Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

[Teflon Billy]

This is mainly a place holder now for me to ruminate and hopefully get some ideas from my fellow Hero Board Members.

 

Basic Premises:

 

The same Earth as Harry Potter. Hogwarts exists in Scotland, Harry Potter is the British Isle's chosen one, etc... That being said, Voldemort (in this setting) is not nearly so world threatening nor The Most Evil/Powerful Dark Wizard Ever! he was just an extremely gifted and powerful wizard with a large following that could very well have caused a great deal of widespread damage and misery in the world.

 

No Lovecraftian Great Old Ones (if they do exists they are far, far, far more remote and not nearly so involved in the Material Plane as they are in standard H.P. Lovecraft fiction.) However, many of the more mundane Lovecraftian beasties and monsters do exist within this world, but again the Stories should not be considered canon to this Setting just inspiration for the most part. I'm adding Lovecraft so I have a framework on which to hang my wizarding New England. The fictional towns, events, general creepiness that Lovecraft was able to evoke goes a long way towards the atmosphere I'm looking for, just without the Cosmos and sanity shattering over-beings that Lovecrafts Mythos brings.

 

The setting is primarily based in New England with the overlay of Lovecraft Country. New England as a region is mystically blighted (i.e. Dark,) similar to Ravenloft but without the actual intelligent source of the blight that the Dark Powers were to Ravenloft. Think of the classic descriptions of Transylvania (dark, misty, foggy, bad things lurking in far too many shadows) and that captures it for the most part. It isn't antithetical to human existence or anything, it's just atmospherically darker, the magic users that gravitate here tend towards the non-amusing Addams family side of the spectrum. More necromancers and less Florean Fortescue Ice Cream shops. Also, regionalism is much more marked and, in general, populations don't shift around nearly as much as they do in modern America, this mystical effect even effects Muggle America: people just don't move, they all tend to live within the same 50 miles that their family has for the last 200 years. That isn't to say that people don't up and move from New Jersey to California, it just doesn't happen to nearly the same extent as it does in the Real World.

 

Which leads into a peculiarity of Wizarding America. Just in the same way as Transylvania still exists as a Wizarding Nation, where it no longer exists as an autonomous muggle nation state, Wizarding America never quite left behind the confederation of sovereign entities that the Articles of Confederation brought about, and the Civil War all but demolished in Muggle American discourse. There are in fact more than half a dozen autonomous sovereign Wizarding Commonwealths. The Arcane Commonwealth of New England is made up of the six traditional New England states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.) However all international relations are handled through the Wizarding District of Columbia and the Congress of Arcanists . The British Minister of Magic interacts directly with the American Secretary of Thaumaturgy, not with the Governor-Magus of New England.

 

That being said, I'm going for a setting that can still support and is completely open to a boarding school light hearted young adult adventure series ala Harry Potter. Actually, the works of John Bellairs captures this perfectly (just with more explicit magic) if you haven't read any of his works I recommend the House with the Clock in the Walls, The Trolley Car to Yesterday, the Blue Figurine or any of the dozen or so other books he wrote before he died at far too young of an age.

 

Magical Schools:

 

Salem Witches Institute, Salem, Massachusetts. Primary Magical school for girls in Massachusetts and the most prestigious in New England.

 

Phillips-Innsmouth Academy, Innsmouth, Massachusetts. Primary Magical school for boys in Massachusetts and the most prestigious in New England, the magical counterpart to the muggle run Phillips-Andover and Phillips-Exeter Academies. (Innsmouth in this setting is NOT over-run by inbred, Dagon worshipping, fishmen lovers.)

 

SWI and Phillips-Innsmouth hold frequent inter-school functions, and more frequent field trips than Hogwarts into Arkham, wizarding Salem, Innsmouth, and Kingsport where students get to socialize between the genders.

 

Miskatonic Mystical University, Arkham, Massachusetts. The only Wizarding College in New England, the follow on school for those inclined towards achieving their W.E.N.D.I.G.O. level (above the standard capstone T.U.R.K.E.Y.s that students at SWI or Phillips-Innsmouth take in their 8th year) Departments of note are the College of Sorcery, College of Applied Necromancy, and the College of Alchemical Pharmacology.

 

Wand based Magic will work similarly to how it is framed in Harry Potter, with a bit more flexibility in what is achievable by wandless magic, and a greater excessability to greater wider spanning magical effects through Ritual magic (which does not require a wand necessarily to cast.)

 

Other locales of note: Dunwich, Massachusetts, is an all magical town in north central Massachusetts near the Vermont and New Hampshire borders.

 

Wizards and Witches comprise about 1-2% of the general population (I might revise this, I need to consider what the proper demographic mix should be, don't want it to be too high as I don't want to need more than one main magical school in each state. Just as in Wizarding Britain a great many of wizarding children are homeschooled.

 

Historic Note: The Salem Witch Trials were in fact instigated by the work of a Dark Witch afflicting the local girls, but the townsfolk went after the wrong people. It took Aurors on loan from London dispatched from Boston to track down the Witch and deal with her before even more innocent people were harmed. This incident later lead to the formation of the Salem Witches Institute to help prevent the re-occurance of such a sequence of events happening again.

 

Benjamin Franklin was a Wizard, he is the American Wizarding equivalent of George Washington and Merlin wrapped into one.

 

There is no Pure-Blood/Half-Blood/Blood-Traitor/Mudblood distinction socially or legally within Wizarding America, it is looked upon as a purely European anachronism (akin to how some Americans look upon the whole concept of the Aristocracy in general) That isn't to say that all social prejudices are non-existent, just that blood-status isn't one of them in the slightest.

 

More to follow later.

 

TB

[Nolgroth]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

I think this will be a thread subscription I will enjoy keeping up with. Sounds like a fun setting, if I knew how to do boarding school light hearted young adult adventure series. Still, Lovecraft country and a hint of the Lovecraftian Mythos is never a bad thing and I very much enjoyed the Harry Potter series of books.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

Sounds like a fun setting, I'll pitch in as able. I've been kinda pondering some similar questions in using a Lovecraft Mythos theme for my PA setting, because I'm eventually going for a semi-light toned Girl Genius homage setting, but with crawling cosmic horrors lurking in the dark corners of the world. The nice thing about using the mythos without much actual God level intervention is that the sundry roster of lesser critters make a great bestiary. You can play crypto-zoologist and determine which servitors were the source of which monster legends and rename them appropriately in common usage. You can mine Hellboy for all sorts of ideas. The Charlie Stross Laundry books are an interesting take on the Lovecraftian mythos, and his style of cyber-necromancers could be a controversial topic in the wizarding community, using "unsafe" ancient lore restrained and contained by the precision equipment available in the Information Era. Silicon Valley Technomancy?

[Steve Long]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

Lovecraftian Potterverse -- that's a pretty clever description. I have some friends who'd swoon over the thought of such a game. Good luck!

[Midas]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

This is mainly a place holder now for me to ruminate and hopefully get some ideas from my fellow Hero Board Members.

 

Basic Premises:

 

The same Earth as Harry Potter....

Miskatonic Mystical University, Arkham, Massachusetts. The only Wizarding College in New England...Departments of note are the College of Sorcery, College of Applied Necromancy, and the College of Alchemical Pharmacology.

 

Are you sure you want an overt College of Necromancy? Even if you take a Defense of the Dark Arts/Know thy Enemy approach, there are still going to be Expressions of Concern from around the world.

 

College of Alchemical Pharmacology

 

Sheldon Cooper: "This pill is to Viagra what Viagra is to green M&Ms."

[Manic Typist]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

Better an overt school than a forbidden art... because THAT always goes so well.

 

Modern societies use bodies for all kinds of purposes (scientific research, anyone?) There is no necessary contradiction in the idea of ethical necromancy.

[Midas]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

Better an overt school than a forbidden art... because THAT always goes so well.

 

Modern societies use bodies for all kinds of purposes (scientific research, anyone?) There is no necessary contradiction in the idea of ethical necromancy.

 

Oh, I agree. It's just that keeping your brilliant but erratic student where you can keep an eye on him doesn't work so well either (ref: Riddle, Tom).

 

When the inevitable Victor Frankenstein or Herbert West kicks off a story arc, Good Ol' Miskatonic (Go 'Pods!) is going to be explaining to all the other schools of wizardry just how much it isn't their fault.

 

I can see at several problems even with "ethical" necromancy. (I'm not raining on the parade here, I'm just making sure the campaign developer has considered the implications).

 

1) Are there intelligent undead, or just the zombies Voltimort used to guard his horcruxes? Is having your faithful watchdog Shep still guarding the home a good idea?

 

2) If ghosts can be resummoned even if not resurrected, how much of a market will there be for "Expanded will and testament" interviews, etc?

 

3) If someone can be resurrected, what does this do to estate law?

 

4) If someone can be resurrected and put back on whim, what is to stop a kind of Charles Dexter Ward set up? Having say, Gregory House, sitting in a jar at in the medical research wing, available for consults, and then put away when he gets too annoying* is a possibility.

 

 

 

*I know, I'm trying to see the downside of a "dispel House" spell myself...

 

Hmnn, just had a vision of House as a character similar to the TV version of Harry Dresden's "Bob".

 

Hmnn again: Having Washington Irving, Poe, Lovecraft and a host of others on call at the Lit Department...

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

A couple of other ideas I'm using in my background could work well with what you've laid out.

 

We have several major pentagonal forts on the east coast. Including, of course, The Pentagon.

 

I have Kro, the Great Hunger, the Great Old One who devoured the English colony at Roanoke, bound by Franklin and his Lodge brothers beneath the future site of the Pentagon, with lesser terrors entombed under the smaller forts. In my world breaking the seal was the intent of the Pentagon bound plane on 9/11.

 

Ben Franklin, Archwizard of the New World, traveling the Colonies with his Masonic companions to seal away the elder nightmares of North America in order to make the new country safe to grow. Sounds like it'd make an awesome webcomic...

[FrankL]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

Better an overt school than a forbidden art... because THAT always goes so well.

 

Modern societies use bodies for all kinds of purposes (scientific research, anyone?) There is no necessary contradiction in the idea of ethical necromancy.

 

We are not necromancers! We practice postmortem communication!

[shincan]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

 

Benjamin Franklin was a Wizard, he is the American Wizarding equivalent of George Washington and Merlin wrapped into one.

 

 

TB

 

Benjamin Franklin was a crazy fellow. Check out his Old Mistresses Apologue (only about 1.5 pages) to get a sense of his humor. And this idea of yours, esp. Franklin as a founding father wizard, is superb.

[Teflon Billy]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

Look and feel of Wizarding America:

 

Due to Ben Franklin's work into the mystical uses of electricity and other cross uses of muggle science, the American wizarding world has a distinctly steampunkish feel and style.

 

The Ever-steaming Vessel has lead to the widespread proliferation of steam powered mystical devices, and discovery of two-dimensional gearing lead to much more complex clockwork devices than are possible with muggle clockworks (you can cram a heck of a lot more cogs and springs into a device if they have no depth.)

 

Religion:

 

Not much to add here, only that that there are extra books in the wizarding bible over the muggle one. In particular, the Gospel of Bartholomew (greek transliteration of the Hebrew name of Bar-Tolmay: Son of Ptolemy.) Meaning one of the twelve Apostles was a Wizard. He is the Patron Saint of Wizards but due to the statute of secrecy his patronage was stricken from Church records. His feast day is celebrated in the Wizarding world in July (not on August 24 or June 11 as it is done by the Muggle Church) which is why Harry never mentioned it in the Books, he was always stuck at the Dursleys and never got to celebrate it.

 

TB

[Major Tom 2009]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

I know that the setting has been described as Lovecraftian Potterverse, but will you be tossing

elements from other New England-based settings as well -- say, for instance, Pennywise the

Clown (from Stephen King's It)? Offhand, I can't think of anyone (or anything) that would be

more of a threat to the Wizarding youth of New England in such a setting.

 

As for the idea of Ben Franklin as a wizard, there's a crossover Harry Potter/Sentinel fanfic

story called "A Matter of Magic" over at the FanFiction.net website, in which it's mentioned

that some of the Founding Fathers were wizards.

 

 

 

Major Tom 2009

[Teflon Billy]

Re: Dark New England (A Lovecraftian Potterverse Campaign in America)

 

I know that the setting has been described as Lovecraftian Potterverse, but will you be tossing

elements from other New England-based settings as well -- say, for instance, Pennywise the

Clown (from Stephen King's It)? Offhand, I can't think of anyone (or anything) that would be

more of a threat to the Wizarding youth of New England in such a setting.

 

As for the idea of Ben Franklin as a wizard, there's a crossover Harry Potter/Sentinel fanfic

story called "A Matter of Magic" over at the FanFiction.net website, in which it's mentioned

that some of the Founding Fathers were wizards.

 

 

 

Major Tom 2009

Of course, what writer of horror other than Lovecraft is more distinctly New England than Stephen King?

 

I am very likely to incorporate Stephen King's horrors into this campaign world, especially since most of his bad guys are rather localized in the area that they cause misery in when they are active except for Flagg, but I could easily frame him as the New England/American Voldemort. He is a Wizard after all (see The Eyes of the Dragon.)

 

I more than likely would flesh out the Stephen King horrors when I move into describing wizarding New Hampshire and Maine, where most of King's stories take place.

 

TB