Lets talk a little more about this campaign.
I visited Glastonbury, (or in welsh Ynys Wydryn, the Isle of Glass) many years ago.
It is a magical place steeped in ancient folklore and myths, a fair number of them related to the Arthurian tales.
You can find there the grave of Arthur and Guinevere, the Chalice well, Cadbury hill which may have been the location of Camelot, Stonehenge and other stone circles, Gog and Magog, the most ancient trees in Britain.
It is a place to this day visited by mystics, historians, new age hippies and music lovers who are lured there by the yearly festival.
History is palpable throughout the southeast of England.
Its history goes back very far and is still visible in the landscape.
So that's the real world. Now for the Dark World.
In our setting of 450AD the romans have all but left save for a few legions and leaving behind many roman-britons who were born there. The roman empire was shrinking and a series of usurper emperors further weakened the empire that was once the beacon of civilization. One such usurpers was Constantinius who declared himself emperor of Britannia but was ultimately defeated in Gaul (France) and executed.
The romans didn't try to convert people from the Celtic faith but were tolerant of other religions, and sought to equate their own gods with those of the local population. The relatively new Christians were less so inclined and became a religious power in Britannia around 400-450AD. This makes the setting a hotbed of intrigue, power struggles and change. Christianity struggled for relevancy (and had internal battles between various sects), Saxon mercenaries brought norse beliefs and all of them had their own magic systems. No traditions, no technocracy but a whole lot of religions and cults, each fighting for dominance.
And in this time practically everyone believed in magic. So Paradox is less of an issue for traditional magic.
And there are others who benefit from this belief in the supernatural. the Masquerade that protects vampires from discovery in modern nights does not exist: everyone believes vampires exist and some of them rule openly through fear and dominance.
Shapeshifters likewise are assumed to be real and people stil have a reverent respect for the Fair Folk who still retain their old forms rather than the Changeling guises they adopt in later years. Monsters hide in the wild rather than having fled Earth because Unbelief isn't killing them yet.
Christianity in a way acts as the Technocracy, seeking to banish the supernatural from the world but they are nowhere near powerful enough yet to do so. Not for lack of trying of course, the supernatural and all the priests of the other faiths are servants of Satan in their minds. All of Britannia must convert, voluntarily or by force. The power of the church is slowly but steadily growing.
Politically Britannia post-roman occupation is in turmoil. Britannia fragmented into numerous petty kingdoms and territories. Former Roman cities and settlements often continued to exist, but their political and economic significance declined as power shifted to local chieftains and warlords. Around this time we also see the arrival of Anglo-Saxons, some mercenaries for local lords, some invaders in their own right.
So for an enterprising group of mages and their allies there is plenty to do. There is so little known historically for hundreds of years after the romans depart that we're very free to write our own histories. Fight the Church, protect the locals, side with one lord or another, become kingmakers, fight monsters, vampires and shapeshifters, or become kings and queens for however long you can hold on to power.
Who are you in this chaotic landscape? Anything you want. But I think we'll focus on the local cults and religions. We may see the first tenuous alliances form between disparate faiths divided by local customs and beliefs, a proto-Traditions movement, fragile and centuries away from the strong alliance it wil one day become. And with them their allies and servants, the Fae, Shapeshifters, Sorcerers, Bygones and Familiars.
Expect to run into mortal invaders, ruthless rulers, rival priests and mages, manipulative bloodsuckers as old as the land itself, shapeshifters, unseelie Fae, wraiths, monsters in the wild long forgotten in modern days.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:16, Tue 26 Mar.