Spectacle Macrocosm

Initial Notes
Spectacle's origin comes from a 2018 WoD chronicle set in modern Edinburgh. Some of the material like Bedlam and the Foundry came up because of that and there is/was a WoD version of Spectacle written in google doc files that was put together at the same time the Storygame System was being written. But this isn't a WoD system game and the setting is not canonical for CtD. It was heavily adapted to be its own setting and no one has to be at all familiar with Changeling the Dreaming or the WoD system to use it.



The Geography Of Spectacle
Spectacle takes place in a fictionalized version of the Scottish Lowlands, most especially the region surrounding Glasgow and Edinburgh. Edinburgh occupies a north-facing slope between the Pentland Hills and the Firth of Forth estuary, where it merges with the formally independent seaport of Leith. Arthur’s Seat dominates the city’s southeastern flank and it hides a gateway to Underhill and the local Seelie Court. Edinburgh is the more picturesque and cultured city. Glasgow straddles the River Clyde which is the most significant geological feature there. The Glasgow Necropolis on a low but very prominent hill to the east of Glasgow Cathedral hides a gateway to Underhill and the local Unseelie Court. Cairnpapple Hill virtually due center between the two, hides a third.

Playable Races
Spectacle has two playable races. Mundane human beings make up most of the population of Spectacle, several million in the Glasgow-Edinburgh region. 95-99% of them are completely oblivious to the presence of the other playable race, the Fae Folk. The Fae Folk have more than a dozen sub-races. Anything found in Scottish fairy lore is viable as a Fae Folk character. Because of the sheer diversity, some sample templates will be made for Session Zero, but troupe members are encouraged to add new templates as they get inspired to add new species of Fae Folk into the chronicle.

FLora & Fauna
Anything you'd find in the Real World biome, you'd find in the fictional terrestrial world of this chronicle. Fantastical plants and animals would be found Underhill, with those west of Cairnapple Hill being dark, spooky, and Unseelie and those east of Cairnapple Hill being bright, majestic and Seelie.

Cosmology/Mythology
The Fae Folk, also called the Aos-sídhe, Sìdhichean or fairies are the surviving gods of Pre-Christian Scotland. Underhill is a parallel reality still imbued with magic. The period between 400-600 AD saw the Fae Folk banished from the earth and they nearly went extinct. Over a long period of adaptation, the Fae Folk learned to survive on the flickers of human belief in them not as gods but fairies. Humans with a quality they simply called anam (soul) are claimed. The Seelie inspire; the Unseelie torture.

The way these two cities formed in places where the division between the terrestrial world and underhill was thin was not a coincidence, nor did the Fae Folk immigrate to the gates after the cities were built. Rather, the presence of such large courts in both places pulled on the human psyches and caused the cities to take the shape they did. As the cities established themselves, the Fae Folk learned to interact with them. As Christianity lost its influence over the human populations, as people began to consume greater and greater amounts of fiction and become "modern", the Fae Folk were able to slip among them, taking anam.