A very long time ago, the supernatural ruled the Earth, and humanity was its prey. They began to form pacts with a handful of spirits on their side, and over time humans gained the ability to harnes "psi", a living variation of ectoplasm that allows many non-ethereal beings to fight off the paranormal. Those humans would later be known as espers, but at the time they were magicians and witches and, occasionally, even exorcists and priests.

Someone (a monster? a human? nobody knows) discovered a link to another world. They, obsessed with power, with immortality, set on omnipotency, found a way to transport themselves over, seeking greener pastures and easier prey, hoping to steal power from others. But there was no power there, and so they siphoned it away from their home world, sucking away so much that espers became a rarity. More and more supernatural creatures moved over as psi and ectoplasm grew less and less common.

And then one day, the siphoning stopped. Psi and ectoplasm levels rebalanced. Supernatural beings began to return.

And so espers did, too.

The world has adapted to not having them anymore, and much knowledge on how to deal with them has been lost, but great headway has been made in recovering that lost knowledge. Still, many young espers that awakened in the face of the sudden recovery of psi and ectoplasm levels grew up isolated and unaware that what they were going through was, in fact, completely normal, and everyone else's lack of powers wasn't.

Humans

Your average, everyday human. The separation between humans and espers is a purely superficial one; humans are just people that haven't awakened their powers yet. All humans have the potential to awaken someday under the right circumstance, except in very specific circumstances.

Early humans got by without psychic powers by using a form of "magic", and that "magic" still persists to this day, so although it isn't very common, it is possible for a human's capabilities as an esper to have been sealed away. No seal is impenetrable, though - if a human can find a way to generate enough energy within themselves, sometimes they can break it themselves. It's safer to find someone else to break it though.

Espers

Up until recently, espers were thought to be a recent phenomenon, but further research actually shows the opposite. As stated before, all humans are unawakened espers. Espers originated as a defense against predatory supernatural beings, likely with the help of more beneficial spirits.

All espers have weak shapeshifting abilities. Their eyes change color to reflect their most prominent personality traits, and if their abilities are more elemental in nature, they may develop an affinity with that element.

Espers' abilities are known to respond extremely strongly to their emotions and perceptions of themselves. That means you can subtly impact the way an esper's powers behave by influencing what they believe about their abilities. This only goes so far though - you can't completely change an esper's abilities, and it's more effective for some than it is for others.

Awakening

An esper can awaken in a few primary ways. The most common these days is exposure to "psi energy", also referred to as psychic energy or, more often, just "psi". It likely works this way so that regions with high supernatural activity are better able to defend themselves, but it also means espers can accidentally induce awakenings in one another.

Another way is extreme trauma. Extreme mental or physical duress causes an explosion in psi that forcibly awakens the terrified esper. Espers awakened this way are more likely to have abilities that directly respond to their needs in some way.

The third way an esper can awaken is through death. It's thought to be an extension of the trauma response, but espers that awaken this way tend to be a little different from others. They tend to have more powerful shapeshifting abilities than normal and may have more inhuman traits. They also commonly have ectoplasm in their blood. They are nicknamed as "Schrodinger espers" or "Schrodis" for short.

The final way an esper can awaken is by forming a contract with a spirit. Espers that awaken this way are more powerful than average. Already awakened espers can induce a reawakening of their powers this way, too. These espers often have some kind of "second form" leading to speculation that this is where werewolf legends and other "human monsters" came from.

Aspects

"Aspects" dictate the specific ways an esper's abilities can manifest and how the abilities work. There are three known aspects that can combine in various ways to offer different sets of rules. An esper can have one or two aspects, but never all three.

Cycles, being the most common aspect, refers to the reuse of existing material and exchanges. It is named after the rock cycle, the water cycle, etc etc. Elemental abilities are most common here. It usually occurs with one of the other two aspects, and only very, very rarely alone.

Space is the next most common. It deals in dimensional space and the area around the esper. It's the only aspect known to manifest true telekinesis. It occurs often either alone or with friends.

Psyche is the most uncommon (though not rare). It's all about psychological processes - perceptions, illusions, beliefs, the like. This also means that their powers can more easily be influenced - outright lying can be effective here. Usually, though, espers under this aspect are able to create illusions and such. Telepathy only happens here.

There are 6 ways these aspects can combine, and they can create a lot of unexpected effects, especially in Schrodi or contract espers.

Spirits, Ghosts, and the Supernatural

I need to flesh this part out I'm gon be real.

As it currently stands, ghosts and malevolent spirits are the only ones with lore, but vampires, werewolves, pseudo-daemons, and similar definitely existed. Mothman is canon.

Anyway. All living beings are composed of two parts; the physical body, and the soul. You cannot have a body without a soul, that's a zombie and zombies are only capable of mindless violence. When a living thing dies, the soul is expelled to eventually either "decompose" back into the surrounding psi and ectoplasm to become something new, or haunt something and feed on ectoplasm and psi until it's ready to move on. Those are ghosts, and they are not visible to the average person.

Most ghosts are benevolent, just as most people aren't "bad". Sometimes a ghost chooses a haunt that happens to have living people in it, and they have disagreements (usually the ghost accidentally scares a human). In those cases they can hire an exorcist to help settle things. The exorcist will either help them find a peaceful living arrangement, find a new place for the ghost to live, or destroy (eat) the soul. Only espers can be true exorcists, and at that, only Schrodi espers have any chance at being good at it.

There are also spirits that originate from another world that is linked to this one. Not a lot is known about them at all, except that their home is much more difficult to thrive in. Many of them began migrating here after the one that controlled their home was destroyed, hoping for greener pastures and an easier food source.

Towns and Cities

Watersborough, TX

Watersborough is a quiet place nestled in the trees. Violence isn't common here, but it's not exactly a wealthy place either. There was a shooting about a decade ago and a horrible housefire that spread through the neighborhood. In the end, it wasn't quite quiet enough.

One psychic researcher noted that a kind of dimensional rift opened there around the time of the fire. As a result, a handful of Odin alumni came from there.

Ontario, PA

A religious town fallen to ruin, Ontario is, frankly, the posterchild of random US American small towns, from the streets to the 5 different churches and the uncomfortable lack of belonging you feel as you step onto the sidewalk from wherever it is you came. Tight-knit and two-faced. Ontario was never as famous as it liked to pretend, and the vast majority of people outside of paranormal investigator circles have never heard of the place.

It used to be home to the wealthy Clark Family Practice cult, which just about paid off its every expense and damn near funded its development. The town grew woefully dependent on their support, so when they crumbled to dust, so, too, did the town.

A kid named Nathan Driver supposedly died here and was claimed to be the honest-to-goodness second coming of Jesus Christ, by some. The claims drove tourism to Ontario, and they became something of a tourist trap to claw back what they felt was rightfully theirs. Paranormal enthusiasts that visited saw nothing more than a normal high schooler, or an average college-goer if it was later in life, who told them rumors of his death had been greatly exaggerated and he was fine. It wasn't long before tourism, too, dried up, as more "professional" investigators began to tell anyone that so much as brought up "whatever happened" at Ontario to shut up, already

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Obalton, PA

Obalton is home to Odin U. It's not necessarily bustling, but it's doing just fine for itself, thank you. Its most busy streets are loosely pieced together from hazy memories of Pittsburgh. Obalton is a hotspot of psychic activity and has a much higher percentage of espers in its homes for some reason.

Colleges

Ontario Community College

A crumbling college in a crumbling nowhere-town, degrees from Ontario Community College won't get you very far. If you're any good at anything the professors wonder why you're even here. Some of the faculty have backup jobs lined up for when this godforsaken place finally dies.

Odin University

Odin University is one of the most prestigious universities in the world - so anyone who's ever heard of it would tell you. The truth is that Odin U keeps everything that happens within its walls very hush-hush, and for good reason. In reality, it's a psychic research facility using a college environment to help not only study the behaviour, abilities, and characteristics of espers, but enable them to succeed in life. Alongside all that, espers only started showing up en masse about 20-30 years ago, so this also targets espers' average age now.

Students are discouraged from telling people that Odin is a research facility to help keep an esper-only student body, and also due to internal concerns about governmental meddling. After all, if the government knew, god only knew they'd try to recruit these kids into the military or something...

The only way to get into Odin is to be an esper - and that means somebody has to already know about Odin, and notice you.

Yew University

The actual most prestigious university in the world, "second" to Odin. It's pure coincidence that the two are within the same county as each other. Yew, often nicknamed "Yewniversity", is known for rigorous curriculums and demanding extracurricular work. It's not a school one can pay their way through, that's for sure.

Yew is most known for its law and STEM programs, although it has a decent enough art program too. Non-espers that get rejected at Odin often try their luck here, usually to similar results.

Shops

Coffin Cafe

Coffin Cafe is an independently-owned cafe. On paper, it's owned by one Tetsu Kobayashi, but Viktor Ochenko is the one that handles the finances. Tetsu develops most of the recipes he uses on his own, having trusted friends help him taste-check. He pays very close attention to allergens. The cafe hasn't been around for very long, but it's developed a reputation for its snarky owner and excellent latte art.

The inside of the cafe has a somewhat rustic feel - the building was on its last legs before Viktor purchased it, and Tetsu thought it would be funny to lean into the decrepit vibe a little after they fixed it up. They like to joke that they resurrected the place.

Floramis

Floramis is a decade-old flowership run by Kat and Melinda Thompson. Their nephew, Vince Thompson, and niece, Bailey Thompson, help out from time to time, with Bailey helping provide cheer and water the plants, and Vince usually taking on the customer service role. They only sell plants native to the region, so although their supply is a bit limited, their expertise and charm is unmatched.

Back to the Past Retro Consoles and Games

Since its name is a mouthful, locals usually call this location "Pete's". Nobody's completely sure how it happened that way. They opened up semi-recently to capitalise on the boom in demand for retro tech. They usually sell old consoles, but CRTs, VCRs, the occasional record player, and a number of other neat techy things make their way in sometimes. It's generally regarded as a neat vintage store.