From what we know, the Nevernever contains many different "realms", separate locations that each reflect one myth, legend, religion or other belief of the world. Faerie is the closest and most stable world but it still has no set geography, size or even time; those things are mutable depending on what some Powers want and beliefs on Earth dictate. Humans and human-like creatures seem capable of existing in the Nevernever even for long times, given that humans captured by Fae don't seem to die outright.

So, a couple of things I've been wondering about;


1) If a number of humans are trapped in one of the more distant but still survivable parts of the Nevernever, can they live there a long time?

2) Suppose the Realm they find themselves in has much more rapid time or they were trapped a few millennia ago. Given enough time in either case, can they "go forth and multiply", building a new society?

3) Is the realm shaped by their beliefs? Are they themselves shaped by their beliefs?

4) If the answer to #1-3 is yes, was this how many Faerie realms could have been created in the first place? Like Faerie itself but also the Nine Worlds of Norse myths or Olympus/Tartarus of Greek mythology? Parts of the Nevernever originally populated by humans that slowly changed into part-human creatures?

ALICE HEILWIG HARRISSON



High Concept: The Red Queen Trouble: Have Sword; Will Stab
Other Aspects: The Family Trade in War, The Bigger They Are The Harder They Fall, The War God's Own, Deimos and Phobos; sibling bonding
Stress and Consequences: Physical OOOO(OOOO) armor 2,  Social OOO  Mental OOOO Refresh Level and Fate Points: 10, adjusted to 1

Born to a family of Irish arms dealers in the late 1980s, Alice Heilwig Harrisson lived an eventful early life. Growing up in the midst of illegal arms trade, deals with faeries and major acts of terrorism made her resentful of the family trade. She focused more into athletics, healthy living and the study of history - which soon evolved into study of medieval history, which soon evolved into practice with medieval weaponry. Winning several fencing competitions at a young age, she focused in her sports and friends and away from family meetings. It was not until the giants came that her life drastically changed. Mixing arms trafficking with supernatural deals is unwise at best; the competition made a deal with a pair of giants to break down the Harrisson house with the entire family inside. Waking up at the dead of night as the building shook and seeing a massive face at the second-floor window, Alice grabbed her fencing sword and lunged. Somehow she maintained perfect balance despite the shaking floor, executed a masterful jump through the window completely unharmed, and buried her sword in the giant's single eye up to the hilt. The other giant - a cyclops, actually - was eventually brought down by the family's contingent of machinegun-equipped guards but though the family survived, the house was lost. Financially reeling from the damages, a few members of the family were cornered and captured by mortal authorities. Alice didn't much care; that night she'd survived her first real battle and taken her first life. Her supernatural talents with the blade fully awakened after that and a week later, she was visited by an emmisary of her father - her real father, Ares, greek god of War. All of eighteen, the young swordswoman spent much of her resources relocating to America, away from mortal authorities and her family's supernatural enemies both in order to find her own way in life. Over the seas she met her two older brothers Deimos and Phobos in a Mettallica concert; they took her in for a couple of weeks as they spread the terrorist scare that fueled the War on Terror and taught her a few tricks with the blade the modern world had not seen for a couple millennia, before disappearing without trace as soon as the War was put on hold. Alice lives in San Francisco ever since.

At only an inch over five feet and a pound under a full hundred, Alice is small by most standards. Curvy, athletic and with striking red hair and amber eyes, she is no-one's idea of a mighty warrior. Naturally, she agrees with that assessment; she would pick lightning-fast, nimble, skilled and smart over mighty any day. While a bit stronger than a human her size would be, Alice's real ability is agility; she is at the very upper limit of human manual dexterity, reaction time and reflexes, a skill she has honed to a great extent in swordsmanship of all types. While an exceptional human could attain such levels of skill after decades of training, she seems to acquire such traits naturally. In addition, she is a supernatural embodiment of War, being able to both sense violence and better cause it, as well as resist violence done upon her. Due to her name, temperament, complexion and her onetime stunt of decapitating a black court vampire in a single blow, those that know her gave her the nickame "The Red Queen".


Powers and Stunts:

[-1] True Aim: for melee bladed weapons
[+0] Inhuman Consitution
[+0] Echoes of Violence: Alice can sense when physical violence will happen ahead of time, to the point of sensing near-future wars. Warning people of her premonitions or trying to avert said violence seems to have no effect or even propagate it. Not that the Red Queen would ever try to stop violence; she loves it far too much. (similar to cassandra's tears)
[-4] Supernatural Toughness
[+3] The Catch: poison
[-1] Olympian Guardian (as per sacred guardian)
[-1] Off-hand weapon training
[-1] Way of the Sword: +1 to attacks with european swords and daggers
[-1] Dance of Death: when employing only melee combat (melee weapons, fists) unarmored and unencumbered, +2 to dodge defense
[-1] Strike and Move  (as per shoot and move stunt - but for melee weapons)
[-1] Quick Draw
[-1] The tell: Alice can read the intentions of opponents from the slightest twitch and act as they decide to act but before they've acted; she may use Alertness as an "ambush" trapping. Unlike an actual ambush, she may not set up the scene or apply aspects in advance.

Skills:

Superb: Weapons, Athletics
Great: Discipline, Alertness
Good: Endurance, Conviction
Fair: Presence, Fists, Might
Average: Rapport, Survival, Scholarship, Resources, Contacts

Here are some curse examples that do not incur Lawbreaker. This does not mean they are not crippling or nasty - any one of them can ruin someone, get someone institutionalized, neutralize a target or even have them killed. The curses give you enormous power on the mortal world, in ways nobody in the mortal world can counter, without breaking the Laws of Magic. In fact, they work a lot better in taking power in the mortal world that many lawbreaking spells because they are directed against what gives powerin the mortal world (unlike most magic)  : money, social power, political power, credibility, family and connection.


Mask of Death [Disruption/Veil or Necromancy 30 shifts]
Effect: you make the target appear to be dead, even though they are not, long enough for their next of kin to make funeral arrangements. The magic does not kill the target; it only deceives their family into having them buried alive or cremated through their own actions. Bonus points for the victim being alive to hear his own funeral arrangements
Mechanics: physical block vs endurance 14 shifts to keep the target paralyzed, veil 12 shifts to make him appear dead for most examinations. 4 shifts to increase duration to a week.

Eldritch Plague [Disruption 30 shifts]
Effect: you magically inflict the symptoms of some crippling disease upon the target. The magic keeps him immobile, not some real disease or damage to his body; human medicine would be unable to cure the victim. In fact, finding what exactly is wrong with the target beyond their apparent symptoms is quite hard.
Mechanics: physical block vs endurance 12 shifts to keep the target largely crippled, veil 6 shifts to make him appear to have some incurable disease, 12 shifts to make the curse last one mortal lifetime.

Illusory Madness [Veils 26 shifts]
Effect: you create illusions upon the target's senses. This can be as simple as sensory deprivation but hearing voices or unearthly visions are much more fun. The spell does not affect the target's mind - it merely creates an illusion for him to see; targets of "Illusory Madness" are often institutionalized after rationally insisting that they keep hearing/seeing said illusion (hence the spell name) but even if they aren't, and even if they realise the visions are not real, the distortion to their senses is enough to keep them from functioning.
Mechanics: Veil 14 shifts, 12 shifts to make the curse last one mortal lifetime.

Cloak of Obscurity [Veils 26 shifts]
Effect: the target becomes a nobody, utterly ignored by family, friends, allies and people in general. They could still function in life but they usually become angry loners as their any attempt to be socially active or draw anyone's attention is utterly ignored. They don't become invisible but, socially speaking, they might as well have been.
Mechanics: veil/block 14 shifts vs social interaction, 12 shifts to make the curse last one mortal lifetime.

Curse of Poverty [Disruption 26 shifts]
Effect: much like an entropy curse, this spell affects the target's luck. Unlike an entropy curse, the extremely bad luck is focused on one single aspect of life and is long-lasting; money. The target goes to withdraw money from an ATM? It happens to not function as long as they're trying to use it. The target wants to make a lucrative business deal? Someone else undercuts him, the offer happens to no longer be available or for some reason the deal falls through. The target has an intermediary/accountant handle his money? The accountant happens to be a total incompetent that causes him loss, a cheat and thief that embezzles until there os nothing left or outright moves the accounts and vanishes or an IRS plant looking for (or even arranging for) financial dirt. The target personally buys something with actual money? He somehow ends up carrying a couple fake bank notes that are recognized by the shop that then denies him service, or the shopkeeper mistakenly thinks his money/credit is no good or he gets mugged on the street. In effect, the target of the Curse of Poverty may be an average man or the richest man alive but it does not matter; a ridiculously improbable but technically possible reason always crops up for him being unable to actually use his wealth.
Mechanics: block 14 shifts vs resources, 12 shifts to make the curse last one mortal lifetime.

Given that the ability of spellcasters fluctuates even at the same power level, it might be useful for GMs to have some numbers of what is average power, meaning the power/control for rotes of a dedicated but generalist practitioner, focused power , meaning the power/control of rotes for a dedicated practitioner focusing on a single aspect of magic (only offense, only defense, only rituals or only a single element/theme) and max power, meaning the maximum size of spell a practitioner could reasonably pull off (with backlash/consequences/whatever) without shenanigans.

The idea is that once we got numbers for the various types of practitioners (focused practitioners, lawbreaking focused practitioners, sorcerors/wizards, lawbreaking sorcerors/wizards, sponsored magic users and sorcerors/wizards with sponsored magic) we can make a table GMs can look up to decide on challenges for spellcasters, where a given spellcaster is on the power scale, comparisons and other useful stuff. For simplicity's sake, submerged power level without items of power offers a common ground for the least amount of work.

This is a development of an idea I picked up in the "DFGRP in Space" thread. It deals in detail with how a team of specialists at submerged level could build and crew the magical equivalent of a sci-fi spaceship. I say specialists because even with supernatural abilities, a ship is going to need a crew whose skills are highly specialized.

SHIP ARRANGEMENT:
The ship is 5 zones in size, divided into bridge, living quarters, workroom, storage and engineering. Each zone is a 15-yard-cube and contains several systems, with total hull length of 75 yards. It is crewed by 6 submerged people and designed to remain in space for prolonged periods.

Bridge
The bridge is nominally managed by Prophet, the ship's captain and tactical officer. He is an actual prophet, with Cassandra's tears, Guidance (as per guide my hand), ritual divination with 2 refinements and, most important for crew morale, fully upgraded Incite Emotion; Hope. He has high social skills, especially when using his Hope power to boost them, and can manage divinations of up to complexity 10 without additional preparation. He has crafted the ship's sensor spell, a permanent divination providing an alertness 20 effect (33 shifts total) to the captain when sitting in the captain's chair.
The bridge is also where one usually finds Irena, the ship's weapons officer. She is an artificer, having Thaumaturgy, an Item of Power focus of her own design that boosts her crafting abilities and 5 refinements; she has 8 enchanted item slots and 6 potion slots at power 10, frequency 7. 4 of her enchanted items are the ship's weapons she operates herself, 2 are defensive items for her personal use and 2 are "phaser" rods that can be used by others in the group. Her potions are typically boosted by 1 Lore-applied aspect and can be used for various effects, from high-power detonators containing landmines to quick healing spells or even personal shields. One of the potions though is typically boosted with fate points, skill-aspects and help from other people to increase its power - this is used as the ship's shield generator, being able to provide a very high shift Ward up to 7 times.

Living Quarters
The living quarters is where the crew rests and has some recreation, including high-tech gaming devices and laptops. Arya, the ship's medical and maintenance officer, is a summer sidhe changeling with Seelie magic, Supernatural Toughness (cold iron catch) and 4 refinements. In addition to her magic's high suitability to healing and growth, she does not hex technology so she is the one responsible for maintaining the anti-hexing wards on the ship's electrical systems. She is also interested in science.

Workroom
In addition to a minor lab and kitchen, the workroom contains exercise equipment for the crew, all of them tied to electricity generators to not only keep the crew in shape but also provide some electricity. Garth, the ship's security officer, is the scion of a hill giant. Nearly eight feet tall, he has supernatural strength, supernatural toughness, inhuman recovery, a big magic sword and is only weak vs water magic. In addition to being fairly good at security, he is a fitness fanatic and spends 4 hours a day working out. Being about as powerful as a small truck, he incidentally produces 95% of the ship's electricity.

Storage
Andrew Driscoll, the ship's logistics and financial officer as well as a former white court virgin from a white court house that fed on greed, is bankrolling the mission and the only almost-mortal in the group. Having met his wife to be in a University and falling in love at first sight, he was convinced to give a sizable portion of his money to bankroll this space expedition. This burned out the demon in him, leaving him only with an unusually long but ultimately finite lifespan (unnatural constitution). He does not regret this though - apparently, Arya, despite being half-sidhe, is quite a catch. Andrew has loads of resources and contacts oriented stunts and pays for most of the expenses not covered by magic.

Engineering
Fred Van Buren, a decidedly odd century-old wizard, is the mind that designed the ship's "engines". A full wizard with 2 refinements, he's spent most of his life thinking about this idea, and trying different designs, never really living his life. With a focus in transportation and worldwalking, he can cast such spells at up to 11 complexity without additional preparation and, with an average roll, such spells at up to 7 complexity in a single exchange. He cast the spell responsible for the spaceship being able to escape gravity, a 5-zone permanent transportation spell applying the aspect "weightless" on the entire ship. (27 shifts) His design of the ship's propulsion is surprisingly simple, merging knowledge of both magic and physics; two four-ton metal rods are fixed within a reinforced frame and being able to turn from being parallel to crossing to being parallel again via a system of mechanical levers and pulleys. A 17-shift permanent might effect attempting to move them forward in the direction they point has been applied to each of them via a ritual (30 shifts each). When the rods are parallel and pointing towards the bow, the weightless ship is accelerated at a maximum of 2gs. When they are parallel and pointing towards the stern, the ship decellerates at the same - or accelerates backwards. When they are at an angle, the acceleration or decelleration gradually drops as the angle increases because the two forces partially negate eachother. When they point in opposite directions, the ship does not accelerate. With fine control of the two metal rods, the ship can perform various turns.
Old Fred, as his mates call him, can also open gateways big enough to take the entire ship into the Nevernever - as the propulsion system is magical, it has no problem with that as a technological one would - and he is also able to "boost" the engines by layering additional but short-lived rituals in them as well as casting inertia-compensation rituals (applying the aspect "no inertia" on 5 zones with a FP or aspect tag) in case the ship needs to make more than 2 gs.

Notes:

1) The ship is weightless so has no problem with takeoff and re-entry, or even going near black holes. Being unaffected by gravity is a major plus for a spaceship - even one that only weighs a few hundred tons.
2) The ship simulates gravity by keeping under constant acceleration in long voyages.
3) The ship contains mundane life support and supplies for 2 years. The medical officer (Arya) can use her magic to vastly accelerate growth of environmental cultures and thus recycle air and water indefinitely.
4) With an acceleration of 2 gs, the ship can reach 80% lightspeed in 6 months. It can reach Alpha Centauri in 6 years but only 1 year 8 months would appear to have passed from the crew's point of view. With inertia compensation and multiple layered propulsion spells that are periodically restored, the ship could do it in 4,5 years minimum - but less than a month will pass from the crew's point of view. Do note that's relativity, not Lawbreaking.
5) In addition to the short-range magical beam weapons and shields that are a dozen or so shifts, the ship bears inertia accumulation warheads; 20 foot-thick tungsten spheres weighing 1 ton each. A divination spell is applied to them that will steer them towards a building or landmark whose photo was taken with a high-quality telescope from space as a sympathetic link. Then, when the ship is a few million miles out, a similar spell to that propelling the ship is cast on the sphere. The sphere accelerates for a day at over 200 gs before it hits the target on the planet at 50% the speed of light, turning its kinetic energy into a blast equivalent of 30 megatons of TNT. If the warheads are not enough and the times are desperate, one could use the ship to ram the planet at 80% lightspeed after 6 months of acceleration, resulting in a 30-gigaton blast.

Sometimes, size does matter. What should be the weapon rating of a 2-bore rifle firing equally big bullets like these?
http://www.2-bore.com/

DND POWERS
Use the powers here to easily convert DFRPG characters into DnD equivalents. These powers do not convert mechanics - they convert ideology and how the game plays from one system into another.  Note that DnD stats are very different than DFRPG stats. All rolls and checks translate to 2,5 points of DnD bonus = +1 DFRPG bonus. DFRPG Spell Shifts = (2x DnD spell level) +2. DFRPG refresh = (2x DnD level) +2 (DnD PCs get once again their character power in magic items - an itemless PC gets half that much)




[-1] DnD Wizardry - whoever takes this power prepares spells like a DnD wizard rather than a DFRPG evoker. For every mental stress box, they get to memorize 4 spells of that specific power. Those spells are replenished when the character does a longer rest such as when sleeping at night, not when other stress clears. The mental box is not used up; it is considered used up (in terms of other uses) when it has less than half its maximum spells remaining. Should the character use up the mental box in other uses (i.e. taking a mental attack) then he does not have access to those spells until the stress is cleared.
Special: DnD Wizardry can be taken multiple times. Each additional time increases the number of spells per stress box by one. The limit of times DnD Wizardry can be taken is your number of refinements +1, and DnD wizards do not take The Sight and Soulgaze. If you apply this power to Sponsored Magic instead of Evocation, then you are a DnD cleric, not a DnD wizard.

[-1] DnD Hit Points - whoever takes this stunt has additional HP like a DnD character. Character with this stunt have two extra physical stress boxes. Those boxes can be used normally but like some supernatural toughness powers they have a catch; stress in them does not clear normally; it requires either an extended rest or a restorative evocation or thaumaturgy spell with shifts equal to the number of stress in the box. If you have recovery powers, calculate how many shifts a recovery power would heal per scene in consequence equivalents and heal stress accordingly; 6 stress for inhuman, 12 for supernatural, 22 for mythic.
Special: You can take this stunt one additional time for every 2 refresh above 8 and for every 2 endurance above 3. Each additional time increases the extra stress boxes by 1. This stunt is incompatible with stunts/powers that increase your number of consequences.

[+0] Phat Lewt!!! - DnD characters live in an environment where magic items are abundant. They do not need a specific high concept or aspect to be associated with an IoP in order to take it and they may spend extra refresh into new IoPs and/or improving existing IoPs any time they could reasonably acquire magical treasure or have access to a merchant of magic items. IoPs acquired in this way do not have the "indestructible" and "higher purpose" abilities. A character can get up to half his refresh total -1 into such items.
Special: It is possible for a DnD party to find items of significant power that cannot be divided among PCs but are too pricey for any PC to use. In this case, spread the refresh cost among all PCs with the "Phat Lewt!!!" power, with the understanding that the powerful item will be used by the PC which most benefits but belongs to the entire party. In addition, DnD characters are restricted to one IoP in each location of the body; head, torso, back, waist, feet, main hand, off hand, any 3 jewelry. Last but not least, it is possible for PCs to steal, borrow or otherwise acquire and use magic items in excess of their WPL allowance (i.e. beyond Refresh limits). Those uses should be allowed if the PC is creative but with a caveat; like all temporary powers, they cost in Fate Points or Future Compels. I.e. if you steal a magic sword and use it, the GM could future compel you (i.e. a compel that you accept in advance like in potions or sponsored magic) that the town guard tracks down the theft eventually or the merchant hires a wizard to Divine the identity of the thief or the sword gets stolen again from you, along with some of your money/mundane items.

[-1] Skill Focus/Specialization - this ability can be taken as either a stunt or as a power. As a stunt, you have focused on the use of certain aspects of a skill. You get +1 to skill rolls in two different aspects. As a power, your "DnD class" focuses on that skill and you have paid the "skill points" to max it - your high concept or one of your aspects must justify you getting this power. If you do, you get +1 to all uses of this skill.
Special: Write down this ability as "[skill name] focus" or "[skill name] specialization."

[-1] Saving Throws - you have good saves and bad saves, like a DnD character. Out of Endurance, Athletics and Discipline, choose two. Your defense rolls against magical or extraordinary attacks are at +2 bonus for those skills. Your defense rolls against the same for the third skill are at -2 penalty.

[-1] Revolving Door of Death - you can die as easily as anyone else but for you, death is not much of a hindrance. You can be raised from the dead with a 12-shift divine thaumaturgy spell if your body is not destroyed or with a 20-shift divine thaumaturgy spell if your body is destroyed. A 16-shift arcane spell can provide a "clone" body to where your soul can migrate if you die and you can live again and a 20-shift arcane spell can wish you back into life.
Special: if you have this ability, you cannot conceed automatically; you have to run away successfully, somehow protect yourself or convince your enemy to spare you via diplomacy. Special magic could make your return harder and this gives no protection against permanent effects that don't kill you.

[-1] Spell Resistance - you are harder to affect through magic; you, but not the zone you stand in, are considered a threshold of 2 vs spells and spell-like abilities but not supernatural abilities. This reflects the fact that magic has a harder time affecting you than your defenses would indicate.
Special: you can take this ability more than once. This reflects higher than average resistance to magic for your level. The maximum is Spell Resistance 7x, giving you an effective Legendary resistance on top of your normal defenses.

[-2-x] Spell-like Abilities: You have a number of spell-like abilities, spells you can use at will. Set aside X points of refresh. You get a number of SLAs equal to your conviction score, similar to a wizard's Rotes. The effect of each SLA in shifts is 2x. Build each SLA as follows; 0 shifts for touch range, 1 shift for 1 zone range, 2 shifts for 3 zones range, 3 shifts for line of sight. 2 shifts per zone of effect or 1 shift per additional target. Shifts for duration follow the standard time table. After range, area and duration are paid for, the remaining shifts go to the spell effect. The attack roll for all SLAs is Conviction+2 or Presence+2, depending on the creature in question.
Special: If you want more SLAs, you can break up one or more max-power SLAs into more but weaker ones on a point by point basis.

Nobody ever makes IoPs that are useful in social situations as well as combat ones. One would expect that if you are wielding the sword/hammer/whatever that makes you the Chosen One, then you could use your importance in social encounters...

[+0]  Indestructible - as an IoP, can only be destroyed in a ritual perversion of its purpose
[+0]  Divine Purpose - this IoP's purpose is the protection of Order in the Nine Worlds
[+2]  One-Time Discount
[+1]  It is what it is - a 2-ft wide, 3-ft long hammer made of an unknown metal that weighs 4 tons (weapon 4)
        It requires an effective might of at least 13 to be wielded one-handed. It can't be wielded 2-handed.
[-2]  Might Makes Right  - +1 to all Weapon and Presence rolls when wielding this IoP
[-4]  Absolute Authority - the wielder can perform attacks, blocks and maneuvers with this IoP, either at Presence+2
       for social or at Weapons+2 for physical. They are Weapon 2 and Weapon 4 respectively.
[-2]  Trollbane - made primarily to slay trolls and giants, this IoP ignores up to 2 pts of armor and satisfies the catch
       for physical immunity (but not toughness/recovery). Contrary to its name, this ability works on more than just trolls.
[-3]  Hammer of Thunderbolts - by spending a Fate Point, the IoP can be thrown at any target regardless of distance.
       Used thus, its weapon rating is equal to the target's effective might for lifting/throwing and returns automatically
       to the thrower's hand.