In September of 1928, the German economy was in ruins, between war-damaged infrastructure and reparations to other nations. A wheelbarrow of DeutschMarks would buy a loaf of bread. Adolf Hitler, an Austrian carpenter, was sent to prison for attempting to overthrow the German government. He admitted to the actions, but denied that they were treason, saying "It is not treason to attempt to rescue Germany from betrayal." This much is fact.

It is suggested, through rumour, hearsay and various unofficial documents, that while there, instead of writing an autobiography entitled _Mein Kampf_, he met Nathan Mehl. Mehl was a Heidelberger with a strong interest in the occult, especially Qabbalistic lore. His displays of prescience, couched in magical terminology, sparked Hitler's nascent interest in the occult.

On 15 March, 1932, Vice-Chancellor Adolf Hitler of the Weimar Republic marched into the Chancellor's office with a handful of select high-ranking army officials and placed the Chancellor under house arrest. This occurred on a day when several of the Chancellor's detail was out with an unexpected case of influenza, and during a fifteen minute period when many of the rest had been momentarily dispatched to investigate a possible security breach on the ground floor. This breach would later be discovered to be a case of mistaken identity. In April of 1934, Mehl was pardoned of his crimes against the state by the Third Reich and decorated for 'Services to the Reich'. By that time, the Chancellor was reported to have committed suicide at his home. This much is fact.

Although unable to perform the magic himself, Hitler was fascinated by the predictions Mehl would make and which would come to pass with surprising accuracy. His interests also quickly branched into mythology, and Christian, Hebrew and Hindu mysticism. As he continued his investigations and experiments, unexplainable and decidedly public occurrences drew the attention of others to the arcane sphere as well.

In India, the lower Ganges river reportedly turned to blood, throwing the workforce into utter chaos for two weeks. In Poland, a ghostly horse-riding revenant had killed an entire unit of German infantry with a fiery sword, according to local legend. This loss, however, did not slow the advance of Nazi forces into the country. In North Africa, unseasonally vicious sand storms blew for up to 72 hours, continuously. A similarly unseasonal storm struck Pearl Harbor in late 1941 just before the Japanese attack there. This much is fact.

One of the surviving sailors, stationed on the USS Arizona during the storm, had broken his leg during the storm and was thus ashore in the infirmary during the attack that sunk his ship. To this day Ensign Roberts swears that 'some sort of sea-demon thing from hell itself' attacked the ship during the storm. He will then excuse himself to the ladies in the room for his uncouth language.

Many national governments took up a keen interest in magic-related research during the war, inviting local residents with skill or promise in the art to aid them in their investigations. What remained of the harvest-oriented Northern European religions refer to this period as 'The Second Burning Time'. Many of the more fantastical Christian denominations call it 'The First Footstep of the Second Coming' or 'The First Footstep' for short. This much is fact.

Projects designed to extract and quantify magical talent or ability or power, projects to teach and instruct neophytes, experiments to create magical weapons and armour--it was an exciting and dangerous time for those 'volunteers', especially as some governments were less tolerant of failure than others. Great frustration arose as these teams were sometimes able to determine general 'how' rules but none of the 'why' rules of the working of the arcane. Even then, the 'how' was fickle and inconsistent. The need for a constant supply of new subjects only complicated matters further.

By 1945, Hitler's armies had been routed, Hitler's attention having turned from the battlefield, into an almost complete concentration on the arcane arts. Despite his efforts, he was still unable to perform the smallest of magics himself. The only front left in the war was the Pacific--a process of the Allied forces slogging from island to island, being battered by meteorologically impossible storms to arrive, and then rooting out fanatically devoted soldiers. This much is fact.

Most of Hitler's library is suspected to have been stolen by Mehl, after Hitler retreated to a strategical bunker and just moments before the allied army reclaimed the area. In fact, the commanding officer of the operation claims to have found a still-smoking pipe and a note addressed personally to him.

President Truman, in hopes of bringing the war to an early close, authorised what was known as the "Mad Hatter Project"--an attempt to harness magical energies just enough to contain them until they could become unleashed with devastating force. Headed by a German ex-patriate, Albert Einstein (An accomplished Hermetic), the first test (The Tea Party) was performed at White Sands, in New Mexico. Reports indicated that the Project was far more successful than had been predicted. This much is fact.

White Sands has been abandoned and, while no longer restricted, the area around it is still monitored. Bureau of Arcane Affairs (BAA) employees patrol around it, and record the comings and goings. There are not many, since the area is essentially empty, and the roads are covered by sand from the harsh wind storms which constantly blow.

The Japanese army refused to be cowed by the reports coming out of White Sands, and in the summer of 1945 the bomber Enola Gay set out for Hiroshima Japan with Einstein and a golden sphere named the Jabberwock in its bay. Einstein returned, half deaf, just after Emperor Hirohito announced his surrender. This much is fact.

Salamanders danced in the darkened sky over the city that afternoon. Fiery skulls screamed down streets full of corpses and shattered glass. Oni previously trapped or confined broke free of their bindings, and several temples were destroyed. The city was uninhabitable for several months due to severe storms, and even now it is abandoned during the typhoon season.

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A few years later, and Hollywood on the surface looks much the same, except they're making fewer war movies and rationing is over. But magic, on at least a minor scale, is becoming more and more commonplace. You can buy a magic cigar lighter, take your dirty shirt to a magic laundry, buy a car that runs on magic "petrol", and even hire a magical service to clean your house and tend your garden. Sure, it costs more, but it's the future. And who wants to fight the future?

The distribution of magical ability is a bit more egalitarian than the distribution of wealth. While the average minority or female denizen of the city may still not be considered equal to a white male land-owner, the potential of arcane power lifts them from second class citizen to first-and-a-half, especially in the forward-looking city of lost angels. Magic was, and by some still is, feared and distrusted. The last public lynching of a magician was in Tupelo Mississippi in 1946.

The Los Angeles News, while not as prominent and well known as the Los Angeles Times, is currently considered an up and coming force and has a reputation for investigative journalism. The editor, Les Walker, is a young man (in his 30's) with a penchant for the unorthodox and daring. He makes an effort to at least know the faces of those who work under him, and encourages his section editors to do the same.