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A History of the World

We all know what the world is like. There's the world we all wade through every day. Supermarkets. Shopping malls. Cell phones. But there's more to it than that.
The world contains magic and magical beings. They live alongside us. Their numbers are small but significant. These people collectively are referred to as the Magical. 
The mundane try to ignore it, force it to the corners of the world and make it go away.
Magic has waxed and waned throughout history, but it’s swelling again. Things are getting weird. Creatures are reappearing that haven’t been seen in ages. The magical creatures of the world want their piece of the Earth again. 

Once Upon A Time

 In ancient times the Earth was awash in magic. People expected to see powerful beings and incredible beasts whenever they wandered away from their threshold. Many distinct magical races made the Earth their home, not alongside humans, but in their own territories. As time passed, these magical beings continued to grow in power, but at the same time humans became more technologically advanced, creating things that rivaled magic in power. Humans became violent and territorial. They spread across the world with the mission of claiming the globe for their own. The magical races considered fighting back but instead decided to disappear.
The magical races of the world cast a powerful enchantment on the Earth called the Veil. The Veil restricted magic and created a haven for the magical races of the world as a whole. It also allowed the magical people of the world to roam unseen, giving them Seemings that made them appear mundane.

Times Change

Over the last 70 years, the mundane world has been testing its limits. Nuclear weapons and space travel have been particularly interesting to the magical peoples of the world, who began taking notice of mundane technology. To them it was jarring at first; their understanding of humans went from iron tools and masonry to television and computer networks.
The magical peoples hit their tipping point with the broadcast of the moon landing of 1969. Humans were interesting. The world had changed.
A great caucus began. The magical peoples - their leaders, their elders - met in unison in a way that they had not since the creation of the Veil. They began to debate freeing the world from its enchantment and returning to Earth. The debate took over 10 years. When the magical peoples began to return to Earth, they had expected an age of enlightened exploration. Instead, they found themselves in the suspicious, tense time of the 1980s.
The Veil took time to unravel. Over the next decade, magical people began to roam the Earth. Those who had already lived among mundanes found their Seemings dissolved. There was panic and fear in most mundanes, but the magical also found that the mundane had become hardened against magic. Even when directly confronted, they would deny the truth of what they had seen.
The next two decades passed as the Veil fully disappeared. By 2010, magic had returned to the world. The impossible was possible again. Despite this, many people were unable to understand what they had seen. The Internet proved to be a catalyst in understanding magic. People posted videos on YouTube, pictures on Facebook. Government data explaining magical creatures reached WikiLeaks. There was nowhere for magic to hide.

Today

2010 was a time of celebration. There were so many new things to find and explore. New markets and fields of study were available. The world surged forward to embrace magic and the impossible.
In the current day, people have started to become desensitized. Magic exists, but most mundanes will never see or touch magic themselves. In the United States, recent political events polarized people around their understanding and interest in magic. New bills are introduced every day with the aim of restricting and even outlawing magic and magical people.

Major story themes

  • Reclaiming the world
  • Balancing the mundane and the magical
  • Bringing magic to the mundane
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