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THE MUNDANE WORLD
THE MUNDANE WORLD
The Guardians' version of Earth has two layers of reality. The Mundane World, much like our own, where humans go about their daily lives, and the Mythical World, the underlying reality where mythical beings and places exist, hidden from the eyes of most humans. The latter can only be partly perceived by children or teens who believe in myths and magic, and even then, some parts of it (like some magical locations) are only perceptible to mythical beings.
As myths, PCs will be able to perceive both layers of reality.
The Mundane World in the Guardians' version of Earth can be assumed to be mostly like our own, with a few subtle changes causing a slightly softer recent history due to centuries of cumulative effect from the Guardians' influence.
The work of the Tooth Fairy in particular has been important in this as she collects and saves baby teeth because they hold links to the most important memories of childhood. Activating these memories, this tie to times of innocence, kindness, and open-mindedness - as well as the Sandman's dreams often helping people understand hard truths about themselves or softer ways they should see others - mean that more of the adults in the Guardians' world are tolerant and kind.
While this hasn't affected all of human history, the last few decades have been markedly softer in the Guardians' universe, with many world events happening but just being not-quite-as-bad. While more negative influences still exist in the Guardians' universe, players can assume they have less of a hold on overall society and are closer to fringe elements.
Especially since some of the more hostile ideologues sometimes find key moments in pushing their agendas ruined by mysterious events. Like, say, certain rallies getting hit by freak snowstorms that are not at all caused by a disapproving frost spirit.
This means some of the most recent world events (the pandemic, some of the most recent wars, various refugee situations, the shitshow that is US politics etc) are just less bad due to greater international cooperation, more human kindness and compassion, and occasional mythical interference. Players don't have to assume the real-world side of the setting, with its real-world media, means they have to engage with some negative and incendiary IRL things.
Burgess is a small rust-belt town in Pennsylvania that is sometimes directly targeted by Pitch due to its importance to Jack Frost. Jack was born there over 300 years ago when it was a Quaker colony, and drowned after falling through the ice of a pond while saving his little sister's life. After being resurrected and changed into a myth by the Man in the Moon, Jack has drifted back to it frequently over the years.
It is also the current residence of Jamie Bennett, the 14-year-old ally of the Guardians and surrogate little brother of Jack Frost. While Jamie's friends have gradually stopped believing in the Guardians, Jamie's prolonged contact with Jack has caused him to continue to believe, ensuring that the Guardians always have at least one believer.
Jamie's defeat of Pitch in the past and the insurance his belief has sometimes provided means Pitch Black sometimes targets Burgess and puts the teen and Burgess' residents in danger. Since the town and Jamie are important to Jack, targeting Burgess is also often a way to distract and unbalance him.
New Guardians may sometimes have to defend the town and its residents from threats, or protect Jamie himself.
Project Prometheus is a covert government organization dedicated to capturing, studying, controlling, and destroying myths. Long since gone so rogue that the rest of the government assumes they have a different covert purpose than they do, the Project sees myths as a threat to mankind.
The project started with individuals in the 1890s that recovered magical artifacts that allowed them to perceive some aspects of the mythical world. An entire national organization in the US government has sprung up in the time since.
The Project has bases all around the country and runs covert operations in areas all around the world. In these bases, myths and magical artifacts are studied and experimented on. The bases have large libraries of stolen mythical tomes; collections of powerful mythical resources, artifacts, and weapons; rooms for vivisection and scientific experimentation; prison cells for myths that block their myth powers; and various rooms for tactical planning and analysis.
PP bases are hidden and magically camouflaged all over the country and the Guardians have only recently become aware of the project's existence. In the past, myths that were captured were usually assumed to have faded away as myths sometimes naturally do. Now, missing myths arouse the suspicion of the Guardians and sometimes disappearances will need to be investigated.
The bases have high security and are extremely difficult to break out of from the inside. However, they can be broken into from the outside with enough effort, to steal useful artifacts within or rescue myths inside.