[ ooc ] So Much History
First off; the world of Game of Fate is extensive. This description provides a fairly basic summary. Words that are links will take you to a small article that expands on that particular term, fact, or character. I'm so sorry for the information overload!
Game of Fate takes place in a world very much like the one that you and I live in. It's a world where hardwork is the strongest power and humans struggle with what means they have to accomplish what they want. Even so, there are two very important differences between this world and the one you're reading this from.
1) Technology develops a lot faster in this world. The 1990s in Game of Fate land had technologies from as far ahead as 2010. This is because of the second difference;
2) Magic exists here, though it is a well kept secret. There is a magical society that co-exists alongside normal society. But this isn't to the extent of, say, Harry Potter world. Magic users hold normal jobs and have no secret places (okay, a few, but not many). Their magic has allowed technology to progress at a faster rate than it would have otherwise, which is why Game of Fate land is able to be so far ahead.
However, the place to start with Game of Fate land is not 1990. It's far far earlier.
To begin, the very basis of this world is magic. Magic is a genetic ability; it is not something you can just learn by going to school for. There are two traits that a person must have in order to naturally use magic. The first of these two is Empathy. A magic user's empathy allows them to sense emotions in "waves". This is important to note; in Game of Fate land, emotions are essentially a form of energy that all living things are capable of giving off. However, the energy form that is called "emotion" is imperfect.
The second trait a person needs is a simple capacity for magic. Your capacity for magic determines how much magical energy you can hold at one time and allows you to turn emotional energy--- the imperfect form--- into magical energy-- the perfect form. Magic is processed through the heart, just as emotions are often associated with and felt through the heart. Casting a spell that is above your magical capacity is a health hazard, and using magic in general without knowing how to do so safely can also be hazardous to your health. It can result in death if you’re not careful, but usually it just makes a person so tired that they stop using the magic before it gets too dangerous. If you want to be technical, magic abuse causes heart failure.
For more information... Magical Link~.
When magic first surfaced in this world is up for debate. The most common theory is that humans have had the potential for magic since the beginning of time. When magic is passed on to the next generation the magical ability (potential) of the parents is added and then a "random number" is factored in. So generally, magical potential increases with each generation. In the commonly accepted theory, the original generation had such a tiny potential for magic that it was useless. It took many many generations for the magic users to have even strength to do anything.
Historically, the first instances of magic are in the medevil times. Magic users were (and still are) typically female due to the fact that the two traits carry over to the female generation more often than they do the male-- this is the In-verse reason for why you hear more about magical girls than magical boys. Back in the original days, magic was regarded as good or bad depending on the person using it.
But over time, that changed.
As the generations wore on, magic users became more and more powerful. This meant that the good magic users could do more wonderful things, but it also meant the bad ones could do more horrible things. As it often works out, more people paid attention to the bad things than they did the good. Magic was generalized as a terrible thing since every magic user had the potential to become corrupt. It naturally scared those without magic.
This was when the days of witch hunting began. Witch hunters would have occasional bursts of inspiration throughout history and frightened magic users just as much as magic frightened non-magic users. The witch hunters developed ways to counter magic or suppress it entirely while murdering their targets. Their agenda was typically "destroy all magic users so magic stops existing!".
The most notable witch hunting rampage occurred during the early years of America's colonization. Among those affected during these years of chaos was a girl named Benita Goodon. Her family lived in the Americas and was affected by the uproar surrounding the Salem Witch Trials. Benita herself had not learned of her family’s potential for magic from actual family members, but from a kind elderly witch that she befriended just outside of her home village. It didn’t matter, though, since Benita’s mother was accused of witchcraft and both of her parents became victims of cruel accusations that ultimately ended in their untimely deaths. Benita and her elder brother Edward left the village some time afterwards and tried to live alone, but Benita ruined this for them. She began to sell blue roses to make money and was spotted by Witch Hunters. Her elder brother was murdered in the resulting violence, while Benita was able to escape.
However, Benita still firmly believed that magic was being treated wrongly. She was convinced that the bad witches and wizards who had created this terrible image for the rest of them needed to be stopped somehow, so that the image of magic could be restored. She was not alone in this thinking, and met two other young witches by the names of Felicity and Anastasia.
As it turned out, the three of them had very high magic potential and strong empathy. They established an alliance that they called the “MASQ” ( Magic Administring & Secret Quarantine) and invited other magic users to come join them. These very strong girls protected the identities of those under their care and fought off Witch Hunters, which was no problem for people at their power level that had banded together. But this did not come for free. Those that came to the MASK for protection were put under something of a curse. From now on, their magic was capped. They were able to have the limiters taken off by proving they would not use it for evil and if they went over their limit in magic then they would lose something of equal emotional value to the spell they were casting. This curse was placed on their actual magic and carried genetically to the next generation, so it continued on and on.
People accepted it anyway. Magic users began to dissolve into normal society and didn’t use their magic much anymore anyway, out of fear of being tracked by Witch Hunters. The MASQ successfully protected everyone under their care. They created a system of “Titling”, which gave those with magic an alternative identity. This meant that the magical you was no longer associated with the civilian you, so even if Witch Hunters caught a whiff of your magical reputation they could not track you down.
However, nearly every magic user that did not come to the MASK was slaughtered. It was because the MASQ was such a huge network of people who had each other’s backs that it succeeded. Even people who could have matched the three girls in power were killed because they did not have the same backing. So the curse that limited magic came to be on every generation to come.
Because of the power limits, and the fact you would now suffer for exceeding them, magic users made selfish choices less often since their selfishness caused them to lose things. The existence of the MASK also pulled together the secretive magical community, which quietly co-existed with normal humans. Every magic user had a job as a civilian, since magical community jobs were really only part-time.
But problems still existed. For example, there is no “Hogwarts” for this world of magic. If there was then Witch Hunters would be able to locate magic children and do terrible things to magical society. Because yes, the Witch Hunters continued to exist. With non-magical weapon technology advancing they quickly adapted more and more ways to hunt down magic users and cut them out of society all together. The MASK, of course, continues to have a strong presence in stopping them, but it is still unsafe to be too open with magic.
The “Magic Price System” was quite effective in keeping people in line, however. But because there is no Hogwarts-type school for this world, there was no way to school children with magic. If parents did not tell their child about magic or maybe just didn’t know then that child could wander down the path blindly. In every generation there were hundreds of magic users who did not learn that their magic came at a price and would lose everything they cared about to the price system. There were just as many good magic users who did good things with magic but paid for it by losing all that they loved.
Many of these people came to blame the MASQ. The organization had been growing into a world-wide police department of sort. The MASQ investigated magical crimes, erased incidents that could attract witch hunters, and arrested abusers of magic, as well as trying to intervene with young magic users and help school them, running magic community events for bonding, registered new magic titles, and essentially kept tabs on everything relating to the magic of that world. It was to be expected that people who lost everything because the MASK failed to explain it to them might become bitter.
And inside the MASQ, there was just as much unhappiness. The original founders had grown old, but maintained their young bodies with magic. They remained the strongest witches of their time all through the years, for a number of reasons. Obviously, the price system limited others and kept everyone below their level. It’s also important to note that these three girls really are just that strong.
The years had worn on them in many ways. For example, Benita Goodon changed her name to Vinita Godono, since she began feeling like such a different person. Felicity also changed her name to “Fate”, as she began to see how twisted her role in the MASQ was.
“Fate” was the first to go as well. As Fate saw good people suffering because of the magic pricing she began to resent it. When she tried to ask Vinita to consider abolishing the system and trusting good people to do good and always beat the bad ones, Vinita freaked out. Afraid of Fate’s power, Vinita sealed her away in one eternal second in time. Fate could not interact with the world around her anymore but could still watch time go by around her. She existed everywhere and no where at once, but could do little to nothing. What Fate could do was to make subtle changes and cast small spells. She could also use her magic through people in the present day if they shared a boodline.
But Vinita wasn’t happy with just sealing Fate. Anastasias and Vinita also had a falling out… or rather, a freak out. Ana frightened Vinita with a love confession and Vinita turned her down, which caused Ana to become, well, very angry. To avoid having Ana go on a rampage, Vinita sealed her away as well; this time, into a photo album.
Now Vinita was the lone leader of the MASQ. Which wasn’t a completely bad thing. For someone who started the organization when she was 15 and had a record of getting rid of those who didn’t agree with her, Vinita was a very good leader. She dissolved her role as leader over time and began to pretend she was just another agent, letting the MASQ’s leadership break into multiple departments that she carefully monitored, but otherwise trusted. She herself became an agent in the “Magic Training Department”, which monitored new magic users and sent agents to help train them to use their new powers safely.
One of the people Vinita went on to train was Horie Fleischertz. When Horie realized she had magic she was well into her late twenties, but was quite gifted. She lived in Germany and had grown up during the first World War. Recently, she had gotten married. Horie learned to use her magic for simple things, like household chores, and Vinita and her came to be good friends. For the years of their friendship, Horie was really struggling to give her husband a child, but he was quite patient and more concerned with her being healthy. Horie finally had their daughter, Samantha, as World War II came around. Her husband was drafted to fight and Horie raised Samantha quietly on her own,.
This happy image could not last through a war. Horie’s home was targeted and bombed. In the commotion, a panic-struck Horie tried to shield her baby with her body. Instead, she accidentally crushed Samantha. Later, Horie learned that her husband had been sent to a battle and there had been no survivors.
Anyone would be depressed. But not everyone has magic. Horie’s sanity snapped with her depression. She began to devise a plan to bring her missing family back, but recognized that she didn’t have the magical capacity to do so. She needed to find someone who had the capacity for the magical energy required to resurrect her dead husband and child. And when she didn’t find someone, she set about on a plot to create one.