ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

Wigan is, initially, an undistinguished industrial town in the northwest of England, about 15 miles west of Manchester and about the same distance east of Liverpool. There's no good reason why it should be exceptional. It was a Roman fort, Coccium, during the occupation, with no distinguishing features and no real artifacts of value. Since the turn of the 20th century, Wigan keeps getting noticed.

It was the only town in the northwest to declare for King Charles against Cromwell and, even then, it resisted for months. George Orwell inexplicably chose to use it as the model for urban decay in The Road To Wigan Pier. Wigan is still, to many people, the stereotypical Northern town and the place has passed into UK folklore. For no good reason, the popular 70's musical movement, Northern Soul, was based, if anywhere, at the Wigan Casino. Rugby League, an increasingly popular sport, has Britain's best team based in Wigan. They are probably the most successful and dominant professional sports team in the world.

Why Wigan? Why not St. Helens, or Bury, or Bolton, or Burnley, or Preston, or Oldham or Warrington — all very similar towns within 30 miles of Wigan. Why do these things (amongst others) keep happening to the place and not to any of its neighbors? Is there a reason?

Yes.

Wigan is the center of a unique and strange magical phenomenon. No magical effect or supernatural ability has ever been successfully utilized in an area of approximately a mile and a half from the town center. There is no known Node or Caern here. No wraiths have ever been observed. Mages find they cannot successfully use magical effects. Kindred simply don't go there. There are no Garou within 20 miles. It has no connection to Arcadia and the whole town is pretty Banal anyway.

The area is roughly defined and it seems to be growing, albeit slowly. There is no obvious center of the effect and no explanation for it. The only people really qualified to study it are the mages, the only tools they can use don't work. Anything a mage tries to do will not work as planned and will, most likely, botch. Paradox behaves in much the same way here, however.

Naturally, those who know about it (and few do) are obsessed with it. Furthermore, the place seems to be deliberately attracting attention, increasingly as time goes by. Wigan is rarely out of the news for very long. Never for anything especially major, but always there.

No Mages have ever been born within this boundary.

A Cabal of four Marauders set up here once. One was killed crossing the road. One accidentally got dragged into the Umbra and was never heard of again. One took a heroin overdose. One inexplicably became cured of her psychoses and killed herself.

The Nephandi have never apparently come here. One was asked about Wigan and refused to acknowledge the curious effect. The Kindred of Wigan avoid the area, as their Disciplines do not work properly. The Prince (who is the Brujah prince of Manchester and Liverpool, Ranulf) has declared the area Elysium.

Some Hermetics have made a theoretical study of the area and believe it to be tied to primal energies in some way — but why in the center of an industrial town? What happened to the Marauders there? The Sons of Ether believe that a magical effect will eventually be uncovered that will allow the secrets of the place to be revealed.

The Verbena believe it to be the work of an Oracle of Entropy or Prime and may have the right of it. The Technocracy hate it but what can they do about it? No one's sure what the Umbra around this area is like, as you can't get to or from it here. Someone must know.