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underside-archive · 11 days

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An Overview of the setting.

Underside (originally a placeholder title, but one that ended up sticking) is an urban fantasy setting that I have been working on since the mid 2010s. It has gone through numerous reworks in that time, but as it stands, the setting is based around a series of core assumptions.

(Though for the purposes of tumblr rp I tend to tone these down, and it is not required to engage with any of them in order to interact with my characters)

The first is that following the first modern research into the occult during world war two and the cold war, the existence of the supernatural became increasingly difficult to hide from humanity over time. As society transitioned into the digital age, cameras became too common, and the flow of information became harder and harder to suppress. While a great deal was and still is hidden from the public, the idea that humanity is alone on earth could not be maintained forever. Ironically, the proliferation of generative AI in the 21st century has begun to blur the boundaries of what is believable again, but the damage has already been done, and the veil of secrecy is full of holes.

The second is that much like our knowledge of the natural world, human knowledge of the supernatural has never been entirely accurate. Throughout history humans have had all kinds of outlandish beliefs about various real creatures, and here the same holds true when venturing into the realms of the unreal and illogical. As a result, the supernatural beings in Underside, while based on real world mythology and folklore, are usually not 1 to 1 recreations of it, and are often given original tweaks to fit the setting.

The third is that, in the grand scheme of universal metaphysics, earth, and by extension humans, are not that important. Certainly they have value, there is a reason demons trade in souls and faeries steal children, but there are dozens of alternate planes of existence, and among them earth is often considered a bit of a backwater. This is part of why so many various supernatural beings can be found on earth. Its unimportance makes it an easy place to vanish if you don't want to be found, and the lack of immediate resistance makes it easy for visitors from other realms to set up shop once they arrive.

Earth's relative obscurity has some advantages for humanity as well. Earth has so far managed to avoid direct involvement in any of the various interdimensional wars that have occurred throughout the setting's history, and its strategic unimportance makes it an unlikely target for direct conquest. But should some larger supernatural polity decide that they wanted it, humanity's ability to put up a fight would be limited, and the foundations of reality would likely not be shaken by the world changing hands.

[more to be added later]

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