TEXT: Copyright © 2001 Marco and Eric Chacon 
  
  A Letter to a Visitor from the Dream World 
  Dear Traveler, 
   
   
  Let me welcome you to the World of the Thirteen 
  Colonies. Our world is almost a mirror image of yours—in yours, 
  the Thirteen Colonies are a dream. In ours, the world of 
  America and all that she means at the dawn of the twenty-
  first century is a dream—an important dream but ultimately 
  no more real to us than our world is to yours. 
   
  So where to start? 
   
  There is no good place. Any simple statement that 
  attempts to describe my world oversimplifies everything and 
  does nothing justice. 
   
  So I’ll start with the name. It’s as good a place as any.  
  The Thirteen Colonies. Well, we don’t call it that here—that 
  would be stupid. To us, it’s simply our world. 
   
  You call it the world of the Thirteen Colonies because 
  that—the founding of the original thirteen American 
  colonies—is where your history and ours diverge. 
   
  Remember your lessons? The colonies, followed by the 
  Revolution and then the founding of the United States of 
  America under the Articles of Confederation . . . a few years 
  later, the Constitutional Congress gave birth to the 
  Constitution of the United States of America (you do recall 
  this, don’t you? Fifth Grade American History? Mrs. Hargrave 
  scratching out dates in white chalk while you were trying to 
  hit little Suzie Williams in the back of the head wad of paper armed with a chewing gum 
  warhead? Or maybe it was that red-headed kid . . . anyway). 
   
  Steam Punk? Modern Day Magic? 
  Historical? 
   
  C-13 is some of all of these. 
  Technology stops around 1940 but air 
  transit is handled by blimp. Out on the 
  frontier a musket is more reliable than 
  machine-tooled parts.  
   
  Ships like the Titanic ply the seas and 
  telegraph is still a good way to send a 
  letter. There aren't elves but there are 
  mutations, the Tribes (half-humans), 
  and other races. 
   
  You can ride a motorcycle with a .45 
  on your hip looking at the world 
  through a cool set of shades. You can 
  fight a boarding action thousands of 
  feet above the Art-Deco Metropolis of 
  New York City (still called New 
  Amsterdam by many!) You can spell-
  duel with summoned demons or sell 
  your soul in an illegal Atlantic City 
  casino. 
   
  Ah—right. USA. A tiff with the Spanish . . . Mexico. Manifest Destiny. The Gold 
  rush. The Great War. The Greatest Generation. Watergate. Punk Rock. Billy Joel plays the 
  Soviet Union, and so on. 
   
  Your world. 
   
  None of that happened here. 
   
  Here, in the world of the Thirteen Colonies, men came from Europe to the Strange 
  New World that St. Columbus had discovered a little over a century ago. They weren’t the 
  first—the Spanish had come first and had come back with gold and nightmares. 
   
  But no one ever listens to the Spanish—not in your world, and not in ours—so no one 
  believed it when they said that there were immense golden cities in the deep jungles, 
  abandoned, and covered with carnivorous vines or that the ziggurats built by the natives 
  housed scaled, blind things that spoke in old-woman hisses and could remember the future. 
   
  Everyone was impressed with the gold, of course, but they knew that between 
  bragging and drinking, the Conquistadors were not, how shall we say this, reliable witnesses. 
   
  So the 1500’s went along pretty much as they did in your world, just as the 10,000 
  years before that matched your world also. 
   
  2
  
   
  It was the English and the Dutch, and those who 
  came—not to plunder, but to live—that discovered how 
  strange a world they lived in. 
   
  And there, my friend, your history and ours diverge. 
   
  Yours went on as I briefly outlined a few paragraphs 
  ago, and ours—in a great many ways—stopped. 
   
  In your world it is (and I, ahem, hedge) about 2000 
  and 2 (or so). And so it is (about) the same in ours. But while 
  your world has seen genetic engineering, microprocessors, 
  women’s rights, MTV, a lunar landing, and Nick Cave, ours 
  has not. 
   
  In the world of the Thirteen Colonies, there is no 
  United States of America. There is still a British Empire—
  still an Ottoman Empire, too for that matter. The population 
  of the world circa 1600 AD was about yea-million, and it is 
  still about yea-million . . . not the 6+ billion that it is in yours. 
   
  But this is not because everyone was frozen, like 
  your Han Solo, in carbonite.  This is not because the men of 
  the world of the Thirteen Colonies were forbidden to act or 
  think. 
   
  Things stopped for two reasons— 
  Magic and how it Changes Nothing 
   
  The first is that Magic makes it possible. In your 
  world growth and change cannot stop. If nothing else, short 
  of global catastrophe, population growth will continue 
  exponentially. Not so in a world with Magic. Magic is both 
  blunt and subtle, and it subtly tricks conception so that 
  certain couplings will produce one child and no more. 
   
  But population is not the only thing that forces 
  change you say—what of technology? And you’re right. 
  Technology is an agent of change like no other and as men’s 
  minds work within the world, they find the tools to change it. 
   
  But Magic works against this as well—again, both 
  subtly and overtly. Overtly, Magic provides many of the same conveniences that technology 
  does, making technological advancement somewhat redundant. But men never needed a 
  reason to invent. And so magic is subtle. It makes chemical and atomic reactions of certain 
  kinds unpredictable. Technology past a certain point—transistors, for instance—simply 
  cannot be built reliably in the world of the Thirteen Colonies. 
  What About The Rest of the World? 
  Well, we've got over a hundred pages 
  on thirteen little colonies and you want 
  a few more nations and continents 
  thrown in? Boy are you demanding! 
   
  Europe: The seas are dominated by 
  the British Empire (who has her many 
  colonies across the globe). The 
  Ottoman Empire still stands to the 
  East, though and fields the most 
  powerful army in Europe. 
   
  In the Middle East the Elemental Jinn 
  have great power here and the swath 
  of desert boasts sparkling cities that 
  are exotic and hard to reach. Egypt is a 
  land of mysteries and spectacles. 
  While magic is "weaker" across the 
  water, the presence of the Jinn have 
  lead to miracles both awesome and 
  terrifying. 
   
  Russia is a vast, grim expanse of 
  tundra. There is still a Tsar and a royal 
  family there. It is a place of bloody 
  revolutions. There are architectural 
  marvels, massive cathedrals, and 
  untold wealth in difficult to reach 
  natural resources. 
   
  India is a colony but it is also an 
  ancient land and has its own magic. 
  Secret societies, vastly powerful beings 
  ("The Demiurges") and unexplored 
  inlands (unexplored by English 
  colonials, that is) leave it and China as 
  great question marks as well. 
   
  Technology at about the level of the 1940’s is achievable, but beyond that, there’s 
  nothing but chaos. 
   
  And if Magic limits technology and governs population growth, it does one other 
  thing that has made the status quo last—it provides a third and perhaps most potent 
  balancing agent: it satisfies men’s wishes at home, while threatening them abroad. 
   
  In your world slaves were needed to feed the ravenous agricultural economies of the 
  West Indies and the Southern States. In the world of the Thirteen Colonies, there were 
   
  3
  
  never slaves in the New World because summonsed creatures 
  were simply cheaper.  Magic can light rooms, clean houses, and 
  erect walls. It can send messages across a great distance. It 
  can cure disease. It does all of these things in different ways, 
  and it cannot be mass-produced. But Magic takes the edge off 
  life at home. 
   
  Forgetting History and Repeating It 
  We've done a lot of historical research 
  for C-13. Considering that the world 
  was an "alternate universe" to begin 
  with, why'd we bother? 
   
  The answer was that C-13 is supposed 
  to have a sense of history to it, even as 
  it wildly diverges. Also, to be honest we 
  couldn't make better stuff up if we tried. 
  Bringing the named lions on the steps 
  of the New York Public Library to life 
  was a no-brainer—the George 
  Washington's Adventurers for Draining 
  the Great Dismal Swamp  (a real 
  company!) would've been pedantic if 
  we'd invented it! 
   
  The New Debate (not what type of 
  government should we have, but what 
  type of universe should we have) may 
  not be the focus of the game you 
  choose to play in this world, but the 
  charged nature of 'people on the brink 
  of a great event' should permeate it—
  even if it never, in game-time, get 
  settled. 
   
  And it adds that edge to life in the wild. Your world 
  had Indians? Our world has the Tribes and Monsters. Your 
  world had pirates? Ours has Vampire Ships. In your world sea 
  monsters were legends. In ours, Kraken that can take down a 
  ship with all hands are terrifyingly real. 
   
  Magic is a balancing force and a harsh mistress, but it 
  is not the only reason that, from the year 1600 AD to 2000 
  AD, the shape of their world has been remarkably constant. 
  Magic, alone, is necessary but not sufficient. 
   
  So what is the second factor that has kept the Empire 
  (there is no need to say British) sunset-less? What has kept 
  the dream of the United States of America at bay? Simply 
  this— 
   
  Magic makes it possible, but the decision of men to 
  stay the course has made it happen. 
   
  You see, you are only vaguely aware of our world, but 
  we are very aware of yours. If not for magic, we would live in 
  your world and we still see it in visions and half-remembered 
  images. We call your world The Dream—The Dream of what 
  would have been. 
   
  And although yours is a world of miracles, it is also a world of nightmares—and so we 
  have, for four hundred years, appreciated what we have rather than what might have been. 
   
  It would be wrong to say that during this time nothing has happened. Much has 
  happened. 
   
  There has been a war (The Great War—there is still nothing to match it and simply 
  give it a number). What else? There has been a western expansion, but colonizing the New 
  World has proven all but impossible (Magic again—you’ll learn the details of the Deeps and 
  the Shallows; I needn’t go into it here). And what else? 
   
  A thousand details. One which bares mentioning is the little matter of the Colonies, 
  the British Empire, and the Revolutionary War. It never happened here. 
   
  Why? Because the Crown was too powerful to defy? 
   
  Not exactly. In this world, with magic at the fringes (India and the Americas are 
  both highly magical places), the colonies have some advantages they didn't have in your 
  world (so does Britain for that matter). It's quite conceivable that in the short term, at 
  least, the colonies could fight and win an Independence War (shots were exchanged, as you 
  might guess around 1776 or so in places like Lexington and Concord). 
   
  Eventually, though, it comes down to will: the Colonies never revolted because they 
  did not need to. 
   
   
  4
  
  The Great Debate 
   
  In our schools, our Mrs. Hargrave was teaching 
  their little Suzie Williams and the red-headed kid and 
  that awful smart-ass in the back of the room (you know 
  who I’m talking about). She was droning on about the 
  Great Debate, while you were ignoring the lecture on the 
  Birth of America. 
   
  The Great Debate happened in both worlds, with 
  different decisions and different results. In yours, the 
  men of the Constitutional Convention debated how their 
  nation should be run. They debated the nature of 
  individual freedom and the benefits of a strong central 
  government against those of a loose confederation of 
  states. 
   
  The Great Debate in your world (reality, as you 
  call it) was answered with a decision to form the One 
  Nation, Indivisible, which would thereby provide Liberty 
  and Justice for All (well, that was the idea anyway. 
  Whether it worked is wide open). 
   
  In the world of the Thirteen Colonies the 
  objects were the same (Liberty, Justice, the Pursuit of 
  Happiness, all that), but the methods were different. 
  They did not need one nation, and they didn’t even need independence.  
   
  What if I'm Not American? 
  Lots of our favorite JAGS players aren't 
  from the states—why should they 
  care? 
  1. The game doesn't have to take 
  place in North America and if it 
  does the characters don't have 
  to be Colonists. 
  2. There are plenty of "good 
  guys" from all over—Britannia 
  is an alternate world where 
  England is ascendant and its 
  one of the better choices for a 
  universe from our perspective!  
  3. The Colonies aren't America. 
  Sure, they're aware of The 
  Dream and Manifest Destiny—
  but they aren't the world-
  spanning Super Power the US 
  is today. An ultra-valuable 
  jewel to European nations and 
  under protection from England 
  they're far different. 
   
  The Founding Fathers in the world of the Thirteen Colonies realized their utopia 
  without fragmenting the British Empire and without joining into one force. Four hundred 
  years ago, they met, the discussed, and rather than burning down the old world and erecting, 
  in its place, a new one, the chose subtle, simple adjustments. 
   
  Their decision—their realization that they could change the world, and their 
  decision not to—was called, in their world (in their Fifth Grade history lessons) The Great 
  Debate. The Debate over Independence and their debate over whether a man would be more 
  free if the power of his government rested in the hands of the Nation or in the hands of 
  the State. 
   
  They debated the same issues as the Fathers in your world. They reached a 
  different conclusion. And so your world and theirs diverged. 
   
  So that was the Great Debate—a pivotal moment in the history of both world, and a 
  moment when the philosophical decision of men about the world they wanted to live in 
  changed the history of all citizens everywhere. 
   
  And so history repeats itself—for as their millennium draws to a close, they are 
  faced with a new challenge: once again the opportunity to change everything approaches, and 
  once again, men in the New World are called upon to decide for themselves how they want 
  to live. 
   
  The New Debate, as it is called, is another philosophical moment. Another pivot point, 
  from which point on, things might never be the same. 
   
   
  5
  
  What Strange New World? 
   
  But that is a detail you can educate yourself about soon enough. So there is Magic, 
  and so there were different decisions made and so our world is somehow different from 
  yours. How so? What is it like? These are good questions, and the answers fill the book 
  you’re reading, but I can offer a few points for your enjoyment and education. 
   
  One thing you might notice is that we have a different appreciation of history than 
  you do. Your parents can barely understand you. Your grandparents are aliens. And kids 
  these days have no appreciation whatsoever for music. 
   
  Generations have always been at odds, but in your world the rate of change is so 
  great that a 20-year difference may be insurmountable. Your great grandparents grew up 
  (probably) in a world without Interstate Highways. You never knew a world without 
  television. Your kids will be amazed that you ever thought the Internet was cool. 
  A Sense of History 
   
  It’s not like that in the Thirteen Colonies. Things change, but slowly and in ways that 
  are understandable from any context. We feel connected with the men who engaged in the 
  Great Debate because the world they lived in is still there. Oh, the Founding Fathers never 
  had telegraphs or radio, or factories, or any of the marvelous technical advantages that 
  modern residents of the Thirteen Colonies have, but these things have done remarkably 
  little to change our lives—or at least, they’re still recognizable. 
   
  In the Thirteen Colonies, we have a sense of history—a sense that the men of four 
  hundred years ago would understand and appreciate the world we live in today.  Of course 
  they still wouldn't like the noise that kids these days listen to. 
   
  And in the Thirteen Colonies, unlike your world, if we don’t like what the kid next to 
  us is listening to, we can probably get away with smacking him in the head. You see, the 
  liberal, progressive rights that you see as modern and natural (of course you can’t just go 
  and smack someone) never took hold here. We would use the term “traditional” you 
  (especially if you’re female) might call it “repressive” (or worse, depending on what kind of 
  mouth you have on you). 
   
  The Social Order 
   
  There are advantages—slavery was never institutionalized in the New World, so if 
  you’re African, there’s no special stigma. You’re much rarer in the New World, but if you’re 
  there, it’s because you chose to be (the Spanish still used slave labor in the Islands—and 
  paid for it by falling apart—but slavery wasn’t economical in North America, where Magic 
  made it redundant). 
   
  How progressive your society is depends on where you live. The Puritan North East 
  and the Deep South both have their detractors. The Middle Colonies (Pennsylvania) is 
  probably the most egalitarian place in the world, and although there are no promises about 
  special treatment, if you’re good, no one there cares what color, gender, or faith you happen 
  to belong to. 
   
   
  6
  
  And Then There’s Magic 
   
  Ah, right . . .  and then there’s Magic. And what does 
  that do to a society? We know it stabilizes thing . . . 
  smoothes out the time-line a bit. But when you’re faced with 
  a magician pulling a rabbit out of thin air (and doing it for 
  real), it’s hard to see it as a force for calm. 
   
  Magic is practiced by Magicians (the other names 
  are not in use much, except for terms that refer to a 
  specific practice such as Summoner or Necromancer). 
  Magicians are trained through apprenticeship, but they 
  usually start with a college education, graduating with a 
  Bachelor of Arts in Magical Studies (very few reputable 
  magicians will accept an apprentice who has not graduated and is bonded). 
   
  Machine Tools and Mass Production 
  Magic doesn't just shut down complex 
  devices (although it does that as well). 
  Anything that is machine-tooled or 
  mass-produced tends to malfunction 
  the closer one gets to the frontier! 
   
  A handmade watch will function out 
  west of the Mississippi. A factory made 
  timepiece will break a hundred miles 
  east of Philly.
   
  If you can afford the education, pass the bar, and find a Master to teach you the 
  basics of the trade, you can make a very handy life for yourself. Most magicians specialize 
  in spells that their community needs. In the South, this means tending to the crops and 
  summonsing the Beasts to plow the fields and reap the harvest. In the North East, this 
  means doing as little magic as possible (healers are always welcome), and in the Middle it can 
  mean a variety of things (Astrologers work for the major brokerage houses, for instance). 
   
  Magicians who can answer questions (divination, augury) are always in demand by 
  lawyers, judges, spies, and others who have an interest in knowing things that are difficult 
  to come by. Many Magicians practice medicine—or rather, many Doctors practice magic. 
   
  One type of magic that is not much in demand in civilized areas is the type that lets 
  you defend yourself or offend your enemies. Attack spells (and, especially Elder School 
  Spells) are considered bad form. If you’ve taken trouble to learn them, people wonder what 
  sort of person you are. If you don’t want people wondering about you (and, believe me, you 
  don’t), you keep it to yourself. 
   
  On the Frontier, it’s a different matter. As you go into the Shallows, Magic becomes 
  stronger and just as you need them most, your guns become less reliable. If you fight 
  monsters, on their turf, you want a fireball backing up your Tommy gun. 
   
  Witchcraft is a special case. There might be a few good reasons to be wary of 
  witches, but in the World of the Thirteen Colonies there are some people who think that 
  you better be afraid. It helps to understand Summonsing. 
   
  Summonsing is especially important to the world—magical items are expensive and 
  difficult to make, but spirits can be called forth and bound to create persistent magical 
  effects. The spirits don’t like this much, but since they barely even exist, its not considered 
  unethical. Summoning is integral to the world and most people own bound spirits that make 
  their lives easier in much the same way technology might. 
   
  Spirits can come from many places, and the spirits summonsed to make “every day” 
  goods come from the aether, itself. In a sense, they come into existence when called and 
  seek (eventually) to return to their “natural” state (non-being). 
   
  These are called “clean” spirits are considered transient natural phenomena, much 
  like lightning or a strong wind. Harnessing them and using them is no more oppressive than 
  building a windmill. 
   
  7
  
   
  There are other kinds of spirits though. There are spirits with lives beyond their 
  summonsing—natural spirits (spirits in the rocks and trees… spirits in the waves). These two 
  can be “bound” and they are often quite powerful, but they are real things with real minds 
  and enslaving them is ethically risky and (at times) mortally dangerous. Sometimes they 
  cause trouble and they have to be appeased or banished. Sometimes there can be ‘deals’ 
  made—arrangements, in which they are ‘indentured’ for a period of time. And sometimes 
  they are so powerful and dangerous that letting them roam free is a risk no one is willing to 
  take… but in general, Natural Spirits should not be bound. 
   
  And after that, there are the Unclean. The Unclean include spirits of the dead 
  (although it is unclear if they are actually the souls of dead people or spirits taking on their 
  memories and characteristics—mocking them, in a dreadful way). Ghosts, Banshee, and 
  others are considered unclean and vile. Necromancers who deal with them are treated with 
  mistrust at best and out-and-out fear at worst. It is not that Necromancers are evil, but 
  they work close to it. 
   
  For most people the hierarchy of the Invisible World stops with the Unclean. There 
  may be unclean that are more powerful than others. Spirits that are crueler; more 
  malicious . . .  There may even, most scholars accept, be a warped infinite funhouse maze of 
  doors, each hiding a terror more awful than the last, but they are all simply Unclean and 
  that is that. 
   
  But for some, there is an even lower realm—the Damned. The Damned are spirits 
  that live in the graces of and under the service of the Great Deceiver. They are cruel and 
  cunning, but unlike the Unclean, they have a purpose—the desecration of Creation; the 
  corruption of All That Is. 
   
  And if the Damned are an army of demons, then the Forces that Witches commune 
  with are their Generals. 
   
  There is little proof of this theory (and the Witches, especially the ‘white’ ones 
  strongly deny it), but it is not altogether unproven. There may well be a force of darkness in 
  this world—a force of evil that lies under the surface. It is difficult to be sure. 
   
  And of course there’s more. Much more. I could tell you stories about each of the 
  Colonies. How Rhode Island, well in the hands of the Agrarian Party and dutifully printing its 
  own money is called Rogue Island by those who have to trade with her. I could tell you about 
  the odd things found in the territories purchased from the French, and the odd poems 
  written on the graves in New Orleans. I could tell you about the Mason’s secret meetings in 
  the windowless temple under Wall Street, or about the offices of Ladies of Virtue looking 
  down at the crowds of businessmen in the Market Street Plaza in Philadelphia. 
  I could tell you a thousand stories and still not scratch the surface so I’ll say this 
  instead—your world is a dream to us. Ours is a fantasy to you. But just as your dream of 
  skyscrapers and light-speed math, and a democratic Super Power is a fascinating dream to 
  us, I think you’ll find our dream of a quieter world full of mystery and on the edge of a 
  revolution of the mind is a fascinating one to you. 
   
  Come inside, traveler, and welcome, 
  --The Authors 
   
   
   
   
  8
  
   
  Could Magic Be Bottled Again? 
  Could the genie be put back in the 
  bottle? Most experts say no. Whatever 
  secrets were discovered—however it 
  was done the first time, when the 
  candle of magic was snuffed out the 
  architects of its demise were dealing 
  with a spark—an ember. Even without 
  access to the New World, Magic was 
  more 'distributed' then … less 
  prevalent … less concentrated. 
   
  The Event unleashed a torrent of 
  energy that, it is believed, cannot be 
  contained (or even turned back in on 
  itself) without use of The 
  Observatories. It isn't simply a matter 
  of closing the bottle: the genie is out. 
   
  The Event 
  In 1500 AD a ship left port from Spain—its name is unknown as 
  is information regarding its captain and crew. Whether they knew 
  it or not, every man on board was sentenced to die to ensure 
  that we wouldn't know anything either. In its hold, in a case, 
  wrapped in silk and cushioned on velvet was a golden egg the 
  size of a man's head. The egg is said to have been the result—
  the final result, the end product, the reason de entrée—of the 
  Spanish Inquisition, one of the most monstrous institutions 
  mankind has ever created. Within that egg was the Soul of Magic. 
  How it was entombed we don't know—and probably never will. 
  When the egg was made, and while it remained whole, magic 
  itself was snuffed out in the world. 
   
  The ship crossed the oceans silently, the crew unaware, two 
  guards, both grimly willing to die to protect their precious cargo 
  stood watching over those many weeks. When land was sighted 
  in the southern continent (a continent enwrapped in misty jungle 
  where, the men had heard, it was said lizards the size of 
  galleons stalked human prey) the call was given and the ship 
  neared shore and dropped anchor. 
   
  The boats departed. Back on the ship, those who had stayed behind with the vessel's contingent 
  were quietly slaughtered by the remaining guards. Those ashore knew nothing of it. They 
  reached the foreign beach and then started their expedition—up and up—into the mountains. The 
  lands were so wild and strange it is a wonder they survived but they knew what they sought and 
  perhaps had a path, a map, or a guide.  High in the aerie of the Sierra Nevada mountains they 
  found a cave. It was a natural maze complete with deadfalls, quicksand, and spiky rocks that 
  threatened to fall from the ceiling. There may even have been man-eating plants and plague-
  carrying giant rats. Whatever. In the back of the cave, they deposited the chest, which held the 
  egg. 
   
  When the job was done and the captain and his men were taken care of, the guards, cleaning the 
  site carefully, collapsed the entrance to the cave and covered it over with dirt. Then, they started 
  back down—they did not (and had no intention of) ever reaching civilization. 
   
  What happened then, for hundreds of years, we cannot say for certain. Magic was extinguished 
  from the world by means forgotten (and now judged to be impossible). Cities grew. Technology 
  advanced. Mankind multiplied and swarmed across the globe. Satellites blinked in orbit around 
  the earth. Rocket ships landed on the moon. Atoms were broken and elemental energies poured 
  down on cities.  
   
  Sometime at the dawn of the new millennium a drilling expedition in the mountains of South 
  America found the cave. Imagine them moving 500-year-old rocks with their machines—brushing 
  them aside. Imagine them turning over old graves of the conquistadors and their sonic imaging 
  machines finding a chamber beyond the rubble. And within? Within, untouched by age was a 
  chest. The first to touch it, no doubt died—for while there was no magic in their world, 
  surrounding the golden egg, whose shell had become soap-bubble thin, there was power. 
  Imagine their flesh melting or their eyes turning to swarms of deadly wasps. Imagine what you will 
  for the architects of the End of Magic had built their defenses to deter anyone … or anything—but 
  the men weren't. The chest was broken open and inside—inside was the egg. 
   
  Perhaps they shattered the egg in the act of sundering the chest. Perhaps they opened the egg 
  delicately, after studying it under lights in a laboratory. Perhaps it was ruptured when the stone 
   
  9
  
  roof collapsed. Perhaps. But the egg was split and that was 
  The Event. Magic flowed backwards and forwards and 
  inwards and out—it permeated space-time and gushed into 
  elsewhere and filled the void with invisible, untouchable 
  aether. It was explosive, catastrophic, and very, very strange.  
   
  It Changed Everything 
  Well, not everything. Magic flowed up the landmass like an 
  invisible river of force and now, like a throbbing vein it winds 
  through the western super-continent and flows like water 
  down to the coasts. Where man has made a foothold, in the 
  northern continent along the shoreline its presence is felt 
  most strongly. For the decades before that, for the western 
  world, at least, things seemed relatively normal. Sure there 
  was magic and wizards and witches—but there were all 
  those things anyway. Sure the Middle East and the Far East 
  and the stretches of Russia were mysterious—but they were 
  always mysterious.  For the kings and queens and beggars 
  and thieves and merchants and sailors and soldiers and 
  everyone else it all looked pretty logical until Columbus hit 
  the New World (for the second time in a manner of speaking). 
   
  The discovery (re-discovery) of the "New World" brought 
  back incontrovertible proof of just how strange the world 
  could be. Since the Event had permeated the New World 
  with magic it was unlike any terrain anywhere ever. While 
  the Spaniards plundered (or tried to plunder) the southern continents, the French, English, and 
  Dutch settled the north. And here we diverge—almost—for while the world was never the same 
  again (and not even as it had been 'before') some things didn't change. New Orleans still opened 
  her ports at the mouth of the Mississippi. Florida was still a Conquistador-eating swamp (with the 
  Fountain of Youth in there somewhere to be sure!) and the 13 colonies grew and prospered on 
  the Atlantic shores of North America. 
   
  What Happened to the People? 
  Did The Event result in genocide? In 
  Billions of people being wiped out—
  never to have existed? It's a tough 
  question but most philosopher-scientist 
  who have studied it say "no—but you 
  wouldn't understand." 
   
  Further prompting gets something like 
  this: "There are fewer people alive 
  now, it seems, than in The Dream—but 
  they are not dead. It seems that many 
  are 'yet to be' in the philosophical 
  sense and lots of people today 'still 
  are.' It deals with both folding and 
  translation. Folding is when a person 
  today is an amalgam of one or more 
  person (or aspects thereof) of a person 
  in The Dream. Translation is when a 
  person becomes the same sort of 
  person in our world that he was in The 
  Dream. He has no knowledge of his 
  former self but he seems to hold the 
  similar … parameters. It becomes 
  complicated …" 
   
   
  The rest is history. 
   
  A Brief History of the Americas (13 Colonies) 
  1492 In 1492 Columbus discovered the New World. The journey had already been marked by 
  the sighting of aquatic serpents the length of the Santa Maria in the waters near the coast. When 
  he arrived (at the southern islands) he discovered a deep and mysterious jungle, gold-skinned 
  natives with odd war paint and heads of animals, and heard rumors of the magnificent empires 
  and cities inland. 
   
  1500 Between 1500 and 1540 the likes of De Soto, Ponce De Leon, Hernan Cortez, Coronado, 
  and Francisco Pissaro searched for the Fountain of Youth, discovered the Incas and the Aztecs, 
  reached the Kansas territory, and found the Mississippi river. They brought back vast amounts of 
  gold that fueled an even greater drive by Spain to conquer the lands in the southern continents 
  (South and Central America). These failed (and even with the gold, Spain went bankrupt twice in 
  that period). They failed because unlike in The Dream world (and it is said that the Conquistadors 
  were driven by The Dream to believe they could succeed in conquest) the jungles were 
  carnivorous. The natives had real godlike beings that they housed in gold-covered pyramids, and 
  they had magicians. Spain found itself committed to a war with madness. Sea monsters devoured 
   
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  ships, entire forces were swallowed by the jungles and, while the gold and jewels flowed back, it 
  began to seem to some as though the New World was as hungry for them as they were for it. 
   
  1585 In 1585 the Northern Colonies started (the famously ill-fated Roanoke was founded by Sir 
  Raleigh). These were followed over the next hundred years by the 13 colonies themselves (the 
  last of which was Georgia in 1732). By this time Spain had failed in the south and her navy had 
  been bested. The British Empire was successfully colonizing everywhere else and the colonies 
  (especially the agriculturally rich southern colonies) started producing. 
   
  1776 There was, however, unrest and dissatisfaction with the crown—in 1776 The 
  Independence War was fought. It concluded four months later with a treaty between the colonies 
  and England that maintained their status but allowed a Federal government to hold authority (this 
  is discussed in more detail in the section on Pennsylvania). 
   
  1803 The French in the Louisiana Territories were having a tough go of it without much support 
  (and often combat with) the Colonial Army. In 1803 they sold the territories to the Colonies—but 
  due to the chaos of the magical frontier they remain largely unsettled and there is no 14th colony 
  to claim them. New Orleans is still a French Owned port, just like there are still a few Spanish 
  Forts in Florida (mostly abandoned, all haunted) but for people in the western hemisphere, that's 
  about it. 
   
  1861 For the next century the colonies grew—and stratified. In 1861 cannon fire was 
  exchanged at Fort Sumter in a second short-lived Succession War between the South and the 
  Mid and Central Colonies (from the Colonial Congress, really). The parties laid down their arms 
  after another few short months of fighting, but the South has never fully felt itself a part of the 13 
  Colonies in all respects. 
   
  Gold was discovered in the West (the west still being east of the Mississippi) and the Mare 
  Imbrium Express was started—today the only train line capable of running through the Shallows. 
  Today it still services mining towns out in the far reaches where ordinary machines don't work 
  and monsters seem as plentiful as men. 
   
  1919 The Twentieth Century brought The Great War. By this time, the Colonies were 
  recognized as being important international players (both for their depth of thought, strength of 
  arms, and access to powerful magic). The War was resolved after a great deal of bloody trench 
  fighting, but the empires remained. The flag of the Ottoman Empire still flies.  
   
  1939 There was a depression about a third of the way through—but the ties with England 
  helped there: her empire was more or less recession proof and while there were tough times 
  (especially in the North and Middle colonies) the colonies' economy recovered after half a decade. 
   
  1940 The end of the 20th century came with a whisper, not a bang: technological revolution in 
  the 40's and 50's had brought radio, automobiles, telephones (and extensions of the telegraph) 
  great airships (airplanes were seen as unnecessary and unreliable), and mass production. It is 
  the philosophical challenges that are most prevalent now: mankind's math and science and 
  proved (as was long suspected) that a new universe could be forged—and there are those in a 
  position to do so who are considering exactly that. 
   
  2000 Overseas stability has not bred peace: there are small conflicts both overt and covert all 
  over the world. The English seem to have the upper hand but the French, Spanish, Dutch, Italians, 
  and Ottomans have their hands in the colonial game. The inward looking Middle East has vast 
  riches that some of the European nations have their eyes on—and their inward gaze may not last 
   
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  long in any event.  It is an age of diplomacy and treachery, of great triumphs and wonders. It's the 
  age of the 13 Colonies: welcome to it. 
   
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/13 Colonies/13 Colonies - CH1 - An Introduction.pdf