World Description: Peter comes from a world that very much resembles modern day reality, except that magic and supernatural creatures actually exist. To most people, the world is the same as ours and magic is the stuff of fairy tales and hoaxes. However, there are people who interact with the supernatural and who deal with the effects of living too closely tied to magic. Traditional legends and folklore from history have a backbone of truth (although badly misinterpreted at times), and monsters still exist even if most modern day people don't notice them. Historical events and traditions from all cultures are the same as they would be in our world, but the stories that form folklore come from actual events that were perceived as mere stories over time or forgotten.
In the past, the line between magic and reality was vague. People would interact with supernatural forces on a regular basis, with deaths being attributed to fairies, forests and other locations frequently reported to be haunted or marked as the territory of magical creatures, and enchantments and talismans being sold in regular practice as a means of protecting oneself against monsters of all kinds. Over time, as industry and science allowed people to separate themselves from nature and the threats of the supernatural, they found that these forces had less control over their lives as well. In the current time, a majority of people have lost their ability to recognize the supernatural events around them. Actual incidents become urban legends or scary stories told to children or shared with friends with most people rationalizing the details away. The thing in the closet is a trick of tired eyes, those missing children just runaways, and that strange noise coming from the basement must be a problem with the plumbing.
Over time, humans developed a resistance through their stubborn ignorance and the supernatural world has retreated to a state of existence often called the “other world” or the subtle realm. Not exactly a concrete location, the subtle realm is a place where magic and the supernatural thrives, and pockets of this separate reality thrive in actual locations in the human world. People who live close to these pockets tend to be more sensitive to supernatural influences, although some people have a natural predisposition for magical sensitivity like any genetic trait. The subtle realm is a magic ecosystem with its own rules, and people who deal with magic for long periods tend to slowly lose touch with their reality as those rules take over. They can learn magic by adapting to the supernatural state of being, but the natural laws that exist in the normal world lose their effect as an individual becomes more immersed in the more flexible rules of magic. Humans that spend too long in the subtle realm may disappear from the human reality completely, becoming rumors and urban legends themselves.
More detailed information about the world mechanics is written here.
Background: The boy who is called Peter was raised in a small Missouri town in the early 1930's. Set apart from big cities and other normal society, the town survived in isolation, pressed up against a deep forest that was part of the subtle realm. The town leaders found that staying near to the wood meant their crops and animals were uncannily healthy, the citizens were stronger and lived longer, and they experienced overall good fortune that allowed them to maintain a stable life through a failing economy. The older folk claimed there was magic coming from the woods, and their stories and traditions steeped the people in superstition—and their homespun rituals and methods always worked. Unfortunately, as a consequence of living near the subtle realm, the town was exposed to demons, supernatural creatures that fed on the energies of the human world, and those man-eaters often crossed the border into the town and attacked the people they could catch. Peter's father was the town's protector, a particularly magically-attuned individual who was born with an innate ability to sense and use supernatural energies. He hunted the threatening demons, but was killed on a hunt when Peter was only a few years old.
After the death of his father, Peter was raised by his grandfather, an older man that had become disillusioned by the town's practices. Embittered by the loss of his son, the old man lived at the edge of town away from others and discouraged Peter from associating with the townsfolk or going into the woods where magic was strongest. The boy, however, was a precocious youth who had inherited his father's natural ability to interact with the mysterious powers of the subtle realm. He often sneaked out to explore alone, teaching himself the ways of the wood and how to survive in the magic-filled wilderness. His antics were noticed by the town leaders, who hoped to make him the replacement defender of their town once he got older. Meanwhile, the boy was both respected for his abilities to handle himself in the dangerous woods and feared for his connection to it. Most of the townsfolk and their children avoided him, and he got into more than one fight growing up. The one child that didn't fear the boy was a younger girl who also had a predisposition toward sensing magic. She could see what most of the others couldn't, and because of a particular naivety, she didn't fear Peter like the others did. The girl became his one human friend. She would also wander at the edge of the wood, picking flowers and giving them to the boy as gifts because of their unnatural beauty.
Without a protector, the town was facing more and more danger. The demon that had killed the boy's father, a giant wolf-like beast, established itself as the dominant spirit in the area and maliciously stalked the town, attacking citizens for sport. Unable to protect everyone, the adults decided that the only way to defend themselves was to make offerings to the creature, hoping to protect most of their community and keep their way of life with smaller sacrifices of the weak or problematic individuals. They gave the wolf select people to appease it, hoping to buy time until they had a defender to defeat the beast. When Peter's friend was supposedly stolen by the wolf, he went after her alone, not knowing the reality of what happened.
When the boy confronted the wolf, he found out that the town had been giving living sacrifices to him, and the wolf gloated as he shared the nature of the town with the young man. As revenge for his friend, the boy set a trap and managed to snare the demon, keeping it trapped and starving until it finally agreed to a contract with him. In return for food, the wolf agreed to work for the boy, and the two ravaged the town Peter came from, completing his revenge by setting fire to the place and destroying it completely. As a result, the true names of the town and the boy himself were lost, erasing his physical existence from history and making him like a spirit, immortal and magical without people to remember he ever was. The boy and the wolf drifted from there, appearing over the years in local stories and urban legends. Eventually the boy became known as Peter because of the obvious association, and people claimed they would see a young boy playing alone in parks or on empty streets, with a demonic wolf at his heels. In the spirit community, Peter became a very real threat, killing other demons and spirits to feed the wolf and pitting his strength against psychics and other magically-attuned humans. The two became the thing that nightmares feared, haunting the subtle realm over decades of time.
Canon Point: In 2010, long after he's become a terror in the subtle realm, as he's wandering and looking for strong demons to fight. He's recently started killing human Hunters in the Northern Midwest region of the States.
no subject
Peter comes from a world that very much resembles modern day reality, except that magic and supernatural creatures actually exist. To most people, the world is the same as ours and magic is the stuff of fairy tales and hoaxes. However, there are people who interact with the supernatural and who deal with the effects of living too closely tied to magic. Traditional legends and folklore from history have a backbone of truth (although badly misinterpreted at times), and monsters still exist even if most modern day people don't notice them. Historical events and traditions from all cultures are the same as they would be in our world, but the stories that form folklore come from actual events that were perceived as mere stories over time or forgotten.
In the past, the line between magic and reality was vague. People would interact with supernatural forces on a regular basis, with deaths being attributed to fairies, forests and other locations frequently reported to be haunted or marked as the territory of magical creatures, and enchantments and talismans being sold in regular practice as a means of protecting oneself against monsters of all kinds. Over time, as industry and science allowed people to separate themselves from nature and the threats of the supernatural, they found that these forces had less control over their lives as well. In the current time, a majority of people have lost their ability to recognize the supernatural events around them. Actual incidents become urban legends or scary stories told to children or shared with friends with most people rationalizing the details away. The thing in the closet is a trick of tired eyes, those missing children just runaways, and that strange noise coming from the basement must be a problem with the plumbing.
Over time, humans developed a resistance through their stubborn ignorance and the supernatural world has retreated to a state of existence often called the “other world” or the subtle realm. Not exactly a concrete location, the subtle realm is a place where magic and the supernatural thrives, and pockets of this separate reality thrive in actual locations in the human world. People who live close to these pockets tend to be more sensitive to supernatural influences, although some people have a natural predisposition for magical sensitivity like any genetic trait. The subtle realm is a magic ecosystem with its own rules, and people who deal with magic for long periods tend to slowly lose touch with their reality as those rules take over. They can learn magic by adapting to the supernatural state of being, but the natural laws that exist in the normal world lose their effect as an individual becomes more immersed in the more flexible rules of magic. Humans that spend too long in the subtle realm may disappear from the human reality completely, becoming rumors and urban legends themselves.
More detailed information about the world mechanics is written here.
Background:
The boy who is called Peter was raised in a small Missouri town in the early 1930's. Set apart from big cities and other normal society, the town survived in isolation, pressed up against a deep forest that was part of the subtle realm. The town leaders found that staying near to the wood meant their crops and animals were uncannily healthy, the citizens were stronger and lived longer, and they experienced overall good fortune that allowed them to maintain a stable life through a failing economy. The older folk claimed there was magic coming from the woods, and their stories and traditions steeped the people in superstition—and their homespun rituals and methods always worked. Unfortunately, as a consequence of living near the subtle realm, the town was exposed to demons, supernatural creatures that fed on the energies of the human world, and those man-eaters often crossed the border into the town and attacked the people they could catch. Peter's father was the town's protector, a particularly magically-attuned individual who was born with an innate ability to sense and use supernatural energies. He hunted the threatening demons, but was killed on a hunt when Peter was only a few years old.
After the death of his father, Peter was raised by his grandfather, an older man that had become disillusioned by the town's practices. Embittered by the loss of his son, the old man lived at the edge of town away from others and discouraged Peter from associating with the townsfolk or going into the woods where magic was strongest. The boy, however, was a precocious youth who had inherited his father's natural ability to interact with the mysterious powers of the subtle realm. He often sneaked out to explore alone, teaching himself the ways of the wood and how to survive in the magic-filled wilderness. His antics were noticed by the town leaders, who hoped to make him the replacement defender of their town once he got older. Meanwhile, the boy was both respected for his abilities to handle himself in the dangerous woods and feared for his connection to it. Most of the townsfolk and their children avoided him, and he got into more than one fight growing up. The one child that didn't fear the boy was a younger girl who also had a predisposition toward sensing magic. She could see what most of the others couldn't, and because of a particular naivety, she didn't fear Peter like the others did. The girl became his one human friend. She would also wander at the edge of the wood, picking flowers and giving them to the boy as gifts because of their unnatural beauty.
Without a protector, the town was facing more and more danger. The demon that had killed the boy's father, a giant wolf-like beast, established itself as the dominant spirit in the area and maliciously stalked the town, attacking citizens for sport. Unable to protect everyone, the adults decided that the only way to defend themselves was to make offerings to the creature, hoping to protect most of their community and keep their way of life with smaller sacrifices of the weak or problematic individuals. They gave the wolf select people to appease it, hoping to buy time until they had a defender to defeat the beast. When Peter's friend was supposedly stolen by the wolf, he went after her alone, not knowing the reality of what happened.
When the boy confronted the wolf, he found out that the town had been giving living sacrifices to him, and the wolf gloated as he shared the nature of the town with the young man. As revenge for his friend, the boy set a trap and managed to snare the demon, keeping it trapped and starving until it finally agreed to a contract with him. In return for food, the wolf agreed to work for the boy, and the two ravaged the town Peter came from, completing his revenge by setting fire to the place and destroying it completely. As a result, the true names of the town and the boy himself were lost, erasing his physical existence from history and making him like a spirit, immortal and magical without people to remember he ever was. The boy and the wolf drifted from there, appearing over the years in local stories and urban legends. Eventually the boy became known as Peter because of the obvious association, and people claimed they would see a young boy playing alone in parks or on empty streets, with a demonic wolf at his heels. In the spirit community, Peter became a very real threat, killing other demons and spirits to feed the wolf and pitting his strength against psychics and other magically-attuned humans. The two became the thing that nightmares feared, haunting the subtle realm over decades of time.
Canon Point: In 2010, long after he's become a terror in the subtle realm, as he's wandering and looking for strong demons to fight. He's recently started killing human Hunters in the Northern Midwest region of the States.