Shadow Wars

The ‘Shadow Wars’ as they have come to be known, now that details of them have reached the surface, is the accepted term for the clandestine military use of magically-talented people during World War III. It is also theorized that there was a similar conflict during and before World War II, but no documentation or first-hand accounts have been located to prove this. These conflicts crossed the boundaries of the faction lines during the War.

In one sense, the Shadow Wars was merely another theater in the ongoing conflict, but in another sense it was a conflict among the Allied Forces to determine who would come out as the new global superpower after the war was over. Russia was secretly at war with the EU, the EU was secretly at war with Africa, and China and Japan were at each others’ throats. Meanwhile, the USA was harried by Russia, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean Confederation – not to mention the NSA (and later the ESA) and other states that seceded from the USA during the war.

Many of the veterans of these clandestine conflicts still find themselves troubled by their actions during the war. Some of them have come forward publicly with reports of what they did, but for the most part the identities of these warriors remain closely-guarded secrets of the Supernatural Defense Agency and their home nations.

Author's Note: Anything listed with this is intended for player knowledge, but not character knowledge. The only way your character would know about these entries is if they participated in them, or have a high enough rank to submit a successful request for information on them. As a further note, any information included below may not be entirely truthful, as I (User:Marty) do like to keep a lid on some things until they are discovered in-game if they are plot-relevant.

Project Horn

Project Horn was an operation backed by the Fifteen Suits to fight the tyranny of the Jericho Network. Unable to stop the Abraham Administration from gaining access to the Jericho technology, the remnants of the leadership of Majestic 12 sought out willful people to covertly work against the Network. The recruitment requirements for these people meant that the majority of them were from the underground mage community, making this a decidedly Shadow Wars conflict. Throughout the war, mages worked to track down Jericho Nodes and dismantle them, leading to the slow crumbling of the Abraham Administration's power base as people returned to their senses inside the United States.

Project Brightlight and Operation Dark Extraction

Project Brightlight was a series of covert NSA (and later ESA) operations to rescue POWs from around the globe via teleportation. Originally just a concept study written by a mage nobody had ever heard of and buried in the Grand Lodge of Theurgy’s archives, Brightlight was originally conceived of as a way for mages to covertly use their abilities to aid humanity. Nobody is quite sure who in the NSA first initiated this program, but what is known is that it grew out of the NSA’s efforts to end the illegal detainment of some of it’s officials who had been inside the rest of the USA when the NSA seceded. Brightlight was the first Shadow War operation to be revealed to the public in the post-war environment. Though Project Brightlight in its official incarnation ended once all the detained officials were recovered, it did essentially last throughout the war in the form of Operation Dark Extraction, which was a series of POW rescue operations that the NSA and ESA ran which functioned the same way.

Project Darklight

Project Darklight was a NSA/ESA operation that grew out of the successes of Project Brightlight. With the pre-war success of Brightlight, the program was rebuilt as Darklight in the second half of the War as a means to covertly make preparations inside the USA before the inevitable Allied forces invasion.

E bola Outbreak

A mysterious disease, later determined to be a strain of E bola, erupts in the US, which is declared to be a biological attack. The US Government declares martial law and begins to quarantine infected cities. Spain was blamed (by the USA) for releasing the disease in the USA after it is traced to a Spanish Research Lab. Spain denied the allegations and insisted that the disease release was intentionally released by the USA on its own people.

While this was indeed a biowarfare attack on the US, the allegations that the US government released the pathogen on it’s own people are false. The truth of the matter is that nobody really knows who released this pathogen – but it did indeed originate from a Spanish research lab. Numerous groups have been blamed for this incident, and several madmen have claimed responsibility for it since then. The most likely culprits are: EU Special Forces (in a black op which has no surviving records), any one of several doomsday cults, or someone acting independently in an attempt to push President Abraham to invade Europe. This incident is classified under the Shadow Wars not only because of the unknown nature of the perpetrator, but post-war analysis of surviving samples of the E bola strain used in the attacks indicated that they had been altered to be unable to infect people with innate magical talent. A new theory that has arisen is that this attack was actually the first wave of what would later be classified as spirit beast attacks, and that it was angry spirits attempting to wreak havoc upon humanity.

Sydney Mystery

‘Something’ happened in Sydney, Australia on October 13^th, 2015. Nobody is quite sure what exactly happened, and nobody has ever managed to gain definitive evidence to blame a specific faction for what happened – but the long and short of it is that after October 13th, 2015, Sydney is no longer habitable. Gamma radiation counts began to rise steadily in the early morning of the 13th, but with no discernible cause. Most of the citizens are evacuated, but many of them suffer ill effects of their exposure to the radiation. An exclusion zone is set up in a 50-kilometer radius around Sydney, which still stands in 2030. In the early 2020s, some records leak out suggesting that the United States had a hand in what happened.

In 2030 evidence was uncovered that tied covert actions of the Abraham Administration to the Sydney Mystery. It is unknown exactly what the covert operatives were doing in Sydney, but what is known is that there was an experimental device that involved a bound Destruction spirit that was mishandled and created the radiation field. Accusations that there was some kind of secret experiment going on to align Australia with the Abraham Administration run rampant but no proof has been produced.

In truth, the incident has its cause completely with that covert operations mission. The Abraham Administration sent a secret team to install a device underneath Goat Island which would extend the Jericho Network to cover Sydney and Canberra in an attempt to make an inroads to make Australia an ally of the Abraham Administration. However the military personnel of the covert operations team began to break free from the Jericho Network's influences now that they were extended so far beyond its reach. The team refused to participate in the operation and attempted to stop it, while the administration operative they were escorting continued attempting to activate the device. A fight ensued, and the administration operative activated a weapon he had been given by the Administration's shadowy backers - the device malfunctioned and the Destruction spirit bound within it broke free and created the radiation field. All members of the covert operations team were killed, along with the administration operative, save for the team's leader - who was actually a mage. The mage made a contract with the spirit and survived, but he was unable to stop the radiation field from growing.

Russia's Winter 2015/2016 Alaska Campaign

While those who lived in Alaska at this time certainly would not categorize this as “a Shadow War incident,” historians generally categorize the series of incidents stemming from Russia’s incursions into Alaska from December 2015 through April of 2016 as “Shadow War incidents” due to the prevalence of magic-users in the incidents. Believing they had the upper hand in winter combat, Russia sent a variety of forces into Alaska to attempt to distract the US from movements elsewhere in the world. This included several mages, an extensive array of UCAVs, two ATVUs, and several regiments of winter combat troops.

One of the incidents classified under this is Operation Frozen Dawn, which was a covert campaign in the form of a joint operation by Canada and the NSA which aimed to eliminate the Russian UCAVs which were straying dangerously close to the Canadian border. Due to the terrain and weather involved, magically-talented personnel were recruited as there were issues with operating the NSA's limited aircraft fleet in the ultra-cold weather of the brutally-cold weather of the Alaskan winter.

This is one of the better-known incidents of Russia posturing to secure its post-war position. The UCAVs that were ‘straying’ towards the Canadian border were indeed being sent there deliberately as reconnaissance. A Russian organization known as Необъяснимая управление (‘Unexplained Directorate’, also referred to as НУ or Н Branch) was heavily active inside the Alaskan Theater and was obsessed with capturing magically talented individuals from the NSA and Canada during this time, but they met with little success.

Battle of Rome

February 22nd, 2016 - US forces are finally driven out of Rome when an EU strike force arrives in the city and launches a devastating attack against US strongholds. At the time it is unknown what the EU actually used to accomplish this, but post-war records confirm that the EU had a team of powerful elementalists teleported in to attack the US forces. The entire attack was carried out in conjunction with airstrikes, to make it look as if the ground forces were merely spotters for precision-guided munitions. This was a controversial decision by the EU, and the Grand Lodge of Theurgy is still not pleased with the way their members were essentially used as human weapons during this incident.

Stand at the Vatican

This 20-day long conflict is perhaps the best-known event of the Battle of Rome, and arguably the most televised. Independent news teams had taken refuge in the Vatican when the Battle of Rome began, so they were well-placed to cover the carnage and heroics that took place along 2 miles of border and 100 acres of land as US forces repeatedly attempted to storm the Vatican under orders from President Abraham. For all the coverage of the battle, details about most of the participants remain vague at best - but what is known is that there were more than a few mages in the battle, along with people who would rise to prominence after the war. Details about some of the participants are listed below.

• Sister Cassandra Carmina Carnadini, Servorium Domini - A member of Servorium Domini, the Vatican's secret order of mages, Sister Carnadini was in Rome investigating a possible conspiracy against the Pope when the Battle of Rome began. Few details are available about this conspiracy, but it is suspected to be a plot backed by the Abraham administration. Regardless, Sister Carandini joined the Stand on February 13th and served until the conclusion of the battle. As one of the mages participating in this battle, she did her best to avoid the spotlight, but after the war troops on both sides spoke in hushed tones about the 'bulletproof sword nun' that cut a path of carnage through the attacking forces.
• Florencia, Princess of Asturias - The sole surviving child of the deposed and assassinated King and Queen of Spain, Florencia's existence had been concealed from the public due to her magical talent and she spent most of her childhood training with Servorium Domini prior to the Neo-Francoist uprising in Spain during 2015. During the uprising she managed to flee to France and then to Italy and sought asylum with the Vatican. When the Stand began, Florencia was lying low in the Vatican under the protection of the Swiss Guard and the Pope, her existence still kept a secret from the Neo-Francoist regime. Unwilling to sit on the sidelines while the Abraham administration that had enabled the Neo-Francoists appeared on her doorstep once again, and inspired by the early participants in the Stand, Florencia took up arms in defense of the Vatican and served in the Stand from February 4th to the 15th. On February 15th, Florencia resorted to using her talents to call forth Tizona - Fireball of El Campeador to defend herself in a heated battle, unfortunately giving away a clear indication that she had some tie to the Spanish throne. While the mundane defenders and soldiers had no idea what the sword was, anyone with an inkling of arcane talent could sense that it was a powerful artifact, and those with arcane knowledge could easily tell that it was at the very least a powerful fragment of Tizona, the legendary sword of El Cid and a relic of the Spanish throne. The original Tizona was long-lost, and the fact that she could call forth the sword meant one of two things: one, she was in the possession of a previously-unknown fragment of Tizona - or two, she had blood ties to El Cid, which meant that she was most likely Spanish royalty. Either way, Servorium Domini couldn’t risk this fact becoming public knowledge so they pulled her from the front lines of the fight and back into protective custody. Still unwilling to sit on the sidelines, Florencia conspired with a few others in Servorium Domini to create the identity of Livia Savona, an initiate in Servorium Domini and she retook the field on February 18th under this less-than-stellar disguise, which she wore until the conclusion of the Stand on the 23rd. Following the Stand, Florencia went back into hiding until 2022 when the Vatican decided it was time to reveal her continued existence to the world.
• Major Marko Suslovich, Russian Defense Ministry - Major Suslovich was part of the Russian detachment stationed outside Rome when the battle began, the lead engineer on the project that had developed the ATVUs, and the person that many point to as the actual initiator of the Stand. The detachment was in Rome on what was effectively a sales trip, with only one ATVU present (it was intended to be donated to the Italian government). On February 3rd, special operations forces from the United States seized the ATVU under cover of darkness and began to use it to cut a path of destruction towards the Vatican. Major Suslovich, motivated primarily by (in his own words) "anger at seeing my creation used in such a rash fashion," set out to on an unauthorized one-man mission to stop the ATVU and reclaim it. Throughout the day he chased the hulking vehicle through Rome in a commandeered helicopter, by car, and on foot, eventually realizing its destination and intercepting it on the Via della Conciliazione. Armed with his 3rd-generation nanite materialization system (which like the first two generations never made it past the prototype stage), Major Suslovich managed to get underneath the the ATVU's firing arc and proceeded to disable the vehicle using his in-depth knowledge of the vehicle's control systems and mechanics. Following this, Major Suslovich went AWOL and remained to participate in the Stand until its conclusion. His subsequent promotion to Colonel and reassignment to a classified development team deep in Siberia were seen as both fitting reward and punishment for his actions. To this day, this remains the only instance where an ATVU has been defeated by only one person without the use of heavy weapons or explosives, though as now-General Suslovich describes it, he "had an unfair advantage." Major Suslovich would later go on to have a distinguished career after the war, joining Project Janus and laying the groundwork for the Combat Engineer Corps.

Attack on Japan

April 19th, 2016 saw one off the most widespread simultaneous uses of magic in the entire conflict. Numerous mages in Japan managed to use their abilities to protect sections of various cities from the incoming attacks.

Disappearance of Oahu

The entire island of Oahu in the state of Hawaii vanishes without a trace in the middle of the night. Nothing is ever discovered about what happened to its inhabitants or the USA Pacific Fleet that was not at sea. Post-war bathymetric surveys reveal a crater-like depression underneath where the island should have been. General Summers, the officer in charge of the previous day’s attack against Japan, vanishes along with the island. The General would later go down in history as the “Butcher of April” for his role in the April 19th attack, and would turn up several years later describing the island disappearing in a burst of light - though his claims are dismissed and he is declared insane.

However, the discovery of the island of Oahu floating in interstellar space 7 light years away in 2030 suggests that the culprit for this incident utilized a highly powerful form of teleportation – either remote or local – to transport the island and the surrounding water and terrain that 7 light year distance. As for the identity of the culprit, that remains a mystery to this day. The likely suspect – and the one to whom most people point – is Japan, who had just been attacked by a force commanded from Oahu the previous day. While the power required to cast such a teleportation spell boggles the mind of modern mages, it is theoretically plausible that Japan had a sizable portion of it’s magically-capable forces sacrifice themselves to power this spell in a twisted form of ritual revenge spellcasting. While this would explain Japan’s strange shortage of powerful mages in the immediate post-war environment, nobody from the Japanese government or magical communities is willing to verify this theory.

Nuclear Strike on Boston

Bypassing the normal chain of command, President Abraham orders a nuclear strike on Boston (the ESA capital) to be launched from a SSBN who’s captain he knows is loyal to him. Sources inside Washington, DC leak this information to the ESA, along with the location of the submarine. The ESA publicizes this information to the Allied Nations and reiterates its stance of neutrality, issuing a plea for help. A mutiny takes place onboard the submarine, but two missiles are launched before the sub’s command staff is incapacitated. One missile is successfully intercepted by a French destroyer, while the other missile mysteriously fails to detonate and crashes into the Empire State Building, becoming embedded in its upper levels.

After the war, it is revealed that the malfunction of the second missile was most likely caused by a Wide Area Protect incantation. The caster of this incantation remains a mystery.

Flight of President Abraham

Mexican troops arrive in Alabama and storm President Abraham’s compound, capturing his entire family – but not the President or his staff. It is known that the President has fled, but nobody in the compound seems to know where.

President Abraham flees via teleportation with the aid of his last few remaining Shadow War assets. They later abandon him after his madness becomes obvious in mid-February.