Introduction
What is EBAMTAR?
Simply put, EBAMTAR is the same world that we live in, but with a secret population of supernatural creatures. Things that have existed around the edges of humanity, in the wild places or the shadowed corners, hidden in plain sight or in the remotest parts of the world. In humanity's younger days they mingled more freely and more boldly, but in modern times secrecy is paramount, for who knows what the collective might of humanity would do if it found out the monsters from myth and legend are real.
Worldbuilding-wise, EBAMTAR is a blank canvas that takes inspiration from popular media in the modern fantasy genre, and is intentionally lore-light and open for new things. The world was created originally as a place for QuazarStar's vampire characters to hang out, so vampires are the only supernatural creatures with big worldbuilding and an already existing culture and story. Check out their World Page in the sidebar if you'd like to learn more!
What fits in EBAMTAR?
Any creature that falls under the idea of "mythological entity" can potentially exist in EBAMTAR. Generally speaking mythical creatures/races are considered to have existed since a time before history, in tandem with the rise of humankind. Creatures that are an original species and don't match any known myth or legend (e.g: winged housecats) aren't suitable for EBAMTAR, however loose interpretations of myth (e.g: a housecat-sized winged greek sphinx) are welcome. All must abide by secrecy from humanity, though they may not like or agree with it. This can manifest in a variety of ways, including:
- Isolation - the character is too far away or too difficult to get to for humans to encounter them regularly
- Blending In - the character has a human form of some kind, and lives among humans. This could be a natural shapeshifting ability, an illusion of some kind, or a magical item that disguises them, for example.
- Subterfuge - the character can manipulate memories, or is very sneaky, or somehow lives among humans in a way that keeps them unseen.
- Lack of Perception - particularly for spirits and gods, the lack of faith in modern times has lead to people simply not noticing them, or not percieving or remembering that they don't seem human; more on faith and spirits below
If you'd like to submit a character to EBAMTAR, basically just make sure they don't conflict with what little lore there is and aren't flamboyantly sharing their supernatural side with the world! Another small rule is that no characters should be individual or named instances of creatures. Submitting the god Anubis or Nessie wouldn't be allowed, but submitting a tomb guardian jackal spirit or a lake monster of Nessie's type would be fine. This is simply to prevent overlap or "claims" of any kind; those individuals may very well exist in the world!
So what about humans?
As a whole, humans exist as they do today in our world, with no idea of the existence of the supernatural. In practice though, there can be exceptions. Individual humans may befriend supernatural creatures and decide to keep their secret, or take justice into their own hands and become a monster hunter. Some groups of humans have always known of the supernatural; such as magic users, Shopkeepers, and the shadowy organisations that keep track of their movements both inside and outside of human governmental bodies. See the Factions page in the sidebar for more info if you're interested in some of these! Human characters are welcome as long as they fit the flavour of a low-profile initiate of the supernatural (eg.: Giles from Buffy, Harry Potter, Bella Swan, Dean & Sam Winchester, etc.)
Diminishing Faith:
There isn't much in the way of guidelines for most critters in EBAMTAR (again, vampires are the only big exception) but something you may wish to play with is: the globally diminishing faith in the supernatural/divine having an effect on creatures that used to recieve it, such as spirits, lesser gods, etc. etc.
The result from this is that entities who used to be worshipped or feared find their impact and powers in modern times lessened. Spirits might be harder for regular people to notice, or even find their ability to affect the world reduced in extreme cases; passing through objects as a precursor to fading away entirely as they are forgotten. The stronger the faith and memory of the entity the stronger their power remains, and major pantheon creatures who are well known today usually don't find themselves in danger of disappearing.
This is an entirely optional concept and doesn't affect all creatures, so play with it as you will!