The realm of spirits, the true world you've been learning to explore, has chaos, vibrant life, unlimited power flowing endlessly. But it also has structure, rules, a certain kind of order. The Two embody these traits for the realm. Anchors and Warlocks are liminal beings, and as such they are Mine to do with as I choose; but their basic function is to serve that balance. Warlocks bring the chaos of the spiritual world to the physical, Anchors bring the order of the physical back to the spiritual.
A work of serial fiction created by Tim McLaughlin and presented as multiple point-of-view blogs. The story is an urban fantasy that centers on four main sources. These are John Matteson, an amateur paranormal investigator; Jackie Veracruz, a witch; Father Benedict de Monte, a Catholic priest hunting a cult; and an unnamed narrator who has near-omniscient information on events that happen outside the knowledge of the other characters.
The story is available here
, along with other resources provided by the author.
Tall Tales contains examples of:
- Abandoned Hospital: Two story arcs are set in abandoned hospitals, both connected to the same cult.
- Ambiguously Human: Benedict de Monte shows signs of being inhuman.
- Anti-Magic: John Matteson is described as having the ability to break magic.
- Blood Magic: Jackie infrequently uses her own blood to power spells when she lacks proper components, and the Brood of Nachash utilizes blood and human sacrifice in their rites.
- Cast from Hit Points: Jackie Veracruz has explained that she needs something relevant to her spell to cast it, but when such a component is not available, she has been shown to use her own blood to power the spell instead.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The metaphysical realm is described as a consensus reality.
- The Fair Folk: The short story "Trespasser" involves a fae whose primary interaction in the story is to capture trespassers and send changelings back to the human world.
- Fantastic Catholicism: Father Benedict de Monte is employed by the Roman Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the modern rebranding of the old Vatican Inquisition. In the story, this body still carries out investigations and combat against threats to the safety or teachings of the Church, though much more covertly than in ages past.
- Functional Magic: Jackie is seen to perform ritual magic while Benedict appears to have inherent magic.
- Human Sacrifice: The Brood of Nachash performs human sacrifice during their summoning rites.
- Living Memory: Matteson calls these "echoes" and describes them as people or events that, for whatever reason, are recorded in the nature of the metaphysical realm itself and play back sporadically. He and Alice interact with one directly during the story arc "Tree of Life".
- Magical Underpinnings of Reality: Jackie describes the world as having a spiritual backstage where natural phenomena can be manipulated. The Ohio River shows signs of ecological distress when one of its spirits, Aaboukingon, begins investing in a mortal life away from the river.
- Psychic Block Defense: John Matteson's immunity to magic covers magical attempts to access his mind. This is first seen when Jackie tries to jump into his dreams and later explains that attempting to do so was "like running into a brick wall".
- Religion of Evil: The Brood of Nachash is fundamentally driven to free mankind from the influence of gods by eradicating every other religion through violent force, including human sacrifice and binding dark gods to channel their power.
- Secret Circle of Secrets: The Brood of Nachash is a cult whose primary teachings are generally kept secret from the outside world, working to destroy religion as a concept.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Tadzio is cursed with immortality after going back on a deal with a demon.
