Worldbuilding

Welcome to the setting of as the world caves in!

The Earth found in as the world caves in is populated not only by regular humans, but by supernatural creatures most often referred to as 'demons' and 'angels' as well, magic suffusing things regular humans cannot perceive. Insight into some of the pecularities will be offered in the following pages, starting with what is known about the Cataclysm that has caused the apocalyptic conditions Camden and his friends found themselves in. Some more insight will be given into the Other Side and magical professions on their own pages as well.

The Cataclysm

What the people of England have started calling the apocalyptic event that resulted in nature undergoing rapid growth and mutation, infecting humans and demons alike and turning them into zombie-like creatures with little humanity or consciousness left. It seems that every few months a new symptom of the Cataclysm emerges; the current known symptoms are:- infecting people at the start of the Cataclysm
- nature overtaking and destroying cities, evolving into megaflora and becoming hostile
- residents of the Other Side being mysteriously pulled to Earth, left heavily weakened and affected by the infections
- an unnaturally snowy and freezing winter, appearing and disappearing almost overnightGo to Secrets to find out more about the Cataclysm.

Infections and Mutations

People, be they magical or human alike, can fall victim to infetion caused by the Cataclysm. Generally manifesting in individuals as sprouting flora on victims that seek to emerge from orifices or through the flesh, another word to refer to infected is 'mutated' because of these symptoms.
Infected human individuals may retain some sort of instincts that make them travel in groups and seek out lone prey to spread the infection to, and it usually only takes about a day or two to fall victim to it. Some people have been shown to succumb earlier.
Muscle-memory seems to be retained as well, as infected humans who had been veterans or soldiers are significantly more difficult to take down than their civilian counterparts, and on the magical front many demons and angels retain enough sense of self to be able to cast magic as long as their vocal chords are undamaged. Unlike humans, the infected residents of the Other Side are prone to be found alone, much more territorial in their mindless state.Immunities to the infection have only been found in two kinds of people: Witches and Conjurers in active covenants, though the reason is not known.
Fascinatingly enough, animals have been found to be completely immune to infection.

Welcome to the setting of the world caves in!

The Earth found in as the world caves in is populated not only by regular humans, but by supernatural creatures most often referred to as 'demons' and 'angels' as well, magic suffusing things regular humans cannot perceive. Insight into some of the pecularities will be offered in the following pages. Some more insight can be found about the Cataclysm and magical professions on their own pages as well.

The Other Side

A colloquial term used to refer to the dimension or plane that the demons and angels and their ilk reside in. The Other Side is known by many names interchangeably, compromising of all the magic in the world. It is something like a mirror dimension layered around the Earth, made up of three main areas: Hell, Heaven and the Great Inbetween. While Hell and Heaven are the places of origin for demons and angels respectively, the Inbetween is a liminal space most akin to a grand forest, filled to the brim with magic from across all planes of existence. Sometimes, history goes missing, and ancient buildings can be found scattered apart. Being closest to the seams on Earth, the Inbetween is the place where Witches and Conjurers can venture into, populated by anything from devils and chalkydri to cursed beings like werewolves and vampires.

Demons

Main residents of the Other Side, creatures of all shapes and sizes and associations. Demons are a people that generally revel in making deals with humans to collect their souls for various reasons, most of which have to do with empowerment of the self. They reside in what humans would call Hell, though other names such as Abbadon or Gehenna are used interchangeably by the demons.'Demon' is generally a catch-all term for the residents of the Other Side, encompassing many species of demons, such as devils or nature spirits, and even angels due to reasons specified below. Unless one is a demon themselves, it is difficult to distinguish many of the species, leading to human misalignments over the years.Hell is split into different circles, each one governed by many of the well-documented demons of King Solomon's Ars Goetia, though every Witch and Conjurer worth their salt know that it is not a perfect representation of the demons' domains, as rulership over circles can change at every given opportunity.

Angels

The other residents of the Other Side, angels come in different shapes and sizes, though not as many as demons. They reside in Heaven, which also has different names: Elysium, Zion and many more, serving as counterparts to demons, guiding humans to maintain their blessed souls and serving the Lord Creator throughout human history. Unlike demons, angels have a much more military-like hierarchy spread into three choirs with three ranks of angels, each.After the War against the Light-Bringer and Those Who Follow the Will of the Lord, the angelic hort split apart: followers of the formerly-named Samael, now Lucifer follwed him to Hell, falling.
Their God-given Grace was taken from them, so that they may never look at the Lord Creator again, reflecting in all of the fallen angels having scarred faces. These symptoms can vary from burn marks to a complete loss of facial features, and fallen angels fashion masks out of their own inborn magic and the firmament of Hell to hide their shame.
After the fall, a distinction between the angels was made: those who fell became known as collapsars, while angels call themselves pulsars.
Like 'demon', 'angel' is both a catch-all term and a generalization of a species. Fallen angels are usually referred to as 'demons' as well, though there are those who cling to their remaining grace and refuse to be called anything but 'collapsars'.

Pulsars and Collapsars

pulsar
noun
astronomy
any of several celestial objects, thought to be rotating neutron stars, which emit electromagnetic radiation, esp. radio waves, at short and very regular intervals

collapsar
noun
astronomy
a collapsed star, either a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole

The two kinds of angels, both of whom would rather not have anything to do with each other anymore, though probably due to differing reasons.
Pulsars are what is colloquially referred to as 'angels', spiriting away the name from human scholars and astrologers who looked up at the night sky and saw the stars as angels and the vastness of the night as 'heaven'.Collapsars are 'fallen angels', those who have forsaken the Lord Creator's grace for reasons their own. Their God-given grace has collapsed into itself, their appearance forever changed from their fall. Some lost the monikers of what they used to be (multiple eyes, different features for the Cherubim) while others remained virtually unchanged except for the masks all of them wear to cover their shame.

Witches

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Conjurers

Magic 101

NANAEEL, despite being common Enochian for 'power', is Noé's associated call-sigil
Cam's summoning circle for Noé
The Artifact that binds Cam and Noé's souls together

Secrets and Spoilers!

Please continue at your own risk of spoiling important character details or events!

About Noé

Despite Camden's initial beliefs that Noé is nothing but a regular demon, hints are given to his true identity of a fallen angel. Noé possesses the selfsame auxilary wings that all angels possess, and his missing primary set of wings together with his cloven hooves declare him a disgraced cherubim. The fall has taken from Noé both his many eyes as well as his multiple faceted faces, though his former name he discarded himself: Raziel, angel of Secrets, Mysteries and Magic.
While Noé still trades in his old profession, he has rid himself of any ties to his old name, preferring to gather epipeths and monikers over the year by which he could be summoned, somehow attaining association with the common Enochian word NANAEEL until it became his call-sigil.

About Tarina and her family

A human woman Noé has grown overtly fond of in the past, as well as the mother to one of his children. Despite only asking Noé for a child in exchange of her family's secrets, she ends up giving Noé a deeper understanding of humanity over the years that they are together, until the Biblical Flood takes their lives too early. Devasted by these events, Noé falls, denying the Lord Creator's blessings and grace to become the demon he is today.

About the Cataclysm

Contrary to what the people of the British Isles may believe, the Cataclysm is only contained to them, with the rest of the world watching as bystanders while Britain, Scotland and Ireland were engulfed by Nature. There seems to be a magical barrier some ways into the ocean, keeping the outside world away and Britain contained.
A specialized task force has been assembled that tries to reach the country with little luck until Noé's radio device somehow connects to the outside world at the end of the novel.