Prolouge
On July 16, 1945, the Manhattan Project reached fruition. The first atomic bomb was detonated at the Trinity Site near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The explosion ripped a hole in the fabric of space, and Dr. Oppenheimer’s words “. . . I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” unknowingly closed a necromantic ritual. The fireball vanished, but the mushroom cloud remained. It began to rotate, a stationary tornado shot with red lightning. Radio reception within 20 miles of Trinity was jammed by static. The southern United States experienced freak weather conditions: violent lightning storms, hail, torrential rain, even snow. Shimmering auroras filled the night over the Western Hemisphere. These died down after a week, but the tornado officially the “Trinity Event,” but nicknamed the “Hellstorm” remained. It’s still there today.
The immediate result was a suspension of the U.S. atomic weapons program. Plans for the atomic bombing of Japan were canceled. “Nearly unconditional surrender” terms were offered to Japan: the emperor’s position would be guaranteed. World War II ended on August 14. The United States retained two atomic bombs, but would make no more until the Hellstorm was understood.
More important were the invisible effects of the detonation. A wave of magical radiation spread out from the blast, transforming reality. Carried by hurricane-force winds, magically enhanced fallout was blasted high into the atmosphere, where freak weather conditions scattered it across America in a zone 2,000 miles in radius that would become known as “Trinity’s Shadow.” Magic had returned to the mid 20th century Earth.
In 1952 a closely divided Supreme Court ruled in the case of Ex Parte Lyndon that no person who possessed Magical Abilities nor any person whose DNA was altered by the Trinity Event was in any legal sense human and thus the constitution did not apply to such entities.
This had several immediate consequences. Initially the US Government tried to claim all Magic as Government property but this proved a step to far for even the hardliners on the court. So called Normals were free to enslave any Mageborn they happened to birth. The Nascent civil rights movements were also dealt a heavy blow.
Nearly all world religious leaders condemned The United States for it’s policies and actions. As did the Soviet bloc. But conditions behind the Iron Curtain were in most cases worse for the Trinity’s Children.
With only the Pope, and a few lesser figures standing in the way, naked greed, and bigotry soon took over. Nearly 50 years of oppression followed.
In the year 2002 a group of Free Mageborn and other minorities gathered in the Cathedral of Baltimore, to lay the foundation of a new Civil Rights movement which sought equality for all. Ten years later it was discovered that one of the original Justices in the Lyndon case had been bribed. Lyndon was quickly struck down. And all seemed well.
However it was soon made clear that the Magical Industrial Complex was willing to use violent and immoral methods to retain the control. Barely 18 months later a Constitutional Amendment was passed which attempted to reinstate the Lyndon rules. It went further by attempting to rescind the laws of those states which had enacted civil rights bills of their own (Maryland, New York, and California most prominent among them).
This was widely seen by almost all observers Mageborn or otherwise to be a sham enactment bought with much alchemical gold, and very liberal use of mind control enchantments. The memory of the Lyndon bribe was fresh in most minds. But what could be done The Constitution had been amended. Even the Supreme Court was powerless. That was also clear to all observers. Preparations for a civil war were soon underway. And in the year 2021 the Mage’s Rebellion was announced with the symbolic incineration of all the original copies of the US Constitution. But this story is not about the Dystopia which preceded the war nor is it about the war itself. For though it took nearly 200 years the Mage’s Rebellion was successful. As all truly just causes eventually must be. This story is one about rebuilding in the aftermath of tragedy
tags: story-post