understate | world info and families

World Info

While the geography of Eva's world remains largely the same as our own, its differences can be found in the daily existence of magic and supernatural creatures. Any human can manage basic witchcraft with a concentrated application of willpower and magical products like wands, crystals and altar decorations are found in your local supermarkets, rather than just speciality shops. But there are those who have powers beyond simple incantations, whether that's the ability to communicate with or even raise the dead, to transform into different shapes and creatures, or to cast constricting cages. These abilities are rarer and passed down within families like old recipes and heirlooms. However, they are not bound to any one family in particular - if a family is able to learn how to use necromancy, they would also be able to learn any other powerful ability (though, it should be noted that it is easier to learn similar powers. I.E. a necromancer would have an easier time learning mediumship than they would how to control fire). The families and individuals who hold mastery over these abilities are often high ranking members of society, such as priests or vampire hunters.

Speaking of which - vampires are real, and the result of necromancy gone wrong some thousand years ago. While they've historically and internationally been regarded as a threat for most of that time, attitudes are changing across the globe towards these creatures. The earliest known amendment to Vampire status in society - no longer considering them "vermin" - was in France, roughly 150 years before Eva's birth. To this day, France remains the most progressive society with regards to Vampires, but several other European countries aren't far behind.

Except the United Kingdom, who continue to see Vampires as a threat to be eliminated. As a result, the UK has become something of a haven for vampire hunter families that have found their use diminished back in their home countries. These attitudes have meant that the UK has strained relationships with their closest neighbours and better trade with many African countries, whose opinions on vampires generally aligns with theirs.

Vampire hunters in British society generally have a collective frame of mind. There are squabbles and cliques within the many families, but the majority of hunter families agree that working together, sharing their skills and powers, allows them to thrive and have stronger future generations. The Devereux family are the major exception to this rule, adhering to an older attitude of extreme secrecy and guarding their abilities and knowledge. While this attitude makes them highly unpopular in general hunter communication, they are still highly sought after for marriage, due to families hoping that they can uncover the Devereux secrets in some way.

The Devereux Family

The Devereux family. Originally from France, they moved to Wales (the outskirts of Aberystwyth, specifically), some 150 years before Annette was born. France had started to introduce legislation that would allow vampires equality in society and, well, as hunters, the Devereux weren't here for that - so they moved to a country where vampires weren't as well-received. The UK was particularly anti-vampire, so France's emigrating hunters were welcomed with open arms, which also allowed the UK's own hunter families to stop interbreeding so much.

Ever ambitious and particularly skilled at magical cages, the Devereux quickly made a name for themselves and climbed the ranks of hunter society - marrying and forming alliances with other families immediately. After a couple of decades, they'd made enough progress to once again have the upper-middle class lifestyle they had been accustomed to back in France.

This is how their life continued - successful, with any failed relatives removed from the history books, all to keep up appearances. This is the life Annette was born into.

Skilled barrier and cagecasters, the Devereux are proud of their skills and fiercely protective of their magic. Anyone who marries into the family does not learn these skills, and is blocked from accessing any of the family's books on the matter. Likewise, all members of the family are constantly reminded that these skills are not to be explained to outsiders under any circumstances. This is unusual among most of society, especially Vampire Hunter society, where marriages are just as much for the intermingling and learning of different skills to produce new, more efficient vampire hunter generations. It is therefore common for families to want to marry into the Devereux family in hopes of either stealing their magic secrets or ~being the exception~.