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STATEMENT ON HISTORY

HISTORICAL WRITING STATEMENT:
this is an optional read that accidentally ended up like 1000 words too long. sorrytl;dr: we love our historical setting and chose it for a reason beyond aesthetics!
please have fun with it and be respectful to the stories of those who came before us!-FEAR THE REAPER is set in 1970s Britain. It’s important to us as storytellers that the time period and setting are respected and considered seriously. To us, the 1970s are not just an aesthetic or an appealing backdrop to an otherwise modern story - the group’s historical setting is an important part of its identity, and something that has directly impacted both the characters and the world you’ll come to encounter. We are all products of our time, both good and bad, both difficult and euphoric!Given the time period at hand, we’re welcoming and anticipating characters who have faced and/or continue to face sensitive issues and prejudices (racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, classism, just to name a few) as well as anticipating that they’ll come up within cases and the wider plot as a whole - not as primary aspects of the plot, but as things that can and do exist within the world.Given that this is a fusion between a fandom-inspired group and a historical setting styled group, we know that this might be the first time some applicants have written in historical settings, and it this can be a daunting prospect - the world looks different, the words people use are different, you don't quite know where to look or start, and your fellow applicants are talking about niche research rabbit holes they've fallen down -- when all you know about the 1970s is watching Bohemian Rhapsody. We know that not everyone is used to writing in historical settings - don’t let that discourage you! We want you to have fun with it, to research what you find interesting, and to reach out for help from other applicants if you’re unsure on something. Any revisiting the past comes with a splash of historical revisionism by default, but we want to be appreciative of the setting, of the time that we're writing in and its unique positioning in history, without being boring or losing the fun of creative writing.If you’re writing a historical character, especially one from a different demographic to yourself, here are some considerations we’d like you to take on board. None of these are rules, but are suggestions to make respectful, well-developed characters, with their provenance in mind.-Approach their lives and their identities with open minds and with curiosity.
Research is your best friend, and so is working alongside your fellow players! We want to cultivate a community of people interested in writing historical narratives with appreciation and fun first and foremost.Consider that identities and labels have changed significantly over the years. How might your character differ from the modern day?
A character who might identify one way in the modern day, for instance, might see themselves through a different lens in 1976. While many of these ideas and labels might not be still in use today, we believe that there’s a lot of merit to understanding and respecting where our identities and what we have to be proud of has come from. If you’re adapting an existing character to the setting, consider how different the environment they might have grown up in, and the reference-points to their own identity, might be compared to their more modern iterations - and embrace it!Just speaking on queerness alone, there are so many interesting stories of mid-century queer, trans, gender-non-conforming, and otherwise ‘countercultural’ identities, of people who lived and loved and thrived in spite of (and sometimes with the unintentional support of) the structures of the world they lived in, and we think these are lives that are worth exploring and celebrating on their own terms.
For a non-LGBTQ example: mod Sieg’s Israa, who is first-generation Pakistani and comes from Bradford in the UK, often identifies as Black despite being South Asian, as was pretty common at the time in the UK (see the United Black Youth League, or the Southall Black Sisters) in ways that she might not if she were a modern-day character.Consider realism, while protecting your own boundaries.
YES, many characters may have experienced hardships as a result of their marginalised identities - many may have been directly harmed by oppression, or have had to find ways to partially conceal aspects of themselves in day-to-day life to avoid it. NO, this does not mean we’re insisting that all characters have been hate-crimed, or that you have to implement or imagine a narrative along those lines! Historical joy, community, identity — hell, historical spite — are just as important as anything else.Your character’s identity, for example, should genuinely impact and inform your character’s story, but should not be the entirety of your character unless you feel confident and comfortable writing and researching it.As an example: in the 1970s, many trans people were strongly encouraged to essentially go AWOL from their previous lives, move as far away as possible post-medical transition and drop contact with loved ones in order to be entirely stealth - perhaps your character has left many lives in their wake, but that this recreation of the self led to a twenty-year career as a stern-laced ex-prosecutor who used to think his meisterly Soul Perception was a ‘gut feeling of guilt’ until being scouted by the DWMA well into his forties.All of this being said: we expect members to respect the boundaries and the comfort levels of their fellow players, and to act with decency and maturity when handling sensitive topics, rather than using them for shock value or, worse, unpromptedly using in-character bigotry against other players. Our primary rule is to ASK FOR PERMISSION, NOT FORGIVENESS - please, please don’t be weird.-[Note: We’re not absolute sticks in the mud time-wise. Life is hard and research is hard too, and sometimes the single thing you want is six months too late to be viable. I’ve essentially said that as long as you can evidence something solidly existing within the 70s, even if it came into existence on December 31st, 1979, that you can probably implement it. We generally operate on a “sell me on this” basis - if we ask about an aspect of your character, we want to learn more, and want to work with you to make most things work if we can!]As a thank you for reading this WAY too long tangent, please have the inspiration board I made for the group on Pinterest.

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SETTING

DEATH ISLEFEAR THE REAPER begins in early June, 1976 (We’re expecting the group to run through the summer of 1976 and into the winter, but we’ll cross those bridges when we get to them) on Death Isle, England. The historic Heatwave of 1976 is beginning; the weather is glorious, the best summer weather anyone has seen for a century, with highs of 35C (96F) for months on end. That might not sound like much if you’re used to the desert temperatures of Nevada, but for Britain, where summer highs of 22C (71F) are far more common, this is weather to celebrate and a summer to remember.You’ll tell your grandchildren about a summer like this, that’s for sure - and where better to spend it than Death Isle?Death Isle is a sunny, quaint little island off the south coast of England. It’s connected to a larger and more mundane island, the Isle of Wight, by a causeway that’s swallowed and uncovered by the changing tides; in turn, accessing mainland Britain from the main island is easy enough by Sealink ferry. It has one big central town, Dyde, which sits downstream from the DWMA.💀💀💀[Death Isle is, on an out-of-character basis, based on the right hand side of the Isle of Wight (aka East Wight), and Dyde is an amalgamation of the towns of Ryde and Sandown on that island - pairing together the summery tourism and the eclectic hills and independent shops.
The Isle of Wight used to be a popular tourist destination for British summer holidays, but ironically the rise in cheap European holidays in the 1970s was the beginning of a long and sad decline for the island. (It’s often considered nowadays to be stuck in the past, quaint at best and run-down at worst - but it’s an island that means a lot to both of the mods, and getting to reimagine it and visit it in its heyday was very special to us while putting this group together.)]💀💀💀

DYDE, DEATH ISLEDyde (pronounced the same as Died) is quaint, pleasant, and tourist-friendly; it’s peppered with independent stores, lined with a long sea-facing esplanade, and bracketed on all sides by pleasant sandy beaches. It sits in the shadows of the DWMA (literally - the old monastery looms over it all at its highest point, and Dyde seems to permanently slope down towards the ocean) but is resonant in its own charming way.
Most students live off-campus in homes and flats throughout Dyde and its surrounding area, crammed into bedsits over shops or little terraced houses on the residential roads. Nothing glamorous, but certainly nothing offensive. It’s rare for a student to live on the main island (not least of all because of how temperamental the causeway can be) but not completely unheard of.That being said, it isn’t only students who live on Death Isle; the island isn’t populated solely by weapons and meisters. There are powerless humans who live on the island, perhaps because they feel safer being tucked into the pockets of the DWMA, and there are also a small population of supernatural folk - werewolves, bloodsuckers, magical animals, non-magical zombies, etc - who seem to have hedged their bets and believe that as long as they’re on their best behaviour, they won’t have their names put on LORD DEATH’S list. These folks are rarely open about their non-human lineages with the DWMA students - better not to put a target on your own head, right? - but there are whispers of underground bars, societies, and an entire scene off-limits to you all, just out of sight.💀💀💀

Some shops and points of interest:Death Records, one of a handful of record shops.
Death Records, located along the esplanade, is a veritable treasure trove of musical discoveries. You can barely walk for how many vinyl records are crammed into this place; even the listening booths are cluttered with messily discarded record sleeves. If Death Records doesn’t have it, the owner brags, it isn’t worth listening to.Dyde Pier.
The pier juts out about half a mile into the ocean; the inside structure is lined with carnival games, stands for various foods (fish and chips, candy floss, hot doughnuts, and milkshakes, just to name a few) and even an entire theatre, the Dyde Pavilion, where touring productions, bands, and comedians can play. At the end of the pier, there’s a rickety helter-skelter slide.Fitzroy’s.
A nicotine-stained cozy little coffee house, just inland of the esplanade. The one-armed owner, the eponymous Fitz, inherited the place from his father a few years back. There’s a general consensus among many of the regulars that Fitz is probably a werewolf, but the coffee is good, the music is better, and as long as he’s minding his own business in Dyde and not causing any problems, his name will stay off LORD DEATH’s list for as long as he lives.The beaches!
We couldn’t possibly bring you to an island town without telling you about the beaches. Most of Death Isle is lined with accessible beaches and waves. In the winter, it’s the home of a hundred dog-walkers bundled up in their coats - but here, in the scorching hot summer, most students can’t stray too far from the sea and the sand. There are plenty of ice cream and nibbles stands along the esplanade, and nowhere in Dyde is more than about a half an hour’s walk to the shore - making it the perfect place to be at a time like this.💀💀💀

The Death Isle DWMA, est is an immediate landmark on the sightlines of Death Isle; you can see it looming over you just about anywhere you go, having been built out of an abandoned monastery high on the hills over Dyde town. Its striking red-brick angular architecture seems almost conservative, stern, and deeply serious, compared to its garish counterpart over in Nevada - luckily, the atmosphere around the place is anything but.The Death Isle DWMA is nestled away atop the highest point of the island. It’s known as Cadaver Cliff, essentially as far inland as Death Isle can get, and swaddled with trees to hide just how sharp and steep that chalk-white cliff edge is. The grounds are modest - there are a handful of coffee-houses on the little campus, some greenery, and a few outbuildings, but most students get their social spaces down in Dyde, and reserve their little campus for learning and study in the high-ceilinged old abbey halls.There's some provision for on-campus accommodation - often for people still seeking their ideal partners, students who require additional surveillance or who are on probation, or students with additional needs - but the majority of students have made their homes further down the cliff in Dyde town.The school is currently run by two of LORD DEATH’s children - the Morimoto twins, Seiji and Hisaya. Their father has entrusted them with the Death Isle DWMA, the oldest of his outpost schools - but to the wider DWMA community, the reputation of the Death Isle DWMA is ... not great. It's not brought many Death Weapons to fruition, despite having a several decade headstart on the other schools, and its willingness to take on mature students and students who were deemed unsuitable for the Nevada DWMA is often considered less of a 'widening participation' act and more of a 'discard pile pity party' sort of thing. The two twins grin and bear it the best they can, but perhaps even they are getting tired.

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SOUL EATER -
WORLD & GLOSSARY

Welcome to the world of Soul Eater! This page should hopefully help to explain some of the terminology we'll be using in the group.Please note: Soul Eater is a bizarre little series. The lore doesn't always make perfect sense, and some parts of it that do make sense are pretty... not great, so we've taken a few liberties with the world. If you're an expert in Soul Eater lore and want to correct us on anything we've gotten horribly wrong, let us know.WEAPONS AND MEISTERS:WEAPONS (sometimes referred to as a demon weapon) are humans (or almost always humans) who can transform themselves into an individualised weapon form at will. By resonating their soul with a compatible partner, they can be wielded and used to slay individuals who've been deemed to have evil souls by LORD DEATH. Once the evil soul has been defeated, the weapon can then eat the soul (like some sort of 'soul eater' might) to become more powerful.MEISTERS are the humans (or almost always humans) who wield weapons. A meister is the knight who swings their sword, or the marksman who aims their rifle. But this isn't just a test of upper body strength; MEISTERS are humans with exceptionally powerful souls, and the ability to share their soul’s wavelength with others; this is 'soul resonance'. It is the duty of a meister to grow with, train with, and wield their weapon until they are as powerful as possible - a weapon who eats 99 human souls and 1 witch soul becomes a Death Weapon, to be wielded by LORD DEATH himself.

THE 1970s: A BRIEF OVERVIEW

Britain in the 1970s is a decade of fragments.
It’s camp and drab at once, shameful and proud, crisis and boredom. Youth subcultures, especially countercultures, are growing in number and passion. It is a time defined perhaps by its oxymorons - a time of stagnant upheaval, of dismal economics and optimistic warmth.Here in 1976 the sun beats down gloriously, today and tomorrow and a hundred days on, but we are only a year or two removed from power cuts and miners’ strikes. This summer is remarkably warm, but the winters before have been awfully and unavoidably cold. Racist fearmongering about the growing and settling Black and South Asian populations grows — all while there are statistically more emigrants than immigrants for the first time in years. The decade is digging its own grave.Outside of Britain, the world is in upheaval. While newly or almost independent corners of the world push to shake off the dredges of colonialism in the death of the multi-imperial era, the other half licks its wounds. The West, off the back of difficult victories and embarrassing defeats in international wars, is locked into its slowly-thawing Cold War. The stubborn bulls of capitalism and communism beginning to get tension headaches from having their horns locked for so long.Nobody quite knows what might happen next. The future seems so far away - maybe it's easier just to focus on today.Please note: This page is only a brief overview of the era, and even then it’s far too long for what it is! It also focuses only on British life in the 1970s. You can make your students have been born in, grown up in, or moved from any part of the world, and I’d love to see your research into this - I’m only writing the cultural background for Death Isle specifically.-POP CULTUREChildren are bouncing around on space-hoppers, starting to frequent arcades (while Pong is already a classic, Space Invaders is yet to come) and enjoying dedicated children’s programming on television, which is more popular than ever.Last summer saw the first summer blockbuster in Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. The box office this summer is a little more subdued in its offerings (The Omen? Bugsy Malone?) but, frankly, who wants to be inside a cinema when the weather’s as gorgeous as this?The coming of the jumbo jet age has pushed down the cost of plane travel significantly, and low-cost carriers have been born. As a result, international holidays - once reserved only for the ultra-wealthy - have grown significantly in accessibility, and many middle-class families may have strayed into the continental European sun on their summer holidays in recent years - though working-class families are still almost universally taking their day trips to the British seaside instead.(Death Isle’s causeway-linked sister island, the Isle of Wight, is a popular summer holiday destination for southerners, given its pleasant microclimate and excess of well-kept beaches. Many a Death Isle student has gotten caught out and stranded across the causeway after staying for one ice cream too many.)-DEMOGRAPHICS & SOCIAL TREATMENTWomenWomen continue to work, though there’s increasing jibes and hubbub about women wanting it ‘both ways’. Working mothers are sneered at in the press; equality is legally growing, but it’s not very feminine or graceful to demand the law be followed, and women are still struggling to be taken seriously in the workplace. The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1970, but wasn’t implemented until the start of 1976; this long gap gave employers plenty of time to figure out its loopholes - for example, adjusting and diminishing job descriptions to justify lower pay for women (or, inversely, to ‘promote’ all the men in the department to justify their higher pay!).Workplace sexual harassment is so common that it has no name. The first domestic violence shelter is opened in 1972; Women’s Aid is established in 1974. Up in Yorkshire, women are heavily discouraged from walking home alone from school or work, after a string of grisly assaults and murders over the last year - attributed to an unidentified killer known in the media as the Yorkshire Ripper. Tensions are high, and trust is low.Meanwhile, we are in the prime of second-wave feminism. ‘Women’s Lib’ is the term du jour, both as an aspiration and a pejorative - if you’re too loud or assertive, you might be a bit of a women’s libber. But feminist magazines like Spare Rib, started in 1972, mean cross-cultural feminist debate can be bought right off the shelf in your local WHSmith.--Black Brits & South AsiansDuring World War II, Black soldiers from across the Empire served in the British Army, especially the Royal Air Force (RAF); new immigration laws in the post-war encouraged many of these men to move to Britain and to bring their families with them. The Caribbean-born population of Britain alone increased from 15,000 in 1951 to 172,000 in 1961; this is known and remembered nowadays as the ‘Windrush generation’, so named for the HMT Empire Windrush - one of the many ships offering accessible transportation to the UK in the late 40s and early 50s.Britain is home to around 500,000 South Asians in the early seventies, and the second generation of post-war immigrants are coming of age. By 1976, the first BAYM (British-Asian Youth Movements) are forming in places like Southall and Bradford in response to racist threats and attacks from the far-right — including protests and countermarches against the National Front.The Race Relations Act 1976, which will formally make racial discrimination illegal in employment, education, or public functions, has passed through Parliament, but has yet to be enshrined into law. The police are unhelpful at best and hostile at worst, targeting Black Brits through ‘sus law’. Racist and anti-immigrant sentiment has been heightened for a decade now, perhaps vindicated by ex-MP Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968. ‘Enoch Was Right’ is a slogan parroted by skinheads. Still, within Black and Asian communities, the feeling on the street is not sadness, but anger, injustice, and determination, to keep on living happily and proudly.-LGBTQ+ Rights‘Homosexual acts’ between consenting men were partially decriminalised in 1967, but the age of consent for gay men is 21 — considerably higher than the heterosexual age of consent at 16.The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) is formed in 1970; inspired by the Stonewall riots in New York a few years prior, the GLF and similar organisations (including the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE)) demonstrated throughout the decade.On the other hand, the Liberal Party is the first major British political party to advocate for the rights of homosexuals; the first national gay newspaper, Gay News, is comfortably in circulation; London has its first Pride march in 1972, with 2000 attendees. In the right bars and clubs, late-night gay and lesbian communities continue to thrive and grow, many caught between the protective layer of secrets, shame, solitude, and silence, and the growing protesting counterculture of a proto-Pride. It’s as safe to be gay as it has ever been in recent British memory, but comparative safety does not necessarily mean peace.Trans and non-binary acceptance is still a long ways off. While medical transition is available if you’re able to jump through a few hundred hoops, there is an image of a trans person that the medical establishment adheres to. Lou Sullivan, a trans man, is repeatedly denied gender affirming surgery — because he identifies as a gay trans man and not a straight trans man as the medical literature expected. There are very few out trans people; most are encouraged to complete their medical transition, move as far away as possible, and to live their lives stealth under a new identity with no ties to their past lives.-FASHIONHow long is a piece of string?! The 1970s is a wilder decade for fashion than we might give it credit for today; the pop culture mind thinks of floaty sleeves, Penny Lane coats, and bell-bottoms, but there’s more to it than that, and all of it depends on the styles, preferences, and circles your character might run in.Much like the politics of the era, the fashion tastes of the 1970s were fragmented, simultaneously reaching and grasping towards modernity while glancing back at the past. For men, the Peacock revolution saw a dandy-esque return to jackets, crushed velvets, waistcoats, and pointy boots; for women, Edwardian revival saw pastoral high-neck dresses and floaty hems returning.At the same time, the t-shirt (especially ringer tees) have never been so popular, and casual denim is inescapable. Maxi skirts are everywhere, but minis aren’t gone from fashion. The early seventies sees the creation of the wrap dress, popularised instantly through Disco-inspired fashion.An inverted triangle silhouette is common, but not universal, the pantsuit is everywhere, and shoulder pads are creeping into focus; the fashion of the era flip-flops unpredictably between very loose and floaty (see the Big Look/Soft Look), and tight and skin-revealing.I could talk about this for hours, and I really shouldn’t. Think about the tastes and the subcultures your character prioritises, and have a good research - don’t just look at 1970s repro (as cute as it is, and I’d recommend The Chain or The Hippie Shake if you do, wink) but look at pictures of the time, as well as pulling bits from the previous decade.And don’t forget - it’s the heatwave of 1976! It’s scorching out there! Make sure you dress your characters in outfits they won’t catch their death in.-

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SETTING & WORLD

Hi there! You can find just about everything you need to know about the world here - just click on the corresponding buttons.The 'DEATH ISLE' button will take you to a page exploring Death Isle and the DWMA there.The 'WORLD LORE' button is an explanation and a glossary of how Soul Eater works for non-fans - meisters, weapons, witches, and everything you'll come to face on your journey to create a Death Weapon.And the '1970s' button will take you to a brief overview page to the decade. It's completely optional and extremely indulgent on our half, but if it helps you situate your character in the time period, then we're satisfied!

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