Uncanny Tales of Linburn is a Play-by-Post Urban Fantasy sandbox roleplaying game started by kaalban in late May 2018 and running until July.
The setting is that of a world similar to our own, except with the presence of ancient supernatural forces deeply rooted from the precursor age known as 'Old Earth' that have only fairly recently revealed themselves to the modern era, mysteriously potent within a particular city on the East Coast named Linburn. Practically any type of character is permitted, ranging from vampires, ghosts, zombies, sentient books, magical girls, wizards, etcetera, as long as they follow the standard roleplaying rules
and as long as they stay within the setting of the city.
The links are as follows:
Uncanny Tales of Linburn contains examples of:
- Alternate History: Things in New Earth have been considerably different since 2000 (the year of Second Renaissance).
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Matthew will always jump in, even with Damien/Leliel basically telling him to pick his own fights - Matthew saw a huge dangerous werewolf monster and couldn't back down or run away.
- Church Militant: Knight Order of Zaziel serve their deity (God-Creator) by destroying Rotten Beings.
- The Corruption: The Rot cant turn a person into a monstrosity with unspeakable depths of depravity.
- Crapsack World: Old Earth was such a horrible place that God-Creator had to destroy it in order to save its denizens.
- Dark Secret: The Mage Union has a large number of these - just at the start it was hinted that the Union and the Dark God Cults might be cozier than is acceptable.
- Dawn of an Era: God-Creator paved way to the new and better era that is New Earth.
- The Dreaded: Most people can detect a menace from Kyrio that his mirth and serenity cannot disguise. There's how Dana described his laugh as sounding mocking, and even Josh, by and large an outsider, could tell this is not a man you want to associate with.
- End of an Age:
- Old Earth, an era when Daemons ruled supreme, came to a finish due to God-Creator and his Angel-Machines, leading to the creation of New Earth.
- Gotterdammerung brought upon the end to the Age of Gods.
- Everybody Hates Hades: Subverted in that Hades here is someone akin to an anti-hero.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: All manner of supernatural legends and creatures can apply simultaneously within the setting.
- Götterdämmerung: There are two events in this universe in which god-like beings suffered heavy losses.
- The first is the war between Daemons and God-Creator, which resulted in most Daemons dead and the Old Earth destroyed.
- The second is called Gotterdammerung, where Gods have either been weakened to the point of losing their divinity or dead.
- Hunter of Monsters: Both Knight-Order and WORM hunt down monsters to protect humanity. Knight-Order's specialty lies in Rotten beings, while WORM mostly deals with everything related to Daemonkin.
- Illegal Religion: WORM (subsidiary of Mage Union) has a legal permission to hunt down any kind of Daemonians, worshippers of Daemons. In fact, Daemonism is shunned by everyone.
- Jerkass Gods:
- Whatever their morality was, most Daemons saw their creations as either inconveniences or forms of twisted entertainments.
- The Dark Gods play with this - Shiryu, Varancain, Vicelogia, and Silmarul are the worst of the lot, but their leader Khaos is fundamentally a noble if overprotective sort.
- The Magic Comes Back: The world used to be ripe with magical energies, and has only fairly recently resurfaced in the modern age.
- The Maker: God-Creator has created Angels-Machines, humanity and New Earth (the latter two from the remians of Old Earth, mind you)
- Master of Illusion: Fitting his nickname of "Aizendad", Kyrio is a master of perception altering magic, activated by a flash of light from his sword. Anyone who has seen this flash of light, no matter how long ago, is susceptible to his illusions.
- Meta Origin: Most of the magical and supernatural elements can trace their origin back to either Old Earth or God-Creator.
- Mr. Fanservice: Matthew's introductory post highlighted both a pretty face and a toned, muscular body.
- Mundane Fantastic: Both the supernatural and the mundane live side by side in this world, combing magic and technology into a fairly stable society.
- Our Angels Are Different: Angels-Machines have three forms: Human, True and Manifestation (a form that heavily depends on the angel). Their True Form is akin to machines, and their magic looks like a very advanced technology. Their morality depends on the individuals.
- Our Demons Are Different: Demons-Organisms refer to fallen angels, whose main source of power is Bio-Sorcery (biopunk + magic). As a result, they look more like mutated abominations that standard demons.
- Our Gods Are Different: There are two types of gods in this universe: Daemons and Gods. Daemons were the deities of Old Earth, and they were often evil, apathetic or incomprehensible. Gods are deities from mythologies that were formed from a high-caliber Old Earth essence. Despite their immeasurable power compared to mortals, both of them can indeed be killed.
- Our Monsters Are Different: Practically every supernatural being has a unique twist, at least those that are based on actual legend.
- Quirky Town: A given, especially considering the current cast already includes werewolves, a zombie, a Slime Girl, multiple dragons, and a naga, amongst others.
- Retired Monster: Make no mistake, Kyrio is a murderer and mind warper - he associates with a crowd that can best be described as some of the most amoral men in Linburn. The only difference now is that he is retired and ostensibly focused on improving Matthew's life.
- Starter Villain: Dhakar is one of the first antagonists a good chunk of the heroic cast fight.
- The Unmasqued World: According to the intro, the intended masquerade that hid magic from the New World broke within the first week. Thankfully, due to the combined efforts of the Knight-Order and WORM, this did not result in a complete disaster.
