural Order.

Designed by the Shepherd God Hastur, the Supernatural were originally meant to be Humanity’s evolutionary replacements. Over time, the views of the Order became more and more radicalized, leading to a hatred not only for the Gods, but for all Supernatural beings.

In the late 18th century, a sect of The Natural Order broke off to form Tenebris, a foundation dedicated to the preservation of the Supernatural, rather than its eradication. In 1985, Tenebris, in collaboration with the United States Government, as well as young entrepreneur Solomon J. Hudson, founded the town of Hudsonville; a gated community where all Supernaturals displaced by Humanity’s expansion would go to live out their days in relative peace.

Hudsonville is not the first community of its kind around the world, but with The Natural Order’s rapid expansion as of 2014, it very well could be one of the last.