Facts about Yorkton
1. Yorkton is a small city in south-eastern Saskatchewan in Canada.
2. It was founded in 1882 by the York Farmers Colonization Company, combining 6 existing townships into one geographical area.
3. Farming is a big industry in Yorkton but as it is a city it also has plenty of other businesses as well.
4. While a majority of the area surrounding the city is flat farmland, there is large forested areas, the most predominant the Ravine Ecological Preserve. There is numerous lakes with surrounding forests as well as other parks and wooded areas. Due to agreements, most of the wooded areas have been left untouched by loggers.
5. The area is known for extreme seasonal temperatures, with hot summers and cold winters as well as some strong thunderstorms during the spring/fall seasons.
6. While English is the language of the city (With some education in french that is mandatory) oddly enough the city's largest ethnic group is people of Ukrainian descent. As its been numerous generations since the area was settled, most have completely assimilated into Canadian society although their legacy still remains as many people maintain Ukrainian surnames. A few still speak the Ukrainian language (usually as a second language study) and perform old traditions of the homeland.
7. Yorkton Regional High School is where a majority of the city's teens attend school although there is also a catholic High School that is an alternative.
Things most people don't know about Yorkton
1. Yorkton is built on a Nexus of Ley Lines. Once the Nexus was muted when the Native Americans of the Assiniboin tribe performed powerful rites and wards to mute the power of the Nexus but due to white diseases a good deal of the local people died off while the rest were displaced or were assimilated. Thus since the rituals were not maintained, the power of the Nexus has increased until such a time it caught the attention of supernatural forces. Thus Yorkton has become a weirdness magnet for supernatural activity.
2. Most people don't know the supernatural exist and learn to justify strange occurrences as mundane solutions. They justify the more larger scale disruptions as weather pattern fluctuations and unusual deaths and disappearances as psyco-criminal, animal attacks or other mundane explanations. This is not completely by their own will though, for there is powers that use the magic or mundane means of covering up the truth.
3. There are numerous supernatural powers that pull strings in the Yorkton region but also occasionally others move in to take advantage of the ley lines.
4. Deep in the government, there are some that know the trouble that this Nexus causes and thus has agents assigned to permanent duty there to deal with the fallout when and if it occurs and occasionally take on a more serious supernatural threat.
Magic in the setting
Magic in this world exists but only a small number of people can tap into it. Using magic is not as simple as reading a book from an Wicca book store or getting a random spell off the internet and going through the motions. The REAL spells have been suppressed for Centuries ever since the Burning Times and only old and rare tomes or spell-books created by actual practitioners of magic actually function. Of course, those who really want magical power can make deals with ancient powers who have such knowledge, but often at a hefty price of body and soul. Of course there are supernatural forces that can use magic as naturally as breathing although often don't have the versatility of a true magic caster. This translates in game where the Keeper decides if Using Magic is possible in a circumstance. He has every right to deny the use of the ability without the proper tome, research and/or reagents. Of course certain Playbooks are better at using magic than others. Still with instruction anyone has the potential to use magic and having extra people when performing a Big Magic ritual can improve the chances of success and/or the power of the ritual.
Faith has power in the world although few have the purity of faith to actually call upon the intervention of a divine power. Those that do can "Use Magic" in a way that shape this power to produce effects similar to magic but whether it works still depends on a successful die roll. Most of all, drawing on Divine Power is not to be abused. The keeper has every right to give a PC a hard move if he feels that you are abusing the power of your patron. Using the power of God for frivolous means never works out well.
