The Mythic North
Folklore comes alive. Ancient vaesen stir in the shadows, and only your "Sight" can see what must be faced.
The Pitch
You are entering the Mythic North, a nineteenth-century Scandinavia where the old ways linger in the spaces modern life has yet to reach. People whisper about strange lights across the fields, figures watching from treelines, and traditions that must never be broken. You know now that these warnings were not meant for children, they were meant for you.
You carry the Sight, the ability to see vaesen of myth and lore. With it comes responsibility to investigate mysteries that involve unexplained situations. When something disturbs the balance, you will be the one asked to face it. The unseen is waiting.
Tone
Dark, Mysterious, Investigative, Grim
Themes
Humans vs Nature, Power Dynamics, Religion vs Tradition, Class struggles, Over Industrialization, Human greed
Touchstones
Grim Fairytales, Mushi-Shi, Pan’s Labyrinth, Elves (Netflix), The Irregulars (Netflix)
The Overview
Across Scandinavia, supernatural creatures called vaesen have always lived alongside humans—usually unseen, sometimes helpful, sometimes dangerous. As the 19th century brings industrialization, war, and fading traditions, the old ways of respecting these beings are forgotten. The vaesen are growing unpredictable, even hostile, and strange events sweep across the countryside: disappearing children, restless spirits, twisted creatures, and magic vanishing in some regions while surging in others.
A rare few can see these beings even when they are invisible. This gift—the Sight—awakens after a moment of fear, trauma, or supernatural encounter. You are one of them.
Those with the Sight have gathered in Upsala, where the abandoned Castle Gyllencreutz—once home to the Society, a group dedicated to understanding and confronting vaesen—now belongs to you. With only old records, each other, and the ability to perceive the supernatural, you set out to investigate strange happenings across Scandinavia.
To face vaesen, you must understand them. Bullets and blades won’t help—only uncovering their nature, weaknesses, and motivations can stop them. Your journeys will take you into remote villages, deep forests, and unsettling folklore brought to life… and every encounter leaves a mark.
Inciting Incident
You are new members of The Society, those gifted with The Sight. You have been called to The Society in a dream by Linnea Elfeklint, to visit the Castle Gyllencreutz. There you were introduced to your ability to see vaesen, creatures of myth and lore.
You have been going on with your ever day lives and every once in a while check in with Castle Gyllencreutz, the location where The Society meets. The society has been broken up for years you are the new members willing to make it whole again.
You have received your first invitation. The invitation to the mystery comes from a private detective in Upsala named Olaus Klint who specializes in cases with elements of the supernatural. He realizes that the Witch Cat Inn is haunted but, sensing the creature’s considerable power, he dares not confront it himself. Instead he sends a message to the player characters, asking them to meet him at the Witch Cat to banish the creature together. Olaus suspects a connection between Sophia’s theater and the creature haunting the inn.
You all receive a letter sealed in red wax with a seal that says Klint. The letter contains a handwritten note advertising the shadow play The Dance of Dreams.
Player Buy-in
Embrace Drama
Vaesen is set in a world where there is struggle and drama. Embrace this as it will give the groundwork for a good story. Is your family part of revolutionaries? Perhaps you are from a farmland where the environment is changing causing you to no longer farm. Or perhaps you are up in with the feud in your family between Catholics and Protestants. Find a drama in your past that can manifest in the present and future.
Dark Secret
One of the tools in Vaesen is the Dark Secret. Bring in a dark past that can nobody knows about. Something that if it came up again it could lead to a whole new story related or not related to a vaesen mystery.
Build A world
Although Vaesen is set in a historical world, it is set in an alternate world to our own. Feel free to build the world in the image that you would like to see. in your story building, Bring ideas that fit the theme we are going for. Want feel free to reach out to me with your ideas to add to this world.
Cooperation
Your player characters have strengths and weaknesses. It is important to know that you could not face a vaesen a lone without certain death. It is important that your characters get a long well enough to be cooperative with each other. Because you will need to each other to solve these mysteries and put the vaesen where they belong.
Character Build
We will be building your character in Session 0 after we decide we discuss everyone’s expectations.
You can choose from Archtypes from the core rulebook as well as from Mythic Britain and Ireland expansion.
If you have played in the Starter Set game, you can continue your character with a the benefit of gaining extra XP gained from that adventure.
The Lore
The Mythic North
Vaesen takes place in a mythical nineteenth-century Scandinavia. This version of Scandinavia is not historically accurate, but an alternate world wher events may correspond more or less to our reality.
As such, the stories do not take place in any specific period of the 1800s – the Mythic North combines phenomena from the entire century. Steamboats, trains, as well as political and philosophical movements from the end of the nineteenth century may well be mixed with earlier phenomena. That said, you would do well to draw inspiration from historical events – much that happened in the 1800s would make excellent starting points for creating exciting mysteries.
Vaesen
Throughout history, humans have shared their land with vaesen; trolls, ghosts, lindworms, and other creatures inhabiting the woods and lakes. Like the humans, these have had their ups and downs with one another. Many have assisted the farmers in their back-breaking labor and made the dark, winter nights more bearable with enchanted music and gifts in the form of strange handicrafts to blacksmiths and lute players.
Although vaesen have always been present, few have actually seen them. The creatures are imperceptible to the human eye – they choose whether or not to reveal themselves. It is said that their presence may be inferred from something as innocuous as a draft in the room, or from the abnormal behavior of farm animals.
Tales and songs tell of rules that must be followed so as not to anger the vaesen. Rural people often think they know how to avoid getting on the wrong side of those who dwell underground, but something has altered the balance between the humans on the surface and the creatures beneath. Vaesen have started attacking villages and destroying homes, factories, and train stations. They no longer behave as they do in the stories. Some think they have gone mad, others that the end times are nigh.
The Sight
You are a person with the Sight, meaning that you have the ability to see vaesen – even when they are trying to remain invisible. You acquired the Sight as a result of some physical or psychological trauma, most likely some form of supernatural event, either during childhood or as an adult. Those who have the Sight are sometimes referred to as Thursday’s Children.
For one reason or another you have sought out other people with the Sight, and together you have decided to use your ability to help those affected by the ill-tempered caprice of the vaesen. You have learned that there used to be an organization known as the Society, and decided to re-establish it. The Society existed for hundreds of years, made up of people with the Sight who devoted their time to studying and expelling vaesen. Its members met at the old Castle Gyllencreutz in Upsala, but some ten years ago the last of them abandoned the organization, locked the castle gate, and left the building to decay. No one knows why.
You and your friends have tracked down a former member of the Society – an elderly woman named Linnea Elfeklint, now a patient at Upsala Asylum. Linnea has told you about the history and traditions of the Society, and given you the keys and deeds to Castle Gyllencreutz. It is up to you to restore the old organization, build your headquarters, and go on expeditions in Scandinavia, solving mysteries and driving off vaesen.
During the game you will have the opportunity to explore and expand Castle Gyllencreutz. The castle is your headquarters, where you may prepare for journeys and heal any physical or mental wounds from your encounters with vaesen. At the same time, you must maintain a façade of normality in front of your friends and relatives in Upsala – if they ever found out about your alleged ability to see supernatural creatures, they would sooner or later have you locked up in the asylum like once what happened with Linnea.
History of The Society
A Thursday's Child Was born
The founder of the Society was born into a poor family in a small town called Elsinore on the Danish island of Zealand at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Tine Rasmussen is said to have gained the Sight as a child after contracting smallpox and spending almost two weeks in a coma. When she woke up, seven of her nine siblings had died, and Tine could see strange creatures all around her. Growing up, she made contact with the fairies and trolls dwelling in and around the town, and helped other people in their interactions with vaesen. It is said that even as a teenager she was treated like a wise old lady, advising people both older and richer than herself.
Tine’s life changed when the Church found out about her alleged abilities. On the priests’ instruction, Tine’s parents had her imprisoned and brought to the town square to be tried for witchcraft and, if found guilty, condemned.
The creatures Tine was in contact with helped her escape the wooden cage where she was awaiting trial, and the townspeople gave her a horse and some food. In the dead of night she fled south and made her way to Copenhagen, where she went into hiding under an assumed name.
“Monday’s child is fair of face
Tuesday’s child is full of grace
Wednesday’s child is full of woe
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay”
– Nursery rhyme about people with the sight
The order of Artemis
By sheer coincidence, Tine came to live with a man who also possessed the Sight. The noble Mats Rosenberg was renting out parts of his home, which had previously been used by his late wife and child, to earn some extra money from passing travelers in need of accommodation. Mats had gained the Sight after being wounded by the werewolf that killed his wife and child, and was frightened by his ability and the things he saw.
After the ghost of his dead wife passed through the house in the middle of the night, Tine and Mats realized they shared the same ability. Shortly there after they founded the Order of Artemis for Studies of Vaesen, and set out to recruit more people with the Sight in order to study and understand such creatures.
One of those who joined the Order of Artemis was an Italian nun named Ana Rastelli, who had fled the Roman Inquisition and settled in Scandinavia. Ana took it upon herself to compile and catalog the Order’s discoveries. She wrote numerous books and essays on vaesen, her life’s work being the colossal tome titled In Libro de Invisibilia (The Book of the Invisibles).
The Order of Artemis grew and had a meeting hall built in central Copenhagen. In their encounters with vaesen, the members of the Order learned that the creatures would sometimes harm, enslave, and even kill humans, and several members believed that vaesen were in league with the devil. Mats wanted the Order to focus on locating and banishing vaesen, while Tine insisted that the accumulation of knowledge should remain its primary objective.
When Ana and Mats passed away, others took their place. For two hundred years the Order of Artemis spread across Scandinavia, constructing several meeting halls – one of them in Upsala. And during all that time they gathered texts and information about vaesen and magic, building secret libraries of occult knowledge.
Carl Linnaeus
In the early 18th century, the young scientist Carl Linnaeus left his home in Upsala and embarked on a scientific expedition to northern Sweden. No one knows whether Linnaeus already possessed the Sight at the time of his departure or gained it on his journey, but either way he returned with a secret journal titled Homo Ferus, in which he recorded n umerous encounters with, and rumors about, vaesen. Linnaeus joined the Order of Artemis in Upsala and quickly became its leader.
Carl Linnaeus organized another expedition to Dalecarlia, this time composed of members of the Order, with the secret aim of studying vaesen. He planned to create a comprehensive scientific catalog of vaesen, which would make him a world-renowned scientist.
Linnaeus called his expedition to Dalecarlia “Societas Itineria Reuterholiana” – the Reuterholm Society. The name referred to the governor of Dalecarlia, Nils Reuterholm, who financed the expedition, unaware of its true purpose. Upon his return to Upsala, Linnaeus proclaimed that the expedition had been an “astounding success,” and decided that the Order of Artemis’s branch in Upsala should be renamed as the Society for Studies of the Invisibles and Protection of Mankind, or in short: the Society.
A few years after the expedition to Dalecarlia, Linnaeus gathered the members of the Society and announced that he was leaving the group, claiming to have lost the Sight. This sparked discussions that escalated into physical violence. Many felt duped, and expressed doubt as to whether Linnaeus had even had the Sight in the first place or just been lying all along to make a name for himself as a scientist. A week after the argument, someone set fire to the Society’s headquarters, and before it could be extinguished all records of the Dalecarlia expedition were consumed by the flames.
THE OULU MASSACRE
In the 18th century, the entire Order of Artemis was renamed the Society. During this period, many members around Scandinavia were wounded or killed in their encounters with vaesen, and several meeting halls were closed down. Many of the Society’s members felt that the balance between humans and vaesen had changed; the covenant that had been made centuries ago no longer existed. In some places the creatures were attacking humans without provocation, and in others they vanished without a trace.
The purpose of the Society shifted more and more to banishing vaesen that attacked humans. They did so by using the Sight, as well as the vast stores of knowledge the organization had accumulated since the sixteenth century. The rural population may have known everything about appeasing and coexisting with the creatures, but when it came to driving them off, no one could match the Society.
At the end of the 18th century, northern Finland was ravaged by a family of giants trying to drive the humans away. The matriarch of the family, Bestla, claimed to be the protector of the wilderness, the mountains, and the woods, and would savagely attack hunters and miners in the area. The Society focused their efforts on repelling the threat, and more than a hundred people with the Sight gathered at Oulu Castle to formulate a strategy. But the giants got there first. That night, Bestla had her children set the castle ablaze. Almost every member of the Society perished in the fire.
The three who made it out alive – Baroness Katja Kokola, Professor Albert Wredenhielm, and Countess Hilma af Thulenstierna – did so by diving into the castle well. After spending several hours in the freezing water, they were eventually rescued, and promptly left Finland and fled back to Castle Gyllencreutz, the Society’s headquarters in Upsala.
The society Dwindles
The three who survived the fire in Oulu tried to recruit new members and rebuild the Society. But in the years that followed, all three disappeared.
Professor Wredenhielm went to northern Norway to investigate reports of strange lights in the sky and was never heard from again. Baroness Kokola was last seen getting on a ship in southern Sweden, supposedly to banish a creature in the depths of the sea. Countess Hilma af Thulenstierna traveled east, leaving no information as to where she was going.
The new recruits either died or went mad in their encounters with vaesen, or chose to save themselves by leaving the organization. One of these was Linnea Elfeklint, who was recently living at Upsala Asylum. It was she who told the player characters about the Society, and she has also suggested that there may be other groups of similar orientation operating across Scandinavia – without knowing their exact whereabouts or how to contact them.
The society creed
I solemnly swear not to be corrupted
Bloodied or weakened
By the spawn of the underworld
I swear not to let my mind be muddled
Clear of eye
Keen of thought
Pure of deed
I swear to put
The Society before
My own ambitions and emotions
My life for my comrades
I pledge my life to you, holy Artemis
For the battle against vaesen and the protection
Of mankind
Mythic North & Upsala
Conflicts
The Mythic North is marked by a series of conflicts that affect your player character. Europe is starting to recover from the Napoleonic Wars that raged across the entire continent, and a number of new wars have already begun, or are about to. News of the American Civil War is coming in from across the Atlantic.
A growing nationalism divides people in all countries into two groups: us and them. It becomes important to define what a true Swede or Norwegian really is, and those who fail to meet the criteria risk being ostracized, deported, or even killed. Conflicts are growing within the Church as well. Catholics are pitted against Protestants, and those who dare go their own way with small independent denominations are persecuted and severely punished.
Industrialization sparks conflicts between the old and the new, between workers and employers, and between people living in the cities and those who go there to seek their fortune. Tensions arise between those wishing to leave the rural villages and those wanting to preserve everything that previous generations helped build. In the forests, peasants and maids are fighting the logging and mining companies that seek to evict them in order to secure timber and ore for the urban factories.
There is a rift between the city and the countryside. The city is vibrant and dynamic – the machines in the factories constantly belch out smoke through huge smokestacks, while shipments of goods and raw materials come and go from the ports and train stations. With each new load, people, stories, and new ideas flow into the cities. The lower class multiplies in the suburbs, while city centers become crowded with new buildings where businessmen are turning gold and l abor into profit. Donations from the wealthy are bolstering the universities, where it is believed the spread of knowledge will help man subdue nature. Anything is possible; anything can be explained and understood.
The rural villages seem to wither and die. Houses are abandoned and fields covered with rotting vegetation. The water from the marshes is rising, seeping into people’s homes. When the food runs out, the sick and poor are left to die in the snow. The wilderness is untamed and eternal.
There are profound injustices in the distribution of wealth and knowledge. The Church and the nobility still have power, but they are threatened by the bourgeoisie and the influence that trade and property provide. The world is hierarchical, politically as well as domestically. At the bottom are the poor and dispossessed, the children, and those who have been declared insane or enemies of the state.
There are also tensions brought on by the fight surrounding the rights of men and women. It is a time when gender inequality is being challenged and women gain the right to inherit property and make their own decisions about their lives. Women are also becoming more prominent in the workplace. At the same time, new gender ideals emerge that give rise to new constraints – women should be delicate, wear corsets, and preferably faint in difficult situations. A feminist countermovement is launched, leading to greater freedom of movement for some. The strict dress codes that denote gender and social status are starting to erode.
Revolutionary groups form all over Europe, infecting many with various philosophies of how society should be arranged – and the idea that the status quo can not only be challenged, but overthrown.
Stockholme
The capital of Sweden is home to roughly 100,000 people, but the population is growing fast due to urban migration and high birth rates. The city suffers greatly from starvation and disease, and one in three children die before the age of one. The first railroad station has been built, with routes to Gothenburg, Upsala, and Scania. Recently, the city has also constructed waterworks, gasworks, and power plants. Gas lights illuminate the streets where horse-drawn trams and buses move about at a leisurely pace. The king and the royal family reside in a luxurious palace.
Christiana
Christiania is the capital of Norway. The population is soaring, and the city is the center of the first Norwegian railroad and steamship lines. Timber and ore flow in from the wilds and are shipped throughout Europe.
Coppenhagen
The capital of Denmark is marked by political debates. There is great dissatisfaction with the absolute monarchy. Copenhagen is the commercial hub of northern Europe, and the city is rapidly expanding. Many of its new, hastily constructed residences are cramped and dark, with tiny alleys and yards. Cultural life is flourishing. Several theaters and zoological gardens have recently been built.
Helsinki
The Finnish capital is a relatively young city with few inhabitants, half of which speak Swedish. It has recently seen the addition of numerous buildings, including a railroad station and the Uspenski Cathedral. The city center is called Kluuvi, and is now composed of wide boulevards and vast plazas. In Kallio, the workers are crammed together in simple wooden houses. At the edge of town lies Lapinlahti Hospital, the largest mental hospital in the country.
Upsala
Upsala is located just north of the Swedish capital of Stockholm – on the border of Norrland, where cities and villages are few and the wilderness endless. The city is best known for its university. But it is also a place deeply rooted in the pagan world. Upsala was one of the last outposts of the old Norse religion when the country was Christianized. Just outside the city lie the Mounds of Upsala – barrows where mighty kings were buried in the sixth century.
Upsala was recently struck by an extensive fire that killed one fifth of its population and devastated much of the city itself. It was on the brink of complete destruction, but rose from the ashes and has since undergone a significant transformation, with lots of new buildings, a great influx of uneducated workers for the factories, and students and scientists from across the globe flocking to the university.
The streets of Upsala are lit by gas lamps. Paperboys cry out the latest headlines. Through the city center runs the Fyris River which flows into Lake Malar. There are several bridges over the river, including the Cathedral Bridge and the Iron Bridge. The poorer sections of the city are plagued by cholera. Robbers hide in the alleys, and policemen move around with drawn sabers in search of burglars and speakeasies.
The presence of brick clay has given rise to an entire brick industry, and there are several textile factories on the outskirts of town. The city’s main source of income, however, is the production of aquavit – liquor money, legal and illegal, is paying for many of the city’s establishments.
The campus is massive, thanks to the Gustavian patrimony. In the 17th century, King Gustavus Adolphus donated 400 farms and their land to Upsala University. There are numerous grand and beautiful buildings. The students gather in student unions, singing songs and discussing science and philosophy. Some groups favor the romantic ideals, with focus on emotions rather than reason, idealization of the exotic, and an interest in mysticism. Other groups believe in the natural sciences and despise the sublime. They wish to uncover truths through carefully performed experiments. Conflicts and confrontations are constantly raging between these groups.
Upsala is a divided city. Farmers, industrial workers and servants live side by side with students, nobles, and clerics – the latter enjoying extravagant luxuries in huge villas and apartments, while the former tend to their every need, bowing and scraping, until their bodies are all worn out. Open conflicts rarely arise between the two groups, but when they do, it tends to happen at illegal night clubs and brothels, where the distinction between rich and poor is less clear.
The Church holds great power. The Archbishop of Sweden, Henrik Reuterdahl, has his seat in Upsala. The gothic cathedral is one of the largest in Scandinavia, with a bell called Storan which can be heard throughout the city. The altar cross contains a relic of the True Cross, and a new gigantic pipe organ takes up an entire wall inside the cathedral.
Upsala University Hospital
Upsala’s hospital is one of the most modern in Scandinavia. The building is brand new and resembles a multistory castle with beautiful turrets and ornaments. Patients are distributed between 16 wards, each managed by a chief physician. There are operating rooms, autopsy rooms, session rooms, a chapel, a library and offices.
There have been health facilities in the area for hundreds of years, and it is rumored that people who died on their sickbeds are bound to the place, haunting the new hospital. These creatures are said to torment the patients and scare doctors and nurses into madness.
Upsala Asylum
The city’s mental asylum is encircled by a black iron fence. Patients arrive at the brick building in wagons, but rarely leave except in a casket. It is a place for half-wits, lunatics, and people who have caused outrage in the parish. Patients are divided into first and second class, depending on their financial situation. Wealthier patients are treated well and have meals brought to their rooms on a tray.
Lower-class patients are starved, shackled, and put in confinement boxes. They are treated with laxatives and emetics. Their skin develops ulcers after being smeared with irritant substances. Insanity is attributed to mucus, and so the patient must be cleansed. All treatment is supervised by Doctor Niklas Frejd, a man of small stature and good humor, who is convinced his treatments are effective. He is supported by a large group of orderlies, guards, and physicians.
Police Station
The city’s police wear blue uniforms with golden buttons and helmets, and are armed with sabers. The force is corrupt and violent. The police station is cramped, water-damaged, and badly infested with vermin. The wooden floors are creaky, and the entire building smells of filth. The station consists of offices, cells, and courtrooms. One end of the building is occupied by a special detective branch responsible for more complicated investigations. A laboratory has recently been installed in the basement, where chemical tests are now conducted to facilitate the hunt for criminals.
The newly-appointed police chief, Oscar Stierna, is one of the few people in the force who cannot be bought. He is trying to purge his organization of corruption. Some officers idealize him and have stopped working with shady elements. Others hate him.
The Poorhouse
Begging, vagrancy, and poverty are illegal. Those who are found guilty of such crimes are confined to poorhouses. Upsala’s poorhouse, located in Kamphave Square, is packed with paupers, reduced to poverty by years of crop failure. The master of the poorhouse is Doctor Per Dubb. Together with the local police force, Dubb runs an extensive network of informants with the aim of tracking down and apprehending thieves and beggars. Those who are forced to live at the poorhouse lead miserable lives plagued by starvation, lice, and abuse.
Wellspring street 59
There are plenty of brothels in Upsala, the most famous being Wellspring Street 59 run by Madam Tekla. Said to be a crofter’s daughter from the small town of Vänge, Tekla is now a wealthy woman, well-connected with both the university and elite members of the clergy. Her employees are treated very badly. Many have contracted syphilis and pneumonia, and most have given birth to children who died or were killed. Beatings are common, as are various forms of substance abuse. People who make their living selling sex are registered as prostitutes in the prostitution ledger, forced to undergo regular medical examinations, and can never again hold a normal job.
Upsala Gazette
In a smoky, noisy building called Olympus, 22 journalists are working around the clock. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Felicia Lipschitz, is an ambitious visionary who welcomes the modern age with opened arms. The paper was founded by students as a liberal counterbalance to the conservative publications of the time. The editorial team call themselves the pioneers of Upsala radicalism. The newspaper comes out three times a week, mostly reporting news from the city and its surrounding communities. Occasionally a strange or entertaining story from the countryside will find its way into the paper.
Upsala Botanical Gardens
The botanical garden of Upsala University was founded in the 17th century by Olof Rudbeck, but is best known for being the workplace of Carl Linnaeus in the 18th century. Linnaeus transformed the garden into one of the finest in the world, with thousands of different plants. Today the garden is run by mycology professor Elias Fries, renowned for his book Systema Mycologicum and his relentless efforts to introduce mushrooms as food items. A few people know about his traumatic trip to Värmland where he was badly injured by a bear. Fewer still are aware that Elias thinks the animal that attacked him was not actually a bear, but a “terrible beast,” and that since the incident he has seen strange creatures moving unseen among humans.
The Junta
The student movement known as the Junta was established at the end of the 18th century as a political protest movement against restrictions on the freedom of the press and other civil liberties. Several of its members were musicians of the Royal Academic Orchestra. In the year 1800 they put on a concert for the king; some refused to play, while others performed the piece so poorly it caused a scandal. The musicians were severely punished, and the Junta was dissolved.
Or so the official story goes. The truth is that the Junta went underground and was joined by more members. It is now a secret revolutionary organization with ties to enemy nations.
In dark forests
and forlorn mountains,
by black lakes and hidden
groves. At your doorstep. In the
shadows, something stirs. Strange
at the edge of vision. Watching.
Waiting. Unseen by most, but
not by you. You see them for
what they really are.
Vaesen.