#mrnyc

So I have this world called Magical Realism New York City that I've created wherein most species/creatures from folklore and mythology do in fact exist, with... Nebulous knowledge and understanding of this by humans (meaning some are totally in the dark and some absolutely know about it and are part of it). It is the entire world but my main characters are centred around NYC, hence the name. There are other realms/planes/etc which have some crossover with the "mortal" one, and though gods aren't really a thing as such there are other very powerful beings that exist in those other realms that occasionally do rock up in the mortal world and fuck around to varying degrees. There are vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, magic users, Fae, and most things you can probably think of.

The whole notion actually spawned around the idea of vampires and werewolves. I thought the idea of the garlic thing being BS but widely believed means that an Italian restaurant would be the perfect cover for a vampire family. They have a long standing partnership with the werewolf pack that runs the meatpacking district both for actual meat products (it is a restaurant after all) and for the blood that would otherwise be disposed of, so they don't have to worry about their supply or anyone going off the shits. In MRNYC, there's one main vampire colony and one main werewolf pack, though there are smaller packs in each of the five boroughs and a collection of werejaguars on Long Island. The colony is mostly one big Italian family, and the Wolfpack is one big Dutch family, and they've both been here for centuries at this point. The werewolves also do a lot of community work, they're very social, they hold block parties and stuff. The vampires are less so, but they do keep in touch. One of the werewolf great-grandchildren and one of the vampire grandkids are dating, their names are Katherine and Catarina respectively, they are very cute and their families are very happy for them. (There are a number of vampire subspecies as well as numerous types of weres, but the following rules apply to basically everyone). Both communities are remarkably self-policing; it takes months of preparation and understanding of the community, the change, and the consequences before someone is allowed to become either. This is not something to go into unprepared, and consent is incredibly important. (I did take some inspiration here from the Jewish conversion system e.g. it's not active and in order to do so you gotta COMMIT and DO YOUT RESEARCH before you're granted the opportunity.) If a bite/transformation happens by accident/maliciously, that is one of the only circumstances where seeking treatment would be considered, and if someone decided they didn't want to the community would welcome and educate them, helping them however they could. Whoever did the unconsensual transforming though... Would not be so lucky. That's a serious transgression and would be treated as such. The Manhattan pack and colony are not the only wolves and vamps on the island, just the largest collections, and they do outreach to new arrivals and have connections with other packs/colonies. There are plenty of small packs, and of course New York has universities where you'll get young members of social species away from their families for the first time, so there's a lot of outreach and connection to provide a safety net for people who need it.

Angels and demons do exist, from their respective (linked) realms, but they don't have the inherent attributes given to them by superstitious/religious humans, they're just people. They (along with most species) can interbreed with humans, although instead of creating a super powerful nightmare child they just... Have a nephil or cambion kid. Who has some of the abilities of their supernatural parent, but probably not all of them. The vast majority of those who interact with humans are "lesser" demons or angels, the Just Some Dudes of their respective realms, and it's not particularly common for "greater" ones to show up. They're in charge, they have shit to do.

While "sorcerer" is a general description that can be applied to magic users of any species, witch and warlock are actually their own species, not the same but closely related (think like Vulcans and Romulans, for example). Both are longer-lived than humans (averaging a couple centuries) and have inherent magic which presents in small ways, like oddly coloured eyes or faint patterns on the skin. Warlock blood is faintly silvery and inherently toxic, they can't be changed into vampires or werewolves, and if their blood gets on human skin it will leave a chemical burn. Witch blood isn't toxic, and they can be transformed. If you meet a magical wolf or vamp, they likely either have witch parentage or were one first.

The Fae exist. They have their own realm, but some places in the mortal world have entrances to it. The Fae have a particular attachment to Ireland (with some of Scotland and Wales as well) and are very protective of it, meaning that the vast majority of non-human activity there is either the Fae or requires their blessing. They can be particularly vindictive if they feel that their permission has not been properly asked or that someone is trespassing on their protected ground. This can lead to some... Less than favourable situations for non-fae supernatural families, unfortunately, and can be a reason people end up leaving the Isles.

There are two major protective organisations that deal with various issues and threats, as well as things that may cause problems between realms. These are the Wardens, who deal with the living, and the Reapers, who deal with the dead. Both are joinable by anyone, and are very good employers. Wardens are somewhere between Witchers, border patrol, and bounty hunters, investigating/finding/returning extradimensional creatures from whence they came and dealing with unexpected incursions. Listen, not everyone is nice. Reapers, meanwhile, deal with the dead or those manipulating the dead, as well as guiding wayward spirits home. If there's a haunting, things coming out of graves, anything of that nature, that's a Reaper's job to deal with. All Reapers are dead themselves; if someone feels like they're not done but in a... Non-haunting way, they can become a Reaper. There's a training process as well as some physical and spiritual reinforcing, but it's also a job so you get days off and holiday and all that. Death is a very fair employer. There's also the Guardian of the Veil, who isn't any of these, but whose job it is to essentially watch borders between worlds and deal with anything that is a Massive Fucking Problem, and they have leave to call in as many Wardens or Reapers (or both) as necessary. If the Guardian calls, whatever you're working on can wait because this is an Imminent Threat To Global Existence and you are needed now.

Okay that's all the worldbuilding I can really think of at the moment! My wonderful partner @themechanicsnightmare has helped me flesh out this marvelous world with significant contributions (the Reapers and the Guardian were their ideas, plus witches being a species as well as warlocks), it wouldn't be the lived-in world it has become without them. If the worldbuilding here interests you and/or you want to know about the main characters in the world, let me know!