The hidden world
Edge of the World
Ancient rivalries in a world that is beginning to notice
The factions of Axis Prime have spent centuries protecting their interests, nursing grievances, and contesting one another’s power. They can bargain when necessity demands it, but lasting compromise is difficult. Few are willing to place their own needs second for long, and agreements are tested whenever the balance of advantage changes.
Divisions within
The Bloodlines carry their own struggle over authority. Ancient Blood Lords defend tradition and vampiric supremacy, while rebellious Blood Borne resist the control of their elders. Their shared nature does not prevent clandestine attacks, betrayal, or competing visions of their future.
The Magi present a more orderly face. Behind the Magisterium’s authority, powerful figures compete for influence through politics as well as Magic. Their claim to govern the supernatural world makes independent powers a challenge to their standing, while internal rivalries complicate the unity they display to outsiders.
Feuds that outlive their beginnings
The Magi’s feud with Ronin began with a misunderstanding: they believed he was a Fire Mage. The conflict grew beyond that original mistake. The Style Assassins possess power the Magi do not control and refuse the authority the Magi would impose upon them.
The enmity between the Style Assassins and the Children is deeper still. Their purposes bring them into direct opposition, and encounters between them carry the weight of a long vendetta. The Hundred Thousand’s prohibition against Nameless alliances with the Children reflects that divide.
The Bloodlines also bear a particular hostility toward the Children and the Darcs. Blood Lords resent the Children’s life-force predation and regard them with contempt. Their animosity toward the Darcs creates another fault line in a world already crowded with rivals.
A truce under strain
The Children and the Magi maintain a tactical truce. Each has reason to avoid a direct war while pursuing its own ambitions, but neither is willing to accept the other’s unchecked dominance. An expansion of the Children’s control threatens Magi influence; a stronger Magi claim over the supernatural world threatens the Children’s freedom to act.
Their agreement is tested regularly. Cooperation can hold when it serves both sides, then weaken as priorities diverge. The existence of a truce does not mean the underlying hostility has been resolved.
The human world
Most ordinary humans, known to the supernatural factions as Normals, remain unaware of the powers moving among them. That ignorance is not universal.
Before public revelation, deeply compartmentalized human programs are already gathering evidence. Secret research departments study unexplained events, disappearances, and traces left by supernatural encounters. Scientists investigate unusual energy signatures, while trained operatives develop experimental tactics and countermeasures against beings they do not yet fully understand.
These are isolated, ultra-secret operations rather than a publicly directed government response. They operate beyond the Children’s knowledge and control. Their secrecy reaches so deep that even the President of the United States does not know about them.
Research brings dangers of its own. Experiments with supernatural forces can escape control, and a successful observation does not amount to a complete understanding of what was observed. Nevertheless, the work continues. Each recorded incident gives these hidden programs another opportunity to identify patterns and prepare.
An uncertain balance
Every visible clash leaves evidence. Every uncontrolled use of power creates another chance for someone outside the factions to recognize what is happening. While ancient enemies concentrate on one another, human investigators work with the traces they leave behind.
Public revelation has not yet occurred in this account. The factions still act within a concealed world, but they no longer have sole possession of its secrets. The people preparing beyond their knowledge are already part of the balance they believe they control.