Unusual Suspects: Alternate Alternate Worlds

In preparing my Demon the Descent game, the Unusual Suspects, there were many ideas that I considered and discarded. The most developed of these were concepts for alternate worlds or pocket dimensions that were going to be my alternative to the Reality Shards of the default setting.

Here is one of those worlds.

The High Contrast Mirror

Theme: the hidden becomes the subversive.

This is a world of more overt conflicts. Here the clandestine activities of Demons become fodder for the evening news. In this world corporations really do run America (and do so openly). Enhanced soldiers protect corporate assets and employees and crush rebellion by outsiders, while trying and often failing to stop the “Subversive Threat”.

In this alternate rendering of reality, the God-Machine continues to piggyback on humanity's Infrastructure and builds occult matrices much like ours. Angels Fall and become Demons who then work against their former master's designs. But the status quo differs significantly. Conspiracies stand exposed. The God-Machine’s enemies have been labeled terrorists.

In this fun house mirror world, the 20th century was when nation states failed. Now citizens labor to obtain favorable job contracts for their children. The winners have education, housing, security, and a job (even if they can never leave it). Those who fail must struggle to survive in the lawless shanty towns that surround the corporate cores.

Humanity knows that cells of subversives with extraordinary abilities exist, working to destroy or subvert society's infrastructure (while remaining unaware that this is also Infrastructure). They don't know that these 'anarchists' are demons or even possess supernatural abilities. Instead they accept the reports and media provided by their employers, stories that tell them that a highly trained individual can defeat a man with one swift chop to the head or can disappear without a trace. Perhaps their employers find the truth more terrifying.

Here the authorities keep that secret to themselves, arming a special task force of demon blooded operatives and stigmatics to hunt down and eliminate such threats. The Lucifuge Directive works for no corporation but receives funding from all, working to preserve the delicate balance of power and keep the masses ignorant of the alternatives both mundane and supernatural radicals suggest.

Demons for their part work more like a rebel underground, organizing supplies, training partisans, and preparing for the day of open rebellion against the corporations and the hidden hand of the Machine. They have the edge however, knowing about the universe next door. A place they can disappear to, regroup and come back prepared to continue the fight.

Storyteller Notes

This world takes visual inspiration from Ultraviolet (one of my guilty pleasures) and the Matrix (I imagine Demons being treated in this world like Morpheus is by the authorities: a dangerous fugitive).

I imagine I would adjust the Lucifuge from Hunter: the Vigil so that they were mechanically similar to the Fractals and Offspring from Heirs of Hell. They would be an overt corporate “Conspiracy” like the Cheiron Group.