Introduction to BITTEN

The first lesson is "What was."

Long ago the world was a paradise some call Pangaea, where the spirit and material worlds mingled freely. All was well. The cycle of nature was kept by the Great Wolf who patrolled the borders between the worlds. The White Queen, the spirit of the moon, was impressed by his strength and wisdom and, in her human form, took him as her lover. From their union were the Werewolves born: part spirit and part flesh, part man and part wolf.

Great Wolf was a guardian of the natural laws and was not so aloof as to raise himself above them. His children, the werewolves, started to notice his weakness and instead took up his task, patrolling the world and keeping the spiritual from preying on the living. But they failed, for a great being called The Beast arose from the Underworld and slew the Great Wolf while his children were not there to protect him.  The Great Wolf's dying breath enacted the greatest change - his breath became the barrier between worlds, separating the spiritual from the material, the living from the dead.

The White Queen did not lay the blame for the death of her husband at the feet of the Beast but at the feet of her children who were not there to protect her lover. Stricken with grief, she cursed all werewolves, burning them all with her chosen element of silver and costing them the enmity of the spirit world. Until the Beast is slain, the cure will remain.

This is the world that was.

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The Second Lesson is "What is."

Dead does not mean dead any more. Ghosts wander the earth, doing the bidding of the Beast and tormenting the living into acts that further it's goals. The recently buried dig themselves from the ground and wander the world, commanded by powerful necromancers, a mindless army ready to slay on the whim of the immoral. Vampires feed on the dead. Worse things stalk the night, ready to tear the world from the material into the underworld.

The spirit world haunts the material, slipping through the cracks and preying on the mortal world, unaware of their influence. Greater spirits still steal children to entertain them as they dwindle in creativity.

Worse are the Forsworn, those of our own blood who have set themselves against the rest, using magics that traps the soul and empowers them above their fellow lycanthropes.

Of course, the world is unforgiving and humanity fears that which it does not understand. Werewolves are thought a myth by the vast majority of people but several know the truth. Some of those in power know the truth - and have put in place organisations to hunt us. The inquisition. The SAS.

This is the world that is.

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The Third Lesson is "What is to be."

The Beast seeks to turn the world into a charnel house, dragging it into the Underworld. It came close during the Second World War, the Holocaust and the millions dead. We thwarted it then, but with a new century, the Beast's ambitions have only got greater.  And his servants are always growing in number and in power.

Unless the children of the Great Wolf and the White Queen can stop it, the Beast will become the new warden of the Earth and a new Pangea will occur. A Pangea of death, where the laws of nature are subverted and undeath claims the world. Darkness, death and horror are all that the world would know. Life would only exist so that it could die...

South West Durham: Where the Untamed meets the Ubran


County Durham is situated in the North East of England, a rugged land of hills and forests and closed coal mines. Social deprivation, especially in the more remote villages, is high. Drugs and alcohol and poverty are real problems. That said, there is a great entrepreneurial spirit in the area.

Barrington
Historically a market town, Barrington is in decline. Once, it was an important hub for the rural villages in the area, run by the Bishopric itself. The Church built a residential palace thee for the Bishop which is still in use to this day, though is often opened to the public. The market is held each Thursday and Saturday, though it is a shade of its former self.

Barrington has several districts.
Stonefield: A council estate filled with post-war housing, Stonefield is the most policed part of Barrington, with a camera-unit police car patrolling the streets constantly as well as having the police station built right on the edge of the estate.
Elmbeck is another estate that lies across the A93 from Stonefield. Intended, initially, to be an extension of the council estate, Elmbeck instead became a private housing development when public funding was cut while it was still being constructed. The estate is fairly safe.
Cooper's Road: An older part of town, Cooper's Road is filled with Victorian houses - detached along Cooper's Road itself, and behind them, narrow terraces. Cooper's Road is also home to a number of pubs and as such, can be the scene of violence during a weekend.
The Sidings: Build to house the burgeoning railway that connected Barrington to the rest of the world, the Sidings are some of the more sought-after homes in the area, with large gardens and quiet streets.
The Marketplace: With the marketplace being the reason the town did so well in medieval times,  it is now mostly used as a car park for those who want to explore the many drinking establishments around the marketplace.
The Bishop's Park: The Bishops' Palace is surrounded by a large park of curated woodland and a private allotment area where rare plants are grown as part of the Bishop's botanical efforts.
Shepard's Industrial Park: With the closure of the coal mines, other industries have arisen including small manufacturing plants.
Kaulder Enterprise Park: Once a thriving complex of offices, the financial crisis of 2008 saw the 1970s development fall mostly into disrepair. Now three out of every four offices lie empty, or worse, dens for junkies and other illicit activities.

Law Enforcement and Emergency Services
The Police are professional and well used to dealing with drunks and junkies. They tackle the problems of drug dealers using all the force and protection they can muster. Generally, police only carry pepper spray and a baton called an asp but many units contain a firearms officer. The numbers of firearm officers have increased due to the increase in violent gun crime of late and in response to a nationwide increase in the threat of terrorism. In short, police are well equipped and professional and well used to dealing with mundane threats.

Emergency services have a generally good reaction time in the whole of the county, though Ambulance numbers are lower than they could be. As a result, waiting times for an ambulance can vary from just a few minutes to upwards of an hour and a half - or longer, on the weekend at the weekend or on bank holiday weekends.

The Underworld
The criminal underworld of Barrington is shallow and wide with most crime being disorganised or family-run. There are smaller gangs in the region but they are not confined to one town. Guns do make the rounds on the black market but are expensive. A single gunshot in the region sends the police into overdrive. Drugs are a different matter entirely - they are freely available.

This post will be edited repeatedly as the setting becomes more defined.