There have been some questions about the perception of magic and mysticism in the world of Calamity, the following is meant to help convey our vision of how the world at large views supernatural concepts. We intend for this to help guide players when creating character histories and interacting with the supernatural in game.
In the world in which we have set Calamity, everyone believes in magic… and nobody believes in magic.
By this we mean that most people believe that magic and the supernatural exist, but few would expect to actually see it and if they did it would probably shock and frighten them.
If you asked the average person on the street of an American city if they believe in magic they might say yes, that their cousin’s friend was cursed by a witch, and that is why he fell from a ladder. And did they not themselves see “Alakazam, the Mesmerist” at a theater last week.
However, if you were to summon an extra planar being or throw a bolt of lightning in front of them they would most like wet themselves or run screaming into the night.
Professor Robert Lockhurst* summed this up nicely when he said:
“The 19th century is routinely thought about as the era of secularization, a period when the disciplines and institutions of modern science were founded and cultural authority shifted from traditional authority of religion to explanation through the scientific exposition of natural laws.
While we might still accept the broad brush strokes of this story, the Victorian period is also of course a period of deep and sustained religious revival. There was an evangelical revival in the Church but also a host of dissenting, heterodox and millenarian cults. It was a golden age of belief in supernatural forces and energies, ghost stories, weird transmissions and spooky phenomena.
In fact, it is much easier to grasp the religious and scientific strands of the century as closely intertwined. Every scientific and technological advance encouraged a kind of magical thinking and was accompanied by a shadow discourse of the occult. Because the advances in science were so rapid, the natural and the supernatural often became blurred in popular thinking, at least for a time. And no area of the culture of the time was left untouched by this interplay of science and magic.”
Mysticism in Calamity
For purposes of the game rules we have published information about the various Mysticisms that are most prominent in our world, but it is important to note that the average person does not know the intricacies of these practices. The uninitiated could not tell you the difference between Theurgy and Manteia.
People who practice “magic” are generically referred to as sorcerers, magicians, occultists, witches, etc. When submitting histories, it will be better to use a generic term for a mystical opponent and allow our staff to help fill in a game world appropriate opponent.
The line between belief systems and magic is also very blurred. An average person may regularly attend services at an Ohmian Church, but belief is easy when you are listening to miracles and battles vs. evil that took place centuries ago. Seeing a Church of the Deliverer faith healer may either solidify a person’s faith, or convince them that the healer has made some bargain with an infernal power.
The religious texts and beliefs of this time also use generic terms for the evil entities; demons, devils, dark gods, etc.
Spritualism
Those that can communicate with the dead also use a variety of terms; spirits, ghosts, haunts, etc. Remember, the time period in which we are playing was the height of the Spiritualism movement.
Again Professor Lockhurst: “In the turbulent, revolutionary year of 1848, a new religious movement emerged from the melting pot of upstate New York. The young Fox sisters had claimed to have come into contact with the unquiet spirit of a murdered man in their house, who communicated with them by loud knocks on wood. This very local sensation (later shown to be a fraud) was the origin point for the Spiritualist movement, which elaborated a method of communicating with the dead in séances through mediums.
Although communication with spirits was strictly forbidden in the Bible, this became a popular form of dissenting belief, a ‘proof’ of the survival of bodily death in an era that demanded empirical testing and experiment. The spirits would exchange banal but comforting messages with loved ones; some would elaborate extensively on the social and political institutions of the afterlife, called Summerland by some.
In 1852, the American medium Mrs. Hayden came to London to conduct séances with many of the great and good of London society. Spiritualism found particular favor in the industrial north of England, where dissenting religion was already strong. Importantly, it contested doctrines of eternal damnation for a much more liberal conception of the afterlife.
Many men of science were also converts, most famously the evolutionary theorist Alfred Russel Wallace, partly because Spiritualism was consistently figured in terms of new magical technologies like the telegraph or telephone.”
Magical Societies
The late 19th century spawned a large number of mystical organizations, including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, and specifically magical variants on Freemasonry. Calamity will have a large number of secret societies and mystical orders that will be available for players based on their histories or in game actions.
The Calamity
The Calamity itself is the most significant supernatural event in written history. Many believe it was the wrath of Ohm, a punishment of the spirits or the powers of the afterlife pushing through. Others believe it was a natural series of events brought on by the proximity of Coggia’s Comet that caused unusual, but natural, disasters.
There are rumors that organizations like the Pinkerton's, the Shackleford Outfit, and even the Texas Rangers engage in the hunting of monsters, but most folk know that's just gossip...
Then again, many people will have experienced strange things since the Calamity, and rumors have it that things get weirder as you go west...
*Roger Luckhurst is Professor of Modern Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is a specialist in Late Victorian literature, Gothic and Science fiction literature and film, and the history of the supernatural. Information for this article was taken from https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-victorian-supernatural and edited for brevity.
