Definitely isn’t the Real world. But it’s the closest thing discovered, as yet. The date is some time in Autumn 2011, at the point this is being written. Mostly, the world is like ours. But there are a few bullet points below, where there are differences.
- In the US, in 2011, Josiah (Jed) Bartlet is coming towards the end of his second term as an extremely popular President, with Bob Russell as his VP. Bob Russell is in the process of mounting his own campaign for the 2012 elections.
- David Cameron is the conservative Prime Minister in the UK. But the previous labour government was rocked by scandal, when ended when the labour PM was arrested for treason, and while on remand in Wormwood Scrubs, he was apparently eaten by lions in his locked cell.
- Many UK based PCs work under the auspices of the Regiment of the Keys, which is an ancient branch of the army, mostly responsible for ‘weird stuff’, that reports directly to the crown, rather than to the elected government.
- Many US based PCs work under the auspices of the Special Operations Section of the Department of Defence, mostly responsible for dealing with ‘weird stuff’, which reports, through it’s commanding general, directly to the President and Vice president, rather than to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
- Most people in the world have no clue about ‘weird stuff’, and there has been a conscious decision amongst all elements of the ‘enlightened’, to keep it that way. The general belief being that ‘they couldn’t handle the truth’, and that riots, mass panic and violence would end the civilised world, if actual things like the existence of Magic, Demons, Powers of Light and Dark, and other similar things, were to become widely known.
- Vikings play a much more significant part in life on St. James than they do in real life. There’s a whole history going back to the middle 70s, where the Viking Nations stepped out of the shadows, and took a place on the world stage, culminating in the Vikings basically buying out Iceland’s debt in the 2008 banking crisis, and establishing Iceland as their new Homeland.
- For those who are ‘enlightened’, it is fairly well known that there is a Landlord on St. James, who quietly acts as it’s custodian and guardian. The individual concerned is Richard Lacey, Duke of Worcester, and he is mostly to be found in the United Kingdom, either at Milbank House, which is on the Worcester / Hereford / Gloucester border area, or at his town house in London. Richard, among other things, served as an Equerry to her Majesty, and is the nominal Colonel in Chief of the Regiment of the Keys.
- Day to day command of the Regiment of the Keys currently rests with General Sir John Cathal Graham, who hold the title ‘Keeper of the Keys of England.’
- Day to day command of Spec ops currently rests with Colonel Philip Broyles.