World On Fire: Shadow Ops [OPEN] (OOC/Fantasy WW2)
Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 2:07 pm"A world ablaze, its destiny in the balance"
WORLD ON FIRE:SHADOW OPS
Supernatural WW2 Commando Action
Discord and Main Discussion Hub
Chapter 1(COMPLETED)
Chapter 2 (ONGOING)
DISCLAIMER:This RP offers a fantasy, fictional take on events regarding World War 2, the rule of the Nazi German and Imperial Japanese regimes and the Holocaust. The OP features the use of symbols and imagery which are banned in several European and Asian countries. The author doesn't in any way endorse National Socialism and Fascism, and this work doesn't in any way aim to offend the legacy of veterans and victims of the conflict. This RP doesn't in any way pretend to be a serious historical work, and artistic licenses will be taken.
It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more
INTRODUCTION
Ever since the Great Age of Myths had ended during what the mundane world called the Middle Ages, when supernatural beings and individuals, threatened by the encroaching spirits of Reason and Science, hid themselves from the eyes of mundane humanity, continuing their existence in covert ways. The Masquerade was born.
Truth be told, the supernatural world wasn't put in jeopardy by this phenomenon, for the most part.
Vampires continued to rule the night, even with curtailed blood supplies, and sired new children of the kindred for ages to come. The werewolf clans prowled forests and steppes, balancing their wild nature with the need of mantaing a covert identity. Mages' Lodges and Witch covens proceeded undisturbed in practising their craft, like they always did. Other beings, like faeries and other spirits, preferred to remain dormant and completely secluded from human society.
The supernatural world still continued to influence the mundane one, in a barely perceptible way. Of course, not every revolution in the history of man had been secretely engineered by ancient arch-wizards, and not every famous monarch was in cohorts with vampiric beings, but the forces of occult still tried to model human history to some degree.
The Great War wasn't really their doing, however. The Mage Lodges of Europe didn't really see any value in the bloody product of years of squabbles between the noblemen of Austria-Hungary and Imperial Germany and the post-Jacobins of France, the Vampire kindred lamented the loss of so much fresh blood, and the werewolf clans were bothered by the crescent industrialization of their lands.
No one, not even them, could have foreseen the results of that conflict.
In the space of a few decades Germany, humiliated and stripped of its Imperial garbs, would have started its supreme revenge against her victors. Powered by the ambitious visions of an Austrian war vet turned politician, the German nation had adopted the National Socialist ideology, an explicitly racialist and anti-Bolshevik creed owing much to its Italian-born sister, Fascism.
Months of compromises and diplomacy on the part of Europe's foremost democratic powers, Britain and France, wouldn't have accomplished nothing. Germany swallowed Austria first and Czechoslovakia second, while building up her war machine and finding like-minded allies in Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan.
As this happened, the supernatural world itself came to a split: Germania Lodge, the regulating authority of Germany's magical community, revealed the details of its craft and of the fabled Vril-ya magicry to the ruling cadre of the Third Reich. The vampires and werewolf clans of the country soon followed suit. Their motivation varied: some were in it for the power, some for blood, and some, and many of them at that, had simply been raptured into the nationalistic Aryan ideal of purity, which wasn't very extraneous to many members of the supernatural world. The most prominent leaders and individuals in Germany's supernatural underground joined the ranks of what came to be called the "Inner Circle".
The Masquerade had been broken.
Powered by occult forces and experimental technology, the Nazi War Machine began a continent-wide campaign of conquest in September 1939. Poland was the first to fall, as the German Wehrmacht shocked the world with its gigantic tanks, walking war machines and exotic ray weaponry. Meanwhile, the armies of Imperial Japan, similarly aided by occult forces, continued their unmatched conquest of eastern Asia.
After Poland, it was the time for Denmark and Norway to fall, with Sweden falling prey to a Nazi to a Nazi-simpathizer government. The Germans plowed through the Ardennes forest, sidestepping the Maginot line and bringing havoc to Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and their main target, France. For the first time in the war, the supernatural population of an invaded country tried to participate in the defense effort, in some way or another. They didn't succeed, but the fall of France taught an harsh but valuable lesson to Great Britain and the other members of the multinational coalition which came to be called the Allies: they needed to take advantage of whatever the Nazis were using to boost their war machine to dramatic levels.
The supernatural inhabitants of Allies-aligned countries gladly welcomed this call for help, for the most part, feeling threatened by the genocidal fury that had apparently invested their Axis-aligned "relatives". The Grand Mage Lodge of Albion first achieved contact with the British government in 1940, just after the narrow escape of the British Expeditionary Force in Dunkerque. Sending eccentric Arch Mage Alister Crowley as their representative, the Lodge managed to open a stable diplomatic channel with newly elected British PM Winston Churchill. Crowley proceeded to inform Churchill about the supernatural world in its finest details, touching on issues regarding the Masquerade and its recent breach on part of Germany's supernatural community, and the need for Britain and other Allied powers to start taking advantage of their own occult arsenal.
The results of this historic meeting would be vital for the survival of the UK. Through the framework of the SOE, Britain started recruiting volunteers from its wealthy occult underground. Mages, witches, vampires and werewolves alike joined the ranks of commando teams employed in what were dubbed "Shadow Ops": secret operations aimed at occult enemy targets which weren't enough for mundane special forces to handle. Always in Britain, the ancient knightly order known as the Round Table resurfaced, supplying the state with its members, skilled hand-to-hand warriors using enchanted weaponry and plate armor. Many supernatural individuals were also recruited from other nations of the Empire.
This proved to be a great boon to Britain: when the Axis finally attempted an aerial invasion of the Isles through the use of massive Zeppellin transport craft, it found itself repelled by an unexpectedly prepared Britain and her arsenal of state-of-the-art aircraft, Witch squadrons and counter-magic spells. Operation Seeloewe, the Nazi plan to swiftly end any opposition to their reign in Europe, had failed.
Even after the British triumph, the war continued to stall. By 1941, Britain found herself locked into battle with Germany and Italy for the control of her territories in Africa, still suffering from enduring German bombing blitzes on her major cities. Meanwhile, on the other side of Europe, the uneasy secret non-belligerance pact between Nazi Germany and the USSR came to a swift end after the former invaded Soviet land as a part of what came to be called Operation Barbarossa.
The USSR, a communist dictatorship led by a Georgian-born follower of the late Vladimir Lenin, found itself put at a great disadvantage by Germany's occult-powered military. In the precedent decades, the materialistic Bolshevik governments of the USSR had purged the majority of its supernatural population, fearing their hostility to the revolutionary ideals and attachment to old, reactionary traditions.
Even then, the Soviets had since found a completely party-compliant way to solve their lack of supernatural beings: Psionics. Russian researcher Semion Davidovich Kirlian discovered in the 30s that all material objects possessed an aura which could be manipulated by some humans with a particular set of neural abilities, permitting them to access the power of reading minds, moving objects with their thought and other psionic feats, without having to resort to magic.
The USSR used their psionics research and other bizzarre, scientifical weaponry to face the German invasion, leading to long and bloody battles. Even then, the harsh conditions the country versed in forced Stalin to collaborate with Britain and Free France's Shadow Ops programs, pooling their own talent in the shared Allied assets.
However, 1941 would have ended with a last unexpected surprise. An happening which shocked a whole nation, and may have definitely changed the course of the war.
Under the directions of Congress, The United States of America had remained sharply isolationist in foreign policy since Hitler had taken power in Germany, much to the chagrin of President Roosevelt, an outspoken opponent of the Nazi regime. The Mages' Grand Lodge of the Americas itself preferred to remain neutral, not wanting to get caught up in Albion and Germania Lodge's conflict.
This isolationism ended on 7 December 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Navy, aided by mysterious seaborne creatures, laid waste to the US Navy base in Pearl Harbour as a part of an attack aimed at crippling the capabilities of the US Pacific Fleet, the only possible opponent to Japanese naval dominance in the Pacific. The Day of Infamy spelt the end of US isolationism and the awakening of a sleeping giant.
The US officially entered the war on the side of the allies, supplying its large arsenal, technological and magical, to the war effort. Other than the array of American supernatural individuals and creatures recruited into Shadow Ops squads, the US also revealed the product of a series of secret pre-war experiments: the Minuteman supersoldiers, men of unbreakable will and immense strength who voluntereed to have their physical abilities boosted to superhuman levels.
By the end of 1941, the war had finally reached its top momentum. Shadow Ops Commandos, composed by mundane and supernatural individuals of every nationality, creed and even gender and ethnicity possible regularly undertook dangerous mission deep in Axis territory, facing the dangerous spawn of the forces of occult and of perverted Nazi science.
This is the story of one of such squads, fighting a war beyond simple human comprehension.
A war...that lit the World On Fire.
Inhabitants of a World On Fire
VAMPIRES:The Red Progeny of Cain
Call them Caininites, Antediluvians or Strigoi, Vampires remain one of the most ancient species on the planet, claiming descendance from the Biblical Cain himself. Lore aside, they're certainly the apex predators of the supernatural world: blood-sucking creatures bestowed with unnatural strength and resilience, incapable of aging, agile and able in hiding their true identity from unwary mundanes. Vampires possess elongable, sharp canine fangs which can rapidly burrow in the veins of a living being and suck them dry, even though most vampires will just savour a few gallons before detaching themselves from their prey. Completely drying a victim will transform them into a ghoul, a walking corpse prone to violence and with a taste for human flesh, only to decay in the span of a week.
Vampires need blood to survive and mantain a youthless appearance. The sources can vary, and vampires tend to have some favourite ones. Werewolf blood, or the blood of a particularly special human, are considered delicatessen by vampires. The former usually whips them into a crazed state reminescent of the one of an hard drug user. Other than that, blood is also consumed by vampires when healing from wounds or regenerating lost limbs, or when using the common vampiric ability of turning into fine mists or swarms of bats. Speaking of which, a vampire can be killed only when decapitated AND staked in the heart. Simply committing only one of the two actions will merely put the vampire in a state of slumber up until the stake is removed or the head is re-attached. Alternatively, vampires will quickly decay into dust when completely drained of their blood reserves, either in the space of a few nights, or instantly if exposed to a direct source of sunlight.
Sunlight doesn't kill vampires. It weakens their powers and highlights their proverbial paleness and other features which can give off their real identity when examined by a trained eye. Other weaknesses include cold iron and silver which, either in the form of weapons or bullets, will provoke deep and hard-to-heal wounds, albeit not directly killing them. Garlic can scramble an untrained vampire's senses and throw them in a status of confusion. Finally, vampires have a very cat-like relationship with water, and prefer to sleep into enclosed spaces surrounded by homeland soil, which is apparently quite relaxing for them.
Vampires have inert genitals, and reproduce by introducing a little quantity of their own blood in the bloodstream of a feeding victim, which will be turned into a vampire in the space of a few weeks. Fledgling vampires are usually in a weakened state, and need large quantities succor from their vampiric progenitors before eventually becoming accustomed to their new condition and learning to hunt for their own blood. Due to this, vampires tend to sire only a single "child" at the time, which is one of the main reasons for their dwindling numbers.
Vampires have a dynastic hierarchy, with a Vampiric Progenitor of multiple Vampiric Children ruling over what is called a "Countship", consisting in himself, their Children, dignitaries and assorted allies and based in a given territory. Famed Count Vlad Tepes ruled one of the most active Countships in Europe before being killed in Britain by a group of vampire hunters led by Doctor Van Helsing.
Vampires are a competitive race, prone to get in territorial conflicts with rival vampires, and with werewolves, their natural opponents. They're generally ambivalent towards humans, seeing them mostly as a simple source of nourishment or, in the case of Mages and Witches, as people to keep themselves away from. That said, "animal-only" or simply filoanthropic vampires aren't that uncommon.
Axis-aligned vampires mostly come from Countships in Germany, Romania and Hungary. They are mostly motivated by a mix of racial supremacistic views towards other supernatural beings, a wish to see the "impure" vampires of other countries perish, and pure bloodlust. Allied-aligned vampires come from multiple countries, mostly the US and France (Great Britain once had a sizeable population, but it dwindled after Dracula generated an anti-vampire scare in the late 19th Century. British vampires still exist, and they don't exactly think greatly of hunters). American vampires are usually stereotyped as particularly sociable, much less stuffy and carefree than their continental brethren. A common stereotype is, for some reason, Cajun or otherwise New Orleansian heritage. French ones are instead seen as an aristocratic, somewhat decadent and self-centered bunch of snobs, likely to have some deep-seated ills against the Garou.
Adept at stealth and powerhouses in close combat, Vampires are a vital component of Shadow Ops commando teams. They're usually forced to become accustomed to the idea of working in close contact with werewolves.
WEREWOLVES: The Wrath of Primordial Nature
The theories on the origin of Were-kind are quite controversial. Many clans claim heritage from ancient Moon deities, others think of themselves as manifestations of the mythical personification of nature, Gaia, and some Mages even think of them as a missing step in humankind's evolution. No one can be sure.
At their core, werewolves and other werecreatures are humans cursed (or gifted, depending on what you think of it) with the peculiar condition of periodically transforming into humanoid wolf-men possessing absurd strength, inhuman resilience and an imperishable rage.
A common misconception is that werewolves transform only under the full moon. Rather, this is only the period of time when a transformation is more likely. Werewolf can attempt to transform whenever in eye contact with lunar light, or when enduring heavy stress and emotional trauma.
Speaking of which, werewolves have three main forms: their human one, the wolf-man form, and the wolf form. The last one turns the werewolf into an oversized but otherwise normally looking wolf. The bestial forms are very hard to control, but werewolves can at least distinguish allies from enemies, provided they marked them before.Even in their human form, werewolves tend to be uncommonly hairy, or at least have some sharp, almost lupine features, like a long and thin nose, almost pointy ears. They age at a slower pace than normal humans, but contrary to vampires, can actually die of old age. Werewolves can either reproduce sexually (the curse is also hereditary) or carry out the curse by biting someone and leaving them alive during a full moon night.
Werewolves can theoretically be killed like normal living beings, but their resistant hide will turn most weapon fire and blade cuts into simple flesh wounds. However, silver bullets happen to penetrate their skin very well, and can be lethal if they reach vital organs. Untrained Werewolves can be confused or drugged to sleep with extracts from the plant known as wolfsbane, and will instantaneously be knocked back into an human form if they ever happen to be knocked unconscious during combat.
Werewolves can regenerate lost limbs, albeit in an unusual manner: if maimed when in bestial form, the wolf will regenerate their lost limbs when turning back into their human form, and will too retain them during any subsequent transformation to a bestial form. Their favourite diet consists in raw meat consumed in bestial form.
Wolves live together in Clans led by an Alpha, usually the strongest, wisest or oldest werewolf in the clan. Clans, in a similar way to vampire Countships, behave like enlarged families striking a claim to a territory. While vampires usually prefer establishing their territories in urban areas, werewolves prefer the rural country and the backwoods. Like the rest of the supernatural world, they are often involved in conflicts for the control of new turf or to repay blood debts with rival Clans, or vampires. Just like their enemies, they harbor a distrust or even fear towards Mages, Witches and other human practitioners of the occult. Faeries and other natural spirits are probably the only supernatural beings the Clans respect.
Solitary werewolves are not uncommon. These lone wolves tend to either be crazed killers who rebelled to tight Clan laws on consumption of human beings (most Clans limit or even ban it, fearing repercussions by Hunters), or young werewolves seeking to form a new clan, or just try and live like the humans do.
Axis-aligned werewolves mostly hail from the Clans of the Black Forest, headed by the pro-Nazi Schwarzwald Clan. The werewolves of Schwarzwald are infamous for their violent tactics, human meat consumption and their outspoken belief of the natural inferiority of non-German clans. They commonly adopt Norse lore in their rituals, and worship the mythical wolf Fenris as a god-like figure. Italy's werewolves clans are instead headed by the Sons of Mars, Roman Empire aficionados.
Allies-aligned werewolves come from a wealth of countries. Of note are the Garous of France, the Scots-Irish Armstrong Clan (present in cadet branches in American and Australian territory) , the Wendigos of Canada, the Bunyips of Australia and several different clans in the continental US, either descending from European or Native American werewolf clans.
Other werecreatures also exist in secluded parts of the world: the Soviets almost entirely purged the werebear clans of Rus', now rumoured to be hiding deep in Siberian woods. Meanwhile, some even talk of ancients clans of "jaguar-men" living deep in the jungles of Yucatan, in Allies-aligned Mexico...
With their physical prowess and endurance, other than a fine attunement to nature (werewolves have a very sharp sense of smell and some degree of night vision), werewolves too are vital members in Shadow Ops commando squads. They'll be usually reluctant to work next to vampires and hunters of their own kind.
MAGES: Scholars Of The Occult
"Mage" derives from the Latin Magus, feminine form Maga, plural form Magi. Originally a term used to designate Oriental wise men, it eventually became a catch all term for the human practitioners of magic arts. Magi are individuals that, either due to heredity or pure chance, can manipulate and bend the fabric of reality by using the all-permeating life force known as Mana or Prana.
Magecraft is a deeply varied field: its applications are multiple, ranging from elemental magic, to illusionism, alchemy, summoning sorcery, runic magic, necromancy and other secret arts. Mages are also divided over deep cultural and ethnic lines. Here are the main ones, which made the most impact in WW2.
Hermetic Magic
When someone says "Magus", they're most likely speaking about followers of Hermetes Trismegistus' philosophy of magic: the rational, scientific pursuit of deeper knowledge about the fundamental elements of the world and the further refination and development of the techniques of Magecraft. With its roots in the magical traditions of Roman Europe, influenced by the ones of the Near East and ancient Egypt, Hermetist Magic is currently the most practised form of Magecraft in the Western World.
Before the Masquerade, Hermetic Magi acted as advisors and court wizards for mythic heroes and kings. Surely you must have heard of Merlin Ambrosius. They often had a deep influence in politics and public matter, which endured even after the start of the Masquerade. After all, mages are humans at heart: they really can't help it.
Hermetic Magic consists of carefully constructed spells (rigorously in Latin), wands to better direction and channel Prana, words of power uttered to launch spells or boost existing ones. Spells are constructed from a basic Latin forums, highlighting the nature of the spell, its functions and its modus operandi. As such, a great workload is spent carefully memorising formulas and sequences, and developing quick or useful constructions. That said, everyone always resorts to the simple "Creo Ignis" (Make Fire) in one moment or another.
Hermetic Magi group themselves in individual ateliers and workshops, which are governed by provincial lodges, which in turn are governed by regional lodges and finally by national Grand Lodges. This complex framework is supposed to provide a mutual platform for mages to pursue their research undisturbed, without breaching the Masquerade, and providing security from internal rivalries. They haven't always succeeded in their propositions. Grand Lodges are directed by a council of Arch Mages ceremonially presided by a Magister or Grand Mage.
Hermetists put great emphasis on study. Young members of Magi bloodlines are either raised and educated in their own household, or sent to study in Lodge-approved institutions. Stereotypically, a perfect Hermetic Mage is workaholic, quantitative, cynical and snobbish. Alchemists regularly boast that their particular field is particularly hard due to having to take account of hard chemistry in addition to the usual amount of physics and metaphysics involved in Magecraft.
Hermetics are present all over Western Europe and in many territories of the British Empire. Axis-aligned Magi belong to the Grand Lodges of Germania and Italia, the former being more prestigious than the latter. Germania is famed for its specialization in runic magic, alchemy and for continuing their research on the ancient Vril-ya civilization and their long-lost Vril energy.. It is headed by Archmagus Karl Maria Wiligut.
The Allies can count on the historic Grand Lodge of Albion, which is currently one of the pivotal institutions in the occult war between the two alliances. It is led by the Ambrosius (a ceremonial title for Magister) Ernest Arthur Rowling, and his close advisor and right-hand man Aleister Crowley. Historically, Albion had covertly influenced Britain's rise to power in the 19th Century, working to stamp out indigenous magic beliefs in the colonies. The Grand Lodge supervises and mantains several magical academis in the Isles and in other Commonwealth territories.
Other important Grand Lodges are the ones of Gallia (France), currently split between the Free French and Vichy forces, and the Grand Lodge of America Septentrionalis (or just North America), famous for the unorthodox tactics and behaviour assumed by its members, derisively called Colonials by Albion mages. Albion also mantains a presence in South Africa, India, Australia and the Japanese-occupied British territories of Hong Kong and Singapore.
Hebrew Kabbalah
The ethnical, hereditary mysticism of the Jewish people is known as Kabbalah, a system of formulas and concepts meant to aid Rabbis and their Yeshiva students in the process of understanding and controlling the secrets of YHWH's emanations in the living universe. By using the mathematical science known as Gematria, Kabbalists are capable of understanding the true nature and name of a given object or element, and bend it to their will. Famously, the Jewish Rabbis of Europe focused on and mastered the manipulation of clay, the perfect mixture between liquid water and solid earth, and used it to animate living beings known as Golems. The capability of shaping and animating objects and inert materials into living beings is the most unique thing about Kabbalah, something which no other magical tradition has ever achieved, but which many have desired.
As such, the Hermetics of Europe always harboured a deep envy and distrust towards Jewish magicians, angry for their incapability to fully access the concepts of the Tree of Life and fearing that the Hebrew people could have easily raised armies which would have destroyed all the Lodges of Europe. Even then, Kabbalah prospered in the Jewish ghettos and sthetls of the past, and a little part of it was exported to faraway lands in the most recent centuries. Kabbalistic rabbis were often accused of creating human-like golems to further secret aims of conquest and domination over gentiles, hiding behind their apparently pacifistic and reserved natures.
Hermetists considered them outsiders and banished them from lodges, openly permitting other Hermetic mages to try and steal Kabbalistic secrets or even attempt assassinassions on Rabbis and their yeshivas. This enmity endured up to the mid 19th century, but resumed in the aftermath of WW1. With the rise of Nazism and the subsequent Backstab Myth popularized by Hitler's party, Jews and kaballists by extensions became open target for crimes and injuries motivated by hate or opportunism.
As of 1941, most European kaballists are missing. Reports flow from Poland about "death camps" were Jewish prisoners are starved and worked to death, or sent off to "industrialized killing chambers", which may also house captured Kaballists. The Allied High Command has been mostly dismissing them as exaggerations made by a tired and helpless Polish Resistance in an attempt to get further aid against Nazi occupation, but the overnight detainment and disappearance of many Jews has raised some degree of suspicion among Allied ranks.
Some Kaballists serve in the Shadow Ops squads, mostly hailing from American yeshivas, or refugees from Nazi persecution in the European mainland.
Vril Energy
Vril Energy is the long-lost magical power source of the fabled Vril-ya subterranean people of Hyperborea-Thule. An highly advanced civilization, possibly descending from the people of Atlantis, the Vril-ya refuged themselves in the depths of the Earth after an unknown calamity, their traces lost forever. Germania Lodge mages first, and the Nazis themselves later have tried multiple times to find the access to the subterannean kingdom of the Vril-ya and its capital Agarthi with several expeditions. The results were mixed, but apparently some German magi managed to find a way to produce Vril or at least extract it from the underground and make use of it. Vril-powered vehicles and weaponry are a commonf feature of the wonderweapons in the occult-empowered Axis military.
Vril practitioners, if they even exist, use staves imbued with great destructive power. If they actually exist, they're probably firmly on the side of the Germans.
Onmyodo
Onmyoji are the Japanese equivalent of Mages. The practitioners of this oriental art make use of rectangles of paper called Ofuda, imbued with Japanese inscriptions which permit them to cast protect wards, offensive spells or even summon the natural guardian spirits known as Shikigami. They also make use of Kujin, words of power which can strengthen the force of a blow or generate pranatic blasts.
Onmyodo practitioners are a regular feature in the occult forces of Imperial Japan.
Ki-Based Martial Arts
Martial Arts are present in multiple cultures around the world. However, in China and in other far eastern countries these fearsome fighting techniques also carried a deep spiritual, mystic and philosophical baggage. Secluded monastic orders like the Shaolin took it one step further, and integrated a particular form of close-ranged magecraft in their own styles, focused on the manipulation of the pranatic force known as Ki or Chi. Usually, Ki is manifested in the form of augmented blows or blasts of projected energy. Another common technique is the use of special physical pressure points to trigger painful reactions in a target.
Martial Artists are common in the ranks of Allied countries like China, Indochina and Vietnam, and some of them even found their way to Shadow Ops squads.
Spiritual Magic/Shamanism
Shamanism refers to all the traditions pertaining the primordial worship of nature and its forces, be it Druidic paganism, Native American totemism or Russian folk magic. All forms of Magecraft rooted in these ancient rituals are part of the label. Shamans have largely gone extinct in Europe, but they thrive in Native American and First People reserves, in Yucatan and the Amazons, in the Aboriginal homelands in the Australian outback, in various parts of French and British Africa and in some parts of the USSR.
Shamanism is looked down by adherents to Hermetic magic, and considered an uncultured and primitive brand of Magecraft. Sometimes, more organized but still exotic forms of magic, like many Oriental traditions, are derisively referred to as Shamanism.
Chtonic Knowledge
Not much is known about Chtonic Magecraft, a term invented by the American magus and novella writer H.P. Lovecraft. A professor of the Miskatonic Magical Institute in New England, Lovecraft developed articulate theories (or ramblings, if you want to think of them as that) about ancient extraterrestrial gods sleeping in the depths of the ocean and their imminent and catastrophic return.
The Grand Lodge of America eventually fired him, both tired and disturbed by his ideas. After Lovecraft tried to distribute them to mundanes through the use of novels and short stories, the Grand Lodge decided to authorise an hit on him to avoid breaking the Masquerade. Lovecraft was implanted with an experimental alchemical toxin, which would have covertly broken his body down in a period of time.
Lovecraft inexplicably survived the effects of the toxin, and disappeared from public life. A Lodge raid on his home found it unoccupied, its library almost completely emptied. Most importantly, a large pedestal made from what seemed to be human bones was laid in the centre of the room, apparently the former shrine of a tome greatly prized by the mysterious magus...
All in all, mages, with their particular set of abilities and useful magical knowledge are another vital part of Shadow Ops squads. Hermetic ones are likely to harbour an haughty or highly dignified opinion of themselves, and look down upon mundanes and other supernatural alike. Hermetists don't blend well with Witches, but they're at least on speaking terms.
WITCHES: Magical Maidens of the Pagan Nights
The origin of Witches is shrouded in antiquity. Ever since the dawn of civilization, female priestesses and shamans from all parts of the Western World paid tribute to the ancient forces of nature and to the ancestral magics that resided in them. Be them Greek, Celtic, Italian or from somewhere else, the progenitors of modern witches continued to practise their peculiar form of nature magic even with the encroaching shadow of Christianity looming over them and defaming them as satanic worshippers or devious occultists.
Witchcraft is inherently feminine, qualitative, communitarian and grounded into a spiritualistic view of magic and its connotations. This puts it at odds with the cold, harsh scientific nature of Hermetic Magecraft and the individualistic outlook of many of its practitioners. Witches will take great offense if mistook for a female Maga, and the reverse will also happen.
Witches organize themselves in Covens, groups of highly variable sizes which are usually bound together by close familiar, emotive and/or social ties. Covens in Europe are usually governed by an inner council of elder witches, while American covens adopt a democratical, meeting-based structure. Covens offer refuge, mentoring and supplies to its members, and preside over the weekly Sabbath feast, and seasonal holidays such as Beltane, also called Walpurgisnacht in mainland Europe.
Similarly to mages, witches inherit their magical attunement from their parents. Unlike Magecraft, Witchcraft's focus is not on bending and manipulating nature to do one's bidding, but collaborating with it to reach a common goal. As such, they usually excel in elemental magic, potion brewing and in animal husbandry. Notably, almost every witch possesses a familiar, a benevolent, loyal servant spirit which takes the form of a mundane animal. Cats and ravens are especially popular. Witches are renowned for their ability to fly through the use of specially treated brooms. A veteran witch's flying speed can rival the one of a modern Spitfire fighter plane.
Due to their pagan origins, many Witches have a distrusting or even somewhat hostile attitude towards Abrahamic faiths such as Christianity, due to an history of persecution and defamation at the hands of both Catholics and Protestants alike. Even then, Christian witches are not an oddity: the pagan Witch Cult, with its emphasis on the Golden Rule analogue called the Rede, can be sharply syncretic in religious matters. Even if it is mostly considered a smear dating back to the Middle Ages, the claim that Witches are Satan-worshippers is not always untrue: several fringe groups and covens have incorporated an ominous devotion to Christianity's daemonical adversary, out of a want of revenge against the abuse suffered by Witchdom during the ages. Most mainstream covens take an highly dim view of such Luciferian cults.
Outside of their coven lives, Witches, just like Magi, are encouraged to also live a more mundane, ordinary lifestyle. Their usually free-spirited, gently rural outlook on romantic matters has been the material of quite many bawdy folk songs. Witches stereotypically wear pointy hats and dark or earth-toned colours, but it's not always the case.
The witches of the Western World are divided in several different agglomerates of covens. Of note is the Scandinavian-Germanic one of Central Europe, one of the oldest in the world, along with the neighbouring Italian and French ones. British withcraft, while similar to Germanic one, is even less Christianized and puts a major emphasis on ancient traditional customs such as the Beltane festival. American witches instead come from a mixed Germano-British cultural heritage, mixed with influences from the mundane world of the colonies. A sharply American version of Beltane is usually performed every May Day in the renowned town of Salem.
The rise of Nazism threw the witching world in a deep turmoil, which culminated with the incident of "Walpurgisnacht '39", in which infamous German coven leader and Nazi symphatizer Gretchen Faust overthrew all the councils of the nation with the aid of several loyal conspirators, and enacted a purge of dissidents and foreign envoys sent there to monitor the status of German Witchdom.
Her magical powers mysteriously strengthened by the ensuing slaughter, Faust crowned herself the new Walpurgis, or Witch Queen, of Germania...
MINUTEMEN: Guardians of Freedom
The Minutemen were the curious but almost flawless result of extensive research on hormonal therapy and combat drugs performed by the United States during the 1930s. Even under isolationism, the higher ups of the US military staff pushed for covert research on new and innovative methods to wage warfare and strengthen the US's defensive capabilities in case of future clashes with the Axis.
One of said research programs was the Minuteman Project which, in light of recent developings in drug chemistry and in the understanding of human genetics and hormonal systems, was aimed at creating an highly performant brand of biologically augmented soldiers. The project faced a lot of difficulties: funding risked to run out quickly, the rising isolationist climate in the country made a good part of the DoD hostile to such a kind of blue sky research, and several dead ends and development issues troubled the scientists behind the project.
Even then, against all odds, a working "super serum" was eventually developed, giving satisfactory results when tested on animal subjects. Some even say that the whole project, which initially appeared to be scientifically unsound, was completed through the sheer willpower of the research team and their want to see an end to the tyrannical forces of fascism.
Eventually, the government gave its a-ok to a lenghty process aimed at selecting Minuteman candidates from the armed forces, putting emphasis on good psycho-physical conditions, average or above average IQ, particular combat aptitude and steadfast loyalty to the country. After pressure from the research teams, the DoD removed any racial barriers from the selection process. Due to the nature of the project, volunteers were preferred.
The selection process was harsh and, after months of training, the candidates had to undergo the greatest test: the augmentation process. A sizeable number of candidates was either wounded or even crippled by the procedure, with some dying after months spent in hospitalization, but a restricted quantity of them managed to survive through the process and succesfully receive augmentation. The first Minutemen were born.
A Minuteman is a biologically augmented supersoldier with peak/superhuman strength, dexterity and combat awareness. In addition to that, some sort of slow but handy healing factor has been observed in subjects who were succesfully exposed to the serum. When succesful, the augmentation process leads to sweeping changes in the physiology of the Minuteman: muscle mass is greatly raised, the bone structure is lenghtened and strenghtened, the production of adrenaline, testosterone and other performance hormones is also raised. The average Minuteman can lift up to 1,000 lbs, is 6 feet tall or more and gifted with a particular combat acumen and almost unbreakable willpower.
Unfortunately, the rising anti-interventionist climate in the US, coupled with the ethical and economical questions of the project led to its foreclosure in the late 1930s, with only about 60 Minutemen having been succesfully produced during its lifetime. Fears of the project's scientifical details being leaked to foreign powers eventually led to the government's confiscation of a sizeable part of the documents relative to the augmentation process and even the partial destruction of some of them. The Minutemen were moved to safe locations, secluded and hidden.
After the Pearl Harbour attacks of 1941, the American government frantically started re-activating all of its military assets in preparation for the coming conflict. The surviving Minutemen were among them: even in their scarcity of numbers, these superhuman soldiers remain an important asset for the Allied war machine, providing crucial aid to several covert and special operations.
Due to their strength, Minutemen can carry significantly heavier equipment than the average infantryman. The US Armed Forces specifically equipped them with heavier versions of standard issue ordnance, such as the .45 ACP Thompson M1A1 "Plus" or the Heavy BAR autorifle, and developed wearable flak jackets and other types of plated wear for them to use.
ESPERS: Psychic Champions of The People
Espers are the peculiar result of the USSR's policy of extreme materialism and negation of anything supernatural, and its dire need to find an efficient alternative to occult weaponry. This alternative came in the form of the discovery of the Kirlian Aura, an electro-magnetic field emitted by all living beings through psychic activity, which manifested in photo negatives under the form of swirly electrical discharges. Kirlian, the eponymous Soviet researcher who first discovered such a bizzare energy in the 30s, noticed that a select few individuals emitted a significantly bigger and shinier aura. Later on, he discovered that these people were unknowingly capable of paranormally interfering with objects and other living beings through their abnormally large, invisible aura. Later on, other Soviet researchers would dub these individuals "Espers".
Initially, the Politburo (and most importantly, Joseph Stalin) eyed such a phenomenon with great distrust. The USSR had just finished ultimating one of their many purges against the supernatural folk of Russia and other socialist republics, deeming it dangerous, only to discover that other strange beings apparently had slipped under their radar. The Espers only survived being purged when the party higher ups were soundly convinced that their powers were just inherent in human nature, and not borne out of occult workings, and Stalin himself realized the potential inherent in Esper-kind.
Through a covert selection process, the NKVD and other Soviet authorities began screening members of the Young Pioneers, the national youth movement of the Union, for Psionic potentials. Particularly gifted espers were eventually removed from the Pioneers and their families, and put under stade custody, to further attune and refine their powers and ensure that they pledged their service to the Union. Such abductions were covered up as scolarships grants, disappearances, adoptions and many other things.
The young Espers were trained in secluded academies, were they underwent several therapies, often psychological and drug-based in nature, to completely awaken their dormant psychic potential. Occasionally, shock terapy was administered to particularly resilient candidates, in an effort to lift any blocks to the unlocking of their powers. Espers were also expected to excel in gymnastics, combat skills and in at least one or two scientific fields, owing to the belief that higher psychic potential was directly proportional to an higher intelligence. Attempts to further indoctrinate Espers in Marxist ideals were also made, with mixed results: it turned out that an higher psionic potential did in fact correlate with good mental resilience and higher than average willpower. Esper abilities run a wide gamut, but they usually consists in telepathy, telekinesis, pyro or cryokinesis, medianic abilities, electrokynesis, levitation and dowsing. Usually, an Esper possesses one or two of these pschic skills
After being discreetly deployed in Poland as a part of the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the Espers had their first collective baptism of fire during Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi German invasion of the USSR. While suffering from high casualty rates, these psionic warriors made a lasting mark even against the most prominent of the occult forces employed by the Reich, and are regularly featured amongst the members of Allied Shadow Ops teams.
MUNDANES: The Dominant Species?
Call them mundanes, bumpkins, bloodsacks, warm meals or every other name, nothing changes the fact that the human race is the prominent species on this planet. However, its potential is divided by several ethnical, racial, cultural, national, political and religious divisions. Mundane Humans in the Shadow Ops squads come from different extractions: some can be simple but valiant soldiers, other can be hunters aware of the supernatural and out to fight its most evil aberrations, some can be cunning geniuses.
I guess there isn't much I can tell you about them that you don't already know, is it?
Nations of a World On Fire
AXIS POWERS
NAZI GERMANY: The Deutsches Reich
The central European country of Germany is the main catalyst behind the conflict which is now tearing the world in half. Battered and broken by an unexpected defeat in the Great War, the country went through one of its darkest political and economical periods, as the fledgling Weimar Republic struggled to keep stability in the country and making ends meet. The harsh social and political climate in the country fostered the rise of extremist ideologies, one of which ended up ultimately ruling the country: National Socialism.
A conservative-revolutionary movement with a strong emphasis on racial nationalism, extreme militarism and all-around chauvinism, Nazism and its supreme leader Adolf Hitler managed to slowly but surely rise to the Chancellorship of the nation, wisely manipulating the greater public's fear of encroaching Bolshevism, and fueling the so-called Backstab Myth and many other anti-Semitic canards, polarizing the views of the nation against a perceived Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy aimed at subverting the racial and moral integrity of the white Aryan, as the Nazis defined it, race.
Hitler's political and ideological potential didn't go unobserved in the German occult underworld: the magi of the Thule Germania Grand Lodge mostly applauded his revanchist and Germanically exceptionalist ideas, the vampire Counts of the Alps were greatly interested by the romantically conservative ideals of Nazi revolution and its implications on social hierarchy, the werewolf clans of the Black Forest found common ground in the Nazi ideas about the ideal, warlike Aryan and its objective superiority on the other races of the world, and the witch covens which congregated on Mount Brocken mostly found solace in Nazism's peculiar re-evaluation of the antique pagan creeds of Germany. Even then, many other supernatural beings openly dissented against the rising regime, either out of ideological or moral reasons, or simply out of a sincere want to keep the Masquerade unbroken. Many of these dissenters and rebel either found themselves exiled and banished from their kind, or even put to death and other terrible fates.
Eventually, most of the Arch Mages of Thule co-opted Hitler's rise to power, going as far as opening diplomatical channels with the newborn Third Reich, and gradually introducing it to the unseen wonders and horrors of the Masquerade, slowly but surely undoing it. Soon, other pro-Nazi supernatural groups pledged an open allegiance to the Regime. A few months after Hitler's election to Chancellor of Germany, the powers of the occult had already managed to completely enlighten the Reich about their existance.
By 1939, the Nazi Germany's military-industrial complex had succesfully managed to implement the occult and almost pseudo-scientific technology in its workings, with the discovery of the amazing power source known as Vril being one of its greatest developments. Vril, and other bizzarre types of weaponry, magical and not, permitted Germany to quickly onslaught over Poland, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands and France, while dealing harsh blows to the Soviet Unions as a part of Operation Barbarossa.
Germany's military, the Wehrmacht, is the product of a state's entire economy being focused on waging war against its arch-enemies. The Heer, its land-branch, is the main tool of destruction at the hands of the Regime: a solid backbone of well-trained infantry divisions armed with cutting edge semi-automatic rifles forms the infrastructure of an army focused on the use of efficient tank divisions, fearsome walking war machine and gargantuan armored platforms known as Landkreuzers and armed with deadly ordinary weaponry and more exotical ordnances, such as the Rheotron beam weapons or the aforementioned Vril ammunition and power sources. Last but not least, the Heer possesses a wealth of special units, ranging from the heavily armored Panzersoldaten, to the high flying Raketensoldaten and even occasional supernatural units like werewolf packs and small but deadly vampire commandos. While it is not unusual to see a supernatural being or practitioner of the occult arts assigned to Heer platoons and squads, it bears to note that the German Army remains a mostly conventional force, albeit one armed with cutting edge tech.
The Luftwaffe, created under Hitler himself, is the infamous air branch of the Reich's armed forces. Equipped with highly performing fighters and sturdy, terrifying bomber squadrons, the Luftwaffe dominates the skies of Europe, bringing terror in the minds of civilians and soldiers alike. Even more infamous are the Witch Squadrons, or Hexensgeschwaderen, serving under it: flying atop of their incredibly fast brooms, these sorceresses of the sky have earned grudging respect or everlasting hatred from their Allied rivals. Recently, the Luftwaffe has been researching new methods to harness recent technological advances in the knowledge of so-called "Duct Engines"
While not as prominent as the other two services, the Kriegsmarine is well known for its shifty, paranoically efficient submarine units known as the Wolfpacks, the bane of Allied resource routes in the Atlantic. The good combat record of the relatively small navy branch, which has begun to adopt water mages in its ranks, is probably one of the main reasons why the German miliary higher ups tend to overlook the not particularly Nazi-ish nature of the navy.
Last but definitely not least is the Waffen-SS. While the Heer could be called the iron hand of the Nazi State, the Waffen-SS units are the spiked steel gauntlet of the Nazi Party, a part-elite, part-fanatic cadre of combatants who hold steadfast loyalty to Hitler and the ideals of racism, especially racial theory. Their likeliness to commit war crimes against those deemed inferior by the Party is so heinous that even the not quite clean Heer is sometimes shocked by their actions. If the Wehrmacht is a tool of conquest, the SS are a tool of extermination, humiliation and destruction.
At the deep, dark heart of the SS lies Ahnenerbe, a covert cadre where the Reich pooled some of its most skilled and ruthless individuals, occult and not. Armed with the best equipment, weaponry and manpower pools the Reich has to offer, Ahnenerbe is Nazi Germany's premier tool of supernatural warfare. SS Divisions with ties to such a shadowy group are usually seen fielding a wealth of inhuman troops in battles, ranging from surgically augmented monstrosities known as Ubersoldaten, to battalions of ghoulified soldiers and elite human troops clad in Vril-powered armor.
Ahnenerbe also conducts research on occult artifacts and fringe science, staging several expeditions to remote parts of the world to search for ancient magical relics or more Vril sources, and conducting unethical experiments to further their aims. Most importantly, they also serve as the Nazi Regime's greatest line of defense and offence against Allied Shadow Ops commandos and other enemy supernatural threats.
Currently, Nazi German troops are heavily deployed in Northern Africa, aiding Fascist Italian troops in their attempt to destroy any British presence in the area, and in the Eastern Front against the USSR, as a part of ongoing Operation Barbarossa. The rest of Europe is occupied by Heer troops, who harshly exert their dominion with the help of puppet governments and military governors.
According to the Polish Resistance, the SS has been systematically removing European Jews from the ghettos of occupied territories, transferring them to unknown locales which, according to rumours, function as "harsh work camps and factories" for their prisoners. Allied Command has frequently overlooked these reports, even judging part of them as simply an attempt of the Polish Underground to elicit more help and aid for their nation. Some British mages have advanced the hypotesis that it may be the part of a heinous pagan sacrificial ritual against those perceived as impure by the occult members of the Regime...but the truth is likely much more mundane and horrific.
