World Lore

Tales from Gloom Hollow takes place in a world much like our own. The borders on the map haven’t changed, countries, continents, and cultures remain familiar. But public history took a quiet turn in the early 1990s.

With the rise of the internet, secrecy became harder to maintain. At first, the videos were dismissed, glitches, hoaxes, urban legends. But the evidence mounted, and denial became impossible. Supernatural creatures were real. And as if to confirm it, children began to be born with abilities that defied reason. Magic, long relegated to myth, had returned.

Panic followed. In the chaos, an organization long operating in the shadows stepped into the light.

Section 4, the global safeguard against the unknown. Backed by major governments, they claimed a single mission: to protect humanity and uncover the origins of these new anomalies, both magical and monstrous.

Over the decades, opinions on magic fractured. Some saw it as a gift, others as a threat. The general public, kept at a safe distance from the truth, still doesn’t know what the creatures truly are, or where they come from. Attacks are rare enough to be ignored by most. Daily life continues, though more people glance over their shoulder at night.

Now, Section 4 is no longer the only power on the field.

• The Brimstone Assembly, ideological iconoclasts who fight for equality for all, they believe magic is the key to freedom. 

• The Circle, a college for magic and the arcane that hopes to lend their expertise to better understand the mysteries of Gloom Hollow.

• The Chevalier, America’s oldest monster-hunting society, has assembled in full, ready to protect humankind from monsters.

• The Meridian Corporation, wielding supernatural tech and wondrous medicine for civilian use.
  The Hollow Society, a rising grassroots investigative group, seeks to drag every secret into the daylight, no matter the risk.
   

Whether for the betterment of the planet or monetary gain, over the years, these factions have worked together to prevent crises and uncover the source of these anomalies.

 

Town Lore

The following information is known only to a select few who’ve visited Gloom Hollow. 

In 1850, the Kronbach family, wealthy industrialists with deep pockets and lofty ambitions, founded a mining town in California’s Pauma Valley. Gold had been discovered in the surrounding hills, and the town of Gloom Hollow sprang to life almost overnight. A booming workforce flooded in, drawn by the promise of fortune beneath the earth. The large workforce got to work bringing the vast quantities of gold to the surface. But the deeper the miners dug, the stranger things became.

First came the disappearances. Then, disturbing reports: inhuman sounds echoing from the lower tunnels, shadows that moved against the light, whispers carried on the wind. Eventually, the missing men returned, but they were no longer men. They were twisted, mutated creatures, maddened by something ancient buried in the stone.

The source? A newly unearthed element later named Umbracite, shards of an obsidian-like mineral believed to be fragments of Tezcatlipoca’s shattered mirror. Exposure to it warped flesh and mind alike.

The Kronbachs acted quickly. They sealed the mines, called in a covert organization known as The Trust, and purged the town of all remaining witnesses. Survivors were experimented on, and the mutated were captured for study. In time, The Trust buried the entire incident, scrubbing records, destroying evidence, and vanishing into the dark.

Years later, The Trust fractured. One splinter faction modernized and monetized their discoveries, becoming the Meridian Corporation, a now-infamous name in arcane technology and scientific research.

By the 1950s, a handful of drifters and opportunists had returned to the abandoned town and begun rebuilding. But in recent years, the town has experienced an inexplicable surge in population. Strangers from across the globe have begun appearing out of nowhere, no idea how they got there, but all drawn by the same inexplicable force.

Maybe you’ve seen things before, strange lights, impossible creatures, waking dreams. Maybe you’re already a member of one of the Six Factions. Or maybe this is your first step into the unknown.

It happens differently for everyone. You were walking to your car, taking the subway, or turning down a familiar street. when the world around you twisted. Shapes blurred. Sound died. And for a moment, you saw nothing, nothing but a smooth, dark void with a faint mirror-glow.

You found yourself at the edge of a quiet town: a lone gas station, an old diner, or the welcome sign flickering in the dusk. However you arrived, you were greeted by the same figure, a bus driver. He didn’t seem surprised to see you. You asked where you were. He pointed toward the town square.

“Welcome to Gloom Hollow, California,” he said. “You’re right on time.”