Supernatural Factions

Many supernatural “kinds”—wizards, vampires, faerie, etc.—are considered to belong to their own supernatural nation under the Unseelie Accords. (However, given the differences between the Vampire Courts, and the differences between the Summer and Winter Courts of Faerie, there are several separate ”nations” of vampires and faeries.)

Here’s a quick run-down of the major factions in play.

(For further details on the nature of each of these types of beings, see What Goes Bump in the Night. For discussions of specific individuals, see Who’s Who in the Dresdenverse.)

The Roman Catholic Church

While many priests believe in the Devil, only a handful have accurate information on the Prince of Darkness, much less the various Vampire Courts or the Faerie Courts. The general attitude of clued-in people in the Church is that anyone involved with the supernatural is either evil or sliding that way, with few exceptions.

A scattering of priests, monks, nuns, affiliated laymen and others know and stand sentinel against the darkness. Few of them have any real skill with magic, but some have particular areas of knowledge or individual alliances with supernatural factions. For example, the Knights of the Cross (though their calling comes from a higher source than any mortal religion) is strongly associated with a faction within the Church, which provides what support they can for the Knights.

Mortals

Mortals aren’t a supernatural faction per se. But they are both prey and a threat (especially en masse) to many of the supernatural nations.

HARRY: We’re talking mobs of villagers with pitchforks and flaming torches here.

While more-or-less clueless to the supernatural shenanigans happening around them, hordes of mortals roused to action can be a danger to the supernatural nations. Before the beginning of the Vampire War, calling mortal authorities into an arcane fracas was akin to calling in an airstrike. After the Industrial Revolution, with the wide availability of steel weapons, guns, and ever more deadly technologies, the mortal threat upgraded to “nuclear” (literally!). For the past three hundred years, the supernatural folk have laid a bit lower than they had in the past.

Unfortunately, opinions on the dangers of mortalkind seem to be changing. Recent Red Court attacks in the Vampire War have killed thousands of unsuspecting mortals in the Third World with impunity. Furthermore, the rise of the entirely mortal  John Marcone to the status of Freedholding Lord has had some sort of ramifications among the supernatural set regarding mortalkind—

HARRY: My take is that, all of a sudden, mortals are now an even larger threat than before.

—but what those are exactly is as yet unclear.

Other Mortals

Clued-in mortals , werewolves, scions, and hedge wizards (especially the members of the Ordo Lebes) all play fairly minor roles in the overall supernatural situation. Most often, they are simply prey, targets, or obstacles to the larger and more powerful factions.

Sorcerers are often catspaws and pawns for the darker supernatural nations and Freeholding Lords. They usually don’t have enough oomph to stir up “international” trouble on their own.

On the other hand, big-time necromancers (especially powerful ones, like the Disciples of Kemmler) are individually a sort of “banana republic” in the overall supernatural nations schema. Given their power and undead legions, they cannot simply be controlled as sorcerers are. They are loose (powerful) cannons, which must be jostled into position or squelched, depending upon the larger supernatural factions’ aims and goals.

In two more weeks, you’ll have the White Council to deal with.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

General old world order, setting

There Is No Spirit Of The Law

The Accords were set up by one of the most notorious manipulators in the supernatural world; furthermore, the legalistic bent of the faerie mind, along with their important concepts of favor and debt, has a strong influence on the letter of the law.

Much like the Code of Hammurabi, everything is spelled out extremely clearly. Vicious as it seems to us in retrospect to claim an eye for an eye or a life for a life, it prevents one supernatural tribe from murdering all of another tribe in response to a single death or other faux-pas.

However, nobody’s going to respect “the spirit of the law” of the Accords, because there isn’t one. See above regarding Mab’s legalistic thinking (in gamer terms, she’s the consummate “rules-lawyer”). The supernatural nations all abide by the Accords, because the possibility of all-out mystical warfare is so much worse—as the current Vampire War between the Red Court and the White Council demonstrates.

Getting Screwed By the Letter Of The Law

In the ad hoc supernatural courts that judge these things, plenty of precedent has been established that there is only the letter of the law to protect you under the Accords, and each letter has a razor’s edge. It doesn’t matter what your sentimental excuses were, how many innocents were going to die, or that your true love’s life was on the line. If you break the Accords, then you are neck-deep in trouble.

The best thing that you can hope for is that your side will try to find some loophole to get you out of it, or work a behind-the-scenes deal to persuade the other side to drop their reasons for offence. Unfortunately, by far the most likely thing is that you’ll be served up on a platter with a set of apologies tied around your neck. There will always be people on your own side who will consider their own continued peace and safety far more important than your skin. And after all, what is one man compared to the prospect of supernatural war? These people may regret the political necessities, but that won’t stop them from gift-wrapping Accords-breakers and delivering them to the aggrieved parties.

At times, the letter of the law can actually be helpful. There are cases where people use the legalisms to their advantage. It is a clear and definite fact that someone who reads the Accords and plans their actions before doing something precipitous (like burning down a houseful of bad guys) is the person who is most likely to get away with it.

HARRY: You know, under the Accords, naughty children found on bridges are still lawful prey for trolls.

Tune in two weeks from now as we begin to delve into Supernatural Factions.

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Old World Order

Most supernatural factions have their own hidden histories, dark secrets, and personal beliefs on how much they have affected world history. Yet, they do tend go to some effort to make sure that mortals don’t even bother to start looking for their fingerprints in the first place. To the supernatural set, comfortable ignorance is what most of the world should enjoy.

However, some events and episodes of supernatural interference are well-established and can even be tracked by mundane humans.

Old World Organizations

The “supernatural nations” detailed below tend to follow an Old World aesthetic of manners and methods. This often means a Renaissance-era mindset in their approach to political issues. It’s as if they read Machiavelli’s The Prince and just stopped there.

Meanwhile, the philosophies and technologies of mortal-kind have advanced. In fact, you could say that the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution caught the supernatural factions with their pants down. The aftershocks of both are still being felt among magical sorts. The disparities between the rough-and-ready modern mortal outlook and the more courtly and traditional supernatural attitude frequently causes friction between the factions.

All that being said, however, the most important aspect of interaction among the supernatural factions is the Unseelie Accords.

The Unseelie Accords

The Unseelie Accords, devised by Queen Mab of the Winter Court of Faerie, are a supernatural cross between the Magna Carta and the Geneva Conventions.

The Accords recognize major magical factions as independent political entities (or “nations”) with the right to defend, protect, and avenge their members. Even “Freeholding Lords” are recognized: entities of power that do not necessarily represent an entire kind, just themselves and their supporters.

HARRY: Simply belonging to any supernatural faction is enough to get a nice set of enemies along with your metaphorical membership badge.

The Accords lay out an important concept: magical nations are responsible for policing their own. If they don’t do this, and let their people run willy-nilly, these activities can become a lawful grievance to another nation—even up to a justification for war. The Accords also lay out other rules concerning such topics as the treatment of prisoners (though the rules do little if anything to protect them), setting prices on ransoms or prisoner exchanges, laying out procedures for negotiations between hostile supernatural nations, the establishment of neutral ground, rules of engagement and territory, a basis for diplomacy, and so on.

Most importantly, the Accords establish several hard and fast rules that provide ancient (read: Old World) customs of hospitality and honor with the force of law. If any two things are regarded as concrete by the supernatural nations, it is: 1) the binding power sworn oaths; and 2) the obligation of a host to offer aid, comfort, and protection to her guests.

The Accords recognize that it is mutually profitable for the supernatural nations to avoid overt or large-scale conflicts; indeed, they provide a means of settling disputes between rival nations by means of a trial of champions—based on the Code Duello—presided over by a mediator. Any member of any nation can be asked to be a mediator, but the choice must be mutually accepted.

All in all, the Accords are extremely complex, and applying them generally leads to a lot of arguing rather than actually solving any problems (it is likely that this is what Mab intended). They work, however; conflicts are often defused by the lengthy legal discussions. The Accords are supported by all sides, mainly in order to keep things from getting worse than they already are.

We’ll talk more about the letter and the spirit of the law in two weeks. Stay tuned.

General old world order, setting

Thanks to everyone who voted in the online poll over on the forum board! Based on those votes, we’re going to be starting up a new series of biweekly posts next Tuesday, first covering the content of the “player setting primer” chapter titled Harry’s World, and once that’s wrapped up getting into the world of paranormal politicking with Old World Order. Stay tuned!

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