Page 186 - Chronicles of Darkness

suddenly kicked off but remained (as was the case with World Amassing wealth was a simple task for one that had chal-
War II) mainly outside the bounds of mainland USA, the lenged gods and, within a century, Zür controlled an empire
Storyteller would need to provide American characters with from his home under the mountains.
up close and personal examples of how the war was affecting Zür gathered apprentices to him, to act as proxies in his
them, even if the characters weren’t directly involved. Family battles with the other fire-touched, forming a large cabal to
and friends being drafted to serve is an obvious example, but serve his needs. Legions of mortals flocked to Zür’s banner,
fuel rationing or material shortages could also play a part. some knowingly, most with no idea who their true master was.
Not every chapter in a global-tier chronicle has to take Others of the fire-touched, those who had survived his attacks
place on the world stage. Storytellers are encouraged to drop and potential rivals, learned from his example and began to
back down to local stories to bring home the point of global build their own financial empires to oppose him. Now wars
events. As an example, a geoengineering project suddenly were fought as often on paper as on the battlefield, with
goes bad. Aluminum oxide particles are released into the casualties including the economic welfare of entire nations.
troposphere to reduce the amounts of radiation bombarding The battles continue to this day. People fight petty wars,
the planet. Rather than working as designed, the particles rig elections, and assassinate influential pawns, all of it fueled
react in a manner scientists can’t explain and plunge the by increasingly-large amounts of capital. The closest mortals
entire world into darkness. have come to seeing the truth was when a British politician
The characters are busy running around the globe, chas- made a joke about Swiss bankers, calling them the “Gnomes
ing down the hidden system responsible for eternal night, of Zürich.” The only things that have kept Zür from own-
when they hear the news that riots have broken out in their ing the world are his ongoing rivalries with the remaining
home town. Violent gangs of looters are threatening the lives fire-touched.
of Contacts, Allies, friends and family. Fixing the problem
of a world shrouded in darkness remains the main focus of Cosmic
the chronicle, but the immediate, personal, problem becomes
saving people important to the characters. This type of local Stories set in the cosmic tier are frequently chronicle
scenario can bring some context to a global chronicle and endgames. While it is certainly possible to set an entire
make the whole story seem more visceral. chronicle at the cosmic level, the troupe runs the risk of los-
ing touch with reality. This tier allows players to transcend
Global Organization: global conspiracies to become part of the hidden system. It

The Gnomes of Zürich allows troupes to make serious alterations to the plans of the
God-Machine or possibly rewrite its programming. Players
In the days of myth and legend, the gods were all-powerful, will stand toe to toe with angels, demons, and the things
and then Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to that exist outside our reality.
mortals. The first mortals touched by the fire of the gods be- So how the hell does a Storyteller run a cosmic chronicle?
came mystics and wizards, shamans and priests, channeling the One way to get a grasp on the cosmic is to look to popular
source of creation toward their own selfish ends. Eventually the media for inspiration on how to proceed. 2001: A Space
stolen fire ebbed to mere cinders, and the greedy fire-touched Odyssey is a cosmic-tier story. The main character transcends
mortals sought to ascend to the heavens to supplant the gods human limitations to become the Star Child. If you consider
and warm themselves by the divine fire for all eternity. the obelisk to be an agent of the God-Machine, you get a
As in most stories of unbridled hubris, this story ended cosmic-tier story. The series of stories by H.P. Lovecraft col-
badly. The God-Machine destroyed their civilization, and over lectively referred to as The Dream Cycle is another example.
time the remaining fire-touched retreated to the corners of the The real world is only tangentially important to the story,
world, bickering with each other and licking their wounds. but the effects of the story can have real-world consequences.
The survivors began to plot anew, scheming to discover a new In more of a pulp vein, Stargate SG-1 can be viewed as a
means of achieving power. They denied the God-Machine and cosmic-tier story. The stakes involved are important for the
struck all memory of it from the minds of men, shrouding future of Earth, but also go far, far beyond what happens to a
it in sorcery. It was their foolish belief that a thing forgotten single planet. If Fringe added a couple more alternate worlds,
would lose all power. In time, they even began to believe the it would also qualify. Any number of movies that focus on
lie themselves and banished the God-Machine from their time travel could work for the cosmic tier, particularly those
thoughts. They created new myths to explain the fall of the in which multiple parties are working simultaneously to
ziggurat, passing down the story to their apprentices. change or maintain the past.
With no hope of reaching the divine fire, the fire-touched Even more so than the global tier, chronicles that end
settled on amassing earthly power and dominion over man- in, or are set in, the cosmic tier should expect to see mas-
kind. They formed cabals and alliances, and battled each sive changes to the fictional world your troupe has created.
other in the hidden recesses of the world. At some point one Hacking the God-Machine might result in continents vanish-
of their number, a man named Zür, recognized the growing ing, divergent timelines or even the entire works just freezing
influence commerce held over mortals. He realized power up. An antagonist that develops a taste for the flesh of angels
over his rivals could be had for as little as a handful of gold. might not only gain power, but might also keep that same
185
Cosmic